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Striking performances Geetha Krishna, Neha and Mashantha.

The first day’s concert was by Geetha Krishna who is a disciple of Guru Geetha Ganesh. The striking factor in the programme was in upholding the dharma and tradition of classicism in bold perception. Geetha stuck to the established norms of Bharatanatyam recital, viz alarippu, jatiswaram, varnam, padam, tillana in the correct sequence and, she dissolved her identity with rhythm and music.; if in the process of pushpanjali, melody and movement was in paying obeisance to the Guru and Deity, jatiswaram brought in melody and movement; it was a pleasant combination.

Without going in for novelties or razzle-dazzle, she won dignity and joy of the art.

Although the entire programme was tough, Geetha did not show any sign of fatigue at any moment. Both in nritha and nrithya, Geetha has attained perfection beyond her age. It was in the item varnam, she presented her flair. The astapadi brought out the nucleus of bhava and in tillana, the essence of rhythm. The success of the programme was primarily due to the excellent musical support by Guru Geetha Ganesh and creative input by flute vidushi Jayaprada. If anything was anything, it was in the addition of different nadais (rhythmic computation) and their corresponding rendition in the nattuvangam.

From the aesthetic point of view, the greatness of the traditional concept-pattern was clear in the second day’s performance by Neha who is a disciple of V.S.Ramamurthy.

The varnam in her curriculum established the continuum providing expanding room to delight in self-fulfillment and providing full scope to her creativity. In her exercises, there were evidently clear repetitions of advus which set in elements of boredom.

Although abhinaya is positive in her play, the thrill and grace in movements, pure gesture with the gesticulatory movement, particularly in madhyamakala are decidedly inadequate and even lethargic; it needs to purify perfection. A little more grace will go a long way. The music and orchestral support was reasonably good, but there is liberal room for enhancement; it sounded disjointed with the dance, as such. Yet another drawback was too much of an interval between one item and another and needless talk.

It was the culmination of dance in its entirety, tradition, format, abhinaya, rhythm, music and nattyuvangam that formed the episode on the final day of the festival when Mashantha Viswanathan, a student of Rajeswari Sainath, presented her façade and veneer of Bharatanatyam. It was a continuous flow of excellence, although interrupted by costume changes and announcements.

The institution, Sruti Laya Kendralaya is blessed with duel expertise, abhinaya by Rajeswari and laya by Karaikkudi Mani. The music on the day was also good resulting with satisfactory concert. Mashantha did her best and the overall performance was pleasing.

What were significant were the rhythmic parameters (change of nadai) in the course accentuated by outstanding nattuvangam by Rajeswari.

The swarjathi in raga, hussani scored the rank; it was however felt that it was overplayed.

The sanchari part of it, perhaps, could have been limited. On the other hand, the composition of Annamacharya, which was converted to a padam did not actually convey the spirit. The tillana, rightly placed as the tail ender was appropriate. The folk item was a welcome change.

The supporting accompaniment on all the three days was in keeping with the standards.

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