Dance ballet, Sri Ramanamam Entha Ruchira featured as part of the three-day Sri Rama Navami fete organised at Kalabharathi jointly by Visakha Music Academy and Nada Sudha Tarangini, marked the second evening. It was conceptualised, choreographed and directed by Padma Shri Ananda Shankar Jayant of Hyderabad. It was a technically and grammatically sound presentation of the life history of Bhadrachala Ramadas in the classical idiom of dance.
Besides Ananda Sankar, the team had her disciples Radhika, Krithika, Poornima, Maitreyi, Prateesh, Jinnakaraj, Raghava and Senjhonson. Other credits were shared by I.V. Renukaprasad (nattuvangam and design of jathis) and S. Venumadhav (vocals and setting up of music ). T.P. Balasubrahmanyam on mridangam, K. Saikumar on violin, Dattatreya on flute and Sridharacharya with rhythms lent excellent support. Make-up by N. Ganesh; stage decor, sets and lighting by Kishore and Surabhi P. Ch. Sekhar were assets.
Rama Sankeertana Ganam was rendered with vibrating passion by Udaiyalur K. Kalyanaraman Bhagavatar on the third evening. He was commendably supported by S. Balasubrahmanyam (vocals), Thanjavur Rajesh (harmonium) and scintillatingly on the mridangam by Babu Rajasekharan. It mainly constituted of compositions of Bhadrachala Ramdas, Annamayya and Purandhara Dasa besides a few Abhangs.
Evolving ethereal naada and sustaining it aloft all through, it touched the heartstrings of all alike in the packed auditorium and evoked a mood of deep contemplation that suffused their hearts. It also seemed to reveal the multifarious hues of connotation of the naada which was made to appear as the crux of some compositions of Thyagaraja like Naada Loludai (Kalyanavasantam), Naadatanumanisam (Chittaranjani) and Naadasudharasambilanu (Aarabhi) in particular in which the Vaggeyakara envisioned Rama as its (naada) incarnate, his vista of the eternal.
