It started off as an evening full of promise for an eager audience: dance, music, drama and film celebrating the (upcoming) 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. “Amar Gurudev” as the stage production was called made Tagore accessible to the Delhi crowd with its trilingual incorporation of English and Hindi translations of the original Bengali.

A black and white film had snippets from Tagore's eventful life. Among the highlights of the film were his early days, his family, the setting up of Shantniketan, the evolution of Rabindra Sangeet and Tagore's renouncement of his knighthood as a mark of protest against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre |1919| by the British troops.

The film was interspersed with dances that left a lot to be desired, particularly the contrived performances that were staged against the backdrop of each line from Tagore's famous verse, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high...Into ever-widening thought and action, Into that heaven of freedom, My Father, let my country awake.”

A redeeming piece was the enactment of Tagore's famous dancedrama “Chandalika” (The Untouchable Girl), the story of an 'outcaste' -- a victim of prejudice, discrimination and oppression, was well played out by the actors. The poignant final scene where Ananda, Gautama Buddha’s disciple, asks water of the Adivasi girl was commendable, as was the procession of Buddhist monks, joined by the

heroine as they came down from the stage and went out of one corner of the auditorium.

Indian Revival Group, a dance ensemble of India, which staged the ambitious production, has had a long association with Tagore. The group's founder, Yog Sunder had the privilege of studying at Shantiniketan's Kala Bhavan and Sangeet Bhavan between 1939 and 1942, in Tagore's lifetime.

On another front, the group has frequently produced and staged three productions based on Tagore's works: “Chandalika” in Bengali and Hindi; "Shyama” in Hindi and “The Man Divine” in Hindi (based on “The Child" or “Shishu Tirtha”).

If only Indian Revival Group's impeccable credentials had found a greater reflection in its recent production, “Amar Gurudev”.