Full of aesthetic appeal
Rama Vaidyanathan.
THE MORE one watched Rama Vaidyanathan dance, the more one was amazed. This young dancer from Delhi has worked on her dance diligently and added new dimensions to it. Her dancing is vibrant and deeply involved. She is equipped with technical skill but is also full of innovative ideas which revealed themselves right in the beginning with the nrittanjali and kautwam with the peacock motive in the Alarippu. This Alarippu is quite a challenge to any dancer with its 11 akshara misrajathi triputa tala. There are no half measures here. With Mayura hasta and movement communicating the beauty of the bird, its longings and its pleasures, Rama provided a pleasing picture. A delightful addition to Bharathanatyam repertoire.
The Lalgudi Jayaraman Varnam in Charukesi was also given a fresh treatment. In the beginning Sanchari itself Rama proved her prowess by showing the protagonist in three different stages of one as a young girl in awe of Krishna, then as a passionate romantic person and finally as a seeker who looks for the ultimate truth. The six kalam taxing jathi composed by Karaikudi Sivakumar was handled with ease and style. As the lyric began, Rama used her eyes to convey the entire meaning of the Varnam. The exuberant way of moving all over the stage and covering space added to the enjoyment of the dance. There were charming pauses for the Chitteswara choreography.
The musicians complemented the dancer efficiently with Lalgudi R. Ganesan playing the mridangam with such sharpness and vivid details that it stood out brilliantly. Vidya Srinivasan's vocal, Karaikudi Sivakumar's Nattuvangam, and G. S. Rajan's subdued flute playing added to the romance of the evening.
For the Abhinaya, Rama Vaidyanathan chose to use a Paran in Amritdhvani composed by Raja Chakradhar Singh of Raighad Gharana to depict Meera's passion for Krishna. The mood of the rain was instantly established. The play of the odni to depict the wind was quite charming. The Tillana in Sivaranjani, the concluding ``Vaishnava Janatho" made this a performance of class and aesthetic appeal.
Delicate
Roja Kannan.
Roja Kannan pleased the audience with her relaxed and delicate dancing. Her thematic performance ``Entharo Mahanubhavulu," was well balanced and touching with no melodrama. This execution may easily be called Kaisiki Vritti (style as described in the Natyashastra), which is delicate and beautiful as opposed to Arabhati which is full of vigour.
Tyagaraja's kritis were woven together in a neat format to give tribute to the great souls who have inhabited this universe. Roja Kannan began with ``Sobillu Saptaswara" describing the seven notes and the beauty of music in a totally literal manner. In this piece Roja was subdued and kept to padartha word to word. But interesting Tattumettus for the saptaswara added some drama and colour. Then came ``Nannu paalimpa." The poet wondering if Rama is walking just to protect him. In the sancharis, Roja took the liberty of depicting various episodes from the Ramayana.
Just when one was wondering whether the programme would be dominated by the delicate and beautiful sentiment with relaxed execution of adavus and subtle suggestion of Abhinaya came the main piece that took the place of the Varnam i.e, ``Entharo Mahanubhavulu." Roja took her time with this piece enumerating each sentiment expressed in a leisurely manner and with deep involvement. The very mudra for Mahanubhava was sweet with the suchi hasta showing one with good thoughts. The nritta patterns were very interesting especially the dola hasta and the sitting down in the middle of a Korvai and showing the stars with a lilting twist to the shoulders. One wondered if she had a problem with aridi or mukthaya but everything was very much in tune that Nellai D. Kannan managed it beautifully with his mridangam.
Roja Kannan had the advantage of having one of the best Nattuvanars in the city — Adyar K. Lakshman. His voice and command on the jathis are a joy to hear. Added to this was Radha Badri's singing who took full advantage of the opportunity of singing Tyagaraja Kritis and sang soulfully. Kalaiarasan on the violin completed this very good orchestra.
Girish Panickar.
Lacks spirit
J. Suryanarayana Murthy of Kalakshetra performed a straightjacket performance that had no novelty in it. He chose an old repertoire of the Dhananjayans with the Turaiyur Rajagopala Sharma's Atana Varnam on Krishna and the concluding Behag Tillana. The old team of Bharathakalanjali musicians was also there in full flow with Shantha Dhananjayan doing the Nattuvangam in the crisp and correct manner that she is famous for. Nellai D. Kannan played the mridangam and T. K. Padmanabhan the violin. Hariprasad the vocalist was the only new person on the scene. It brought back nostalgic memories of earlier recitals of Bharathakalanjali. But Suryanarayana Murthy is senior enough to go beyond his lessons but he failed to do that. Hence the performance though clean and neat and executed perfectly, lacked spirit.
Girish Panickar's performance was different. Here was adventure, enjoyment and joy in the dance and in the communication of it. Girish's programme suffered with too much light. The background being white the dancer almost merged in the background. The Kunti episode in which she begets Karna and reluctantly puts him in a basket and floats him in the river did have touches of the melodrama but was quite sweet. It was the Ananda Bhairavi Varnam on Rama that brought out the full potential of Girish Panicker. He gave it a slow pace and that allowed him very clean body movements that were expanded.
Interesting choreography with the space being acknowledged with a square format in the first jathi, a circle format in the second were very interesting. There were a few interesting ideas with just the di di thai adavu and kitatakatarikitatom adavu for an entire korvai. Jayanthi Subramaniam's Nattuvangam and Vanathi's singing suffered a little due to problems in the audio system.
V. R. DEVIKA
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