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Guru Charana Smaranam
   

‘If God and the Guru were to stand in front of me, I would rather prefer touching the feet of the Guru first for, he gave me the knowledge to identify God", says the famous fakir Kabeer. Here is a sishya who stands as an epitome of Guru bhakti. He is none other than Natyacharya Udupi Laxminarayan, who learnt this divine art form from his guru Bharata Sastra Ratna Kanchipuram Ellappa Mudaliar in the ancient Gurukala system and recently celebrated the 11th Guru Jayanti of his Guru in a programme titled ‘Guru Charana Smaranam’. This occasion was meaningful not only to the Guru but also for the students who participated in the programme as a mark of reverence to the doyen Guru. A grand group production by students of Guru Laxminarayan's school, Natya Manjari is staged every year on this occasion. This year the dance ballet ‘Krishna Leela’, choreographed by Guru Laxminarayan was staged at the Krishna Gana Sabha, which is celebrating a month-long Gokulashtami series. The staging of this ballet remained a fine prelude to the same.

The ballet was a wonderful compilation of Dasar kritis and included an exceptionally classic choice as ‘Ba Gumma’ and ‘Gummana Karayadire’. The show commenced with the Pushpanjali, offering floral invocation to Lord Ganesha, Trimoorti and Ashta-dik-palakas. It was followed by ‘Enna Punniyam Seydeno’, which was an ideal song for the present day dance scenario featuring Guru Bhakti. The ballet included select episodes from Bhagavatam such as Krishna Jananam, His journey to Gokulam, Pootaki Vadham, Kalinga Mardhanam and so on. 

     
The choreographic genius of Guru Udupi Laxminarayan was quite visible in the episode, ‘Krishna’s journey to Gokulam’, crossing the river where the water level was shown to rise until it touched the feet of the Lord and how after touching the lotus feet it slowly came down. Similarly the delicate episodes as Pootaki Vadham were handled with care. Madhumathi Prakash as Yasodha, Master Ashwath as little Krishna, Lakshmi Nandini as Kalinga, the snake, and other disciples including Srividya, Divya Kasturi, Hemalakshmi, Bhoomika and Mamatha Rao participated in the show. Fine elaboration by dancers and neat rendering of the ideas definitely need special mention. The essence of the Ellappa Mudaliar tradition was lucidly seen in the production.

The noteworthy orchestra included Natyacharya Udupi Laxminarayan himself proudly seated on the Nattuvangam, Shanthi Jayaraman (Vocal), Venkat (Mridangam), Sikhamani (Violin), Subbu (Keyboard) and Parthasarathy (Effects).
    

Terrific Audio Visual Impact

The recent Kuchipudi recital by A H Gayathri, disciple of Durga Devi at Rani Seethai Hall, Chennai was a confluence of perfect nritta and abhinaya. Commencing with the Ganesha Pancharatnam in Hamsadhwani, she moved on to present the song ‘Girijasuta’. The chittaswara in this piece was worth appreciating. From this she glided to the popular piece in both Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi, viz. Natesa Kauttuvam. This piece triggered the interest of the audience with its terrific audio visual impact. Gayathri strictly followed the Kuchipudi traditions of the renowned Kuchipudi Art Academy, the place which is the training ground of her guru Durga Devi. The fine following on the violin coupled with necessary harps in the relevant ragas on the swara mandalam handled by M S Rao was a delightful experience. Siddhendara Yogi’s Bhama Kalapam dance drama is marked with great beauty and artistic merits. The theme of the ballet is Satyabhama’s deep and abiding love for Krishna and her pangs of suffering in the absence Krishna when he goes away to Rukmini, his first consort, to break the former’s pride and arrogance. In the song ‘Bhamane’, Gayathri brought out this complex feeling of Satyabhama and proved herself capable of presenting such delicate numbers. Dancing with the feet on the edge of the brass plate today happens to be the noted specialty of this art form and Gayathiri chose to do this in Oothukadu Venkatasubbayyar’s ‘Marakata Manimaya’. This item was a real acid test for the dancer. Thanks to guru Durga Devi for her wonderful training. The programme was rounded up with a Tillana of the maestro Dr. M Balamuralikrishna. The expert accompanists Guru Durga Devi (Nattuvangam), Shobana (Vocal), Ganesh Rao (Mridangam), Ramana (Flute), Radha (Vina) also share the credit, for, without their cooperation the programme cannot be a total success. 

Lakshmi V N

  

Posted on 27th August 2001
   

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