Apoorva Rajesh’s Bharatanatyam: Devoted to art

Her recital was replete with impressive footwork and apt abhinaya.

Apoorva perfected every move in abhinaya

An ever smiling face added charm to 16-year-old U.S-based Apoorva Rajesh’s Bharatanatyam concert arranged by Natyaswara at Sataparni inHyderabad last week.

After presenting the Anjali following the traditional margam that offers salutations to god, Guru orchestral support and the audience in raga Salakabhairavi to music set by Eswar Ramakrishna and choreography by Savita Sastry, Apoorva proceeded to a Tamil sabdam ‘ Thillai Ambalam ’ a dialogue between heroine and her Sakhi. The subject she presented in this was how the Nayika, enamoured by Lord Siva’s dance, expresses her love to the Lord. She asks Sakhi whether her Lord will ever fall in love with her and marry. The Lord here is the deity of Chidambaram. This was composed by Tanjore quartet, in ragamalika, Misrachapu Talam.

It was time for Apoorva to go for pristine varnam ‘

Mathe Malayadhwaja ' of Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar, set in Khamas. This was filled with well choreographed jatis of varying footwork patterns that at once stole the applause of audience.

The theme was first about Vinayaka jananam, of how the Vinayaka figure came about and how he got the head of an elephant. And then she dealt with the birth of six-headed Muruga or Kartikeya.

While she dealt with these births, she described the persona of Parvathi, comparing her waist to Lord Siva’s Dhamarukam, eyes to arrows, nose to a knife, neck to conch shell ending in explanation of the goddess annihilation of demon Mahishasura. Finally she is described as the goddess as Shyama occupying the central part of the Galaxy. The presentation of this ‘Daru varnam’ took half of the time of the entire performance with minutest details of all these three gods Vinayaka, Kartikeya and Parvathi.

Apoorva was at her best in dealing with every aspect of the Gods going through jati spells punctuating the charanas. It was an experience in itself watching how Apoorva perfected every move in abhinya and every step in jatis, enjoying every bit of her successful performance.

The number that Apoorva chose to present later was the nritta-oriented padam ' Sakara Srigiri ’ of Swati Tirunal in Hamsanandi, set to Aditalam.

She described the persona of the God with intense abhinaya and clarity, demonstrating in mime how Siva’s followers Bhringi and Bhutaganas, sages and angels watch Him in awe. She then went on to compares his posture, to Padmanabha. This number too was intertwined with nritta-based moves that Apoorva executed well.

The final number was a Tillana in praise of Krishna of Udupi temple where Kanakadasa; considered low caste, was allowed to see Him through the windows. This too was in short a celebration of her precise foot work and apt abhinaya.

The vocalist who recorded her vocal verve in the CD was impressive support .

This was indeed a great show of Bharatantyaam that reflected not only her skills but Apoorva’s devotion to the art.