HYDERABAD: My recent journey to an unknown temple resulted in discovering of the most tranquil places of worship, hidden away from the clutter and chaos – a 500-year-old temple exuding rustic charm and intriguing quaintness.
Reviving our rich culture of traditional temple worship, Gudi Sambaraalu, (the Telangana Temple Festival) is bringing out temples tucked away in remote corners: those serene temples receiving quiet worship, removed far from the fanfare, rush and the commercial buzz. Artists of various genres come together to perform in these sacred spaces, giving art lovers the joy of enjoying the divine arts in temples.
This year’s festival is dedicated to the Sacred Earth – Bhumi Devi. Quiet temples are coming alive to soulful music and rhythmic beats while scholars share their knowledge of Mahi Matha as Mother Earth is addressed in Rig Veda.
In this context, Pitties’ Sri Venkateswara Temple (Laxman Bhag, Shaikpet) reverberated with dancing bells and mellifluous music during the weekend. For many in the audience, it was a feast to the eyes and soother to the heart.
On Saturday, Mahabharat Reinterpreted was presented. It was a meld of seven classical dance styles (Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, Odissi and Chhau) that interacted with each other to tell the story of the Mahabharata: presented by Shama Bhate, whose work spans over 35 years as a performer, teacher, choreographer and artistic director.
It was a massive production interpreting the epic with the clever use of multimedia, vibrant music, props and specially designed costumes, all maintaining a contemporary sensitivity. With a well knit screenplay, well rehearsed sequences, good coordination, vibrant music with fine audio quality, Mahabharata was reinterpreted to the present audience.
While Kathak sequences were used as transitions, the other dance forms were employed to suitably denote every character, like the boisterous Duryodhana (Rakesh Saibabu) in the virile martial dance form of Chhau, and Bheeshma Pitamaha (Dr Kannan) in larger-than-life Kathakali. The others in the cast were
Yudhishthira (Ramli Ibrahim-Odissi), Kunti (Vyjanthi Kasi- Kuchipudi), Karna (VaibhavArekar- Bharatnatyam), Draupadi (Ameera Patankar- Kathak) and Gandhari (Gopika Varma-Mohiniattam), who excelled with her sathvikabhinaya.
The seven dance styles were incorporated to convey the conflicting values, ideals and philosophies that their characters represented, but the strengths of the different styles were not fully exploited, neither did the distinctive style of each dance form noticeable. A transparent cubicle was used as a memory box- to showcase haunting memories (flash back) of the characters during the introspection towards the end of their lives.
On Sunday, Nrityagram (Bangalore) presented Samyoga – Songs of love and longing. Odissi speaks of love and union, between human and divine, transporting viewers to enchanted worlds of magic and spirituality. Its sensuousness and lyricism reflect both the motifs of Odisha temple sculpture as well as the poetry from the deep wellsprings of Oriya music. When Surupa Sen and Bijayini Satpathy danced, it looked as though sculptures from the Khajuraho temple descended to do the celestial dance. Besides dance, their research on the moving body in all its possibilities is often seen as the ultimate aesthetics which a body can render.
And there was proof – mesmerising the audience, the duo flowed from Panchataal Pallavi to Murali Pani to Meera Bhajan to Shivashtakam. Pavithra Reddy and a young dancer from Nrityagram joined them in some numbers.
A softly lit dried tree formed an apt backdrop to their hypnotising dance, transporting the audience to a land of love and longing.
(The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer who blogs at www.vijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com)