Entertainment News Desk!! Birju Maharaj (real name – Brijmohan Nath Mishra, English: Birju Maharaj; born – 4 February, 1938, Lucknow; died – 17 January, 2022, Delhi) was one of the famous classical dance artists of India. He was a master of the ‘Kathak’ style of Indian dance and a main representative of the ‘Kalka-Bindadin’ gharana of Lucknow. It is a common practice to present Kathak dance with the rhythm of taal and ghunghurus, but when it comes to converting the rhythm of taal and ghunghurus into the melody of Maharas, no other name comes to mind except Birju Maharaj. Birju Maharaj’s entire life was spent in taking this art to the heights of classicism. He was honored with many awards including ‘Padma Vibhushan’ (1986) and ‘Kalidas Samman’, India’s second highest civilian honour. He also received honorary doctorates from Banaras Hindu University and Khairagarh University.
birth and education
Birju Maharaj was born on 4 February 1938 in ‘Kalka Bindadin Gharana’ in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Earlier his name was ‘Dukhharan’, which was later changed to ‘Brijmohan Nath Mishra’.[1] His father’s name was Jagannath Maharaj, who was from ‘Lucknow Kharane’ and was known as Achchan Maharaj. Birju’s talent started showing at the age of just three years in the lap of Achchan Maharaj. Keeping this in view, the father started giving art initiation to his successful son since childhood. But after his father died soon after, his uncles, the famous Acharyas Shambhu and Lachhu Maharaj, trained him. Birju Maharaj continued to get Lakshmi only with the help of art. The shadow of his father disappeared from his mind when he was only nine years old.
Heritage
Birju Maharaj inherited the Kathak dance associated with Lord Krishna. His ancestor Ishwari Prasad Mishra hailed from Handia tehsil of Allahabad and is known as the first known teacher of Kathak. Thakur Prasad of this family was the Kathak guru of Nawab Wajid Alishah. In today’s time, Birju Maharaj has no equal in the matter of Kathak dance. At the age of just seven years, he started performing in different parts of the country with his father Achchan Maharaj, but his first solo performance was in the ‘Manmathanath Gupt Samaroh’ organized in Bengal, where he performed with the stalwarts of ‘classical dance’. Had demonstrated his dancing skills in front. Only then did people get a glimpse of his talent and after that he never looked back.
training work
While he incorporated bold and intellectual compositions in the traditional subjects of dance, his contemporary works are also full of freshness. Only after the death of his father, Birju Maharaj’s guru sister Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan brought him with her to Delhi. She started giving dance training at the age of thirteen in ‘Sangeet Bharti’, Delhi. He also gave dance training at the Kathak Center affiliated to ‘Bharatiya Kala Kendra’ and ‘Sangeet Natak Academy’.
first presentation
At the age of just 16, Birju Maharaj gave his first performance and at the age of 28, his proficiency in Kathak earned him the prestigious award of ‘Sangeet Natak Akademi’. Birju Maharaj was not afraid of fusion in classical dance. He presented the story of Romeo and Juliet in Kathak style with Louis Banks.
relation with hindi films
Birju Maharaj also has a deep connection with Bollywood. He choreographed songs for many Hindi films. These include famous filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s classical work ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’. In this film, he composed and sang for two classical dance sequences. Names of famous film producer-director Yash Chopra’s ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, ‘Gadar Ek Prem Katha’ and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film ‘Devdas’ can also be taken prominently among them.
dance style
Known for his precise rhythm and soulful acting, Birju Maharaj has developed a style that blends elements from both his uncles and father. He claims to have inherited the precision of footwork and the movements of the mouth and neck from his father and the specific movements (chaal) and flow of gait from his uncles.
new experiment
Birju Maharaj has made new experiments in the style of dance to express himself on various non-mythical and social topics along with the description of Radha-Krishna Anushrut incidents. He has modernized the Kathak style by adding dance composition, which was earlier an unknown element in the Indian dance style, and popularized the dance dramas.
classical singer and instrumentalist
Birju Maharaj is not only adept in the field of dance, but he also has a deep hold on ‘Indian Classical Music’. There is no comparison to him in Thumri, Dadra, Bhajan and Ghazal singing. He also plays many musical instruments very well. He has a very good command over the tabla. Apart from this, he can also play sitar, sarod and sarangi well. The special thing is that he has not taken formal education in playing these musical instruments. He is also known as a sensitive poet and painter.
awards and honors
Birju Maharaj has received many awards and honors on the basis of his dancing talent. He was awarded India’s second highest civilian award ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in the year 1986. He has also been awarded ‘Kalidas Samman’. He has also received honorary doctorate degrees from ‘Banaras Hindu University’ and ‘Khairagarh University’. Over the years he has traveled widely and given many presentations and demonstration lectures.
death
Kathak emperor Pandit Birju Maharaj passed away on January 17, 2022. He was 83 years old. He breathed his last in Delhi late night after a heart attack. Swaransh Mishra, grandson of Birju Maharaj, who belonged to the Lucknow family, had informed about his death through a post on social media. His granddaughter said that he (Birju Maharaj) would have turned 84 next month. He told that Maharaj-ji [[परिवार] And he was surrounded by disciples and he was playing Antakshari after dinner when suddenly he fell ill. He was suffering from kidney disease and was undergoing dialysis treatment. He probably died of cardiac arrest.
