Dancer with mercurial feet
Lakshmi Venkatraman
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Dance Two artistes regaled the audience by their lively performances.
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Precise teermanams: Srekala Bharat Photo: K. V. Srinivasan.
One must congratulate Saraswathi Educational Cultural and Charitable Trust on bringing classical dance back to the temple. They conducted the `Vasant Utsav' at the Kapaleeswarar temple, Mylapore. Bharatanatyam exponent Srekala Bharat, who presented `Sivastuthi,' said she felt inspired dancing in the temple close to the shrines of Kapali and Karpagambal. It was nice to see young children watching the programme keenly; the expressions fleeting on their faces as they watched the dancer's rapid footwork and the changing facial expressions was a treat indeed.
There was hardly a dull moment in her performance, at least till she completed the varnam. Beginning with an invocatory item on Ganesha, she took up Natesa Kavuthuvam replete with nritta. Then came the ragamalika varnam, `Swamiyai Azhaithodi Va' of Dandayudapani Pillai. There were sancharis from the legend of Siva naturally, but it was the teermanams with complicated jatis handled with elan by Srekala, which bowled the viewers over. After the varnam came the popular Sindhubhairavi song, `Karunai Deivame' on Karpagambal. In this, Srekala took up the story of Goddess Parvathi feeding divine milk to Thirugnanasambandar and enacted it effectively. But it was the Kannappa Nayanar story in the following Abhogi kriti, `Sabhapathikku' which made some of the women viewers get charged emotionally.
The nattuvangam by Guhendran was an asset to the recital as was the vocal support by Chitrambhari Krishnakumar accompanied by Venkatsubramaniam on the mridangam and Muruganandam on the violin. Another plus point was Srekala's costume in red; it is true that a dancer must maintain a pleasant expression while performing, but it would be better if she could avoid the constant toothy grin.
Intricate details: Guhendran
Impressive nritta
One of the artistes featured in this month's Natyarangam at Narada Gana Sabha was Guhendran, disciple of Adyar Lakshmanan. The programme began with Thodayamangalam in ragamalika and talamalika, which described some of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu. The main item was the varnam, `Sri Ramachandra,' again a ragamalika, set to Adi tala.
Some episodes from the Ramayana like the Putrakameshti Yagam, Rama's breaking of the Sivadhanus and Seethakalyanam were taken up as sancharis. Young Guhendran needs to work on his abhinaya more, though his nritta was quite impressive; the teermanams in the varnam got progressively more intricate and he fared quite well. Several years ago, Kamala Lakshminarayan wrote in a Tamil magazine that though a dancer did need to take rest during the course of a tough piece like the varnam, it should not be made obvious; one could not help recalling her advice when watching Guhendran's performance.
The post-varnam segment had the bhajan, `Tumaka Chalaka Ramachandra' and a tillana. From the beginning, it made one wonder whether it was a music concert or dance recital. Vocalist Hari Prasad went on and on with his raga alapanas of Suddha Dhanyasi and Todi; they were no doubt good, but there is a place for everything however good. The nattuvangam was by Jayanthi Subramaniyam, supported on the violin by Vijayaraghavan and on the mridangam by Nellai Kannan.
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