Whether it is dance, music, costumes, abhinayam or co-ordination of movements, the famous Kalakshetra Foundation of Chennai put on a superb show of ballet craft for the Mummaneni Subbarao Sidhardha Kalapeetham, a premier cultural body in Vijayawada city. The ballet presented was Jatayu Moksham , an episode from Valmiki Ramayanam, produced by Rukmini Arundale and set to music by Mysore Vasudevacharya, both legendary figures in their own rights. Actual Sanskrit slokas written by Sage Valmiki were used throughout.
The story began with the scene where Rama, Lakshmana and Sita begin their Aranya vasam. After entering the forest they encounter Jatayu who tells them that he was a friend of King Dasaratha. Rama, Lakshmana and Sita offer pranams to him and proceed. Ravana's sister Soorpanakha approaches Rama and makes amorous advances towards Rama. Rama refuses her and orders Lakshmana to punish her and the enraged Lakshmana cuts off Soorpanakha's ears and nose. On hearing this Ravana in Lanka becomes furious and arriving at the Parnasala in the garb of a sage, kidnaps Sita to take her to Lanka. On the way Jatayu sees this and tries to obstruct Ravana. In the battle that follows Ravana cuts off the wings of Jatayu. Thought in misery, Jatayu waits for Rama to arrive and after informing him that Ravana took Sita to Lanka, dies at the feet of Rama who bestows Moksha on him. In between, there was the scene of Maricha who appears in the form of a golden deer to tempt Sita.
All the scenes were superbly enacted by Kalakshetra's well trained and disciplined cast. Excellent performances came from P. Jayakrishnan (Jatayu), P.T. Narendran (Rama), Srinath (Lakshmana), Revathi, Satyapriya, Ramya (Sita), Nirmala (Soorpanakha), S. Krishna (Ravana) and Haripadman (sanyasi Ravana). Other artistes Subhashini and Nisanti also gave fine performance.
The vocal support of Sai Shanker and nattuvangam by Jyotsna were of high standard. Good instrumental support came from Anil Kumar (mridangam), Anantanarayanan (veena) and Sasidhar (flute).
