Commendable show
RANEE KUMAR
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Budding artistes displayed their skills with acumen and alacrity.
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Maitreyi Jayaseelan(flute).
It was with growing interest that the audience watched two budding artistes display their skills with surprising acumen and alacrity, going by their experience in the chosen field. Maitreyi Jayaseelan showed remarkable staying power on the flute, though it was a brief recital, with clarity and concentration as her assets. Her near-excellent swarakalpanas in Latangi, set to Khandachapu (Marivere dikkevvaru — a Patnam Subramania Iyer's composition) left the music lovers spell bound. Scaling the octaves with ease, never losing ground in terms of tone and timber, be it in her alapana or gamakams, the young artiste was a bundle of talent. The violinist Venugopal was an ideal match to the flautist. His deft bowing reproduced the swaram at every juncture with equal precision while the percussionists outdid each other in the tani. G. Ramachandran on the mridangam was superb. His serve and volley with ghatam player B.S.V. Prasad was infectious in its enthusiasm.
Maitreyi was an epitome of lucidity in whatever she rendered beginning with the customary varnam in Natakurinji (Adi talam). This melodic Swati Tirunal's composition got caught in the mellifluous notes of the bamboo and emerged like full-throated song. Followed by Vinayaka ninu vina in Hamsadhwani, her absorbing rendition lent a distinct definition to the raga both in form, content and spirit. The tillana (in Brindavana Saranga) from Dr. Mangalampalli's pen was a perfect finale.
Rhythm perfect
The visual treat rendered by G. Suvarchala was a joy to behold. The most striking feature of the artiste is her accuracy to tala at any denomination. Such exactness and precision to rhythm is hard to behold in one so young, especially in execution of complex jati patterns. The Dandayudhapani Pillai varnam in Sankarabharanam was an acid test to the artiste. It called for exacting and elaborate footwork technique display and also demanding emotional abhinaya (a virahothkantitha naayika). Suvarchala was able to take up the tough footwork with amazing ease. Her jati executions in different cycles were like a seamless converging of complex, varied footwork that fell automatically into a single, meaningful pattern. This was especially evident in the jati that followed the vocal rendition of the first song-verse.
DISCIPLE DUO G. Suvarchala enthrall the audience.
The swara-based footwork was brief and less taxing allowing the dancer a little relief to concentrate on abhinaya. Though she did her best in expression as expected of her age and experience, the eye contact had to be more profound especially in the naayika delineation, which is actually not meant to be tackled by one so young. This sort of abhinaya has less to do with hasta mudras and footwork and more with body language, which is quite demanding.
By the same token, Suvarchala was able to carry herself with aplomb emoting the comparatively easy abhinaya of the Ramayana through Jayajaya Rama (a Annamacharya composition in Ragamalika). She gave a convincing episodic narration through mime with an excellent mridangam by Rajagopalacharya. The tillana set to Panthuvarali was a beautiful synthesis of Geetha Ganesan's vocal, Rajagopalacharya's percussion and Suvarchala's footwork presentation.
The redoubtable Subbalakshmi on the violin gave a refreshing solo in the interlude with her tandanaana bhale... (Annamacharya). R.P. Raju on the flute made his presence felt. Kudos to Jayaprada Ramamurthy and Geetha Ganesan for providing a platform for their talented pupils under Uttaraa's umbrella, which is indeed creditable. Thyagaraja Gana Sabha played host to the performance with better acoustics this time.
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Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
