Pingala is the story of how a courtesan transformed herself into an ardent devotee of Rama and found her redemption. The Mohiniyattam interpretation of her tale formed the central piece of Pallavi Krishnan’s recital at Bharat Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram.
The choreography of the story is one of the noted works of Pallavi’s and has been performed on many stages over the years. Breathing life into the character happened almost instantaneously, as she started with the confident Pingala, who reassures herself that it doesn't matter if someone didn’t turn up during the early hours of the night. Soon, she finds that men are no longer interested in her and her pomposity gives way to desperation.
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The piece relies heavily on abhinaya and has ample scope for the danseuse to explore a range of emotions. Pallavi did well in depicting the gist in each rasa. The aspects of nritta were limited to the initial portion, where Pingala speaks for herself.
Music was composed by Nedumpally Ram Mohan and Palakkad Sooryanarayanan for lyrics penned by Namangalam Madhavan Namboothiri. Pallavi opened her recital with ‘Niram’, a work of Kalamandalam Sugandhi that is based on the composition of Kavalam Narayana Panicker.
The inspiration being the ritualistic tradition of Kalamezhuthu pattu, the piece presents the nayika in awe of the goddess, and paying her homage, as she sees the goddess drawn on the kalam. And for the dance part, it had kalasams in between, having a distinctive flair of its own.
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In a lighter vein
Kalamandalam Urmila, who did talam for her guru for the initial pieces, took her turn on stage for the next item and presented Ambadi thannilorunni... , a yesteryear film song by Vayalar Ramavarma, composed by Devarajan. Although the pick seemed apt for a mother-kid piece in a lighter vein, it was a little stretched in its presentation in the Mohiniyattam format.
If it was abhinaya that dominated the recital, the thillana in raga Bageshree, again a composition of Sooryanarayanan, came in as a consolation towards the end for those who enjoy pure dance. Pallavi and Urmila presented the item together and danced in sync.
It was followed by a sloka set to a variety of ragas and the dancer delved into the different rasas. She indeed added a lot of weight to it by doing so but whether it really appealed to the audience after a thillana should be thought about.
While the dancers did their best on the stage, appropriate lighting and a backdrop without the reflective flex banner would have made it more visually appealing.
The programme was organised in collaboration with Indian Council for Cultural Relations.