In the footsteps of great gurus
TALENTED Vani Madhav
Young exponent of Odissi Vani Madhav trained under the great gurus like guru Deba Prasad, guru Gajendra Pande and guru Sudhakar Sahu rose to the occasion in her short and sweet Odissi performance at the Bangalore branch of Sri Edneer Mutt in Koramangala. Her dance recital was held in connection with Sri Keshavananda Bharathi Swamiji's 45th chaturmasa vratha. Originally from Orissa, Vani is now in Bangalore to propagate the art of Odissi, both with performance and teaching.
Based on shastra
She highlighted the Odissi style, which follows the basic principles of the Natya Shastra tradition and methodologies of movement, described in the shilpashastras of Orissa such as shilpaprakasha and the shilpasarani. In Odissi, the human body is treated in terms of the three bhangas — samabhanga, dvibhanga and tribhanga; along which deflections of the head, torso, and hips take place. This was amply evident in Vani's rendition, a Mangalacharan (Pahadi/Ahirbrairav, ektal), an Ashtapadi ("Rase hari miha vishita vilasam", mishra Kapi, adital) and Dashavatara (Kalyani, ektal).
Though she seemed to have mastered various aspects of the nritta technique comprising the static positions, the sculptural poses, the manner of covering space and also the manipulation of the metrical cycle through the articulation of the neck, torso and the movement of the lower limbs and to cover space in different directions and to move along straight lines, diagonals, figures of eight and spirals and to shift weight and play the levels, on a couple of occasions I missed precision in the tribhanga and chaukas. Nevertheless, she exhibited noteworthy talent in abhinaya. The recorded music provided good support.
No gimmicks
Veteran vocalist and teacher N. Ananthapadmanabha Rao brought back moments of old-world singing in his vocal recital held at the Vijayaranga auditorium under the aegis of Karnataka Haridasa Scientific Research Centre. Excellently accompanied by R. Raghuram (violin), B. Dhruvaraj (mridanga) and L. Bheemachar (morsing), Rao sang without extraneous elements. Nor did he indulge in gimmicks. His disciple Archith Bharadwaj who provided vocal support did his guru proud.
Navaragamalika varna was a good beginning. "Vandisuvudadiyali" in Nata raga was tagged with a variety of laya-perfect kalpanaswaras. Shyama Sastry's Yadukula Kambhoji swarajathi, "Kamakshi nee padayugame" is a demanding composition. It progresses in the ascending order of the raga's scale.
Rao and Archith sang both the sahitya and swaras in a dignified manner. An old-time favourite raga Khamach ("Brochevarevarura") fell pleasantly on the ears. After the chittaiswaras was there any necessity of kalpanaswaras?
Another highlight of the recital was the leisurely rendering of the famous Swati Tirunal krithi "Bhavayami Raghuramam".
M. SURYA PRASAD
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