Saintly Meera dazzled

December 22, 2014 05:12 pm | Updated December 23, 2014 04:59 pm IST

Urmila Sathyanarayanan. Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

Urmila Sathyanarayanan. Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

Urmila Sathyanarayanan’s ‘Meera-The Lotus of Prem’ had a gripping story, some soulful music, striking expressions and agile movements. The thematic dance presentation in the ekaharya style hit the milestones of Meera’s life.

Urmila as Meera looked ethereal with her charming smile, arresting abhinaya and liveliness. Such was the effect of seamless weaving of Urmila’s classy performance, Pandit Ramamurthy Rao’s selection of bhajans, Rajkumar Bharati’s musical score, narration and dialogue, lighting, costume and make-up.

It was the result of thorough internalisation of the poetry by the dancer, musicians and the entire team.

The Pushpanjali was cleverly fused to the introductory narrative of the sages asking Krishna about Meera and Krishna replying that Meera is Radha’s incarnation. Urmila highlighted important moments of the saint-poet’s life – the child becoming enamoured of Krishna, her marriage to Bhoj Raj, emperor Akbar and Tansen secretly visiting the palace to get a darshan of Meera and Meera trying to end her life and Krishna saving her. Each scene flowed to the next seamlessly.

Various bhavas were taken into consideration. An effort to include Hasya in the production was successful. The scene with the snake charmer and Bhoja’s villainous sister was indeed hilarious. The acts depicting Kali, Krishna rescuing Meera and Meera forgiving her husband Bhoja, were poignant. The final section where she merges with the Lord was symbolically yet effectively acted out.

The music was set in Hindustani style and it was indeed a challenging task for Urmila to choreograph nritta segments. In addition to Bharatanatyam adavus, she resorted to Rajasthani dance movements and chakkars. Her chakkars were not refined and they looked unprofessional.

Also taking a 5-10 minute break for costume change, especially in the first interval, spoilt the continuity.

However, Urmila was charismatic and effervescent throughout the presentation. The first two costumes were dazzling and the last one, elegant. The aharya was such that at times Urmila looked like a female lead straight out of the sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s flick!

The songs and verses were in Braj, Rajasthani and Tamil and hence the narration in English played a crucial role in knitting the entire story. The music by Rajkumar Bharati was brilliant, especially the score for ‘Mere to Giridhar Gopal’, ‘Katrinilae Varum Geetham’, ‘Bar Se Badariya Sawan Re’ and ‘Hari Tum Haro’ which will linger in the mind for long time.

The voice over by Shankaran Kandasamy, Soubhagyavathi, Sukanya and others provided dramatic tension to the narration. Lighting and the simple stage design heightened the outcome of the production. Clearly Urmila’s Meera was a lotus in full bloom!

Manasvini Ramachandran, the Yuva Kalabharati awardee, gave a neat performance. The striking features of the performance were her impressive stage presence, good stance, clean lines and her capacity for interpretative dance.

She began her recital with an invocatory ‘Shantakaram Bhujaga Shayanam’ and Andal kavuthuvam. The central piece was the varnam ‘Modi Seyyalagumo En Swami’, a composition of Ponnaiah in Bhairavi. In this heavy piece, Manasvini skilfully balanced nritta and abhinaya. Her sancharis in pallavi, anupallavi and charanam - ‘Maran Kanaigal’ were convincing.

The Muchukunda story was dramatically enacted. Relevant hand gestures, apt facial expressions, meticulously delineated jatis and correlated poses depicting the characters were delivered with élan. However, while performing the nritta portions, the dancer did not use the stage space judiciously. All the teermanams and arudhis were delivered near the front edge of the stage.

Manasvini performed for the popular Tulsidas bhajan ‘Sri Ramchandra Kripalu.’ The music was soothing and it was delighting to watch ‘Kandarpa Aganita Amita Chabi Nav’ acted out by the dancer. She chose a unique thillana by veteran Suguna Purushottaman, in three ragas - Vasanthi, Madhuvanthi and Hamsanandi. Intricately woven with various adavus and postures, the thillana was adeptly rendered.

The concluding piece was on Hanuman in raga Jhonpuri, again a composition of Suguna Purushottaman. Manasvini competently portrayed bhakti here. Hanuman ‘tearing’ his chest to show that Lord Rama resided in his heart, came out effectively.

This young dancer has a lot of potential but she has to focus on using the full expanse of performance space and the occasionally slipping araimandi. Also, she has to draw more energy from the core while doing nritta. Preethi Mahesh rendered excellent vocal support and enhanced the quality of the performance.

Manasvini’s mother and guru Revathi Ramachandran (nattuvangam), Veda Krishna (mridangam) and Kalairasan (violin) supported the dancer.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.