At her expressive best
RUPA SRIKANTH
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Shobana's presentation was a sensitive journey of rasa and bhava.
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Photo: K.V.Srinivasan
Shobana Bhalchandra.
After the mandatory invocation to Lord Ganesha, the beautiful Bilahari (Adi) kriti "Dorakuna ituvanti seva" filled the spaces with the wonderment of Tyagaraja's vision of Srihari on a `gently swinging, serpent couch.'
This was the beginning of `Thyagarasa,' a journey of the navarasas through the saint-composer's music presented by senior dancer and teacher Shobana Bhalchandra.
It was a sensitive journey of rasa and bhava, and Shobana was at her expressive best in every frame. To give visual dimension to devotional lyrics is a challenge in itself and added to that was the responsibility of preserving the musical brilliance of the kritis. There is also the danger of making small slips in the interpretations. `Thyagarasa,' delivered on these expectations with enjoyable music and dignified dance, did not go beyond being a good academic exposition of the nine dominant sentiments. It was not a cohesive whole; it was rather, a good compilation of appropriate compositions.
Shobana's maturity showed in the way she was able to sustain an emotion right through the piece as she did with disgust in "Etula brotuvo" (Chakravaham, Misra Chapu) and sadness in "Enduku daya radura" (Thodi, Misra Chapu).
Emotion of love
The emotion of love was interwoven with nritta passages in "Ramabhi Rama," presented as the central piece.
Shobana was sensibly accurate in her interpretations and wise in her choice of compositions. Only at times one felt she could have gone beyond verbatim interpretation to capture the mood with more depth.
Radha Badri's sweet voice and T.K.Padmanabhan's melodious bowing were most enjoyable. Ramesh Babu (mridangam) was attentive with the rhythm while Neela Sukanya (nattuvangam) had a limited role to play.
`Thyagarasa' was certainly a sincere effort, but was not creative enough as a whole.
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