HAMSADHWANI
Poetry and polish
RUPA SRIKANTH
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Understated elegance was the highlight of Leela Samson's style.
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Photos: N. Sridharan.
JUST GOOD DANCE: Leela Samson.
On the face of it, there was nothing special or unusual about the programme. It was a regular margam presentation with well-known compositions. There were no fireworks and no frills. Just good dance. It was a wet Sunday evening and Hamsadhwani's lawn with its makeshift covering was filled to capacity. And as the thunderstorm raged outside, Leela Samson appeared on stage with meditative calm to delineate an Ardhanareeshwara sloka. It was a quiet, contemplative beginning and Leela extended this stillness into the Muthuswamy Dikshitar kriti on Ardhanareeshwara, in Kumudhakriya ragam, Rupaka talam.
The pace picked up in the navaragamalika, Adi tala varnam, `Swamiyai azhaithodi vaa' by Dhandayuthapani Pillai embellished as it was with the rhythmic theermanams composed by Karaikkudi Krishnamurthy. But the dignity of the dancer was never compromised. Even within the confines of a demanding nritta sequence, there was poetry and polish. It is this understated elegance that sums up Leela's style. Every adavu is tempered with grace and geometry and given its due. And every beat in the rhythm is reflected in the resounding ankle bells.
There was the same straightforward attitude in the abhinaya portions too. The nayika's behavior towards her sakhi was full of warmth as she requests her to intercede with the Lord on her behalf in the varnam. There is pain in the separation and Leela's delineation brought out the same without overdoing it. The samanya nayika in Kshetrayya's Varali ragam, `Valapu datsa' and the khandita nayika in the Kannada javali, `Vanipondu chaaluvaddane' were as honest.
The substandard facilities in terms of the cement-floored stage and the poor lighting that kept the dancer's face in shadow for most of the time, could not take away from the impact this senior artiste made. Here is someone who has understood that a sense of aesthetics is the most important ingredient for an artiste. There was this sense of style in every movement and every nuance, not overtly visible, but subtly so.
Leela's costume was another point of interest in an unusual combination of purple, gold and midnight blue set off with tasteful temple jewellery and a simple bun.
Hariprasad (vocal) gave a brilliant account of himself in a standalone (by design or default, it was not clear). The nattuvanar, Nirmala Nagaraj, excelled herself in the theermanams along with the master percussionist G.Vijayaraghavan. The accompanists — Deepu Nair (violin) and Ananthanarayan (veena) — were melodious, but largely unheard for the most part. There was a bonus in the end in Rukmini Devi's choreography in the Paras ragam, Adi talam thillana, a composition of Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. Leela concluded with a spiritual peace invocation from the Isa Upanishad, `Om poornamadah.' The evening seemed to have come a full circle — from silence back unto silence.
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