Bharatanatyam dancer Pallavi Sriram’s performance at the Narada Gana Sabha was confusing at first — here was a fairly mature, confident dancer responding to the music intuitively; her footwork was careless, her movements full of unnecessary flourishes, yet managing to hold one’s attention with her dancing eyes and her expressive talent. She did not have a practised air, apart from the jathis and swara passages, so there was definitely an element of improvisation. Pallavi and her brother Sid Sriram, who sang for her, were in sync.
The performance felt like a music recital, from the repertoire that had more kutcheri songs than dance-oriented pieces, to the accompanying musicians (who played for concerts rather than dance performances) and interestingly, in the visualisation. Pallavi seemed to get carried away by the music as well, without exploring the portrayals as in the tana varnam, ‘Ninne Kori’ (Kanada, Adi, Thiruvottiyur Thyagayya) and the subsequent Khamas javali (‘Marubari,’ Adi, Dharmapuri Subbaraya Iyer).
It was the Bhairavi kriti, ‘Balagopala’, (Adi, Muthuswami Dikshitar) that laid to rest doubts about the dancer’s ability to go beyond the casual. The piece was preceded by a line from the charanam, ‘Dronakarna-duryodhanaadihara..’ sung as a virutham that quietened the mood. Without disturbing the sanctity of the piece, Pallavi’s spontaneous description of Krishna’s dark-hued body in the phrase, ‘Nilaniradasarira’ was clear. More than the details, the quiet delineation underlined Pallavi’s maturity. She took her time with the delineation of the dice game and the Draupadi vastraharan scene to build up to a crescendo. It was a well-thought out piece. The music arrangement was sensitive to both, the devotional lyrics and the drama in the portrayals. Addition of swaras, a jathi and tanam was done at the right moments.
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This piece was followed by ‘Muruganin Paru Peyar Azhagu’ (Behag, Khanda Chapu , Guru Surajananda), ‘Madhava Maya’ (Hamsanandi, Adi, Papanasam Sivan) and Sivaranjani thillana (Adi, Maharajapuram Santhanam). Accompanying Sid (vocal, nattuvangam) were Thanjavur Praveen Kumar (mridangam) and Sruti Sarathi (violin).
The improvisation and the musical bent of Pallavi's programme were indications of a new line of thought. The initiatives were, however, not carried through. There is still time for Pallavi, a former student of veteran artist Chitra Visweswaran, to build on the strong foundation.