CHENNAI: The bhava of love differs in various dance forms and doyens of every form will be presenting their idea of sringaram at the 37th Natya Kala Conference, conducted by Yagnaraman Centre for Performing Art and Krishna Gana Sabha, on Tuesday. One of the speakers for the day was Kathakali exponent Sadanam Balakrishnanan who presented a talk and demonstration about Samyoga —Depicting love in Kathakali.
Kathakali is mainly known for presenting valour and anger through performances. “Sringaram in Kathakali is just an induced emotion. Most of the times the artistes just present it in the beginning and get on with the act,” he said to a roaring applause and laughter from the audience. The presentation of sringaram differs based on characters. “The sringaram you see between Nala and Damayanthi is different from what we portray between Ravana and Mandodhari. With villainous characters it’s called Rajasa Sringaram,” he explained.
He demonstrated this explanation with a performance, Bli Vijayam, where Ravana is trying to kiss Mandodhari. His 10 heads fight among themselves to decide who’ll kiss her first and his 20 hands can’t wait to embrace her. Accompanying him was Balakrishnan’s senior disciple Sadanam Srinathan who played the role of Mandodhari. “The stories we follow are set especially for Kathakali and is not found as part of Ramayana or any other text,” he said answering a query from the audience.
The song for the demonstration was set to paadi ragam. “This is the ragam we use to depict sringaram in Kathakali and sometimes for veeram too. It is not often used in Carnatic music,” he added.
The Natya Kala Conference will be held till Dec 30 at Krishna Gana Sabha. For details, call 28140806 and/or visit: www.nkc2017.com