Friday Review
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Ganesha tales retold
PANKAJA SRINIVASAN
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To mark the golden jubilee production of Abinaya Natyalaya, 50 dancers engaged the audience with folklore.
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Photo: M. Periasamy.
Non-stop entertainment: Dancers performing ‘Sri Maha Ganapathy’
It was a story-telling session about Lord Ganesha. And, it was set to music and dance. Colourful costumes, elephant masks, the salangai, and the grace and agility of the young dancers, interspersed with resonant renderings of Vinay
aka slokas engaged the audience for two hours, non-stop. This reminded them of the rich tradition and folklore of our country.
The Crafts Council of Tamil Nadu in Coimbatore organised an evening of music and dance at the Nani Kalairangam. Abinaya Natyalaya from Chennai put up the dance performance, ‘Maha Ganapathy’. As it was the institution’s 50th dance production, there were 50 dancers who performed to mark the occasion. It was choreographed by Krishnakumari Narendran (an exponent of the Pandanallur tradition) with music composed by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and scripted by Srikavi.
A short introduction to the performance along with a multimedia presentation described the elephant god’s powers, charms and benevolence and a multimedia presentation on the side spoke of the various avatars of Ganesha and the delightful rituals associated with his worship, like the toppu karanam, the arugam pullu, the modaks, his broken tusk, and so on.
Familiar Ganapathy slokas resounded in the background as the Ganesha lore unfolded. How Veda Vyasar scripted the 18 Puranas with his help was one, how the tiny mouse came to be his vaahana was the other. A vigorous performance narrated the battle between the evil Analasura and Ganapathy.
Ganesha vanquished the asura and swallowed him up whole. But as a consequence his insides starting burning up. And, only the arugum pullu could soothe him. And hence, ever since, no worship of Ganesha has been complete without the medicinal herb.
And, so it went on with one familiar story after another being performed live in a burst of music and colour and joyful movements. The finale had the 16 manifestations of Vinayaka all together on stage accompanied by a 16-raagam-talam musical score. What a wonderful way of recreating the Ganesha stories heard on paatis’ laps! And, the children and the paatis present in the audience seemed to enjoy the experience of watching Ganesha dance on stage immensely.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
