Get your basics right and enjoy your dance – it is not rare to find young dancers often missing these two simple aspects, trying to overdo and ending up being less fascinating. However, it was not the case with Malavika Ajikumar, disciple of Mohiniyattam exponent Deepti Omchery Bhalla. It was evident in her recent recital in the capital city. She had a restful approach and it was really enjoyable to see a young dancer perform with that kind of a grasp over the repertoire. And one could certainly feel the sign of her guru imprinted, not only in the way she danced but even in her self-confined expressions.
When it comes to the school of Deepti Omchery, pieces falling under the category of chaalis seem to be an integral part of a recital. These are best noted for unique choreography and often works around certain themes. Malavika presented two of them, ‘Sabda chaali’ (Hamsadhwani, Adi) as the opening item and ‘Siva chaali’ (Madhyamavati, Chempada) marking the end. The numbers were in praise of Lord Ganesha and Lord Siva respectively, Malavika was well in control throughout, with a firm grip over rhythm. Ganesha trying to pull the hand of the meditating Siva with his trunk in the starting piece and Siva dancing to the music created by a variety of instruments in the finale were instances that were lively as Malavika was equally good in handling sancharis.
‘Saroruhasana Jaaye...’, Swati Tirunal’s keerthana in praise of goddess Saraswathi in raga Pantuvarali, was the main piece. While her guru certainly needs to be credited for the well thought out choreography, Malavika did her guru proud by presenting it well. Jathis were of adequate length and they did go well with the rest of the composition without being a distraction from the main theme. The dancer did well to transfer that fluency into her dance as well.
The chances provided in the text to explore dancing possibilities, like the imagery of honey bees circling the braids of the goddess, were also well utilised and presented.
Lullabies are not sung loud and it gets better when somebody dances to it with that in mind. Malavika’s rendition of Irayimman Thampi’s ‘Omanathingal Kidavo…’ (Kurichi, Misra Chapu) was apt. She made the start interesting by showing the mother trying different ways to calm her child, all in vain and at last resorting to singing the lullaby.
Hinting at the peacock’s dance as an inner thought of the mother before blossoming into the dance (for ‘Chanchadiyadum mayilo…’) showed how thoughtful the dancer was on stage. And the best part was that all this came naturally for her.
Veena and it’s music gets a direct link in two of the compositions that were presented and V. Soundararajan on the veena made the best use of the opportunity. Bhuvaneswari, the vocalist, who also doubled as a nattuvanar, sounded a bit strained during the chaalis. However, she made up for it in the other two and sung it at her best. Vypeen Satheesh and Thrissur Krishnakumar, on the mridangam and edakka, also did well.
The rasikas were left with nothing much to complain except that even with all those extra-long bilingual commentaries in between the items, it fell well short of that 90-minute mark, expected minimum duration of a full-fledged recital.
The programme was jointly organised by the Department of Culture, Government of Kerala and Trikala Gurukulam, New Delhi.
