“Mulk Raj Anand once told me you won’t die, you are not a beggar. You are a scholar and I will take care of you,” recalls Sunil Kothari, a renowned dance critic, historian and author of 16 dance books, who gave up Chartered Accountancy to pursue his interest in dance. He went on to learn classical Indian dance forms such as Bharatanatyam and Kathak. Award. Recently, he organised an event at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts to create awareness about traditional classical Assamese dance form Sattriya. A short film “In the mists of Majuli” by Emmanuelle Petit was screened on the occasion.
Kothari says, “I took up the Sattriya dance for my research because it is a traditional Assamese dance. It is a classical dance form, it has costumes, hand gestures, expressions and music, but people don’t believe it is classical. Manipuri is also a traditional dance form but it is not as neglected as Sattriya. This was also a reason to take it up.”
The movie screened during the event takes viewers on a journey of young Assamese boys who are sent to monasteries by their parents to become monks. These monks take it upon themselves the task of practising and propagating the Sattriya dance form. Practicing the dance form for hours on a daily basis, many of the young boys grow up to be dance teachers.
The screening of the movie was followed by a dance presentation by Bhabhanand, who is currently a guru. He was accompanied by one of his students and together they treated the audience to performance where they expressed the beauty of Shri Krishna. “While I was doing my research on Sattriya it brought tears to my eyes to see how such kids are abandoned in case they are born out of wedlock. Or if they become orphaned,” says Kothari.
Asked how he ended up gaining such knowledge despite being a CA, Kothari says, “Being a CA was not useless. It made me methodical which helped me in dancing as well. I started with writing about dance and also took training in Kathak and Bharatanatyam. I soon became famous.”
About his struggles, Kothari says, “I was told by people CAs don’t dance. They asked me ‘Are you gay? Are you a woman! ‘Why do you want to dance?’ but I didn’t go into dancing. I chose to write about dance and later went on to write for a national newspaper as well.”
