Fitting tribute to Bharati
Shobana Ramesh
`BHARATHIKKU ORU Bharathanjali' was a thoughtful title for a programme on the poet's birthday. In the so-called audio-visual presentation and Bharatanatyam by Shobana Ramesh, a galaxy of prominent persons expressed their clichéd opinions about Bharatiar and mentioned their favourite songs. The songs had been recordings by popular musicians like M. S. Subbulakshmi, D. K. Pattammal and Bombay Jayashree, Dr. Balamuralikrishna, Rajkumar Bharathi , taken from recordings, serials and films, to which Shobana did abhinayam.
There was no thattu-mettu, no nritta, no solkattu, no sancharis and of course no nattuvangam. The tightness and compactness of a classical dance programme were completely missing. Her abhinayams too were quite limited, the same gestures being repeated and often not quite aptly. The only song for which she came off creditably was "Chinnanchiru Kiliye,'' exhibiting a mother's love for her child.
Sulakshana Jayaram has a pretty traditional face and a good stage presence. A disciple of Pandanallur Srinivasa Pillai, she began with Natesa Kauthuvam and then the main piece was the Tamil translation of the Thanjavur Quartet's Chakravaka raga varnam, "Enneramum." She expressed emotions like apprehension and sorrow well but Sringara did not fare too well.
Making good use of the space, she did the nritta portions like the theermanams commendably. While in the padam, "Mathuranagarilo'' in Anandabhairavi she did the abhinayams for the pranks of Krishna effectively. "Mogudochi'' in Sahana too was emoted properly. Danasri tillana was the final item in the programme, which was supported on the nattuvangam by Pandanallur Pandian, on the violin by Vijayaragavan and mridangam by Mayuram Sankar. Nandini Anand, who provided the vocal support, has a good voice.
The title of Divya Kasturi's programme was "Iniyavai Aaru'' and she took six items dealing with different `suvais' (taste). After a lengthy jati segment, she danced for Bhartiyar's verse, "Edutha Kariyam Yavilum Vetri'' in a viruttam form. But the sense of success did not come through in her abhinayam. The sense of pride and achievement was absent in her facial expressions.
Dr. Balamuralikrishna's Shanmukhapriya varnam, "Omkara'' was chosen for bhakti, and was rendered with brisk theermanams and abhinayam.
Sulakshana Jayaram
An Ashtapathi filled in for Sringaram and Bharatiyar's "Vaanmazhai'' was taken for Nature. Venkatasubramaniam on the keyboard interspersed with appropriate sounds of the blowing wind, thunder and so on. Otherwise, his role during other pieces was more an interruption. Reasonably good-looking Divya needs to concentrate on expressions more, though she did quite well in nrittam.
The nattuvangam was by senior guru Udupi Lakshminarayanan and Madhumati Prakash, vocal support by Veeraraghavan, violin by Sigamani and mridangam by Saktivel.
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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