In praise of Lord Krishna
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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Celebrating the spirit of Janmashtami, the city witnessed Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra's `Krishnavatar' and Uma Sharma's delectable Kathak dance this past week.
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PHOTO: A.M. Faruqui
VIRTUOSO ACT Celebrated Kathak dancer Uma Sharma.
There is nothing like festivals to remind one of the force of the collective spirit of worship. Every Janmashtami, it is time to celebrate the Krishna concept - Krishna "the Human God, and the Divine Man" as he has been called. Heralding the festival spirit was Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra's `Krishnavatar' which, year after year, since its creatio n in 1952, has played out the Krishna myth encapsulating the different facets of the God - as the cowherd child stealing hearts as smoothly as butter, the romancing charmer of the Brindavan gopis and finally leaving all these as undying memories, donning the role of king/statesman. These familiar images, even with no radical vision imparted to them, never cease to thrill. Given the firm base of music composed by names like the late Pandit Shiv Prasad, Shelley Dutta, Barun Kumar Gupta and Shubha Mudgal and sung by Shanti Sharma, Vinay Bhide and Shubha Mudgal, the production over the years has reinvented scenes, imparting freshness to a much tried work.
This year's Radha Ashtakam and the changed Kaliyadaman sequence are a case in point. Doughty faith of a captive audience makes suspension of disbelief an irrelevant issue, and episodes like Govardhan Lila and Makhan Chor evoke immediate applause even when the child acting as Krishna has yet to develop a better feel for the role.
As the romantic Krishna, Shiv Kumar Mohanto in his fluent dancing revealed a body that speaks but a face that needs more eloquence. Raj Kumar Sharma, the post-intermission Krishna, as an old pro in his sure-footed ease, showed how familiar he is with the role. But the production is really held by a well-rehearsed corps de ballet with excellent group discipline, eye catching costumes designed by Shobha Deepak Singh, complementary light and stage settings and smooth scene changes, with not a cue missed. The old sound tape has to be worked on to remove the hissing in a couple of places.
Poetic sensitivity
Dancer Uma Sharma's Kathak performance, for a packed India International Centre auditorium, epitomised the ecstasy and bonding strength of Krishna worship through art streams of literature and dance. Celebrated through verse in the Guru Granth Sahib, in the poetry of Meera, of Surdas and of a Pathan like Ras Khan, Krishna consciousness blurs and transcends religio-cultural borders.
And given the vacuity of mechanical "pair ka kaam" Kathak recitals, it was enlightening to be treated to poetic sensitivity and its interpretation in dance, spontaneous in unstructured improvised immediacy. It is that upaj (now so rare) and total abandon in Uma's Kathak that grip the audience - the layered development of the poetic line very different from the stereotypical dance images. This leisurely deliberation on the kavya had little of awesome beauty in movement line or even twinkling footwork echoing every mnemonic in the padhant or tabla. Touching hearts through passionate conviction and depth of abhinaya, Uma's dance even in the parans played and uttered at breakneck speed by Mubarak Ali, through a few accented points caught the punch and pakad in the rhythmic composition, rhythm running through the entire body, its inward alertness only accented through minimal outward manifestations.
It is the coming together of so many poetic threads, which makes for dance in a mehfil atmosphere that Uma rejoices in. The old favourites like "Wari Wari Shyam" were all there. The one-line refrain with Krishna's feats like Poothana Moksham, Makhan Chor, Govardhana Lila hinted at in quick flashes was brilliant. In a coordinated melodic accompaniment, both Ramesh Parihar and Jwala Prasad sang with involvement.
Jena's Odissi
One of the Odissi gurus with a very distinctive approach, Surendranath Jena's dance perspective has attracted less scholarly inquiry than that of Kelucharan Mohapatra, Debaprasad Das or even Pankajcharan Das. At the JNU School for Art and Aesthetics, a DVD stemming from the research of Alexandra Lopez y Royo, dance scholar and lecturer at Roehampton Universty, was screened. The technological hurdles with the auditorium equipment apart, the dance rendered in temple environs by the guru's daughter/disciples showed how his Odissi is strongly inspired by temple sculpture. The Devi cult, of which Orissa has strong architectural manifestations like Chausat Yogini (subsumed by the dominant later Jagannath phenomenon), influenced the guru whose dance portrays aggressive rasas like Bibhatsa, Raudra and Bhayanaka.
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