Kaida - Rupak Taal (Madhyalaya & Drut Gat) - Kala Festival 2025

The Kaida is the core form of the Ajrada gharana and the centre of Ustad Akram Khan's inheritance: he keeps more than fifteen of the school's classic kaidas in his repertoire. A kaida states a compact theme, then expands it through paltas, permutations that rearrange its syllables while the theme's shape stays audible underneath. Here, live at Kala Festival 2025, he works the form in Rupak Taal at madhyalaya, then drives the variations into a drut gat, sealing each round with a tihai.

This is the middle movement of the album's Rupak sequence. It grows out of the vilambit Peshkar on the previous track and hands the tempo on to the Rela that follows, where the same seven beats run at full tilt.