Mahati Kannan’s “Krishnaya Tubhyam Namaha’ reminded one of the veteran dancer Padma Subrahmanyam

Mahati Kannan performing ‘Krishnaya Tubhyam Namaha’ during the margazhi festival at Bharat Kalachar in 2022.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Padma Subrahmanyam’s ‘Krishnaya Tubhyam Namaha’, compiled, tuned and conceptualised by her in 1974, was unconventional and endearing. The audience saw a theatrical picturisation of Krishna’s life flash before their eyes.

Carrying on the torch of the Padma Subrahmanyam-Shyamala Balakrishnan, are the dancer-musician combination Mahati Kannan and Gayatri Kannan.

It is daunting to follow in the footsteps of a legend. But Padma’s grand-niece Mahati doesn’t seem to carry that burden — she’s a natural. She is graceful, beat-perfect, and she’s great with fleeting nuances.

‘Krishnaya…’ was a beautiful mosaic of much-loved stories and deft enactments. It presented different facets of Krishna, and opened with the story of Krishna’s birth. Mahati as Vasudeva, afraid and cold, enters the waters of a Yamuna in spate, carrying Krishna on his head and praying for the child’s safety.

A memorable scene is of Yashoda with the child Krishna, and her joys and frustrations — when he makes a fuss to eat, she stuffs the food into his mouth, which he promptly spits out. She is putting Krishna to bed and rocks the cradle patiently; her arms begin to ache and she does it using one arm at a time. Krishna is still wide-eyed. A fed up Yashoda mutters to herself, and goes to sleep with one arm on the baby.

Some could call this theatrics, but it was done with finesse and couched in beautiful melodies and lyrics from Andal Pasurams ‘Oruthi maganai’ and ‘Pillai Thamizh’, that gave it a classical base.

Not that Mahati has become a mature dancer overnight; she will perfect it with experience, but she shows a rare sensitivity in grasping and portraying human nature.

‘Krishnaya…’ plays with different speeds in the rhythmic jathis. What is unusual is the change in sollus used and the tone, to suit the characterisations. In the ‘Kalinga Narthana’ episode, with verses from the Narayaneeyam, Padma had re-purposed angaharas (sequences with karanas) from ancient texts such as the Bharatarnava.

The sequence for the fight seemed to have stronger sollus, while the last one after the fight had softer sounds like, ‘kin kina’ akin to the sounds made by his anklets. Gayatri’s versatility with the rise and fall of speeds and intonation in nattuvangam and singing is one of the reasons for the production’s success.

Mahati’s agility was on display through the show, be it the serpentine movements or the Udvrita karana, much like Shiva’s Urdhva Tandava pose.

From the Bhagavatham was the episode of the ‘heroic husband’ Krishna. The music (Hamir Kalyani) was one of the most evocative, and the scene drenched with romance — Rukmini asks a Brahmin to take a letter to Krishna, so he will rescue her from a marriage she does not want. A blushing Rukmini sits down to compose the letter… ‘Achyuta’, the endearment she uses to address Krishna, was used as a punctuating word, and its timing was perfect each time around.

The experts assisting the orchestra were: Vaishnavi Anand (vocal), Nagai P. Sriram (mridangam), Bombay V. Anand (violin), Chittoor Patanjali (flute), Kannan Balakrishnan (veena, shuddha maddalam).