Shirisha Shashank, disciple of gurus Radha Sridhar, Narmadha, Professor C.V.Chandrasekhar and dancer Priyadarsini Govind, is an old hand, a ‘regular’ during the December Season in Chennai. Her experience reflects in the confidence and ease with which she carries herself on stage. Shirisha’s abhinaya is detailed and flows naturally, but her execution of steps needs more involvement.
Shirisha’s varnam was devotional, based on the ‘Sri Krishna Shatanamavali’ (Reetigowla, Adi, music composition- Tirumalai Srinivas, choreography- guru Narmada). It contained anecdotes of Krishna’s miracles, the unusual circumstances of his birth in prison in Mathura, Vasudeva’s furtive mission to Gokul and Krishna giving the devoted saint-poet Kanakadasa darshan through a breach in the temple wall in Udupi; the dancer’s most dramatic was the Poothana episode. The over confidence of the rakshasi, the transformation from beast to beauty and her ultimate death while breastfeeding poison to baby Krishna was portrayed with sensitivity. However Shirisha’s delineation did not have clarity on whether Poothana was male or female.
Likewise, the wise mother counselling her daughter in ‘Ettanai Sonnalum’ (Saveri, misra chapu, Subbarama Iyer) and the petulant child Krishna complaining to Yasoda about his friends in Purandaradasa’s devarnama, ‘Aada Hodalle makkalu’ (Ragamalika, Rupakam) underlined her talent for mime.
One was however disappointed with the nritta. The energy was just not there. The full mandi was always side-stepped and the faster theermana adavus were unfinished. Even the beautiful tisra jathi (Vijayaraghavan) in the varnam could not inspire her. The finale (Sumanesa Ranjani thillana, Adi, Shatavadhani Ganesh) brought out more enthusiasm but it was too late. She should know that uninvolved artists create uninvolved rasikas.
The veteran nattuvanar Balakrishnan anchored the programme. His opening swara-sollu combination in Hamsadhwani, Rupakam that led into the kriti ‘Paahi Paahi Bala Ganapathy’ (Mazhalai Chidambara saamy ) in the same tune and meter was unusual. K.P.Nandini (vocal) provided high quality melody, while Rijesh Gopalakrishnan (violin) proved himself a cut above the rest. Siva Prasad’s (mridangam) handling of the Poothana episode in Khanda with a gradual build up to the rakshasi’s death was a highlight.
