Colourful knit of fact and fantasy

History, legend and devotion formed the core of the dance-drama, Varadar

Students performing Varadar,a dance drama

Among the 108 Divya Desams, Srirangam, Tirumala and Kanchipuram are closest to the heart of a Vaishnavite. Having conceptualised and staged two multimedia productions — Aranganin Padhaiyil and Srinivasam Prapadhye — Darshanam Art Creations along with V. Lakshmi Kumaran and V. Sridharan, advocates, Supreme Court of India, premiered Varadar, the Most Benevolent God of Kanchi at the Narada Gana Sabha.

And when bhakti is the overriding element in a production, everything else is only an aid to propel the emotion in the desired direction. Which is why Varadar, the Most Benevolent God of Kanchi , the dance-drama had such an appeal. The focus was on the boon giving presiding deity, and His Consort Perundevi Thayar and the wonderful stories associated with them — everything set in the background of Brahmotsavam.

Compiled by Asha Krishnakumar and Chithra Madhavan, the narration spoke volumes of their love and awe for the subject. It looked at the history, the temple inscriptions, mythology and folklore. The visual extravaganza included temple décor, dramatic lighting, LED projections and the gorgeous deities in procession, dance and rousing music.

“It took nearly eight months of research and background work before we were ready to take the plunge,” says Asha. The Tamil narrative was in the form of a dialogue between a grandfather and his granddaughter, who have come to Kanchipuram to witness Brahmotsavam. It was a good concept, but seemed unrealistic at times. Not because of the idea of a child wanting to know about all things connected to a temple — a rarity given the gizmo-ridden world we live in today — but in the way it was executed.

The sequences choreographed by Jayanthi Subramaniam and danced by her students were earnest and correct, the dance adhering to the classical mould to a T. There is just a hair’s breadth between the good and the perfect, which lifts a work to great heights. In this production, the gap was evident in the portions where nritta was less and there was a lot of emphasis on the bhava. But then, in an elaborate tale such as this, this is a possible pitfall.

Memorable segments

Yet portions of Varadar were memorable — especially Gajendra Moksham and the story about Kurattazhvan. The emergence of Varadar and the glory of the temple, contributions of the Acharyas, the story of Ramanuja, the grandeur of Garuda Seva and many other wonders of this presiding deity and his consort, formed the crux of the production.

Now for the key persons, who made the production possible. Prof. K.V. Raman and Dr Chithra Madhavan provided the history and details of the temple inscriptions and Damal Ramakrishnan the scriptures and mythology. Music was composed by Rajkumar Bharathi. Sai Shravanam was in charge of soundscape design, Malola Kannan, supported by Keerthana Vaidyanathan taking care of narration and chanting. The orchestra had mridangam (H. Ananthanarayan and Vedakrishnaram), tabla (Ganapathi Venkatasubramaniam), violin (Embar Kannan), flute (Vishnu Vijay), veena (Bhavani Prasad), nagaswaram (D Balasubramani), LED Creatives (Chella Videos), Print Creatives (Compuprint) and Stage (Shanmugam).