Skilled in the nuances

THE ANNUAL endowment event of Bharata Natya Manjari organised by the Music Academy presented the trio sisters - Radhika, Shobhana and Gayatri, senior disciples of The Dhananjayans, in a Bharatanatyam recital; The endowment has been created by the family of K. Chandrasekharan, former vice president of the Music Academy and a great connossieur of arts; the programme is dedicated to the memory of T. Balasaraswati and Rukmini Devi, pillars of the art of Bharatanatyam.

The three are versatile dancers who have ample skill to present the nuances of the art form with confidence and composure; their recital was marked by sincerity and dedication. After the initial invocatory number and the kriti, ``Sriman Narayana'' (by Gayatri), the sisters commenced the major composition, the varnam-``Vaarana Mukha,'' a composition of T. V. Gopalakrishnan, musician and mridangam artiste set in lively Natakurinji raga, the varnam had apt lyrical content with a devotional approach, much suited for improvisation in abhinaya.

The varnam addresses Lord Ganesha, the elephant-faced God; the different episodes connected with this deity were portrayed by the sisters in turn with each one depicting a particular narration in a lively manner; similarly their presentation of the pure dance sections of this piece, gave sufficient proof of their training and stage experience, particularly with reference to the varied joyful criss-cross patterns that they formed with perfect coordination, following the trend of their teachers and the tradition of Kalakshetra; the trio's attempt at a varnam, which is usually suited more for solo presentation, was well-planned; the lyrical format of this number was another major source for this enjoyable group choreography, set by V. P. Dhananjayan; Jayanthi Mohan sang this piece with involvement; however she could have employed neraval singing or improvised sangatis to suit the different depictions and could have thus avoided the monotony of repeating the same one over and over at particular segments.

The varnam gained the appropriate momentum from ``Umayaval'', and proceeded with devotional fervour to depict the deity as the very embodiment of Pranava describing Him in the Tamil alphabetical order with a very interesting sahitya; the following composition, ``Aasai Mukham'' (by Radhika) and the ashtapadi ``Sakhiyey'' (by Shobhana) were average presentations; also the scene seemed overloaded with love poetry after the varnam and at least one major regular padam composition in a different mood would have added some weight to this part of the recital to bring forth the capabilities of the dancers in abhinaya.

The recital concluded with a lilting tillana of M. Balamuralikrishna, performed by the sisters in perfect unison. Neela led the orchestra with complete control, assisted ably by Jayanthi Mohan (vocal), Nellai D. Kannan (mridangam), T. K. Padmanabhan (violin) and Sai Sankar (flute). Asokan deserves mention for the apt backdrop for the stage with the word ``OM'' and pleasing lighting arrangements.

NANDINI RAMANI

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