One of the top Mohiniyattam dancers in the country, Gopika Verma learned Mohiniyattam from her tenth year, then from Girija and Chandrika Kurup followed by Kalyani Kuttyamma and Kalamanadalam Krishnan Nair. She was invited by South India Cultural Association (SICA) to perform at their recent dance festival at Ravindra Bharati.
Gopika Verma commenced her recital with Chitrangam , an invocation to Lord Ganesha, choreographed by her guru Kalamandalam Sugandhi. Then she moved on to her main piece, a varnam on Lord Ayyappa of Sabarimalai, wherein she depicted the story of Hari (Vishnu) and Hara (Shiva) giving birth to Ayyappa also called Manikantha. This was depicted through lasya and thandava nrityas taking the Anupallavi part of the composition.
In the later part of Gopika’s dance, she chose a padam of Maharaja Swati Tiruanal Remyanayouru Purushan in which a young girl falls in love with a a young and handsome man she sights and asks her friend to find who he isas he is more beautiful than Kamadeva, cannot be Siva as he does not have a third eye, or Indra, as he does not have thousand eyes on his body, or Chandra (moon) as he has a clear face. She then comes to conclusion that he is none other than Padmanabha another form of Mahavishnu.
She later presented a bhajan Jamuna Kinare a composition of Swati Tirunal. In this Gopika uses a cow as her messenger and sends it to Krishna with a request that Krishna need not wait for her, since she was in the company of her in-laws.
The final number she presented was a Tillana of Lalgudi in Mand. No doubt Gopika Verma enchanted the audience with her very presence in glorious Mohiniyattam costumes. Her performance to a pre-recorded music was neat and compact.
