Janki

Kala Mandir

Andheri West ,Mumbai

This institute is the worst you can go to learn any form of art. The teacher is a con artist who is extremely money minded. I joined these classes for Kathak. I joined her in April, 2013, and bought a pair of ghungroos from her for Rs. 2000, which generally cost about Rs. 1000 - Rs. 1200. They were not made well, when i questioned that, she got irritated and said she can’t do anything about it. She finally slyly replaced my ghungroos with another girl's who had kept it in the closet in her school. I paid Rs. 2000 for a group class that is held twice a week, where i didn't learn much. I was expected to look at the other more experienced girls and pick up the steps myself at my own pace. The size of the room is about 200 sq. ft. where she squeezes in at least 8-10 girls to learn kathak, between the age of 5 years - 35 years. There is no sense of age group or space. She will not pay attention to you in a group class and you won't learn at the pace you are supposed to. And when you question that, she will talk you into taking private classes with her which cost more than double - Rs. 5000! She also mentioned that in private classes, i will have the flexibility to reschedule the class whenever i want which will help me balance my work schedule as well. I finally decided to try her private classes as well and joined her for one more month and paid Rs. 5000. In the private classes, i did learn a few things, but i could have done a lot more if she wouldn’t spend 75% of the time talking to me about random things. She spent 50% of the time raving about her past experiences and her history, 25% of the time talking about me, my life, what my immediate and extended family does, and try to gauge how I stand financially so she can pull more and more money from me. I attended her private classes 4 times and had to reschedule the class twice after that. When i did try to reschedule the second time due to unexpected work related travel, she started narrating the rules and asked me to move to the group class again as she can’t handle frequent change! I have decided to let go of my balance amount already paid to her and not to go for these classes anymore as she is nothing but a cheat, a lazy old con artist, who knows only how to count money in the name of art!