Today Kathak dance classes flourish all over. Several of Birju ji’s gifted pupils have their own dance studios and would choreograph around modern themes like empowerment of women or evils of dowry. Birju ji didn’t. He remained a classicist in the true sense. When age weakened his body somewhat he more than compensated for it by Bhav Banav , sitting in a special pose and expressing emotions through his eyes and hand gestures : a Nayika veiling her face coquettishly, Krishna gently removing her veil, that special look that passes between the lovers. He was a feast for the eyes. Never one for exotic spectacles, he always gave a new meaning to oft heard lines of Thumris and Dadras. His friends and admirers in the world of both dance and music were legion. Often together drunk on art, they’d break into an impromptu performance at friends’ homes, singing, dancing, flirting and giggling like angels must in heaven. Repressed by generations of puritanism, his Kathak gave the art form a bright and irresistible beauty coupled with the glorious romanticism of semi classical singing. The overpowering sentiment for India’s syncretic culture, his Kathak recitals silenced the outcries of the love Jihad brigade and their country cousins.Like the Bhakti poets of the medieval ages, Birju ji, by the time he passed on, achieved the near impossible : segregating Kathak from its cliched association with Mujras and Kothas and projecting it as a very contemporary expression of unrepressed cry of love, that is deemed holy in all Indian art forms, from music to painting to dance, illuminating all public monuments and even the holiest shrines.There will not be another Birju Maharaj. We were blessed indeed to have seen him perform . ( Mrinal Pande, former Prasar Bharti chairman, is Group Editorial Advisor of National Herald)
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