I was privileged to attend the last performance of the 4-day Shantanand Festival of Arts, on 8 December, 2025. The last day featured Taapita by Pritam Das (Bharatanatyam) and The Artiste’s Dream (TFA’s Music & Dance faculty).
Both performances were excellent, representing the quintessential solo and group artistic expressions at their best, truly a fitting creative culmination to end the Festival.
Pritam’s sublime and exquisite rendition of Bharatanatyam in Taapita, accompanied by a highly talented musicians and vocalist from Kerala, took the audience to that special realm, where Time & Space became malleable under the spell of an androgynous and sensitive dancer.
Under the mentorship of Guru Rama Vaidyanathan, Pritam’s control of nritta and abhinaya was faultless and absolute. In Pritam, Guru Rama Vaidhyanathan has found a disciple worthy of her tutelage. Pritam is one dancer to watch!
The next group offering of TFA, a combined efforts of both musicians and dancers, took us that energised realm that was truly an artiste’s dream. It was as if Uday Shankar’s Kalpana had come to life, a realm where the traditional and contemporary blended organically and seamlessly. The ‘next’ generation of TFA’s home grown musicians and dancers – Jyotsnaa, Hari, Hema, Prem, Kishore, Shona and so many others have worked so well together, to combine energy to give a fitting end to a Festival which has grown to be an exciting annual event for the cultural calendar of Kuala Lumpur.
HE Shri BN Reddy, High Commissioner of India to Malaysia, aptly described TFA as a true living temple of Arts where the divinity of dance & music have come to stay, to provide the soul food for art-seekers of this city.
Congratulations, TFA!
Ramli