For connoisseurs and commoners

The thronging crowds at Ananya proved the hard work of its organisers is paying off

October 16, 2014 05:28 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 07:34 pm IST

Gauri Diwakar's group performing at  Ananya. Photo: Ajay Lal

Gauri Diwakar's group performing at Ananya. Photo: Ajay Lal

Seher’s curating and nurturing of the five-day Ananya festival, through 13 eventful years, shows its dividends in the shape of audience turn-outs. Despite the unavailability of the yearly convenience of battery operated buses to ferry people from the parking lot, the event this year attracted thronging crowds.

Never straying from the contours of traditional Bharatanatyam technique and repertoire but in a very fresh looking perspective, the curtain-raiser group presentation by Leela Samson and Spanda Dance Company (Chennai) started with a spirited opening sequence “Atishaya”, visualising the wondrous scene of young Krishna subduing, and dancing on the hood of the serpent Kalinga in the Jamuna waters. The well known lyric “Adidanu Ranga” in raga Arabhi, transformed into an evocative Rajumar Bharati score, began with Charukesi, with a Hamsanandi section visualising the naga-kanya-s, with Bhimpalasi providing the rhythm of Krishna’s ankle bells as he danced in joy. A feature of the recital was the sensitive editing in the taped music with Srikanth’s melody-filled singing supported by soulful nagaswaram playing, and other instrumental and konakkol interventions. One felt the emotional togetherness and sense of rigorous abandon in male and female dancers, Leela’s choreography revelling in each dancer’s individuality. The touching finish saw the boy who subdues a dangerous serpent being lulled to sleep on his mother Yashoda’s lap.

After the veera energy, came the very delicately envisioned “Sthayi Sanchar” based on Muttuswami Dikshitar’s Jhinjhoti lyric, on the descent of the Ganga with the penance of Bhagiratha having many moods like her waters. Arrogant in her lilting grace, Ganga’s forceful descent gets disciplined and contained in Shiva’s matted locks — Ganga losing her heart to him. Showing both the mercurial nature and the serenity of Ganga, a moving prayer to this mother of Manmatha and daughter of Jaahnavi, in the concluding passage had Varanasi images, ending with the evening arti of lamps. A weave of selected bits from the Tanjore quartet compositions in the exploration of raga Kalyani comprised the Kalyani jatiswaram after a brief alap, with a concluding dedicatory part from a Kalyani varnam. The Todi javali “Mayaladi mandupettina ...” (rendered often by Leela in her solo presentations), portraying the vipralabdha, evoked mixed reactions. Leela’s strong solo presence, even on this large stage had dramatic touches of man/woman couple in alingana scenes, which looked contrived. Through the abstraction of swaranjali, the finale evoked, through abstract movement and form, a sense of that formless absolute.

“Leisham Konglon”, the three faceted cosmic cycle of creation, preservation and destruction, captured through Manipuri layers of Lai Haraoba, Thang Ta and Ras Lila, as conceived by Priti Patel for Anjika was an evocative mix of the pre-Vaishnavite and Vaishnavite strains of Manipuri. With her aesthetic eye, and ability for weaving into an integrated movement fabric many strains of body language, Priti had designed dance in constantly changing tones — never allowing a sense of ennui to creep in. Seating the musicians on a high platform at the rear of the performers, always in view, the variety of drums and pung and flute with vocalist combined with rehearsed ease, the vocalisations knit into the music, adding a sonorous aside, particularly in the Lai Haraoba opening scene with the early morning wake-up call and supreme beings lured out of the mouth of Guru SIdaba’s creation and the Maibi’s jagoi showing the creation of man and each of his parts. If Thang Ta stood for the destruction of the un-divine (the choreographer only showed the parts rendered as prayer and not war) Vaishnavism had the pung cholom from Nat Sankirtan, the dhol cholom, a festive item, and the very colourful Ras Lila. The art lay in the contemporary stringing together with tasteful costumes and the colourfully painted shields showing the Pakhangba standing for the cyclical nature of cosmic activity in the Thang Ta.

Neena Prasad and Sougandhika in Mohiniattam treated both the cholkettu (raga Attana) and the Behag tillana in a straightforward fashion, the dancers doing the solo Mohiniattam movements with grace in group symmetry. The central part of the recital, “Sakhyam” showing the Krishna/Arjuna bond, was a challenge in more ways than one — with long periods of dance becoming more enactment, with just one or two performers on the large Purana Quila stage. Strung to known episodes like Gitopadesham and an unknown myth of Arjuna getting ready to end his life, having failed in saving the tenth child of a brahman (who has lost each of his earlier nine children), with Krishna rescuing him, the theme is really Arjuna’s nostalgic recall of the intense relationship shared with Krishna, now no more — for the Yadava race has been wiped out. With her intense abhinaya feel, Nina as Arjuna evoked strong audience response. The reactions of audience seated in the second half of the space, where expressional nuances cannot be sighted, to this presentation has to be known. One highly favourable factor was the support of an evolved musician like Changanassery Madhavan Namboothiri, with his velvety singing.

Gauri Diwakar could not have dreamt of a better start to her choreographic journey of “Mugdha”, visualising a beautiful and liberated woman through delicate poetry (researched by Shubha Mudgal) and Kathak’s vast legacy of abstract intra-forms. The wisdom was in persuading Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan for the musical input — sung with feeling and melody by Samiullah Khan (just alap catching the movements of the bees was brilliant). The proper direction, with mentor Aditi Mangaldas helping, enabled rare Kathak music — soft and aesthetic, ever changing musical tones — without the normal pounding percussion or loudness. Gauri started with her sensuous back to the audience, with a top to toe description of Radha as epitome of womanhood. Dance extolled Radha’s eyes, living and dying (jiyat/marat) in her love for Krishna with all rasa qualities. Mellow flute in Darbari Kanhda , and the dancers, light-footed as gazelles, as graceful as the peacock, symbolised womanly grace. Radha as the abhisarika in all the beauty and promise of youth, with her jewels shining, sets off for a tryst with Krishna (“Sundar sudhaan ka milanko”). With music in Kedar and the heavy sounds of the pakhawaj came the movements in drut laya. The other four enthusiastic, evolving, dancers of varying professional levels pertaining to different schools were held together in one complete narrative by Gauri successfully. A really well finished dancer, graceful and impeccable in rhythm, Gauri has proved herself.

Sujata Mohapatra with her solo brilliance, never known to go beyond Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra’s choreography, in a group presentation, did not pretend anything else but a homage to the guru’s choreography — put together for a group by her. Sujata won hearts with her honesty of purpose by keeping the group arrangements very simple and uncluttered — allowing the guru’s genius in movement visualisation to speak for itself. She herself, in the etched perfection of each moment of the dance, was the best tribute to his choreography. Very fittingly, mangalacharan had the Guru Smriti visualised through group formations for Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara to whom the guru is equalled. Batu done by the group sans Sujata was a crisp display of rhythm and frozen stances. For this critic, nothing could beat the Kirwani pallavi, the plethora of tones in Bhubaneswar Misra’s music, translated into Guruji’s “Pohundi Jatra” — inspired torso movement images. And the slow spun ecstasy, power and serenity of “Ma Durga” made a perfect end.

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