In tune with the Divine
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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The Jayadeva Utsav made its fourth appearance in New Delhi with a range of performances and talks.
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The perfect finale was in "Sri Radha Vilasa" presented by Sharmila Biswas and her excellent troupe
MULTI-LAYERED TREATMENT The performances based on age-old Gita Govind mesmerised everyone.
Recited, sung and danced, custom cannot stale Jayadeva's Gita Govind. Like a lotus opening petal by petal, every repetition reveals one more facet of a multi-layered treatment of this union of the human with the Divine. Odissi Akademi, under Kavita Dwibedi's fine effort, mounting the fourth Jayadeva Utsav blended a morning seminar with evening performances at the India Habitat Centre recently.
Dilating on his personal interpretation of the Gita Govind having been performed to consecrate the Sri Mandir at Puri in 1142 A.D. with the Ganga crown prince formally crowned, by Chodagangadeva who ruled from Bhagirathi to Godavari, Subas Pani spoke of the period marking the birth of the Odissi identity blending the Odhra Magadha and Kalinga aesthetics. Bhakti and Sringar were the warp and weft of Jayadeva's weave dyed in "nectarine sweetness" (madhuryam). He stressed the importance of the dhyana slokas in this love dialogue in establishing mood, providing links and creating a dramatic backdrop for the "Adbhuta Keshava Keli Rahasyam" where the entire mystic love play vibrates with Krishna consciousness, Radha both experiencer (bhokta) and observer (drishta).
Speaking on Dhruvapadam in the Gita Govind,Sampadanand Misra stressed how Sanskrit poetry with its free word order can yield different interpretations by linking adjectives to different nouns — an example being from the ashtapadi "Chandanacharchita" with words like "mugdavadhunikare", "vilasini" and "kelipare". He cautioned that music composing had to consider poetic metre, gait, accents and pauses. Ramahari's taut and concise talk on the music of the Gita Govind pointed to the word Gita in the title making clear Jayadeva's musical intentions. The poetry in elongated sounds, and sounds meant to provide grace or `laalityam' pointed to the "gayan dharmam". Defining words like "prabandham" quoting shastras, Ramahari dwelt on the logic of the ragas mentioned by Jayadeva, according to scholars. The poetry by its network of meanings catered to different music designs. Gangadhar Mohapatra focused on `prema bhakti' in his talk.
Multicoloured performance
Intensely variegated was the performance. Well served by Venkatesh's vocal support, Kuchipudi couple Vanashree and Jaya Rama Rao began with a bristling Dasavataram, the dramatic action-oriented avatars rendered to multiple ragas putting bhakti into the shade. Then was the contrasting lilt of "Lalita lavangalata" — Vanashree's more expressive face and Ramarao's movements complementing.
Mohiniattam dancer Jayaprabha Menon's exquisite grace with stage presence and mobile mukhabhinaya needs more internalised emotion in ashtapadis like "Keshi mathanam udaram" which in a literal interpretation loses poetic subtlety. And the overloud, not fully tuned veena and maddalam drowned Jayadeva's sung words.
Gita Chandran with her strong musical acumen combined with singer Sudha Raghuraman stringing selected Gita Govind verses (sequentially outside the textual order) into a varnam format. The sakhi informing Krishna about Radha's pining in separation "Dishi dishi kirati sagalakam jaalam." She is "Sa virahe tavadeena". The charanam evoked Dasharoopaka Krishna Jaya Jagadeesha, in the bhakti mode. Taut teermanams with Shankar's energetic nattuvangam and Keshavan's mridangam (a trifle loud on occasion) were authoritatively danced. Despite involved interpretative rendition, Sudha's excess of classical vocal virtuosity made sahitya unclear.
Preeti Patel's starting glimpses of Manipuri Sankirtan, had a male singer's voice unmatched with the fine pung tones. Ras has such a masterly orthodox group interpretation that three fine dancers found difficult to match.
Malati Shyam given the drawback of a singer unfamiliar with Sanskrit/Gita Govind verses, deserved high marks for the mature Kathak interpretation, particularly the imaginative upaj type opening of improvisations knit into the tala to arrive at the sama of "Harihara mugdavadhoonikare" in a mood of wonder at the spectacle of Hari dancing with the gopis. Thereafter each Kathak nritta facet helped reinforce that wonder of "Chandana charchita", Radha marvelling from outside.
The perfect finale was in "Sri Radha Vilasa" as conceived and directed by Subas Pani and presented by Sharmila Biswas and her excellent troupe with dance visualisation by Guru Gangadhar Pradhan and Sharmila. The beauty of that "Rase Harimiha vihita vilasam" with Krishna's sporting with "anekanari" and Radha reliving in her mind's eye the mystic beauty of that love play was visualised at two levels. The cherubic Krishna (despite lack of a waistline) was a charmer and Sharmila made a sensitive Radha, particularly in the delicately visualised "Keshi mathanam udaram" the erotic imagery of a "prathama samagam" or "charana ranita" treated with suggestive undercurrents. And what evocative singing by Nazia Alam of the Vajrakanti and Piloo - full of bhava with poetic clarity never compromised!
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