NCPA Presents The Second Season Of Its Annual Multi-arts Festival: Anubhuti- The Power of Perception

The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) presents the second Season of its three-week multi-arts extravaganza - Anubhuti - from January 8 to January 31, 2010.

‘Anubhuti' begins with the ‘NCPA Weekend Festival' - an intense, three-day cultural explosion that gathers the finest in Indian classical music, dance, theatre and film and packs it into a single long weekend; and will conclude with ‘NCPA Natya Rang'- presenting the rare festive and ritualistic theatre traditions of the state and beyond.

With this second edition, NCPA carries forward a tradition it started last year as a means to offer the art aficionado in Mumbai a layered, more perceptive interface with the performing arts. Along with performances, Anubhuti will also include workshops, seminars and will allow for a renewed acquaintance with practitioners of local art forms.

Announcing the second season of Anubhuti, Mrs. Vijaya Mehta, Executive Director- NCPA, elaborates, "The Second Season of Anubhuti is very dynamic in its repertoire. It will feature some of the best performing artists of the country - including Zakir Hussain, Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani, Aditi Mangaldas, Vishal Bharadwaj, Shivkumar Sharma and more. As compared to Anubhuti 2008, the current season has something special to offer with NCPA Natya Rang. This part of the festival will focus on various manifestations of Theatre including ritualistic, folk, one-man shows- traditional and modern as well as one-act plays by young actors. The NCPA is proud to present this festival."

NCPA Weekend Festival 2010

January 8th to 10th, 2010

The season opens with a magnificent start on January 8, with a blend of Hindustani and Karnataki music in Tala Vadya Samvad at the Tata Theatre. The world-renowned tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain and the eminent mridangam Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani, will perform together for the fist time ever.

The second day of NCPA Srushti - January 9, 2010, will offer Gulzar's wonderful poems and stories on Mumbai in the production Atthanniyaan... of Mumbai Mahanagar. This work highlights the life of people living on The Edge in the Mumbai metropolis through works titled Baas, Jhhadi and Atthanni.

January 10 will see a fantastic morning of Hindustani Music featuring morning ragas by Malini Rajurkar. Titled Prabhat: Morning Melodies, the recital will demonstrate the relationship of the raga with diurnal and seasonal time-cycles - an interesting feature unique to Indian music. The day will also be marked by Roopantar - Adapting Theatre to Cinema, which is a film workshop by Amrit Gangar. The workshop will explore the relationship between theatre and cinema by focusing on how the transition from stage to film is effected through two Shakespearean adaptations of Macbeth - Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool.

NCPA Srushti comes to a close through a mega finale with Uncharted Seas - a stunning visual display of traditional Kathak recital by one of India's leading Kathak dancers and dynamic choreographers, Aditi Mangaldas. The dance performance at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre explores the quest and search for the intangible.

Some other highlights of NCPA Anubhuti

January 11th to 21st, 2009

After the Weekend Festival, Anubhuti festival continues on January 12, 2010, to feature a spectacular line-up of events and shows. These include Scaramouche Jones, an NCPA CHAURAHA presentation, where Ali Fazal plays the role of Scaramouche - the child of a gypsy whore fated to be a clown. There is a Bharata Natyam recital by one of the leading exponents of her generation, Rama Vaidyanathan, on January 14, 2010. Bringing varied dance forms together is Geet Govind, a Bharata Natyam and Odissi recital by Deepak Mazumdar and Jhelum Paranjape respectively on January 19, 2010.

Anubhuti will also see prestigious seminars in Indian music that enable engagement in the art form. NCPA collaborates with Indian music research giants to host these seminars. ‘Some New Scientific Approaches to Music' will be held on January 15th in collaboration with the Indian Musicological Society (IMS) and will discuss the growth of new technologies and techniques that are changing the language of music so quickly in the modern world. New Trends in Indian Music since independence' will discuss the transition Indian music has made from being focused on reclaiming our heritage and restructuring a national identity, to the changes in aesthetic norms, in the means of critical evaluation of music, fusion, and the global impact of Indian music. The latter will be held on January 16th and 17th in collaboration with ITC-Sangeet Research Academy.

Natya Rang: The Art of Theatre

January 22nd - 31st, 2010

Finally, ‘Anubhuti' reaches the culmination of its festivities with Natya Rang - The Art of Theatre. Natya Rang will present some of the rare festive and ritualistic theatre traditions of the state to mark the celebrations of 50 years of the formation of the State of Maharashtra. Natya Rang will explore the boundaries of theatre with folk forms, one act plays, authentic Maharashtrian cuisine, art exhibitions, music, dance and the culture wrapped around it. While some of the events like Natya Sangeet and Lokdharmi will highlight the rustic yet refined traditional arts, others like Yuva and First Take will rope you back to the contemporary scenario.

The NCPA invites you to join the festivities this month from 8th to 31st January, 2009, for seven events in just three days at the Centre's five theatres.

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