Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

(Photo: N. Sridharan).

satisfying: (From left) Janaki Ganesh, Sukanya Kaur and Aruna Mohanty

Be that as it may, the evening offered some satisfying performances. Janaki Ganesh, a disciple of Jayanthi Subramaniam, was the first performer.

The centre point of her recital was the Bhairavi varnam, ‘Mohamana,’ a composition of the Thanjavur Quartet. With her involved abhinaya, Janaki kept up the mood of the piece. It is not surprising the dancer seems to take a special interest in abhinaya, and is learning padams from Priyadarsini Govind and Guru Kalanidhi Narayanan. Janaki’s nritta is also extremely neat, but she sometimes acquires a fixed stare during the complicated rhythmic sequences, which detracts from her poise.

‘Entha chakkanivaade,’ announced as a Kshetragna padam, was unusual for its fast pace. This padam represents a nayika gleefully sharing her pride in her unmatched lord, Muvva Gopala. Her next padam was even more unusual, representing a khandita nayika out of patience with Krishna. In “Vakakkaina,” she established the setting by miming a game with her sakhi, who insistently asks about ‘him.’ Dismissing the question at first, the nayika finally relents and starts on a tirade, saying she has had enough of Krishna’s friendship. What made the padam unusual was the reference to Krishna pawning her jewels like an ordinary errant husband fallen on hard times. “I will be satisfied if I even get back the jewels he pledged for money,” she says.

In both padams, though she sustained the expression well, it seemed she was running out of mudras, and the continual use of pataka hands became repetitive. Janaki finished off with a tillana in Revati, a popular composition of Lalgudi Jayaraman in Mishra Chapu tala. Here too, her penchant for bhava came to the fore during the brief sahitya portion. The desolation of the devotee seemed so real, it was almost discordant in a tillana.

The joyful mood in the nritta to follow would have looked puppet-like, had the choreographer not bridged it wisely with a depiction of the devotee excited at seeing Muruga arriving on the peacock vahana. The choice of costume colours could have been better. The fluorescent flamingo pink teamed with turquoise blue made one want to reach for eye shades when it caught the light.

Nattuvangam by Guru Jayanthi Subramaniam sustained the pace of the show. Vocalists Rema and Geetha were melodious but sometimes out of sync. Nellai D. Kannan on the mridangam was always on the ball, as was violinist Vijayaraghavan.

The second performance was by Sukanya Kaur, a student of Urmila Satyanarayanan. The charming 15-year-old, immaculate in appearance, impressed with her sobriety of approach and a genuineness of bhakti bhava rarely seen in youngsters these days. Her most impressive piece was the ragamalika varnam by Lalgudi Jayaraman, “Angayarkanni.” This composition, choreographed jointly by Urmila and Swamimalai S.K.Suresh, is difficult to sustain, especially in its second half, the charanam line hauntingly melodic and ponderous. The nine rasas are depicted through imagery from stories of the goddess Meenakshi and Siva.

Sukanya portrayed the moment Meenakshi meets her destined lord, gazing, all-forgetful, at him, with innate grace. Her abandon was conveyed without self-conscious overacting. Her Durga postures too, have a lot of conviction. The swift transitions through the nine rasas at the end of the varnam were convincingly emoted. She took the cross rhythms in the jatis without a hiccup. While her adavus are neat, she could add dynamism to her nritta by introducing more twist in her kita taka tari kita tom.

Later she presented the Khamas javali, “E Ra, Ra Ra,” exemplifying the swadheenapatika nayika who calls her lord to her with loving authority. Here, though the bhava retained quiet dignity, the theme was somewhat beyond her depth, but that is not surprising in one so young. As the years help her enlarge the scope of her bhava, one hopes Sukanya will be able to retain the inner stillness that lends such appeal to her dance.

The spare but capable orchestral support consisted of Swamimalai S.K. Suresh, who provided nattuvangam and vocal, B.P. Hari Babu on the mridangam and Sikhamani on the violin.

The final performance of the evening was an Odissi recital by Aruna Mohanty. Aruna gave an absorbed performance that was well-designed and represented various facets of the Odissi repertoire. Following two fast-paced Bharatanatyam performances and faced with a fast-depleting audience — a bane artists from outside the city seem to regularly contend with during this season — it was a challenge to establish the languid pace of Odissi, especially without a live orchestra to aid the ambience. But this Aruna managed with her invocatory mangalacharan dedicated to goddess Durga, “Dhyaye Suvarnavarna.” Unhurried and uncluttered, the piece, a composition of her guru Gangadhar Pradhan, blended devotion with sculpturesque postures.

Aruna followed this up with a pallavi in raga Hamsadhwani. This beautiful composition, with music by Pt. Bhubaneswar Mishra and choreography by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, is layered with jaati changes. Aruna performed it with enjoyment. She then took up the Oriya song “Baju chhi…” in which a friend chides Radha about the gossip being exchanged across town about her relationship with Krishna. Aruna kept the abhinaya to a subdued level. The choreography was by Aruna and Guru Gangadhar Pradhan. While the music composition was not memorable, the dance went down well for its familiar images of Radha and Krishna’s irresistible attraction.

Ardhanarishwara, a music composition of Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi, choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Sanjukta Panigrahi, formed a meditative finale. Containing nritta interspersed with “Champeya Gaurardha” and other verses, the choreography retained a quiet power. Taking care to maintain a slim physique will make her dance more effective.

The presence of veteran Delhi-based Bharatanatyam and Odissi dancer Sonal Mansingh in the audience was an inspiration for Aruna.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail