Fresh face multitalented 20-year-old Srishti Budhori, pursuing medicine at Philippines has a passion for Bharatanatyam. Trained by Guru V.S. Ramamoorthy and his daughter Manjula Ramaswamy she gave a number of performances in India, USA and the Philippines. Her performance last week at Ravindra Bharati was marked by her stupendous artistic display.
Srishti has also released her book on Bharatanatyam and other Indian dance forms titled Nritya Margadarshika on this occasion. Though Srishti’s dance was presented to pre-recorded music she was under the gaze of her gurus, with Manjula playing the role of Nattuvannar.
Srishti opened her show with ‘Murugan Kautvam’ a piece dedicated to Lord Muruga. This composition of Tanjore quartet set in Shanmukhapriya ragam covered six most revered abodes of Lord Muruga in Tamil Nadu. It was quite a brisk number that tuned her performance skills.
The major showpiece was ‘Eka shloki Ramayanam’, summary of Ramayana. This covered four important chapters of Ramayana — Aranya Kanda, Kishkinda Kanda, Sundarakanda and Yudha Kanda. This was Eka Patraabhinayam, a solo performance, with dancer presenting all the roles in various acts thus testing her skills in miming the roles with right moods.
The first line of the sloka ‘Aadhau Rama Tapovanadi gamanam - Hatva Mrugam Kanchanam’ had sequences where Rama chases a golden deer to fetch it to Sita; followed by Sita apaharanam and Jatayu’s death. ‘Sugreeva Sambhashanam, Valee Nigrahanam’ line depicted Rama consulting with Sugriva and later killing Vaali. Then ran the line ‘Samudra Tharanam Lankapuri Dahanam Paschat Ravana Kumbhakarna Haranam’ showed Anjaneya crossing the ocean in search of Sita, burning Lanka paving the way for Rama to kill Ravana and Kumbhakarna. It was a sight to watch Srishti presenting all these episodes with dynamism and pure abhinaya skills with full fledged expression interspersed with intermittent jatis. These lines were set to ragamalika and rendered by noted vocalist Prema Ramamurthy with voiceover effects by guru Ramamurthy.
Later Srishti presented Jayadeva’s ashtapadi, ‘Priye Charuseele’ .This abhinaya-based numberThis was another impressive number Srishti presented playing up right emotions of Radha and Krishna.
The dance recital ended with a tillana of Balamurali in Kadanakutuhalam. All the numbers Srishti presented were a treat to watch.
