JOIN USUseful service to cultural field
The 35th Anniversary of ‘Every Friday Cultural Evening Programme’ was celebrated on Friday at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Department of Kannada and Culture, Youth Services and Sports department and Youth Writers and Artistes Guild are jointly conducting cultural programmes every Friday from last three and half decades.
As the Yavanika Auditorium is under renovation, the programmes are being held in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan from last few months. Though seniors and celebrities have taken part in this series, it is mainly meant for young and upcoming artistes.
There were two programmes - a music concert and a dance programme - to mark the occasion. Sumukh Surya is the son of Dr G K Suryanarayana, an aeronautical scientist and a musician. Sumukh has taken lessons from Smt Geetha, Smt Girija and Sri S Shankar and is being groomed by his father. He is an engineering graduate and has already performed in few places.
“Viriboni,” the stately varna, was the right choice to open Sumukh Surya’s concert. He saluted to invocatory God through a composition “Sri Mahaganapathe” of Mayuram Viswanatha Sastry. It also attracted with a beautiful chitteswara. It was followed by a composition of Papanasham Sivan, “Sri Vallideva”. He tried to elaborate “Ninne Nera”, a familiar kruthi of Tyagaraja. The raga prelude remained on the pedestrian level and the swara was brief and the nerval (Veda Sastra) was rather too brief.
“Manasa Etulo” was also a good selection. He also rendered few devotionals like - Aparadhi Nanalla, Narayana Ninna Naamada, Manave Mantralaya and concluded with a thillana. He has good voice but has to make proper use of it and, his rendering is short of good feeling and also rather prosaic in effect. Sumukh Surya is young enough to take intensified lessons and is capable of bringing depth to his music. It is Venkatesh Josier on violin who added pep to the concert and the mridanga accompaniment was provided by Ashwath Narayana Rao G S.
Graceful Kathak
Hari and Chethana, husband and wife, are senior dancers of Bengaluru. They are disciples of Bharathi Vittal and Vaibhavi and serving not only as performers but also as teachers (Nupur Performing Arts Centre).
Hari and Chetana chose ‘Bhavana’ to perform along with their four students. Starting with a sloka, the theme on Krishna was unfolded in different moods, with brisk movements and good expression.
Ashwathi Nayar, Supriya, Amrutha, Samyuktha, Chethana and Hari performed with graceful movements and gay abandon.
Promising dancer
Many youngsters are entering the dance field with good training and talent. One such dancer Supriya Shivarudrappa is a student of Radha Sridhar of Sri Venkatesha Natya Mandira and is a gold medalist in both post graduate and Vidwath examinations.
She has performed in a few prestigious festivals both in and outside India. She gave a Bharathanatya recital for the Indian Institute of World Culture on Wednesday. Even as she ran through the invocatory piece (Narasimha Kauthvam), a lively presence emerged. In “Barai Raghuvamsha Chandrane,” the Ramapriya varna, a taut thattu-mattu coupled with supple ‘angikas’ caught the attention. Her Abhinaya in the Kshetragna Pada set to ragamalika was evocative and “Krishna Tandava” of Uthakadu Venkata Subba Iyer, was attractive with popular appeal. Overall, Supriya Shivarudrappa is full of promise and should easily make a grade soon.
Mysore V Subramanya