Conversazione for the connoisseurs
A. RAMALINGA SASTRYA.R.S.
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A Telugu roopakam held as part of the Founder's Day celebration presented interesting anecdotes.
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Celebrating its Founder's Day on Friday, March 3, Visakha Music and Dance Academy staged a Roopakam in Telugu, titled Naada Yoga Vaibhavam, scripted and directed by Bhamidi Kamala Devi.
Totally devoid of any reference to Naada, leave alone its significanceor the origin of the term yoga and so on, it proved to be a misnomer. It turned out to be a fantasy and depicted a Samaaroh (conversazione) of the Vaggeyakaras, Purandharadasa, Annamacharya, Tyagaraja, Syama Sastry, Dikshitar and Ramadas, convened by Narada in the court of Maharaja Swathi Tirunal in Swarga (heaven) and welcomed by Vandimagadhulu.
All-round appreciation
Irrespective of the fact that some part of the conversation was replete with queries as to why Purandaradasa preferred Mayamalavagoula for the initial exercise of learning Carnatic music and why he opted to sing the praise of Lord Vithala in his mother tongue Kannada, the programme was appreciated by all.
T.Veeralakshmi as the Maharaja, I.Prameela as Annamayya, the playwright B.Kamala herself as Purandaradasa, R.Jagadamba as Ramadas (all from Tanuku), N.Lakshmidevi as Narada, P.Prameela as Syamasastry, K.Vijayalakshmi as Dikshitar, M.Premalatha and C.Bala as the Vandimagadhas (all from Bhimavaram), V.Saraswathi as Tyagaraja (Achanta) besides local artistes K.Amukta Malyada and A.Aditya as court dancers put forth not only able acting performances but some of them — Kamala and Saraswathi, in particular — also showed their singing talent by rendering select compositions. Similarly, Malyada and Aditya danced their way into the hearts of the audience with their abhinaya for the Sriranjani kriti of Tyagaraja Sogasuga and Dhanasri Thilana of Swathi Tirunal respectively.
Playback for other characters by R.Mahalakshmi and V.Anuradha from Tanuku, and locals K.Kamaladeepti and Suryateja besides nattuvangam by Balakondala Rao, violin by K.V.S. Prasad, mridangam by G.Venkata Rao and Anand Srihari and makeup by K.Chiranjivi and K.Maruthi Prasanna also proved to be assets.
Earlier, during the meeting, the chief guest of the evening — former Minister for Cultural affairs Bhattam Srirama Murty, VMDA trust president C.S.N. Rau and Secretary S.Gopala Sastry paid rich tributes to the trust's founder Susarla Surya Bhagavat Sankara Sastry.
Awards presentation
The awards instituted by P.V.Ramanayya Raja (in memory of L.S.R.K. Sastry) for best young vocalist, US based Sriram Sonti for best classical dancer, late G.V.N Murty for best violinist, T.S. Rajeswaran in memory of his brother Sambandhan for mridangam and B. Vasundhara Devi for best mandolin player, were given away by the chief guest.
Indraganti Durga Priyadarsini (vocal), Ch. Neelima (Bharatanatyam), H. Ramachandran (violin), P. Ramesh (mridangam) and U. Srinivas of Nakkapalle (mandolin) were the recipients of the awards.
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