Aesthetic mix of singing, abhinaya
ANJANA RAJAN
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With her twinkling eyes and gestures, Nirmala Ramachandran brings alive Padam and Javali.
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Photo: S. R. Raghunathan
IN LOVE WITH DANCE: Nirmala Ramachandran.
One has seen her jewel-like eyes twinkling on stage during a Bharatanatyam performance. Today she puts them to use during her padam and javali presentations, where she accompanies her singing with facial expressions and mudras. One finds those eyes shining just as brilliantly in her Chennai drawing-room, as veteran dancer Nirmala Ramachandran settles down to reminisce about old times.
"I was really in love with dance," she begins. "Pandanallur Chockalingam Pillai was my master. When the Indian Institute of Fine Arts was started, I was one of his first students there."
The mid-1940s were early years for institutionalised teaching of the arts. Even today, the debate over the quality of students produced by institutions continues. However, says Nirmala, "Even if I had had my master coming home to teach me, I could not have learnt it better."
Award winner
A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, besides numerous other honours like the recent Nrithyakalasagaram title from Cleveland's Bhairavi Fine Arts Society, Nirmala recalls, "Mylapore Gowri Ammal taught music to my mother and aunt. But because I was so interested in dance, my mother asked Gowri Ammal to teach me dance."
Nirmala says she is thankful to her mother for giving her a musical impetus too. "She made me do my Music B.A., though the fancy subjects then were politics, etc."
The other influence on her dance was Balasaraswati. "In 1955 — I was hardly a girl of 19 — T. Jayamma, Bala's mother, started padam classes at the Music Academy. That is how my interest began. I was also associated with Balasaraswati when she produced Sarabhendu Bhoopala Kuravanji. I played the role of the sakhi, and Bala was the kurathi."
The great dancer agreed to teach Nirmala a few padams. "I used to be mesmerised by her abhinaya. No one went to see her figure, but the way she wove situations... the way she used to sing."
Defines abhinaya
Nirmala defines her own approach to abhinaya. Sancharis should be elaborated according to the context, she says. "If it is about the child Krishna, you will take some stories of mischief, but if it is a serious Krishna, they will not gel. Some people, to fill the time, go on doing so many stories."
Again, sancharis need not be full-fledged stories, but allusions. "You need to imagine what the composer might have meant."
In her padam and javali recitals where she combines singing with abhinaya, she says she has to tone down the abhinaya as the face otherwise gets distorted.
Devadasis of old used to sing and emote with equal gusto, but, she counters, audience tastes are different today.
Bharatanatyam has changed significantly over the decades. "Whatever you do," advises the veteran, "must come out of conviction."
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