Fine footwork

Kala Nadam 2015’, the three-day cultural festival organised by Nadam at ADA Ranga Mandira, recently culminated amidst much enthusiasm. On the first evening, kuchipudi artistes Deepa Narayanan and Rekha Satish presented a beautiful invocatory item ‘Ganesha Stuti’ followed by a traditional ‘Tarangam’ and ‘Vande Vasudevam’. Leading exponent Pallavi Krishnan mesmerised spectators with a solo Mohiniyattam performance.

This was followed by Anuradha Venkatraman’s bharathanatyam dance. She began with a ‘vachana’ of Basvanna, wherein he stresses on searching for God inside oneself and then came the ‘Alarippu’ where the idea of using one’s own body to build the temple is juxtaposed and the God is invited to reside in the ‘garbagriha’ of one’s soul.

She also presented ‘Varnam’, a composition of Maharaja Swati Tirunal, where the Virhotkantitha Nayika approaches her friend to confide in her about her love for Padmanabha and concluded with a ‘shloka’ from Tulsidas Ramayana describing Sita as the creator, preserver and destroyer. The last performance was by the Nadam Ensemble, which opened their kathak recital by devotionally performing a mellifluous Krishna ‘shloka’ followed by ‘japtal’, wonderfully choreographed with ‘thaat’, ‘amad’, ‘thukuda’, ‘paran’ and ‘tihai’. Their item Meera ‘bhajan’ brought Krishna to the stage, with the dancers performing ‘abhinaya’. It concluded with a ‘tarana’ in Raag Kirvani.

On the second day, Rama Venugopalan presented a bharathanatyam, the highlight of which was the ‘Alarippu Mishra Chap Talam’ interspersed with Dhanvantri ‘shlokas’ to the Lord of Medicine, seeking his blessings for the good health of all the children afflicted with cancer. The ‘Neelamana Sisters’, Dr Draupadi Praveen and Dr Padmini Krishnan, presented a kuchipudi duet. Founders of NADAM, Nandini K Mehta and K Murali Mohan presented a vibrant Kathak duet, which comprised a popular Shiva Stuti and Raas Taal after which Murali Mohan performed an Ashtapadi by the poet Jayadeva. They concluded with a scintillating tarana in Raag Khirwani, accompanied by a few of their senior students. The last performance, an Odissi solo by Sujatha Mohapatra, disciple and daughter-in-law of late guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, was also much appreciated. She began her recital with a ‘Mangalacharan’, a dance invoking an aura of auspiciousness. The next item was ‘Yugmadwanda Pallavi’, which explored the relationship between dance and music. Her main item was ‘Jatayu Moksha’ from the Ramayana which was depicted very beautifully while the concluding piece was ‘Mokshya’.

The last day saw some brilliant performances by Vishal Krishna, Vijay Kumar and ‘Nad Roop’. Vishal, belonging to the Benares gharana of Kathak, impressed viewers with a solo Kathak presentation while Vijay Kumar gave a bharathanatyam performance. The concluding performance was a kathak musicscape titled ‘Saransh’, an effort to relate the Kathak aesthetic to the dynamics of different music streams, conceived and choreographed by Shama Bhate. Spectators soaked in the spirit of the festival and savoured it thoroughly.