‘Drishti’, the third edition of the dance festival that dancer Anuradha Vikranth and her husband T M Vikranth of Drishti Art Foundation had organised, saw performances of Vasundhara Doraswamy, a phenomenon in classical dance; kathak dance duo Nirupama and Rajendra, Anuradha Vikranth and the Bharatanjali troupe formed by dancer Bhanumathi.

The three hours of classical splendour saw Mysore’s Vasundhara Doraswamy bring alive the Pandanallur style of Bharatanatyam with ‘Kauthuvam’ set to Shanmukhapriya raga and ‘Padavarna’ on Lord Krishna. Nirupama, who had in the previous edition of ‘Drishti’ presented Bharatanatyam, this time round along with husband T D Rajendra astounded the audience with kathak.

If their ‘Yugal’ was all about grace and oneness in movement, ‘Saat-Saat’ was a dance that dealt with the mystical number 7. The music composed by Praveen Rao saw the use of western instruments to bring out classical tunes. Their ‘Meera Madhav’, was about Meera expressing her feelings for Lord Krishna. Anuradha’s performance to Uttukadai Subba Iyer composed ‘Brindavana Nilaye’, was a description of Radha’s love for Lord Krishna, how the beauty of nature is reflected in that of Radha’s and on how she decorates herself in anticipation of the lord. Both ‘nritta’ and ‘abhinaya’ was  explored well in this piece by Anuradha Vikranth. The vocal support was rendered by Manasi Prasad.

Bharatanjali’s dance ensemble put up for the evening reflected imaginative group choreography. 

Artistes honoured

As the tradition of the festival has it, two from the art fraternity were honoured. This time it was dancer Lalitha Srinivasan and renowned music and dance critic M Surya Prasad.
“Drishti was started in 2006 to promote and recognise the talent that our State is bestowed with. There are so many talented artistes in Karnataka. It’s just that they are not promoted like those in Chennai. So through this festival we not only wanted to showcase both established and up-and-coming artistes but also honour those who have nurtured our field,” said Anuradha.

 ``The preparation for the festival started almost three months before the show. Organising the festival is an expensive affair. But we are committed to promoting and publicising our art and the crowd that the festival attracts every year makes it totally worth the experience. This festival is a proof that it is just not rock festivals that are  crowd pullers,’’ she added.

In the past...

The previous editions of the festival have seen contemporary and Bharatanatyam performances of the likes of Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Madhu Nataraj, Shama and Sanjay Shantaram, Sathya Narayan Raju and the Kirans among others. Anuradha and Vikranth are now planning a music festival in March-April.

The Foundation also brings out a magazine titled ‘Drishti’ on dance and music. Drishti Art Centre run by Anuradha imparts training in Bharatanatyam and organises workshops and seminars.