The Indisha Trust promoted by Kalakshetra alumnae, the dancing couple Indu and Nidheesh, has been presenting an annual dance festival for the last six years. ‘Sadhana 17’ presented an up-and-coming dancer, well-known artistes and veterans over three days. The line-up included Raksha Devanathan, Rhadha, Urmila Satyanarayanan besides the best two couples in Bharatanatyam today, Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy and Srikanth and Aswathy.
Raksha’s Bharatanatyam performance was a pre-inaugural show. She is a bright aspirant who has a good stage presence and has understood the dance style well. Her timing in the pure dance segments (Khamas thillana, Adi, Patnam Subramanya Iyer) and expressiveness in the Meera bhajan, ‘Javade Javade Jogi’ (Desh), were laudable. She is a student of Indu and Nidheesh.
Next, Shijith and Parvathy, performed. They delivered a well-planned and brilliantly executed programme. While their energy and coordination was a given, their visualisation was especially artistic. The way they made room for two in a predominantly solo dance form, without compromising on the aesthetics was remarkable. Another winning feature was their depth in bhava.
The opening piece, a varnam in Neelambari , (Adi tala, Swati Tirunal) ‘Saarasa Shara Sundaraa’, an essentially chauka kala composition speaks of a love-lorn nayika yearning to be with Padmanabha.
Devotional spirit
The dancers emphasised the underlying devotional content in the varnam, keeping references to the heroine as occasional snapshots. The concept and timing of the anupallavi delineation in ‘Saarada Vidhuyutaam...’ was remarkable, showing the nayika awaiting him on an autumnal moonlit night. Krishna’s exploits were presented back to back, how Krishna knocks on the heroine’s door and hides, sends a gust of wind towards her and mesmerises her with his music, slipping away unseen every time.
The second part of the Anupallavi turned devotional, ‘Sadhu..’ with the dancers enacting the Gajendra episode before closing their eyes in prayer. Supported by good music (Binu Venugopal) and involved dramatisation, such moments carried conviction. That’s the difference between a good performance and a great one.
The enjoyable statements of rhythm (Karaikudi Krishnamurthy) teased the rasika; the first one in the varnam had chatusra gati, tisra gati, chatusra gati in every avarthana with ‘kita thaka’ representing the chatura, repeated over and over again at every juncture. Another had the ending koraippu part in tisram. The varnam speeded up in the charanam section; any thoughts on the chauka kala intention of the composer flew out of the window, but what one lost in lyrical beauty, one gained in rhythmic excitement.
There was a lot of usi, offbeat, in the thattu mettu and arudis. The dancers revelled in this; the charana swaras ended with a fast ‘Tharikitathom thajam/ Tharikitathom thajam thajam/ Tharikitathom thajam thajam thajam,’ in which the dancers would alternate steps adding to the thrill. The nattuvanar (Udayashankar Lal) and mridangam artiste (Sivaprasad) were both subdued yet firm, and so added value without grabbing attention. Of particular interest was the mridangam’s bass tone. Credit for the lights goes to Venkatesh Krishnan.
Parvathy’s javali ‘Sakhi Prana’ (Chenchuruti, Patnam Subramanya Iyer) carried intensity as the nayika describes how her love interest has deserted her for another woman. It was subtle and well-centered. Eashwar Ramakrishnan’s (violin) Shanmugapriya sloka and Varali introduction (Ka Va Va, Adi, Papanasam Sivan) were delectable. It set the tone for the melodious devotional keethana on Muruga, presented by the dynamic Shijith.
The couple concluded their performance with a lively Desh thillana (Adi, Lalgudi Jayaraman), which they commenced with the charanam, anupallavi and pallavi. It was racy, with pauses punctuating the rhythm. It was a flying finale for this talented couple.
