Dances from the past
RANEE KUMAR
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The ancient dance forms of Andhra organised recently highlighted their essence.
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As part of its one-day seminar on music in traditional theatre forms of Andhra, the Department of Dance of the University of Hyderabad showcased one of the ancient and surviving versions of Bhama Kalapam as performed in the east of Andhra recently. While the morning session featured three consecutive strains of the music in dance drama format like the Chindula (Nizamabad), Kuchipudi Yakshaganam and Toorpubhagavatam (Bobbili), the evening saw presentation of the Bhaama Kalaapam by Bontalakoti Sambamurthy Bhagavatar and troupe.
Aptly termed as Thoorpu Bhagavatam, this presentation was like a lab study in the native song-dance-drama sans finesse. The text of Bhaama Kalaapam sounded good when sung rather than when performed on stage. Lewd humour, crude-looking characters (all men, including Satyabhaama and Radha) with garish make-up are bound to surprise and shock the sophisticated urban audience. One has to constantly remind oneself that this was the original Bhaama Kalaapam.
For the people
The dialectical Telugu mouthed by characters like Madhavi and even Krishna, the echoing of conversation by the percussionists standing close behind the principal characters, the nonchalant Krishna and Radha characters squatting at the wings of the stage when not required to act were all region-centric. So, somewhere Krishna had to look like the mythological description of the god, hence the blue face paint, peacock quill and a bamboo stick. Again the village viewers had to identify themselves with the artiste. Krishna therefore had to look like one of them. There comes the bare chest sans embellishments and the humble peasant dhoti attire. The end result of this dual criterion was a ridiculous looking (to the urbanites) Radha in shallow yellow-coloured face beside the strange-looking Krishna.
Surprisingly, Satyabhama's character was donned up like a female with complete changeover costume, the famous braid of hair, sari and jewellery that resembled a headgear. The dharuvus (rhythmic moves) were a far cry from the Bhaama Kalaapam of Kuchipudi but had a rugged beauty of their own. The presence of song and music in full-throated splendour was the highlight of the Thoorpu Bhagavatam.
Sambamurthy, who played Bhaama to the hilt, had a voice whose reach and timbre was astounding. This artiste is the last in the lineage of the eastern bhagavatars, who perhaps had scripted their own version of the Bhaama Kalaapam, originally belonging to the Kuchipudi tradition, when they were touring troupes.
Madhavi/Madhavaraaya dressed in ochre dhoti with a conical paper crown is supposed to be the alter ego of Satyabhaama, the sermoniser, the clown and the moderator of the dance drama. The mental conflict in Satyabhaama starts with the entry of Radha, as against his egoistic wife Bhaama.
The drama unfolds as a dialogue between the principal character and her conscience (Madhavi) on the subject of love, ownership, envy, and finally a catharsis of self-realisation, which is the only means to merge with the lord. The moral is driven home time and again through the Madhavi character in a praiseworthy effort. The credit of showcasing a part of rural Andhra through this drama goes to the University of Hyderabad's Department of Dance at the Golden Threshold on the occasion of the World Music Day.
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