KOCHI: The jingling of Sushmitha’s Ghoongroo (anklets) virtually brought the stream of the holy river Ganges to the dais. When Sanjay Mukherjee’s magical fingers explored the tonal variations of the tabla, it was like a breeze moving along with the smooth flow of the Ganges. Sushmitha Banerjee, who belongs to the Lucknow gharana in kathak, presented the gangaavathar, portraying the story of King Bageeratha who brought the river Ganges to earth.
Under the auspices of Spic Macay and the Tripunithura Sree Poornathrayeesha Sangeetha Sabha, the danseuse presented a lecture demonstration on kathak at Tripunithura Chinmaya Vidyalaya, which turned to be a full length rendition of the art accompanied by acting.
Though Sushmitha explained the two distinct aspects of kathak, nritta (pure dance) and nruthya (acting), it was quite difficult to distinguish the two in her dazzling performance. As Sunando Mukherjee’s sarod and Subhasish Bhattacharya’s harmonium entered the bhathyaar, the seducing rag in Hindustani, Sushmitha began the invocation.
Sushmitha first offered the aarthi and other ritualistic offerings to Lord Siva.
Meanwhile she experimented with the flat foot techniques of kathak, entirely different from those of mohiniyattom and bharatanatyam. By skillfully following the basic beat of the tabla, she presented strong foot steps which synchronised perfectly with the intricate tala structure of the vilambith theenthal. Besides narrating the melodious lyrical beauty of the lines like anga bhasma and chandrakala masthaka, Subhasish provided apt rhythmic support to the danseuse through a rendition of the intricate notations.
This invocation was followed by the conventional phases of kathak. Sushmitha started the nrutha through the entry the thata, the kathak dancer’s way of presenting different movements of angas and upangas. Thata was followed by amad, which is usually set and restricted to bhols (oral notations). First Sushmitha rendered the bhols and then visualised the same in tune with the complex beats of the tabla. The amad ends with a short circular movement after which the dancer takes a static position. This sudden but dramatic pause was received by viewers with applause.
Sushmitha portrayed the conversation between Yashoda and Sree Krishna when the latter asked his mother to get him the beautiful moon. This portion of kathak, popularly known as Gathabhav, was well supported with the tones of the santur.
The rendition of a Meera bhajan in mishra bhathyar rag virtually exposed the untapped beauty of nruthya (abhinaya) in kathak. As the mood of mishra bhathyar rag demands the traces of many sensitive rags like khamaj and pahadi, the inimitable acting potential of Sushmitha, a pet disciple of Birju Maharaj, was revealed through myriad facial expressions.
The dancer went on to elaborate the scene from Mahabharatha, the gambling of Shakuni and Yudhishtira at Indraprastha.
The flashes of emotion in her face communicated the hapless state of Yudhishtira and the boastful laughter of Duryodhana. She also narrated the pitiable state of Draupadi who was forcefully brought to the durbar by Dushasana. The beauty of the circular movement in kathak was well exploited by the danseuse to delineate the touching scene at the Durbar of Indraprastha, where Draupadi is molested by Dhushasana.
Sushmitha started with the most complex part of tattakara in which the danseuse sounded her ankle bells to evoke the flow of the river Ganges. The lyrical portion of the composition, gangaavathar, was in the rag jog, considered the sweetest rag in Hindustani.
Through her mesmerising body movements and emotions, Sushmitha could successfully proved the literal meaning of kathak, a relatively complex dance form before students as well as the viewers who are not so familiar with kathak.
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