The texture of Shobana’s dance is so alluring that you don’t quite get underneath the sheath. This coupled with her glamour-quotient, her USP are enough to ensure any organiser his money’s worth. Since films were her forte and particularly Malayalam movies which delve deep into human relations, has endowed Shobana with expressiveness that doesn’t need speech to be interpreted. This seeps into her dance also, and she stands out as the queen of abhinaya (emotive expression); her next strong-point is her innate aesthetic sense which begins with her costume and ends with each and every presentation she chooses to stage in a dance show. Last but not the least are the physical good looks that place her on a pedestal, never mind the accumulating years!
With so many pluses to her credit, Shobana’s performance as a part of the Ramayana International Conference, had the audience eating out of her hands. It was a solo that strung a few keertanas together to make a theme in keeping with the occasion. The songs fell into a sort of an order opening with ‘Idhigo Bhadradri, Gautami adhigo choodandi…’ a Ramadas keertana in Varali which was a pointer towards the famous temple dedicated to lord Rama in south India. Not a really danceable piece, there was nothing much to showcase except mime the meaning of the lines. From here to a Mallari set to Khanda jati, triputa, was very apt in the sense, the Mallari is a dance which precedes the processional deity being led outdoors from the temple sanctorum. Though her mime of all the auspicious musical instruments heralding the deity, the ritualistic paraphernalia, etc. was very defined. When it came to footwork, it appeared that the artiste chose to make do with basic s patterns and pronounced gestures to offset the footwork.
This continued to be the norm through the rest of the evening as she moved ahead with another keertana, this time from Thyagaraja — “Heccharika ga raa ra hey Ramachandra…” (Yadukula Khamboji) and a Tamil padam, “Eppadi varum... saami”, before she wraps up with Swati Tirunal’s Bhavayami Raghuramam, a popular all-enveloping kriti. Her depiction of the parrot to the line, “Ninnu chooda vacchu” (Heccharika ga) was something to write home about; she conveyed the parrot on Rama’s sister’s (Devi Meenakshi, sister or Vishnu) hand singing praises of the lord so beautifully in myriad ways, making the parrot visible to the sensitive viewer! So too, her personification of Sita to the Tamil padam. In a split second, Shobana was able to transmit the change of heart in Sita who suddenly disposes away her finery and makes us her mind to go along with Rama to the forest! The artiste’s mobile countenance was able to express a gamut of emotions in one split second!
The ‘Bhavayami …’ (ragamalika) was a tad disappointing considering how Shobana could carry it a few years ago with ease. The jati patterns seemed crest-fallen not being able to get a matching footwork from the dancer. Though she still looked agile on stage, it did not peter down to exquisite nritta (if araimandi, jumps or bending exercises are for beginners, well…). The ahalya vimochana to the Balakandam charanam set to Nattakurinji, was picturised by Shobana with utmost credibility that deserves a word of praise. The eye expressions (netrabhinaya) to depict the rakshasas (demons) was reminiscent of Kathakali where the eyes, eyebrows and facial muscles are made to move as if involuntary. By and large, those of us who watched Shobana in her hey-day (margam or thematic) could recognise the unevenness, despite other positive traits.
