What happens when the spirit of bhakti in the words of great poets such as Kalidas, Tulsi Das, Lal Ded and Ammacharya is depicted through dance by India’s renowned classical dancers? The answer is NCPA’s Mudra Dance Festival of Dance and Poetry — Stark Raving Mad.

“Stark Raving Mad is a line from a Tukaram poem, translated by the poet Arun Kolatkar. I was hoping it would give a flavour of the festival. Bhakti poetry is a great radical heritage to which we are heir in this country — sacred and sensuous, all at once. I wanted this festival to celebrate it in a way that accentuates its aliveness, its diversity, its refusal to separate the erotic from the existential,” Arundhathi Subramaniam, organiser of the festival.