Lord Krishna’s tales have always been an entertaining mythological story for people. The more it was told, the more his leelai was cherished by people. However this time, it was not a performance on his divine love towards Radha that attracted people to Vasant Utsav, held at Kapaleeshwarar Temple on Monday. Despite being a weekday, a large crowd came to appreciate the beauty and the eternal truth about lord Krishna through a dance ballet called Sri Krishna Parijatam.
The kuchipudi performance by Srimayi Vempati, along with the students of Padmabhushan Vempati Chinna Satyam Kuchipudi Art Academy, took the audience through a spellbinding journey of devotion, mythology and authentic dance movements.
The dance ballet became an arena for looking back into the episode in the life of Krishna, after he got married to Sathyabhama and Rukmini. The repertoire was potent with fun filled moments, repartees, coupled with dance movements, which eventually became an embodiment of pristine beauty. The story revolves around the parijatham flower, which Narada asks Krishna to give to the lady he loves the most.
Krishna gives the flower to Rukmini, which leads one to a dance of love, beautifully presented on stage, keeping the essence of love and bhakti. For the mischievous person that Narada was, he goes to Sathyabhama and reveals that Krishna has professed his love for Rukmini. An outraged Sathyabhama confronts Krishna, whose constant cajoling fails to convince her. Krishna says that though the flowers go to Rukmini, his heart goes out to Sathyabhama.
The audience could not resist laughing at the idiosyncracies of each character, especially when Krishna is caught between the two women in his life. The problems that Narada’s action leads the three characters into, were a delight to watch. The dialogue in between was efficiently portrayed. While one looked around, people were so wrapped up in the presentation that there was a constant smile on their faces.
Sathyabhama and Rukmini engage in a tug of war holding Krishna’s hands on either side. Eventually, the one who started all this comes to solve the problem, stating that no one person in the world can claim possession of Krishna. The dance ballet ended with the profound statement that lord Krishna can only be possessed through true bhakti.