Interesting adavu patterns

PRATHIBHA PRAHLAD had a lavish music accompaniment for her Bharathanatyam recital at the Music Academy. Pulakeshi for Nattuvangam, P. Ramu for vocal, Ravishankar for mridangam, Chandramouli for kanjeera, K. S. Jayaraman for flute, Sridhar for violin, Kodandaraman for nagaswaram, Ramamurthy for tavil. Beginning with a Mallari to the strains of the nagaswaram, Prathibha displayed interesting adavu patterns and did a nice long arathi to the audience. This set the tone for the evening.

``Brihadeeswara Mahadeva'' in Kanada composed by Balamuralikrishna complimented Prathibha in brightness and she responded with clean poses in silence. These poses in pauses brought in a new dimension to the dance. She was most impressive in the sanchari of looking at the height of the temple gopuram in awe.

In the jathi portion, there were several indications of Siva's various manifestations and these added charm. For the line, ``Sahaja karunya veekshana...'' Prathibha depicted scenes from Samudra Manthana where Siva becomes Neelakanta after swallowing the halahala.

The Vachaspathi varnam, ``Velanidam poi solladi...'' brings back memories of the dynamic choreography of Vaideeswaran Koil Muthuswami Pillai. Prathibha Prahlad is the only Indian disciple of his who can highlight his choreography. He used very interesting patterns with total value for space and directions. There were many variations of movements he had introduced which Prathibha showed. Prathibha was taught this varnam by Muthuswami Pillai some 15 years ago and it is still very fresh. The choreography is full of jumps.

If only Prathibha had given thought to keeping her feet closer, the nritta sequences would have had a better impact. There was an explanation later that she had suffered a sprain in her ankle and thus had to forego the Tillana. Perhaps this was the reason for the feet-apart nritta.

Several moments of exquisite performance were punctuated by slackening moments. The varnam sthayi bhava could have been given a thought in switching over to nritta portions with such a bright smile that one was pushed away from the mood of the varnam.

Prathibha was so engrossed in her dance that it took her a long time to realise that her waist belt had gone up creating an imbalance in aaharya. But she very cleverly fixed the belt. That was spot improvisation and very intelligent.

Prathibha then performed two Astapadis. One of a Mugdha who is being advised by her friend to go to Krishna for loveplay. Then came the famous Kuruyadunandana where Radha, a swadinapatika now confidently orders Krishna to tie her hair that was untied during loveplay and asks him to apply kajal in her eyes and cool her body. These were done with sincerity. Since there was no Tillana, Prathiba did an elaborate Mangalam with Ksheerabdi Kanyakaku on Lakshmi. This was the best piece of the evening done with an emotional expressiveness that touched hearts.

V. R. DEVIKA

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