Anitha Guha is known for her comprehensive dance productions based on wide-ranging themes. The senior Bharatanatyam dancer’s imaginative skills come through in her choreographic works that are marked by elegant and energetic performances by the students of her school Bharathanjali.
The team is now set to lend charm to this music season with its latest production ‘Kshetrambhuja Maala,’ to be presented at various venues. The first performance is on December 2 The presentation is based on the compositions of Ambujam Krishna. Incidentally, 2017 marks the composer’s birth centenary.
To the question how the production came about, Anitha explains: “The late Ambujam Krishna’s daughter Radha approached me with this idea and I immediately agreed. I have always loved the composer’s works. In fact, I had earlier chosen some of her kritis as padams. This production focuses on her songs on kshetras. Hence, the name Kshetrambhuja Maala. I premiered it recently at the Music Academy.”
Anitha credits Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, the resource person for this project, in helping her in the selection of kritis and temple historian Chithra Madhavan, for presenting an interesting lecture prior to each piece. Anitha says that the resource person had provided her with a lot of details about significance of each chosen Kshetra.
“Radha gave me several books of songs on Kshetras from which I was able to choose the most appropriate ones. It took us almost three months to finish the selection. Sujatha provided me with the audio resources that were available. We decided to present both popular and rare songs to depict the kshetras. In fact, the family members of Ambujam Krishna will be bringing out a DVD of ‘Kshetrambhuja Mala,’ presented at The Music Academy, recently.”
After research Anitha decided to present the songs as a series providing links. She expands: “For example, the song ‘Aadum Paadhame,’ on Lord Siva (for Chidambaram) will be followed by ‘Ambigaiye Arul Purivai,’ a beautiful song on Goddess Meenakshi (for Madurai) in Ananda Bhairavi. When I listened to this song, I wanted to add grandeur to the simple verses and hence I thought of weaving in the celestial Meenakshi Kalyanam though the actual kriti doesn’t refer to the wedding. So the series will begin with Dig Vijayam, as a group item, followed by the meeting of Meenakshi and Sundareswar and the celestial wedding. I have also included theppotsavam and ratham as embellishments to complete the episode.”
The next set of songs is on Lord Vishnu — a popular one ‘Azhaga Azhaga’ in Suddha Dhanyasi and a beautiful song ‘En Azhaganai’ in Purvikalyani for Thirumaliruncholai.
“Sujatha visualised ‘En Azhaganai’ as a varnam,” says Anitha. She also explained the Chithirai festival, the utsavams and how they are celebrated. Visualising them in a dance format Anitha expanded the varnam by weaving in the Chithirai festival, which includes Azhagar oorvalam and Dasavataram.
Ambujam Krishna’s songs offer enough scope for dancers, according to Anitha. For instance, she could blend different elements in the varnam.”
Anitha will be presenting the Azhagar Oorvalam episode in an elaborate manner. “ I have divided it into two episodes,” she says. One group will be depicting the Koodalazhagar episode while the other, the Thirumaliruncholai Azhagar. Then comes Dasavataram , which is the highlight of the programme.
Kshetrambhuja Mala will be staged during the season to recorded music. It has Anitha on the nattuvangam with Revathi Sankkaran, instead of Chithra Madhavan, delivering the introductory lines for each kriti. Suresh has replaced Ganapathy on the tabla. The dancers include Smrithi Krishnamoorthy, Janani Sethunarayanan; Sathvikaa Shankar; Nivedhitha Ganeshram; Pavitra Bhat; Priyanka and Sreyaa Suresh.
