An unusual alliance
This time, the Ramotsava celebrations at the Govt. Primary school premises, Shankarapuram, there was an unusual programme called "Kuncha Kinkini", a dance-drawing collaboration. The young and talented dancer Sowndarya Srivatsa's soft laya and internalised experience in abhinaya was endearing. But the artist B.K.S.Varma's work could have been more effecting in capturing the essence of the performance in his thread and brush, black and white drawings.
Aptly accompanied by her husband-singer D.S. Srivatsa (vocal and nattuvanga), Sowndarya sketched the grandeur of Lord Ganesha with the lyrical imports from Gambheera Nata krithi "Gambheera Gananayaka". There was a compatible nritta as per the chittaiswaras appended to the krithi. But Varma drew a Nartana Ganapathi in a perfect drawing. Sowndarya rendered a Thyagaraja krithi "Ennaga Manasu" (Neelambari) which captures the beauty of Sri Rama with delicate artistry and quiet intensity. Varma seemed to be happy in drawing the picture of a stubborn Bala Rama insisting to have the moon in the sky to play with, being pacified by Dasharatha, a sequence which was casually referred to by the compere of the programme Sugganahalli Shadakshari. Mahesh (flute), Prasannakumar (morsing) were the other accompanists. But it was offending to watch mridangist G. Gurumurthy occupying the stage wearing trousers.
* * *
Young Priyanka Raghavan, trained by Guru Padmini Ramachadran, gave a neat exposition of her artistry with an aesthetic sensitivity and made her Bharatanatya recital held at the Indian Institute of World Culture a successful one. The best was Dikshitar's varna "Roopamu joochi" (Todi). Priyanka's nritta had a scintillating hard-edged clarity. The razor-edge sharp laya with varied syllabic groupings had all the sure-footedness of one who is now at home with the grammar of the style. A Tamil pada with Yashodha-Krishna theme was enjoyable. The two javalis ("Sundaraanganu saari baruhanendu", Behag and "Bande Yaatako", Khamach) brought out the traits of Vasikasajja and Khanditha nayika respectively. The Tillang tillana was a fitting finale. Guru Padmini Ramachandran (nattuvanga), Balasubramanya Sharma (vocal), and Janardhana Rao (mridanga) excelled as accompanists.
M. SURYA PRASAD
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