Novel birthday salutation
A. RAMALINGA SASTRY
|
Kuchipudi artistes put together a fitting tribute to Vempati Chinasatyam on his 77th birthday.
|
— Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
CELEBRATIONS Students of Kuchipudi Kalakshetra performing at Kalabharati .
Celebrating the 77th birthday of the renowned renaissance man of the Kuchipudi dance tradition, Padma Bhushan Vempati Chinasatyam, the pupils and pupil-teachers of the Kuchipudi Kalakshetra established by him in the port city, under the stewardship of its principal Hari Rama Murty presented a delightful dance recital.
The three items, Jayamujayamu presented by Subbaraju and Aparnaswathi, Brindavananilaye by Kavya, Sulakshana and Manjari and a thilana by Subbaraju and Kalyani were initially choreographed by Vempati. The ballet Guruvandanam that followed was mainly constituted of sequences picked up from some dance dramas choreographed earlier by the maestro for his Kuchipudi Art Academy, Chennai. Thus, the entire repertoire for the evening left an impression of being a chaplet of the glittering instances of the splendid spectacle that gets manifest in the innovative studies in choreography by the Kalaprapurna awardee Vempati.
No wonder, it proved to be a novel concept of a birthday salutation to the guru.
The bits of episodes from Ksheerasagaramadhanam brilliantly presented by Ramana Rao, Jagannadha Rao, Subbaraju and Revathi; Sravya and Prasuna from Vipranarayana; Kavyasruthi and Himabindu from Krishnapaarijatham; Swarnalatha and Aparna from Saakunthalam; Anuradha, Sruthi and Chandini from Srinivasakalyanam; Sulakshana and Swetha from Chandalika; Himabindu from Rukminikalyanam; Hanumantha Rao and Viswasanthi from Haravilaasam constituted the beads in the chaplet.
Hari expertly wielding the cymbals in the equally expert company of L.S.S. Kanthilal on mridangam along with T. Atchutharao on flute, R. Sudhakar on veena and J. Chandramouli on violin, contributed grandeur.
Vocalists D.V.S. Sastry and K. Lakshminarasamma were not wanting but could do better achieving clarity intoning the lyrical phraseology with little more empathy. Make-up by Suryarao and Sudha and stage decor by Suribabu were good.
Scripted by D.V. Narayanamurty of Hyderabad, it was set to music by G. Nagarajan of Chennai and directed by Hari Ramamurty.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
