It was flawlessly pure dance from the word go; ‘shudh’ nritta in Bharatanatyam parlance. Danseuse Katyayani Gupta, unlike others of her age, did not need the testimonial of a varnam to prove her mettle. Demure with dedication to dance that manifested itself in every move of hers, Katyayani led us through the path (margam) of traditional repertoire with choicest pieces, lighting up each with her interpretation. It was like a breather to find one so young walk the orthodox dance driveway with dance in every nerve – the raising of eyebrows to neck movement which have become a rarity among the present crop of dance practitioners. She oozed the old world charm of Thanjavur bani (school) trained as she was by Kamalini Dutt, an orthodox practitioner of this school.
Even before she arrived at the complex, grinding Varnam, Katyayani already established her credentials with three stunning pieces beginning with the customary Mallari (dance wielding the palanquin of deity) –her mime to the sound of drums ushering in the deity’s palanquin, her changing postures as she salutes the lord Kartikeya astride the peacock to the mandatory Gambeera Nata raga made for a picturesque temple procession in motion; the Shabdam –‘Tillai ambalam kandiney…’ was a splendid piece of nritta, nritya and bhol where the nayika (a mugdha) dreams of a love-life with none other than lord Nataraja. The dancer could picturise an abstract dream in concrete terms to the viewers through convincing abhinaya and meaningful sancharis simultaneously showcasing her prowess at nritta in all the tri-kaal (three speed cycles). The best was yet to come in the form of ‘Shiva Panchakshari’ set to an exacting rhythmic beats of khanda eka alternating with tisra eka taal. The verses were also sung to suit these two different taal, so her abhinaya and sancharis were crisp and not repetitive but the nritta was mind-boggling. Katyayani was vivacity and verve personified as she undertook the quick-changing taal with lightning footwork in absolute accuracy and arithmetic – there was not a single moment where she slipped since the taal was tricky.
Sustainability factor
So by the time she arrived at the piece de resistance of the margam repertoire, we were more than satiated with her perfection, variation and dedication – now we had to just watch her staying power since this was a long-drawn piece demanding both abhinaya and footwork to mnemonics and swar bhol while going ahead with the content per se. It had to be the tilting Anandabhairavi pada varnam extolling the lord Rajagopal of Mannargudi through the eyes of a nayika smitten with love for the handsome lord! She chose to depict the mugdha abhisarika in keeping with her tender years through the varnam vocabulary. The sancharis were able to handle the episodic, emotional and esoteric elements with élan as she traversed through her persuasive skills to tag along her sakhi to watch her lord, the ritualistic boat festival (teppotsavam) where the lord is decked and is taken to the temple pond, her own dizziness and dazed state of mind on viewing her celestial beloved. Her abhinaya indicated the alankar (decking) done to the fascinating image as she too gets into the purified waters sprinkling them fondly on herself. These finer nuances were brought out with clarity and artistry. A word of suggestion though – dancers would do good to adopt the mudra that goes with the song about the deity and in this case it was Rajagopal where she could have found varied mudras to depict ‘raja’ (king) and ‘gopala’ (cowherd) rather than show the flute-wielding Krishna all through which is not warranted when the song doesn’t speak of Muralikrsna or Venugopal! The brief but beautiful abhinaya piece, a Tamil devotional, ‘enna tunaivai naan…’ brought out the fervour of a devotee unable to view lord Shiva. The tillana in Chenchurutti raga was very unique in nritta and bhol but towards the end the lyric ‘ika taala jaalanu …’ was wrongly interpreted with an unbending posture while it had to be a love-lorn expression! The solo was hosted at India Habitat Centre.
