Formation Day celebrations is in the rain

The idea was to have fantastic display of culture — both regional and beyond. But day five of the state’s Formation Day celebrations met a spoilsport one  that could’ve been avoided with a bit of planning. As bad weather played havoc, artistes had to stop performing at many venues, and guests disappeared following the first drops. So, overall, the past five days of celebrations have been a mix of good and bad.

Artistes not pleased

Performances at Shilparamam, Golconda, Chowmahalla, Charminar and People’s Plaza were called off due to  heavy showers.

Dr Saraswathi R., a Kuchipudi guru whose group of students came down from Bengaluru had to simply stop their performance.

“The organisers should have had a plan B. The weather here has been tricky and they should have known better, especially because kids were performing,” a visibly upset Saraswathi said.

She added, “We didn’t mind that we weren’t getting paid. We were getting a good platform and we were happy but when the kids didn’t get a chance to perform, we were disappointed.” Another artiste’s show, that took place earlier this week, was pushed to the end of the day and many guests left. “There was nothing we could do,” she said.

There was good too

You can’t ignore the positives as celebrations saw a wide variety of old art forms. “We had one of the oldest dance forms of Telangana on stage this week — the Perini Shivatandavam. It’s being staged after a gap of almost 20 years,” said director, department of language and culture, Mamidi Krishna.

There were ghazals and qawwali performances too — performances by some of the biggest names in the business — Ghulam Ali, Ustad Raza Ali Khan the Warsi brothers and others.

Kathak artiste Mangala Bhatt, who performed, said, “It felt good to be part of the celebrations. Since it is the first time, we have to be considerate, perhaps next time there won’t be such issues.”

Managing audience

One of the problems that organisers faced was the lack of guests at a few venues like Hari Hara Kala Bhavan. “The problem with Hari Hara Kala Bhavan is that it has lost its sheen. There was a time when it was one of the most popular destinations so we are trying to revive it. A venue that hasn’t had many cultural events in the past few years, suddenly saw a spurt  of events, so this was bound to happen,” said Krishna.

While rain played spoilsport, Mamidi Krishna said, “Different art forms require different stages. So we had to choose amphitheatres and open venues,” while adding, “Though, we did shift a few artistes to closed venues. Shilparamam too saw good footfall during the week. While artistes had their complaints, special officer of Shilparamam, G. Kishan Rao said,  “There was no way that we could’ve shifted artistes to Shilpa Kala Vedika. The hall was booked and there was no where else to go, so shows had to be cancelled.”

Lessons learnt

Here’s the thing. All this, can only get better — with a few tweaks.

“We are learning. This is the first time so there are bound to be mistakes. It will be better next year. We will plan better,” added Krishna.

“For example, at Shilparamam, work on an auditorium has started, so next time it rains, we will just shift artistes into the closed ven-ue,” Kishan Rao said.