JOIN USNatyalakshana, performed recently at ADA Rangamandira, brought together three pairs of dancers from different styles to tell the story of love and passion. Sharmila Murkherjee and Arnab Murkherjee were two of the six dancers who performed that night.
The two odissi dancers brought to the stage beauty and poise while telling the story of Rabindranath Tagore’s Chitrangada. Sharmila played the role of Chitrangada, who falls in love with Arjuna but is mistaken for a boy by the young prince. The love-stricken woman pleads with Madan, the god of love, to help her so that she is turned into a beautiful woman for one year.
The second pair to perform represented a whole different style. Chitra Arvind and Raam Kumar took to the stage with their version of ‘Spartacus’ in an Indo-Western fusion. The dancers moved the audience with their synchronicity and litheness. Bharatanatyam dancers Sheshadri Iyengar and Shamma Krishna were the last to go on stage. They showed the love that existed between lord Shiva and Parvati and how they are everywhere.
The two artistes depicted the concepts of maya and salvation. “It was an hour-and-a-half feature that we performed about four years ago. When we were asked to do the same feature but edit it to 20 minutes, we chose some episodes and put the story
together. It expressed the Purusha and Prakruthi, the two prime forces that animate the entire universe,” said Sheshadri.
He said the performance came out nicely but there’s always room for improvement. Though the auditorium wasn’t packed, the audience enjoyed themselves. Radhika found the odissi performance very graceful. Rupaka, a dancer herself, found the performance very enriching.