A dance performance with live orchestra in a place not one’s own, is something of a wonder in the present day scenario in the Capital. For one, it is cost-intensive and not worth the effort going by the sparse audience. Hyderabad-based artiste Subhashini Giridhar made bold to fly her own accompanists for her presentation at the twenty sixth Thyagaraja Music and Dance fest in Delhi’s AP Bhavan. The senior dancer chose to present the margam repertoire with an emphasis on Thyagaraja’s compositions in keeping with the occasion. So we had the invocatory ‘ Sri Ganapatini sevimpa... ’ in Saurashtra with the customary Pushpanjali preceding it. The Devagandhari surged steady in vocalist Shweta Prasad’s ringing tones to ‘ Ksheerasagara shayana... ’ The dancer chose to elucidate the three charanas with three distinct episodes: the Gajendra Moksham, Draupadi Vastrapaharanam and Lord Rama’s Sethu Bandhana. The kriti beginning with Thyagaraja penning a few lines was an impressive piece of artistry. In Gajendra Moksham the struggle of the real tussle between the crocodile and the tusker was glossed over; it could have been pictured in detail to lend depth.
The Draupadi vastrapaharam episode was in detail as always by many a dancer and the Sethu bandana was something less visited by the artistes and hence interesting. The Varnam, ‘Balagopala Yasoda...’ set to Panthuvarali by Thanjavur Quartet took off with a sloka ‘Paritranaya saadhunam.... sambhavami yuge yuge’ from the Gita where the dancer fleeted through the Dasavatara before launching into the song proper where she drew major instances from the Bhagavatam. The refrain ‘yadukula tilakam...’ contained a detailed depiction of the chores in a pastoral community head’s house. Child Krishna’s pranks were as usual mimed with specific illustrations. Though Gopala was repetitively shown in the Venugopala stance, with a flute in hand, varations like that of a cowherd would have been welcome, considering the artiste’s seniority. The jati pattern to the penultimate part of the song was strong; so was the sanchari bhava to the lines ‘bhanu koti prakasam...’
The rigour and vigour of ‘Bho Shambo...’ in Revathi was lacking as Subhashini did not pace up her nritta and hasta mudras. The slow tempo in which she handled this piece did not gel with the raga and the rendition. Purandhara Dasa’s ‘Hanumantha deva...’ in PoorviKalyani pictured Sitapaharana and the tillana in Natakurinji (Tanjore Quartet) was rendered in vocal kucheri format.
The violinist made his presence felt with melodious preludes while Renuka Prasad on the nattuvangam, Balasubramaniam on the mridangam impressed. Kudos to Subhashini a professional chartered accountant for pursuing and performing with passion. The festival was under the aegis of Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha and Team Telugu Bhavan of Delhi.
