Cultural shows mark Dasara
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Literary features, music concerts, humorous skits, `pravachanams' and a chain of religious discourses marked Dasara celebrations.
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MELODY TIME Singing was part of the celebration
Visakhapatnam was abuzz with some cultural show or the other as part of the city's Dasara celebrations. Notable were the music concerts and pravachanams in the premises of Sri Sadgurubrahma Ramadoota Mandiram in Madhuranagar, a chain of religious discourses besides music recitals in Sri Lalitha Peetham in Lalithanagar.
`Vaggeyakara Kalaa Vaibhavam', a feature programme scripted by Vedula Balakrishna Murthy and his sister Tamma Suryakantham and presented by noted musicians last Friday at Lalitha Peetham was a special attraction.
It was an effort simulating the exhilarating effect of literary feature programmes like `Bhuvana' and `Tribhuvana Vijayams', `Indrasabha', `Chandrasabha' and so on which came into vogue in the later part of the past century. The participants donning different roles being scholars of renown in Sanskrit and Telugu and are capable of rendering dialogues both in prose and poetic form extempore on stage, the features recreate the grandeur of the sabhas of the specific periods well, and to a great extent as they stand described in classical literature.
In contrast, the `Vaggeyakara Kalaa Vaibhavam' was an attempt to project all the vaggeyakaras (of the Carnatic baani) — Jayadeva, Purandara Dasa, Annamayya, Ramadasa, Kshetrayya, Syama Sastry, Thyagaraja, Dixitar, Swathi Tirunal and Narayanateertha — of different periods between the 11th and 17th centuries on the same platform construed to be pooled up by Narada in Satyaloka before Goddess Saraswathi. While D. Sarojini took the role of Saraswathi, B.H. Karuna, Ganga Devi, S. Subbalakshmi, R. Kusuma Kumari, T. Suryakantham, M. Vijaya Kumari, N. Srinivasa Rao, M. Seshu Rani and G. Lalitha donned the roles of the vaggeyakaras in that order. N.C. Madhav who was Narada was assigned the role of the Sabha nirvahaka.
The rendering was interspersed with some lively discussion on the musical and lyrical content establishing their inseparability.
Humorous to the core
The theatre activity of Visakha Music and Dance Academy, coinciding with the Dasara celebration, featured two mirthful skits.
The first skit was Addam Meeda Avaginza, scripted by Dwibhashyam Rajeswara Rao, and the second was Antarayaniki Chintistunnamu, by Raavi Kondala Rao.
Directed by K. S. Prakasa Rao for the Bharat Aahara Samstha, the first depicted how an insignificant action, that of placing an age-old mirror in the drawing room by a housewife, leads to a squabble with her husband. Funnily, the quarrel subsides as suddenly as it got flared up.
The cast comprised D. Mohana Rao, director Prakasa Rao, B. Maheswara Rao, P.S.N. Raju and Vijayalakshmi, who stole the show with noteworthy histrionic talent.
Similarly, the second skit was a well-designed exaggerated mockery of a self organised `sanmana sabha' of a publicity-crazy politician. N. Prabhakar, R.S.S. Murthy, Bhanu Prakash as Ramanujam, K.V. Sivarama Krishna, R.S. Gopi Krishna, G.V.Lakshmi, S. Chidambaram, I. Venkata Ratnam and Ch. Kameswara Rao constituted the cast. Raju, Satyanarayana and Bharani Kumar provided music and make-up for both the skits.
Bengali festivities
The 75-year-old Bengali Association in the port city presented several shows under the aegis of other associations of their brethren in different localities. But the show organised at Prahlada Kalyanamandapam stood out.
The show constituted folk dances depicting the traditional welcome extended to Durga to her parent's house during Dasara. The songs and dances were based on the works of Sukumar Ray (father of Satyajit Ray) and other renowned Bengali writers including Rabindranath Tagore. The dances by two groups, comprising young children Rupsa, Rohitha, Ankitha, Urvasi, Sumitha, Shilpa, Shimpa, Rithuparna, Meena, Sabitha and Smitha, in particular were very attractive. Similarly, the group dance presented by adults, Debika, Piyali, Sudha and Theerthankar, lent a devotional fervour.
Interspersed in between were old film songs, geeth and bhajans in Bengali. They were rendered by Anthony, Jaya, Prasenjit Chatterjee, Sujith Paul and Mithul Bhattacharjee.
The sonorous rendering of a few solos by Anthony and Mithuljee, were among the most haunting melodies of the evening.
A.R.S
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