Birju Maharaj, a pioneering superstar of Kathak

Birju Maharaj, 84, a legendary Kathak dancer, and Padma Vibhushan awardee passed away in the early hours of Monday. 

Born on February 4, 1937, Brij Mohan Nath Mishra, who was later known as Birju Maharaj, belonged to a well-known Kathak family in Lucknow. With the family steeped in Kathak tradition, Birju started performing as a child along with his father Acchan Maharaj. Uncles Shambhu and Lacchu Maharaj were to be the other strong and early influences. 

“Birju Maharaj is one of the last stars who was trained traditionally in the gurukul system. Birju Maharaj also brought his own sense of much required modernity to Kathak”, said art historian and writer Veejay Sai. 

Maharaj was a Kathak pioneer in the same way Pandit Ravishankar was for Hindustani music and Ariyakkudi Ramanuja Iyengar and MS Subbulakshmi for Carnatic music. Maharaj’s performing career began during what could be described as a transitory phase for Indian classical performing arts. While his father and uncles had the support of royal courts of north India, Maharaj had to contend with the evaporation of princely patronage. In independent India, institutions of the State such as Sangeet Natak Academy, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), and business families such as Lala Shri Ram’s that owned DCM were the new sponsors of arts. Inevitably Kathak had to transition from the royal courts and small private chambers to large public auditoriums.

Mindful of the need to cater to a diverse audience, Birju Maharaj is credited with cleverly re-packaging or re-designing the standard Kathak concert. “He would open with a mangalacharan, then show a gradual unfoldment of his technical virtuosity with dazzling chakkars [quick spins] that would wow the audience. In the second half he would showcase the subtler aspects and the actual essence of Kathak through abhinaya, and finally make it lighter towards the end giving something to everybody--from the connoisseurs to lay rasikas,” explained Veejay Sai.

Kathak maestro Pandit Birju Maharaj in conversation with dancer Vyjayanthimala Bali at an function held at Music Academy | Photo Credit: RAVINDRAN R

Jaipur gharana, at the time the best known of the three gharanas or schools of Kathak, was known for its pyrotechnics in the form of rapid swirls. Birju Maharaj was instrumental in re-establishing the primacy of the subtle abhinayas or expression. His elaborate, almost hour-long performance to the thumri ‘kaun gali gayo shyam’ he learnt from his uncle Shambhu Maharaj became an in-demand showstopper at his concerts.

National and international acclaim soon followed. Despite the lack of a towering physique, fair skin (considered essential for male Kathak dancers) or arresting eyes (like his famous contemporary Durga Lal who died in 1990) Birju Maharaj’s reinterpretation of the performance format made him a veritable face of the dance form. His training and mastery in classical singing and tabla was of enormous help. It is an old school saying that every dancer had to learn music, and Birju Maharaj was a fantastic singer. Not only that, he was a keen violinist as well. “Every male dancer wanted to copy him. They would try to walk and talk like him and get their kurta’s stitched from the same tailor. He had become the stereotype of a male Kathak dancer,” added Veejay Sai.

Influence on cinema

Birju Maharaj quickly become the go-to person for any classical dance number for Bollywood from Devdas to Kamal Haasan’s Vishvaroopam. He composed the music, choreographed and sang, for two dance sequences in Satyajit Ray‘s only Hindi feature film Shatranj ke Khilari. He in fact won the National Award for choreography in 2012 for Vishwaroopam and the 2016 Filmfare Award for his work in Bajirao Mastani.  His Delhi-based dance school Kalashram has trained thousands of Kathak dancers from across the world. What set him apart was his singular passion for Kathak, absolute humility to his craft and an easy going manner that endeared him even to those uninitiated to the pleasures of classical dance. “He would happily travel to schools in north India’s small towns to perform for children and get them excited about classical dance. Thanks to his own keen interest in mathematics, he would easily explain the rhythmic patterns or taals. There were no airs of being a legend. Children would be captivated by the way he sat down with them and counted the taals,” recalled Sai.

Birju Maharaj with dancer Saswati Sen on the sets of Shatranj Ke Khiladi

Birju Maharaj won the sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1964 and was honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 1986.

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