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Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

Exuberant: Mythili Prakash

Her varnam was constructed from verses of Lila Suka’s ‘Krishna Karnamritam.’ The varnam’s music was by the late Jahnavi Jayprakash in raga Hindolam. Vocalist Hariprasad’s alap provided a wonderful introduction to the varnam. Beginning with ‘Vadane Navaneeta Gandhavaaham’ Mythili described Krishna as the traditional butter thief. In the line ‘Nayane Kuhanaashru…,’ she interpreted the meaning as one whose eyes are moist with compassion. To illustrate the image, she used the story of the hesitant Sudhama’s visit to his old gurukula friend Krishna. Though Sudhama could not bring himself to ask for anything, his old friend, now a king, gifted him all he needed.

Sanskrit is such a colourful language that sometimes the same word can have opposite meanings. In this line, ‘Kuhan-aashru’ is usually interpreted as false or hypocritical tears, in the context of Krishna the naughty child using tears to melt the gopi’s heart and get himself out of punishment when caught red-handed stealing butter. With this interpretation being most common, Mythili’s seemed startling. However, the dancer had found another meaning for the word, which apparently gives the sense of ‘mist of tears.’

A noteworthy feature of the varnam was a jati into which Mythili knitted the episode of the killing of Kaliya, weaving movements and mudras into compact images. The jati flowed effortlessly into the charanam line — ‘Kreedantam Venu Gaayantam…’ Mythili’s leaps and fast turning movements are captivating.

Her abhinaya for the Subbarama Iyer composition in Saveri raga, featuring a khandita nayika (‘Idhai Vida Innum Vera Venumo Sakshi’) was well sustained. In the piece, set to dance by Bragha Bessell, the woman asks her errant lover, “Is there a need for more proof than this?” pointing out the other woman’s anklets on his wrists, her kohl on his face, and so on. It is only when Mythili’s rolling American accent comes bursting across the mike that one is reminded how far Bharatanatyam has travelled. She summed up with a tillana in the raga Valaji, again her own choreography. The tillana was a composition of Dwaraki Krishnaswamy.

Mythili was accompanied by the competent Mahalakshmi on nattuvangam and Ramesh Babu on the mridangam. Both added the required punch to the recital. One runs out of words for a vocalist like Hariprasad, maintaining his excellence even while running from one show in the morning to another in the evening. The same could be said of Sashidhar on the flute and Ananthanarayanan on the veena. The cohesion of the artistes despite minutely diced time schedules was admirable.

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