The Delhi-based Katyayani Gupta’s performance for Kartik Fine Arts at Narada Gana Sabha mini hall was full of verve and vigour. The petite dancer, disciple of Kamalini Dutt, began with the traditional Mallari. Nagaswaram strains were woven into its gentle music along with shehnai interludes. This was followed by excerpts from Lalita Ashtottara Shatanamavali that describes the beauty of Parvati — her eyes are like that of the deer (mriganayani) and she walks like a swan.
Parvati goes to Kailasa to offer puja to Siva. Pleased by her penance and deep love for him, he promises to take her as his wife. The text was from a lesser-known work of Tulsidasa, which was linked to a Dhrupad composition by Rahimuddin Khan Dagar. The original composition in Hindi has been rendered in Sanskrit by Baldev Anand Sagar. It was sung by K. Venkateswaran for the performance.
The varnam in Behag by vidwan T.R. Subramaniam was quite an unusual piece on Sri Venugopalaswami (Oh! lotus-eyed Krishna, you are my only refuge!). It depicted the nine forms of bhakti — sravanam, keerthanam, smaranam, pada sevakam, archakam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam and atma nivedanam, in the passage ‘Vanajaksha, Ninne Nammithi’ and the dancer switched with ease from one form to another.
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The sol-kattus were simple and short.
The sanchari included an episode from Gajendra Moksham and Katyayani came up with a few striking poses for the lines ‘Mara koti sundara roopa’. The padam by Muthu Thandavar, ‘Theruvil varano’ in Khamas gave enough scope to showcase her abhinaya skill, especially in the lines ‘Uruviliyudan thiripurathai eritha Natarasa’.
The concluding thillana by Veena Seshanna in Chenchuruti proved to be a fitting finale. Though Katyayani danced to recorded music, it did not spoil the impact. Vocal was by K. Venkatraman assisted by Vasudevan on nattuvangam, Tanjore Kesavan on mridangam, Raghavendra on violin and Rajat Prasanna on flute.
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