Music and dance reviews

Memorial festival

Padmabhushan H Narasimhaiah (1920-2005) was a freedom fighter, educationist and patron of fine arts. He nurtured the National High School and College and developed it into a prestigious institution of the City.

He also founded the Bangalore Lalitha Kala Parishat to conduct cultural programmes to cater to the cultural needs of the Bangalore South residents.

Following in his footsteps, under the presidentship of A H Rama Rao, the Parishat is conducting two programmes (on first and third Fridays) every month on classical Carnatic and Hindustani music (both vocal and instrumental), sugama sangeeth, dance (Bharathanatya, Kuchupudi, Odissi, Mohiniattam, etc), Yakshagana, Harikatha, dramas and folklore – at the H N Kalakshetra, Jayanagar National College premises. 

So far, 825 programmes were held and were free for all. Apart from the monthly programmes, the Parishat also conducts a cultural festival in memory of Dr H Narasimhaiah, in the month of June, every year.

“Dr H Narasimhaiah Memorial Cultural Festival” for this year will come to a close on Tuesday (June 10th) with a drama. A vocal duet, flute, sugama sangeet and a dance recital were held during the five-day festival. 

R N Thyagarajan and R N Tharanathan who gave the inaugural concert of the festival on Friday, are known for their classicism and have performed all over the country in several prestigious Sabhas and Sammelans. 

The brothers presented exclusive compositions of Haridasas, which reflected their vast repertoire. 

For instance, “Karunanidhiye Easha” came alive with raga and swara. They gave a soulful picture of the raga Shankarabharana for the well-known devaranama “Pogadiralo Ranga” with nerval (Suramunigallu Thamma Hridaya) and swara prasthara. 

The duo gave a touch of class for the padas and the facile way of words blended with the melody and was proof of their concert craftsmanship. “Ele Manave” of Vijayadasaru, “Narayana Nara­yana” of Vadirajaru – were also pleasing. C N Chandra­sekhar on violin, Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma on mridanga and Vyasa Vittala on khanjari – gave good support.

Bhama Kalapam

Veena Murthy Vijay is a senior artiste, a danseuse, an able teacher and a choreographer. 

She presented Kuchipudi along with a few of her talented students of Sri Raja Rajeswari Kala Niketan on Saturday.  The opening piece “Brahmanjali” was presented by Hema Gautham, Divya Adkoli and Padmini Jagadeesh, neatly. In “Muddugare Yashoda” of Annamacharya, comparing with 9 gems, the “Kri­sh­na Leela” was beautifully narrated.

In the Tharanga, the dancer standing on a brass plate and a pot on the head performed for different jathies. Though it was on familiar lin­es, the jathies were brief. The “Shivastaka” attracted with different postures of Shiva.

The main attraction of the evening was Bhama Kalapam. Shama Krishna portrayed Satyabhama’s pride, ego and at the end, submerged after surrendering to the Lord. 

The character no doubt came alive convincingly. Madhavi’s role was limited but very much supportive. The dialogues were attractive and the background music was complementary.