Three evenings, three dance forms and three artistes – the recently concluded ‘Thrinethra dance and music festival’ in Kollam proved to be a treat for rasikas.
Neena Prasad
Amrapali, the royal courtesan of the republic of Vaishali, was reborn on the first day of the festival as Neena Prasad choose to perform her tale as the main piece in her Mohiniyattam recital. A compassionate Amrapali falls in love with Ajatasatru, but, later, she finds herself torn between love and patriotism. As she sees her land in ashes, Amrapali renounces her love and becomes a follower of Buddha. Amrapali, the central character, gets evolved through different phases in the well-imagined narrative.
The story of Abirami Pattar and his unmatched devotion to the goddess was beautifully inscribed in the next piece based on ‘Anandavalli...’ (Neelambari, Adi), a keerthana by Swati Tirunal. The movements in the choreography made the opening cholkettu (Reethigowla, Chaturasra jaati Ata) interesting.
The short khayal ‘Aaj aaye...’ (Swati Tirunal, Misra Pahadi, Misra Chapu) picturing the Raas leela, and the Amritavarshini thillana, which were presented towards the end, had the vivacity to grab the attention of even the novice audience. Vocalist Changanassery Madhavan Namboothiri, who is also responsible for the composition of pieces other than by Swati Tirunal, led the team of musicians.
Lavanya Ananth
The Nayika trying to pass on her message to Krishna in many ways, all in vain, desperately asks Krishna ‘Is it fair to behave like you are unaware of my state of mind?’. ‘Innum en manam...’, the Charukesi varnam by Lalgudi Jayaraman set to Adi tala, portraying this distressed heroine, was the central piece in Lavanya Ananth’s Bharatanatyam recital. A few of the childhood antics of Krishna were enacted briefly and the minimalist approach made it all the more compelling. She impressed the audience with her skills in abhinaya, especially while narrating the Yashoda-Krishna interactions in Purandaradasa’s ‘Jagadodharana...’ (Kapi, Adi) and in the portrayal of the defiant nayika in Annamacharya’s ‘Yarukkagilum Bayama...’ (Begada, Misra Chapu). She concluded her performance with a piece based on Ardhanareeswara Ashtaka.
Sujata Mohapatra
The thematic solo dance-drama choreographed by guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, based on scenes from the Ramayana covering Sita Haran and Jatayu Moksha, formed the crux of Sujata Mohapatra’s Odissi recital. Whether it be the emotively multifarious Sita, the mighty Ravana in disguise, the devoted vulture Jatayu or the others,
Sujata was at ease, effortlessly moving through the characters and throwing light on the emotional depth of each. The composition by itself (lyrics by Upendra Bhanja and music by Bhubaneswar Mishra) was quite remarkable.
Earlier, Sujata Mohapatra began her recital with a Mangalacharan piece in praise of Lord Vishnu, followed by a pallavi elaborated in raga Hamsadhwani. Starting off gently, steadily gaining pace, manifesting some beautiful virtual imagery through her fluid torso movements and swift footwork – the danseuse could efficaciously translate the pure joy of dance to the audience.
An extension of this was seen in the concluding Moksha piece in raga Bhairavi as well. Gita Govinda was not included in the evening’s programme, perhaps owing to time constraints; but, for the rasikas, it was an opportunity lost to watch Sujata performing one of the Ashtapadis choreographed by her father, Kelucharan Mohapatra.
Thrinethra was organised by Natyapriya Dance Academy, Kollam. It included seminars on dance makeup and hairstyle by Radhakrishnan and workshops on Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi led by Draupadi Praveen and Padmini Krishnan.
