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Entertainment
Tribute to a legend
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Artistes gathered to pay homage to Uday Shankar under the auspices of Sangit Natak Akademi and Music Academy. NANDINI RAMANI captures the highlights of the five-day festival.
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A scene from Ramayana... moving performance by the puppets.
THE SANGIT Natak Akademi (SNA), New Delhi, in association with The Music Academy, chennai, held a five-day dance festival in homage to Uday Shankar, at the TTK auditorium recently. Mr. Jayant Kastuar, dynamic Secretary of the SNA, had planned an apt memorial for one of the outstanding creative dancer-choreographers of our country. Jayant Kastuar and his team take the credit for this unique offering called Uday Shankar Shataabdhi Samaroh, that brought a colourful feast of choreographic works for the Chennai rasikas.
On the inaugural evening , Mr. Jayant Kastuar welcomed the gathering and Mr. T. T. Vasu, President of the Music Academy, extended his greetings for the occasion. Amala Shankar, wife of Uday Shankar, along with Mamata, their daughter, and Tanusree, daughter-in-law, was felicitated. In a moving speech, Amala described the divinity of Uday Shankar's art.
The inaugural performances, directed by Amala Shankar, were presented by the students of Uday Shankar India Culture Centre, Kolkata. These were compositions of Uday Shankar, featuring a colourful dance from Rajasthan (Astra Puja), a lively, graceful scene of young maidens bathing and sporting in water (Snanam), a dance of the grass cutters of Kumaon, and their enjoyable daily routine of activities, a thematic depiction of the valorous Kartikeya, son of Lord Siva with His divine parents and a salutation to the Lord of Dance. The presentations were based on the music of Anand Shankar (Missing You), recapturing the dance technique of Uday Shankar. The other numbers of this evening were choreographies of Mamata and Tanusree. The highlight of the eventful series was Ramayana by Ranga Sri Ballet Troupe from Bhopal. Choreographed by the late Shanthi Bardhan, senior disciple of Uday Shankar, it was a visual delight, having drawn inspiration from folk traditions. Gul Bardhan, senior dancer and all the dancers of the troupe deserve praise for the commitment that was evident in every move of the presentation. This colourful, puppet theatre production, retained all the salient features of the authentic Sanskrit Drama tradition. A typical Ranga or Stage based on the principles of Sage Bharata, was displayed through an effective decor. The entry, the exit, the simple curtain arrangement to show the change of scenes, the tactful enactment of certain episodes were some of the unique features. . The dancers, all of whom were almost of the same height, portrayed their roles donning masks. They enacted the scenes with admirable involvement, coordination and dedication. The marionettes managed to bring the scenes alive with simple but effective physical movement. The use of Kathakali type of mask and movements for the role of Ravana was interesting. The bright costumes, melodious music and orchestration were appealing and proved the timeless quality of sincere work of traditional art.
Narendra Sharma of Bhoomika, Delhi, yet another disciple of Uday Shankar, presented his group in a homage to his mentor. The scene of flying cranes, pairs of the species arriving at a water front, spreading their wings to create sheer joy with their smooth sliding movements, was full of grace and beauty. The Kalpa Vriksha was lengthy and focussed on the glories of Nature's gift of different stages of the tree, an integral part of the environment of the human race. The scenic depiction of the growing plant was visually interesting.
On the final day, Keibul Lamjao, a moving dance narration of the dangers faced by the elegant Sangai deer of Manipur was presented by the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy, Imphal (also part of the Sangeet Natak Akademi). Chaotambi Singh, director and choreographer of this play, dealt with the crucial need of creating an awareness in society for protecting this endangered species. The Sangai deer, according to legend, which if killed, is believed to cause separation from one's beloved. The play based on Manipuri dance technique was a pleasant portrayal and exhibited skilful creative work.
The senior dancers of Chennai presented a concluding Sraddhanjali to Uday Shankar. Chitra Visweswaran, C. V. Chandrasekhar, Padma Subrahmaniam, Shantha and V. P. Dhanjayan performed along with their students. Sudharani Raghupathi conducted her disciples in a short rhythmic invocatory number which was an assortment of jatis, swaras woven around a lyric, all of which had music set by Vidwan Madurai N. Krishnan.
Chitra's Prakriti described the ever flowing, sharing and offering nature of the river which she compared in her introduction to the creative genius of Uday Shankar. The music for this production was by R.Visweswaran . Neither his vocal support, nor his playing of the santoor and harp were heard. The production had a team of Chitra's devoted disciples who did not make much impact with their dancing skills.
Drishya Kavya, meaning Visual poetry was the title given by Lakshmi Viswanathan for her presentation which had dancers from other schools. What was offered, however, did not do justice to the title. Lakshmi read a verse of A. K. Ramanujan, on the glory of Lord Siva and the ultimate surrender of the soul at the feet of the Supreme. The first part of the narrative dealt with sculptures coming alive at the hands of the master sculptors and finally their assembling at the altar. To the accompaniment of saxophone, the soul's devotional pursuit of the Supreme and the final surrender was depicted through gestures. C. V. Chandrasekhar's ``Kreeda''was a lively, entertaining piece of creative work. The theme itself was novel. Chandrasekhar even at this age could mingle with his students with such ease and grace while introducing every game. Both the male and female dancers gave impressive performances, especially the girls with their skipping ropes rendered a very lively touch. The ragas used by Chandrasekhar for the different tunes were catchy and pleasant.
Padma Subrahmaniam and her disciples presented excerpts from the production, offering homage to Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati of Kanchi Kamakoti Math.
The segment titled Tillana had lively tunes by B. Kannan, who played them on the veena. Each segment of orchestration was interwoven with the depiction of each of the six-fold path of worship prescribed by Adi Sankara, through group formation technique. Padma's performance of the different depictions bore her stamp. Shantha and V. P. Dhananjayan in their initial number, ``Nrittaarpanam,'' seemed tired. In a well-coordinated effort, their disciples presented excerpts from Rasa-Samudra, describing the confluence of emotions, and finally merging into peace with Shanthi Mantra.
Another major event was MahaManav, a shadow play on the life of Buddha, conceived and choreographed by Uday Shankar . This was re-enacted under the direction of Amala Shankar.
Special care was taken of stage decor, which under the supervision of well-known artist V. V. Ramani, shined with aesthetic beauty. Floral kolams, antique lamps, attractive decorative motifs and colourful borders added a special touch to the festive mood. Gopi of Modern stage craft was in charge of excellent arrangements of Lights and Mike, and provided an extra dimension to the most of the digital recordings played by the different groups.
Jayant Kastuar thanked the Chennai audience who attended in good number on all the days and said that the homage to Uday Shankar had been planned for Kolkata in the coming weeks and Mumbai, where it was held in March.
Screening of ``Kalpana,'' film made by Uday Shankar in 1948, brought the curtain down on the festival.
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