In connection with the 90th birth anniversary of Satya Sai Baba, Rama Nataka Nikethan’s team presented a Bharatanatyam show last week at Sivam. It was 95-year-old V.S. Rama Murthy and his daughter Manjula Ramaswamy, a Bharatanatyam guru and a wonderful nattuvanar who stole the show from the side wings holding cymbals in hand following the rhythm of the pre-recorded music. The event featured 63 students of their institute in a vast repertoire. The show was directed by Ramamurthy and nattuvangam by Manjula Ramaswamy. It was a feast to watch the children young and old presenting the show with precise footwork, with a kind of military discipline in every move, bend and jump while the show was passing through nritta part, however big the group was.
The presentation was in margam format — a traditional presentation of Bharatanatyam. This began with prayer to Vinayaka Gajavadana Beduve in Hamsadhwani, presented by young dancers with utter discipline sharing a bit of abhinaya too matching the characters involved. This was followed by Murgan Kowtvam in Shanmukhapriya, a slokam, Shadananam that describes the six-headed persona of the god, having peacock as his mount, holding spear and so on. Rest is song that opens with scintillating jati. The rendition with verbal syllables matching the rhythmic cycles and mridangam play was thrilling. The most important number was varnam Srikrishna Kamalanatham in Reetigowla. Poorva rangam presented his birth and travails of his parents and his father Vasudeva, the infant Krishna, from Kamsa’s jail into the cradle of Yasoda in Gokulam. The pallavi line was followed by long jati that the young dancers presented with alacrity. There were another three jati spells between Charanas that were well presented. You get a kind of sumptuous feel of having seen something unusual in the choreography. It was a mix of verbal syllables with mridangam beats. The entire composition was written in Sanskrit. Poothana’s entry and her death were well dramatised by two girls. The basic strength of this dance was brilliant vocal support. Song rendition was of high quality. Entry and exit of the artistes was well disciplined never missing dance element. In the charanam the dancers took the line Leelamanusha Vigraha Leela and used as neraval for extensive abhinaya. The ‘Govardhana Giri’ sequence and Bhagvad Gita episode were well handled with fine abhinaya. So was Kalinga Nartanam episode. It ended with Krishna standing on the hood of the snake. The Viswaroopam episode too was brilliant.
Of the other numbers presented by the big teams was Para Chidambara Natam Hydhi Bhaje purely nritta based number projecting Siva and his Ananad Nartanam with children in batches presenting novel aspects of Siva’s dance. Here again the dominating feature was jaties carried through verbal syllables. The choreography was imaginative and novel, woven around five dancers. Dances were distributed over different batches. It was real ‘Ananda Thandavam’ that took as much time as varnam did. That explains how much detail it carried. There were some minor ‘Karanas’ too.
Kuriatta Vilayattua Pillai that figured later was Krishna theme, set in ragamalika. This was popular number of Subramanya Bharati. V.S.Ramamurthy’s cute looking great-grandson played little Krishna quite sportingly. He was seen teasing and taunting Gopikas in different ways. This ran mostly for musical interludes.The final numbers of the schedule were dances for Annamacharya kirtana — Brahmamokkate considered the greatest lyrics he penned. This was set in raga Bowli. Tillana in Simhendra Madhyamam of Madurai N. Krishnan and the 15th century Gujarati poet’s song Vyshnava Janato a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi were the final numbers of this quality show.
