Venue: Delhi Haat
Date: 17th Jan to 31st Jan
A chance visit to Delhi Haat made us witness this gem – Mahajatra, A festival of culture, traditions, dances and food from Maharashtra – the state that boasts of being the home to World’s Biggest Entertainment Industry. Artisans and performers from Maharashtra brought folk art, handicraft and food from their state.
The open air stage had huge Shiva Trimurti from Elephanta caves as backdrop.
The performances that started with Ganpati vandana and went on to include many dance forms from Maharastra like Koli, Povadas, Dhangari and Kala left audience spellbound.
The ever so popular Lavani took the whistles and hooting to a different level altogether.
The Govinda tradition from Maharashtra is a favourite with Bollywood film makers. This group performed a “matki phod” right on the stage by making a multi level human pyramid with a child on top.
On one hand they performed very little known tribal dances of Maharastra and on other the hand amused the audience by performing “Pinga” which is now a known form thanks to the famous Bajirao Mastani song.
The costumes, makeup and energy of all the dancers were top notch and was miles ahead of some other state festivals we witnessed at Dilli Haat. No wonder they managed to pull all the crowd towards the stage.
Special mention to the compere of the show, who did a marvelous job of introducing the dance forms with their origin, season or relevance in Maharashtra culture.
Along with dances they had craft and food stalls from the state.
Steamed modak that actually looked like momos was selling like hot cakes.
Snacks like puran poli, sabudana vada, pao bhaji are a favourite with Delhiites already. We ended our little spectacular colorful journey of Maharashtra with a bite of piping hot Vada Pao.
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