Timeless flavours of Kerala
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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Deepti Omchery Bhalla's Mohiniattam and a play in Kathakali were the week's highlights.
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UNHURRIED GRACE Deepti Omchery Bhalla.
The origins of Mohiniattam and of Sopana Sangeet from Kerala have as many theories as practitioners. Whether Sopanam was a music genre or just a method of rendition based on the Carnatic mould has often been discussed - with differing views held. Kudiattam being the forerunner of all the classical performing arts, would it be right to trace the music of Mohiniattam from the musical traditions of Kudiattam, where hymns were rendered in regional ragas like Veladhuli, Varali, Paurali, Tondi, Srikanthi, Tarakan, Kaisiki, Indalam, and so on? It is important to note that these ragas were particularly used for abhinaya, each raga considered suitable for evoking a specific mood. Also, the talas were different, and since only four notes were utilised in the rendition of shlokas, viz., udhatam, anudhatam, swaritam and prachayam, the music, more like recitation with tonal variety, refers to swaras and not ragas. Kathakali's slow-spun music is also called Sopanam.
Whether the word Sopanam refers to music, sung in the temple sanctum sanctorum, or to the flight of steps (called sopanam) leading to the sanctum of the deity, or whether the name derives from the ascending and descending scale rendition (resembling steps), Sopanam as sung today, with ragas resembling the Carnatic vocabulary, seems more a style of singing than a separate genre of music. That Swati Tirunal's court, which presided over the evolution of Mohiniattam, had the strong influence of its asthana vidwan Vadivelu (one of the Tanjore Quartette), an expert in Carnatic music, cannot be wished away, and one wonders how Sopanam and the Carnatic style interacted, and if so at what level.
For Deepti Omchery Bhalla's Mohiniattam, after the release of her book "Vanishing Temple Arts of Kerala" at the Chinmaya auditorium, one was treated to a rendering of paataaksharam or vaithari on edakka in Triputa tala. Typical of the seven-beat Carnatic tala, the `vaithari' or vocabulary of syllables is different, as also the gradual ascent in tempo. The Sourashtram alap followed by the stuti in praise of Ganapati, concluding with the same set of tala phrases on edakka, again illustrated this blend of Carnatic music with the regional flavour.
The Adikesava prabandham was set to Tukka raga (Durga in the Hindustani and Suddha Saveri in Carnatic) and Chempada tala. A Tiruvattar Utsava Prabandham, (rendered in temple processions of the former princely state of Travancore where Lord Adi Kesava was the titular deity of the princes ruling from Padmanabhapuram as capital), the composition's authorship is unknown. It has a structure like the Chandobadha Rachanas of ancient times, set in what is called Tarangini Vritta. In praise of the Lord, which the unhurried grace of Deepti's movements reflected in serenity, the dancer's choreography skilfully knit the Dasavatar postures into the narrative without disturbing the flow of the music.
L.M. Singhvi, presiding over the book release, felt that the title of `Vanishing Temple Arts' was not `hopeful' enough, for in his view, temple arts will ever remain to nourish and invigorate future generations. Some felt the book was a forerunner to more research projects.
Dramatic heights
Meanwhile at the International Centre for Kathakali it was unadulterated Kathakali music in Ghantaram, Todi and Shankarabharanam by Sadanam Radhakrishnan and Kalamandalam Vinod, ascending to dramatic heights, while the play "Choodamani" was enacted. Written by Thiruvattar Jagadeesan, who himself donned the role of Aswatthama, the play had bite and searing intensity packed into a tight one-and-a-half-hour duration. Built round the theme of Aswatthama who in post-Kurukshetra war-lust, anger and grief decides to slay the Pandavas in their sleep, to be later attacked by Bheema whom his Brahmastra would have destroyed but for the timely intervention of Arjuna at the behest of Krishna, Choodamani is a play of violent emotions. In his individualistic, vigorous style of Kathakali, redolent with strong kalasams and footwork, rare hastas depicting the owl crow dotting the interpretative part, Jagadeesan giving a highly charged performance. Harikuar as Bhima, a strong dancer, lacked the volatility of this Mahabharata character. Sreeja Unnikrishnan made for a reflective Krishna, with Kalamandalam Anil Kumar as a grieving Draupadi lamenting the loss of her sons. Altogether, a high-voltage performance directed by Guru Sadanam Balakrishnan.
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