Beyond the North-South divide
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Bharatanatyam dancer Geeta Chandran paid homage to the great M.S. Subbulakshmi. So did sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and sons. Strange that others have not done the same, wonders LEELA VENKATARAMAN, who also reviews Vaishali Trivedi's Kathak recital this week.
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SHE WAS the true jewel of India - Bharat Ratna, not just in her phenomenal musical excellence, but also in the human values she represented. Through a lifetime spent in the world of the sruti and the swar, M.S. Subbulakshmi's music plunged the depth of everybody's heart, conquering with the purity of voice, of note and of intent. If music transformed the individual, it in turn acquired the burnished quality of a soul without a wrinkle. The Shraddhaanjali at the Siri Fort when sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and his two disciple-sons, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash paid their tribute to M.S. Subbulakshmi, was one instance of how her music transcended the North-South divide. The Central Sangeet Natak Akademi, surprisingly has not hosted any special homage for this departed Bharat Ratna.
Chinmaya Centre's `Bhakti Pravah' on January 16 was a tribute to M.S., the evening ending with the screening of a film on her life followed by the all-time Indian classic Meera, which her music made immortal. Bharatanatyam dancer Geeta Chandran, after a brief introduction by Rajiv Chandran, heralded the evening with a non-intrusive dance interpretation of two of M.S. Subbulakshmi's renditions, one of Vallabhacharya's Madhurashtakam and the next a more ambitious composition based on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Shishtashtakam, dealing with the cleansing of the inner human being before embarking on a spiritual journey seeking a higher level of consciousness. Metaphysical messages are not easily communicated through dance, and Geeta's interpretation handled the subject sensitively.
It is surprising that so far there has been no occasion with more dancers and musicians joining hands in a collective homage to this rare artiste.
Sprightly Kathak
One of the senior disciples of Guru Kumudini Lakhia, Vaishali Trivedi took the Stein auditorium stage of Habitat Centre in a concert under the HCL series. An accomplished artiste, Vaishali's Kathak presentations are further embellished by her fine singing ability - the quality of voice and rendition revealing proper classical training in music.
Sprightly Vaishali's Kathak nritta radiates a spirit of joy, and except for the odd occasion when the freeze after a chakkar saw a wobbly dancer, her nritta aspect was flawless. One cannot help mentioning that the dancer would be well advised to watch her weight, for, more of it will detract from the dance. The `bedam' ginti tihai, the paran in tisra jati and the footwork in the ascending 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 arithmetic in Teen tala were sprightly and neat executions. The exquisite grace of the gat nikas and the delicacy of the Na Dhin Dhin Na footwork flourish at the end were of a piece with the rest of the nritta.
It is interpretative dance that reveals the evolved inner dancer, and here Vaishali's musical abilities complement her abhinaya. In the Meera bhajan "Tum Bin Meri Kaun Khabar le Govardhan Giridhari", the helplessness of Draupadi while she was being humiliated in the Kaurav court was very well caught. The alternating images of the crudity of Duryodhan and Dushasan, and the grace of Krishna made a fine contrast in abhinaya. The other abhinaya item was a ghazal "Naina Re Naina Kaise Bite Kehna Piya Bin Mujhe Aye Nahi Chainaa" showing the eternal woman in wait for her beloved, after decorating herself with the solah sringar, had in Vaishali's rendition, a stillness in the evoked picture of the bitterly disappointed woman.
The strong team of musicians had Ramesh Bhai Bapodara on the tabla, Nayan Pancholi as vocalist, Mohamad Zafar on the sarangi and Vijay Sharma on sitar.
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