Four young Bharatanatyam dancers put their best foot forward

Shweta Prachande performing at The Music Academy’s 2023 Dance Festival
| Photo Credit: S. Thanthoni

The plethora of young talent looking for performance opportunities makes one wonder if cultural organisations can live up to the spiralling demand for platforms. Hence, it was interesting to watch some young dancers at the Music Academy’s dance festival.

Shweta Prachande owes her excellent technique with evocative abhinaya to years of an integrated approach to training — apart from learning Bharatanatyam under Priyadarsini Govind and abhinaya veteran Kalanidhi Narayanan, it also includes Kalaripayattu, along with dance studies. After a pushpanjali in Gambhira Nattai and Adi tala as curtain-raiser, she went on to present the Thanjavur Quartet varnam ‘Sakhiye inda velaiyil’ in Anandabhairavi set to Adi tala. Following Sruti Sagar’s melodious flute overture, and Binu Venugopal’s vocal support, the varnam was a delight, portraying the nayika’s love for Rajagopala with the conch, who resides in Rajanagar and cajoling the sakhi to entreat the Lord to come to her. Eyes full of yearning following the Lord in procession, describing at length the greatness of the Lord, including how he saved an elephant (in between showing the jumbo feasting on a leafy branch pulled off a tree) from the jaws of a crocodile — were all part of the dancer’s interpretative imagery. The jatis rendered to nattuvangam by Aadith Seshadri and mridangam support by Siva Prasad combined precision and impeccable technique.

After such a moving presentation,  Panchali Sapatham, was theatrical, and came as quite a disappointment. Music was by Rajkumar Bharati but the use of excessive sound like derisive laughter greeting the ignominy of a Kaurava prince slipping on the floor of the Pandava palace, mistaking its sheen for a water body, the game of dice, Draupadi’s shaming, and finally, the Kurukshetra war with the final scene of Draupadi’s hair being anointed with slain Dushasan’s blood, seemed to lose sight of the fact that dance aesthetic is about subtlety. And for a dancer with so much talent, where is the need to resort to excessive drama? The thillana in Behag was a blend of fine dance artistry and poetry with lines from Tagore’s ‘Mama citte nitte nritte’ on the philosophy of existence, with its eternal rhythm of life and death.

Shashwati Garai Ghosh performing at The Music Academy’s 2023 Dance Festival
| Photo Credit:
S.R. RAGHUNATHAN

Shashwati Garai Ghosh, one of Sharmila Biswas’ most gifted students, has finally been given a slot that she richly deserves. Her ‘Ekatra’, exploring new dimensions through the Odissi technique, began with Jayadeva’s ‘Srita kamala kucha mandala dhruta kundala’ in the benedictory Mangalacharan, rendered in a style in which the devotees sing at Puri for Jagannath – the slayer of Kaliya, Madhu and Mura and Naraka, and Ravana, in his avatara as Rama. The pallavi in Shudh Kalyan, with music by Shrijan Chatterjee and rhythm set by Bijay Kumar Barik, saw nritta elaboration, characterised by a feel for the mood of the raag. There is a deep sense of internalisation even in the nritta segments that one experiences in Shaswati’s Odissi.

The concluding shringara piece, based on Srila Rupa Goswami’s ‘Ujjvala-Neelamani’, was choreographed by Sharmila Biswas. Goswami’s shringar connotation projects all worshippers as female, longing for the one Purush (the Supreme). And he believed that the final stage of Oneness with this Purush can be attained only after experiencing Shantarati (a mind totally absorbed in the loved one), Dasyarati (serving the loved one like a servant), Sakhyarati (being on equal terms like a close friend) and Vatsalyarati (being fiercely protective of the loved one like a mother is for her child). After all these states, ‘Drishyate madhure rase’, one begins to experience madhura rasa of shringar (the final state of merging with the loved one). While one can have differences of opinion on the clarity of the introductory explanations, Shashwati’s dance based on Herman Khuntia’s music composition, was well presented.

Harinie Jeevitha at The Music Academy’s 2023 Dance Festival
| Photo Credit:
S. Thanthoni

There was a sizeable audience at the morning recital by  Harinie Jeevitha, a faculty at her guru Sheela Unnikrishnan’s dance school, Sridevi Nrityalaya. She began with ‘Sorkattu’ by Shivanandam of the Thanjavur Quartet, set to Thodi raga and Tisra Eka tala, an invocation to Shiva based on the Marga Bandhu stotram. Introduced by a short Sankarabharanam alapana on the veena by Anjani Srinivasan, the Papanasam Sivan varnam ‘Karunai seidida’ in its interpretation of the devotee’s love for Kapaleeswarar (‘kaadal un meedu meerude’), saw the dancer describe the beloved’s heart beat like a drum, leap like a deer and be washed by waves of joy. Harinie is a proficientdancer but the choreography was so heavily packed with imageries and solfa syllables in the jatis that one felt a leisurely approach would have been more evocative.

The pure abhinaya part post-varnam comprised an Ashtapadi ‘Keshi mathanamudaram’ wherein Radha beseeching her sakhi to fetch Krishna reminisces the intimate moments with Krishna and how he made her overcome shyness. While the dancer had sought some guidance from Bragha Bessell, the abhinaya expert, the treatment needed more introspection. The Vasudevachar thillana in Surutti made for a fine conclusion.

Bhavajan Kumar, groomed under Leela Samson, is a steadily evolving dancer. Right from the start with Varaguna Pandyan’s Virutham ‘Anjel endra’ in Ragamalika, accompanied by singer Sweta Prasad’s bhav-filled and tuneful vocal support, the dance interpretation at a leisurely pace took the performance to a different plane. Given the penchant for speed in audiences today, it is rare to see a dancer present a chauka kala pada varnam ‘Sarasa ninnu ippudu’ by Ponniah (a forerunner to Swati Tirunal’s ‘Sumasayaka’) in Karnataka Kapi (Rupakam). Woven round the time-honoured varnam formula of the nayika’s love for Brihadeeshwara, here the Lord is depicted in his accoutrements of tiger skin and snake around his neck conquering the inimical forces sent to defeat him. The arudis, the musicality of the teermanams with their sollukattus, Sheejith Krishna’s nattuvangam, the dancer’s rendition and the music moved together seamlessly. This made for a unique experience.

Bhavajan’s abhinaya has conviction, emerging from a serene base. This was proved in the Sarangapani lyric ‘Urukke’ in Devagandhari, depicting the brash hero being chided for thinking he could get the heroine to come to him just by a click of his fingers, when even the great Rama had to break Shiva’s bow before winning Sita ‘Smarasundaranguni sari evvare’ with the swadheenapatika’s boast that none could compare with her love in faithfulness and readiness to do her slightest bidding. The recital ended on a high note with the ‘Kalinga Nartana’, an Oothukadu Venkata Kavi Tillana in Gambhira Nattai.