`I will dance once again'
P.SURYA RAO
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In a break from tradition, Gurupadam gave a social side to dance ballet.
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IN STEP Dance drama `Gurupadam' presented by Kuchipudi Kala Kendra . PHOTO: RAJU. V.
Usually mythological subjects are the grist for Kuchipudi dance dramas. Deviating from the usual practice, the Kuchipudi Kala Kendra of Mumbai, produced a sensitive and thought provoking dance drama that highlighted the problem of a talented young dancer who fears that she has to give up dancing after her marriage.
The theme of the ballet was conceived by G. M. Sarma, the script and lyrics were written by Mutnuri Sankara Sastry and the music was scored by D. S. V. Sastry. The dance drama titled Gurupadam was choreographed by Mahankali Sriramachandra Murthy who is a reputed Kuchipudi dancer and teaches the dance in four branches of Kuchipudi Kala Kendra in Mumbai. He rendered the nattuvangam besides playing the role of Guru Dakshinamurthy in the ballet.
The first few scenes were rather dull and only from the fourth scene, where the guru accepts Gowri, the talented student as his disciple, and starts teaching her that the drama picked up tempo which lasted till the end. After becoming a full fledged dancer, Gowri makes a shocking announcement to the audience as well as to her guru, that as she is going to get marriedand she will not be able to dance anymore. Her father sadly explains that he had to agree to the proposal as he has two more daughters to get married.
Subsequently, Gowri gets married and shifts to U.S. where to her amazement her husband and friends give her overwhelming encouragement and she starts practicing again and also establishes a dance school that subsequently becomes famous. The guru who was stunned by Gowri's decision not to dance after marriage, laments how the great art would die without artistes and laments that perhaps ultimately the greatness of dance might be confined to textbooks only.
The guru visits the U.S. and is pleasantly surprised to see that his prime disciple is dancing as well as training other dancers.
Thus `Gurupadam' ends on an optimistic note. Fine performances came from M. Sriramachandra Murthy as Guru Dakshinamurthy and V.Satyavathi as Gowri. Other roles were well played by Ramesh Koli, V.Sravanthi, Veena, Puja, Priya, Divya and Ramesh. The music was not up to the mark.
In particular, the flautist was jarringly out of tune. Vocal support by K. Suryanarayana and D. V. Kanakadurga was adequate. P. Anjaneyulu and M. Vijayakumar were good on violin and mridangam respectively.
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