Vivid art forms on a platter

Sangeetha Sambhrama’ recently announced the fifth edition of the ‘Nirantharam Festival’ at a press conference held at Press Club. To be held from January 22 to 31, the ten-day festival will feature a variety of classical music concerts and dance performances.

The inaugural performance will be a dance ballet depicting the life and times of Maharshi Agasthya, a legendary figure in Indian mythology. Choreographed by Veena Murthy Vijay, it will feature Padmini Jagadeesh in the lead role. 

Another spectacular production will be ‘Bhagavad Geeta on Wheels’ by 15 physically challenged artistes under Guru Pasha’s ‘Ability Unlimited’.

 The two performances will be held at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall while the remaining days’ events will take place at Seva Sadan.

Some of the classical concerts to look forward to include bansuri vadan by Rakesh Chaurasia, vocal ensemble by Harini Sridhar, veena duet by Revathy Murthy and Geetha Ramanand, flute duet by BK Anantharam and Amit A Nadig and violin duet by Mysore Nagaraj and Dr Manjunath. Among the dance performances to attend are kathakali by Prabal Gupta, kathak by TD Rajendra and Nirupama Rajendra, bharatanatyam by ‘Chaturgamini’ and a 22-member troupe led by Seshadri Iyengar presenting a dance ballet called Bahurang. 

“Other than the well-known artistes, we have tried to create a platform for budding artistes to showcase their talent in different forms of music and dance. That’s why we have a new concept called ‘junior concert’ this year, where some of my students will give a 30-minute performance every day before the main event. What’s more special to me is the fact that all my daughters are a part of it — Padmini is playing Agasthya in the dance ballet, Harini is giving a vocal concert and Deepti is giving a presentation on Mysore composers,” said P Ramaa, founder director of ‘Sangeetha Sambhrama’ and a classical singer herself.

“When the festival first started, it was limited to five days. But we have gone to ten days now. It feels great to help our mother promote art through this festival. It’s not a ticketed show and anyone interested is free to attend,” said Padmini Jagadeesh.

The last day of the festival will see a special multi-media feature conceptualised by Mysore Nagamani Srinath. “Mysore has bred some amazing composers like Veene Sheshanna, Vasudevacharya and Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar. The music feature on January 31 will be an audio-visual presentation on the lives of some of these composers, who were given a lot of patronage by the Maharaja of Mysore. It will be an educational and entertaining experience,” said Deepthi Srinath, P Ramaa’s eldest daughter.