I t was an interesting session at the Pethachi auditorium — a national performing arts initiative presented by famous Danseuse Alarmel Valli, titled ‘Baani’ by Alap, on the 100th birth anniversary year of her guru, Pandanallur Subbaraya Pillai, and also to mark her 50th year as a dancer. It was also to reiterate the significance of preserving and passing on the legacy to the generations to come, and to bring out the importance of the guru-sishya relationship.
On the occasion, five senior musicians, who had worked with Valli for more than 15 years, were honoured with titles.
Valli, who enjoyed the fruits of her guru’s benevolence, the bond that takes knowledge forward, vividly explained in her opening remarks that the outcome of such relationship was an unconquerable richness of spirit, emphasising on the underlying devotion to knowledge, and the unparalleled excellence of inspired teaching.
Cinematographer and producer Rajiv Menon, in his presidential address, brought out, as to how renegotiation between tradition and modernity, that Indian dance and the dancers in the classical world are currently undergoing, are expected to surrender to the gurus and be photo copies of their gurus.
He said how Alarmel Valli is an exception, with her own distinctive style and effortless synchronisation of the components of Bharathanatyam even in ulukku nadai baani, (a unique foot work).
This was followed by vocalist T M Krishna’s concert with H N Bhaskar (Violin), K V Prasad (Mridangam), and Chandra Sekhara Sharma (Ghatam).
It was an unusual concert with two varnams and rendition of the same raga twice. His rendition of Mohamana En Meethil , a bhairavi raga varnam, and yet another pada varnam of ponnih pillai in (misra chapu), in the raga nata kurunji, was in honour of maestro vocalist Muktha.
Understanding of padams and javali, under T muktha on the Veena dhanammal style of music has helped Alarmel Valli to explore the ideals of dance as visual music.
The exposition of the pada varnam of Tanjore quartet ponniahpillai by the vocalist needs a special mention.
In the concert, Krishna’s exposition by fixing his eyes on details, always believing that a concert is not a sermon, but a performance and a reincarnation of series of ideas, implicit in the work of the art, was evident.
One thing we should be aware of is that eventually, the finest artist cannot be pigeon-holed. The reason, is that we remain alive to their qualities of presentation, and in each case we are forced to balance and adjust to the presentation, since every genius possesses virtues and defects, that challenges the keenness of the listeners.
We are certain, that the quality of performance usually determines the quality of the audience and vice-versa. The elite present at the ‘Baani festival’ curated by Alap, was certainly an indicator.
