CHENNAI: See the music, Hear the dance’, a three-day collaborative programme by noted dancer Alarmel Valli, was premiered in the city recently. With eminent vocalist Bombay Jayashri Ramnath lending her voice for the padam, javali and virutham, on the eve of the centenary year of eminent musician T Muktha aka Mukthamma, it was a visual-musical treat indeed. The event was organised as part of the Bani Festival, which saw its genesis last year.
And once it was over, we were left with just one question — Are padams and javalis an exclusive property of the Dhanamal school? Certainly, Dhanamal was an illustrious representative of that vintage heritage and no doubt, with fostering care and utter dedication, Mukthamma strove to preserve the prestigious stamp of Dhanamal tradition — really a luminous representative of the padam culture.
We are aware that padams originally included musical compositions with religious, devotional and philosophical themes. However, in the later period, by the time of Kshetrajna, sringara, which is often associated with a deity, especially lord Krishna, became the main theme. Renowned vocalist Bombay Jayashri, the music collaborator of ‘See the Music, Hear the Dance’ programme, was undoubtedly a swanubhava musician and an open-voiced communicator.
With a strikingly beautiful profile, her renditions of padams and javalis, particularly khamas raga javali, immersed us in the divinity of the expositions, revealing how spiritual conditioning imparts a high sense of musical discipline.
Danseuse Alarnel Valli surpasses most artistes of today, because of her ability to become the character she aims to portray in her nritta or abhinaya. The ease with which she communicated the intricacies of padams and javali with the audience, was certainly a pool of myriad emotions. Moreover, her instinctive abhinaya, with the element of nritta, was in perfect sync to the beat, expounding in utter vibrancy.
The festival also featured a talk on Mukthamma by Sri Ram, who has vast knowlege on musical heritage. An inspiring conversation between Bombay Jayashri, Alarmel Valli and poetess Arundhati Subramaniam was followed by a vocal concert on padams and javali by vocalists Nirmala Sundararajan and Subhashini Parthasarathy. A kathak performance by Aditi Mangaldas was also presented.
This edition of the Bani Festival was curated in collaboration with Performing Art Initiative — Aalap, with support from Ahalya Bespoke and Alliance Française.