Music and Dance Review

Haridasa Padas hold sway

She once again proved that she can be depended upon to provide a wide repertoire and an attractive style. These factors were noticed that evening right from the opening "Karedare barabarade" (Kamalesha Vittala).

She presented compositions of Vadirajaru, Purandaradasaru, Jaganatha Dasaru, Prasanna Venkatesha Dasaru, Kamalesha Vittala and few other Haridasas, and brought variety and colour to the programme. Bandano Raghavendra, Anjike Inyathakaiah - were also pleasing. "Karava Mugiva Mukhyaprana" was on Hanuman in the raga Adana.

A infrequent Pada "Hosa Kannu Enage" of Indiresha Vittala was a welcome change from the routine devaranamas. Both "Aane Banthane" and "Kartha Krishnaiah" of Prasanna Venkata Dasaru, are popular and favourite of connoisseurs.

Few ugabhogas like “Malagi Paramadaradi” and “Dhyanamu Krithayugadali” brought the potential of the lyrics and were rendered with good feeling and attracted attention. Ravindra Katoti, Udayraj Karpur and Venkatesh Purohith accompanied on harmonium, tabla and thaala, respectively.

Graceful performance

The second edition of Nritya Neerajana was held on Sunday under the aegis of the Ananya jointly with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Department of Kannada and Culture. The whole day event was marked by discussions, demonstrations, exhibition (of photographs of dance programmes conducted at Ananya), CD release and, of course, performances of not only Bharathanatya but also Kathak, Kuchipudi and Odissi dance forms.  It was a good opportunity for artistes - especially young artistes, to learn and interact with senior artistes.

Curtains came down on this year's Nritya Neerajana with a beautiful Bharathanatya recital by Satyanarayana Raju. A competent male dancer of Karnataka, Raju has performed in many parts of the world and is the artiste director of Shristi Dance Institution. The Pushpanjali (Aarabhi) gave a bright start to Raju, in a compact fare.

The Ashta raga Malike varna 'Saami Ninnukori Nanura' was refreshing with well-knitted jathi and soft, dignified facial expression. With a keen sense of involvement, there was precision and poise in his body movements and the dancer was adequate in his nritta portions, too. He concluded with a Tulasidas Bhajan with interpretation of few episodes of Ramayana. Shakuntala Prabhath (Natuvanga), Vasudha Balakrishna (vocal), Linga Raju (mridanga) and H S Venugopal (flute) supported from the wings.

Earlier Jyoti Srivastava gave a Odissi dance recital. A student of Deba Prasad Das, Jyoti is also a recipient of 'Sringar Mani' and is a Odissi dancer with quiet a few appearances to her credit. The 'Pallavi' in Keeravani was the first item Jyoti performed, in which she failed to live up to expectation. The Astapadi (Rathisukhasare) was better. In total Jyoti's performance was pleasing but not convincing.