Discovering Vengamamba
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The Kuchipudi ballet was an aural treat
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Uma Rama Rao, former chief of dance faculty of Telugu University, who has been keeping an eye on rare Yakshaganas has now turned her attention to ‘Siva Vilasa Natakam' a yakhagana of Vengamamba. She converted this into a Kuchipudi ballet which was performed at the Ravindra Bharati last week.
Vengamamba wrote Yakshaganas, Satakas, Dwipada Kavyas and many more. Uma Rama Rao sub-titled this Siva Vilasa Natakam as ‘Vengamamba Kavita Parijatham'. The ballet structure makes you feel that it resembled ‘Bhama Kalapam' of Siddhendra Yogi. There are two wives for Siva, Parvati and Ganga. Parvati is aghast, one day, wondering to where her Lord Siva had gone. Like Krishna goes to Rukmini palace in Bhamakalapam;Siva, here, goes to Ganga's place. Parvathi musters the services of one Tamasi, like Bhama engages Madhavi in verbal dialogue, to find her Lord.Siva finally reaches Parvathi's place and encounters Bhrungi waching over her palace. The last part narrates how both Siva and Parvathi search for each other that ends in their union, after Siva pacifies her by presenting a diamond chain that Narada gave to him to please his wife.
Like most of these ‘Vipralambha Nayaki' oriented themes, this too is a fiction of Vengamamba's imagination.
G.S.
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