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Old world charm
HARISH BAL
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Nandini Rangan’s performance adhered to the Pandanallur school.
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Character play: Nandini Rangan stole the show with her meticulous portrayals.
Nandini Rangan’s Bharatanatyam performance was marked by the Pandanallur school, a style which is followed by a select few performers.
This style, which is less vigorous and more sinuous, emphasises poetry and music. This gives viewers an essence of the old world charm in Bharatanatyam.
For her performance, she chose items that were composed by Lalgudi Jayaraman. She began with ‘Tatwamasi,’ an invocation. The main ‘Navarasavarnam’ in ragamalika sketched the story of goddess Meenakshi.
Keeping this piece in mind, Nandini’s entire ‘aharyam’ was different. She had left her hair open and had made slight changes in her costume.
‘Veera rasa’
As the composition ‘Angeyer kanni anandam kondale’ gives expression to the nine rasas in different ragas, the dancer demonstrated the veera rasa in the ‘dikvijayam’ of Meenakshi, where images of war, elephants and horses come alive in the dynamic body language of the dancer.
This was contrasted in the musical phrase in Huseni, where the Devi assumes a feminine role.
The Atbhuta rasa found manifestation in the sancharis where Kama burns in Shiva’s wrath and the episode of Markandeya.
The rare raga Sucharitra was used in the Charanam ‘Deviyai Paninthu arul tharuvom.’ The danseuse was at her dramatic best in the episodes of Dakshayani and the thandava of Kali. The interim swaras saw some moments of meticulous nritta.
Nandini stole the show with her portrayal of characters, as in the role of Ravana.
Yearning for Krishna
In the next piece ‘Dehi me Krishna,’ set to Sindhubhairavi raga, written by K. V. Dev, the dancer portrayed Mata Amritanandamayi as a young girl and her yearning for Krishna.
As the Sanskrit verses moved way to a popular bhajan ‘Ningalil aaranum undo,’ Nandini merged herself in her depiction of longing in ‘prema bhakti.’
The tillana in Mand raga with its variant start saw Nandini dance with dazzling jathis, mukthas and teermanams.
The programme was organised by Kerala Fine Arts society.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
