Rajeswari and Vyshnavie Sainath along with 14 more dancers staged a Bharatanatyam ballet titled ‘Ganga’ at Ravindra Bharati last week.
The entire ballet was choreographed by Rajeswari while Vyshnavie played Ganga. This was played to pre-recorded music done in Chennai with outstanding voices, resulting excellent musical output. Vyshnavie as Ganga portrayed her role to perfection.As Ganga she portrayed its pristine purity offered in this ballet as her gratitude for her journey through Himalayas and the flowing Ganga.
The ballet began with salutation to river Ganga followed by Ganga’s descent from heaven to earth due to a penance of Bhagiratha requesting Ganga to come down and drench the ashes of his kin for salvation. Through the song Evada Ditta , the mood of Ganga is portrayed as she travels. She’s in a challenging mood as she sings, ‘who can stop me on earth? Neither Indira nor Brahma nor Vishnu nor Shiva. Lord Shiva observes Ganga’s arrogance in its heavy fall from Himalayas and arrests her speed by wrapping it up in his netted hair locks. Then it slows down after its release from Siva’s hair lock that served as a dam. Then it flows into the ears of a sage and from there it finally reaches earth. The flow of Ganga was pictured in dance to the song Mohana Roopini, Chidrupini .
It was time then for Ganga to join rivers Saraswathi and Yamuna to form into confluence of the ‘river trinity’- Triveni Sangamam’ considered as most pious and pilgrims make it a point to have a purifying bath there.
The ballet ended with ‘Ganga Harathi’ by all the dancers.
Rajeswari Sainath played ‘suthradhar’ who guides the theme through the narrative. Koka Hiranmayi, Jayalakshmi, Sanjana, Sahana and Meenakshi were featured in other roles mostly in dance oriented sequences.
The dance choreography was a mix of tradition and contemporary.
