Mythological drama turns earthy

RANEE KUMAR

The dance ballet `Urvasi' did not reach celestial heights.

TALE RETOLD Artistes of Sri Bhagavatula Sethuram perform the Urvasi Kuchipudi dance ballet. Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

Mythology has never failed to evoke interest judging by the crowds that thronged Lalitha Kala Thoranam to witness Urvasi, a Kuchipudi dance ballet, penned by Dr. Bhargavi Rao and Varanasi Nagalakshmi.

There was more drama and optimal dance in the entire ballet. Despite beautiful lyrics and melodic rendition by Amalapuram Kanna Rao and Sarada Reddy, not to speak of pronounced nattuvangam by Bhagavatula Sethu Ram, Urvasi fell short of the essential criteria that go to make a Kuchipudi dance drama. Rigor is the essence of Kuchipudi dance form.

What was presented here was a total antithesis: laconic footwork and gestures, cinematic stances and moves. And the subject was all about the celestial dancers like Rambha (Vasantha Sandya), Menaka, Tilottamma (Aparna and Latha) and the heroine of this ballet,

Urvasi (Vanaja Uday)! The song-dialogue overshadowed the dance element, which in any case was perfunctory. Barring the male characters who were any day better than their female counterparts, and a few settings like the scenic backdrop of Bhooloka, the rest of the ballet was flawed.

The story depicts the origin of Urvasi from the loins of an ascetic, Narayana Muni (Kranti Kiran who did his bit with aplomb) who gifts her to Lord Indra. Later, a turn of events bring Urvasi to earth where she falls in love with a king, Pururavas (Kala Krishna).

There are certain inherent weaknesses in our mythological stories whose interpretation ought to be done with extreme care just to prevent them from giving the wrong messages. That is precisely where Urvasi failed to lift itself and the audience. The scene were Bharata Muni ((Mohan Reddy) was said to have taught the entire system of dance to the celestial dancers turned out to be farcical with the founding father of Natya Shastra gyrating with the dancers in a royal courtesan fashion to a song which more or less went along with the mood.

Skewed script

It is indeed unfortunate to envisage and show the divine beauties as courtesans tuning welcome dances to the lord of heavens-Indra (ably played by Balaji) and much worse to show Bharata Muni degrading himself to such lowly standards. A full-length swaram interspersed with jatis could have given the elevated touch to the scene. The romance between Urvasi and Pururava with a song tinged with sobriety and was enacted with restraint, in an attempt to avoid passionate overtones. It however, turned out to be too artificially acted out with slow, measured movements, which culminated in distanced romantic postures.

Vanaja as Urvasi with a dazzling costume threw the other three apsaras (celestial beings-Rambha, Menaka and Tilottama) into oblivion.

The three-some looked ill-matched to Urvasi, more so Rambha who had quite a role in the beginning. As usual, Vanaja made optimum use of her feet and made do with facial and positional stances. Indra was one of the dancers whose abhinaya was good. Kala Krishna as Pururava was disappointing in terms of dance though physically he looked tailor made for the role. The clarinet drowned all other instruments be it the veena (Radha Pratap) or the violin (Subbalakshmi) or flute by Dattatreya. Nageswara Rao on the mridangam did make a dent.

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