KOCHI: Bharatham, the communion of bharatanatyam and bharatanruthyam by equally balancing the nuances of the two schools, turned out to be a memorable evening for the connoisseurs of classical dance at JT Pac on Saturday.
Before the august presence of Mohanlal, chairman of JT Pac, and Jose Thomas, president, Vineeth and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy unfolded the world of gestures and graceful body movements.
“This is the first staging of Bharatham through which we are trying to blend my version of bharatanruthyam rooted in the school of Padma Subramanyam with Lakshmi’s bharatanatyam from the Kalakshethra school,” Vineeth told expresso before the performance.
Bharatham began with the traditional ‘thodaya mangalam’ which followed a ‘Devi sthuthi’.
Pushpanjali turned to be a sparkling exposition of two emotions, bhakthi by Vineeth and sringara by Lakshmi. The composition was in rag gambheera natta. Singer Murali Parthasarathy added a vibrating vocal support to the graceful movements of the dancers.
Vineeth presented a solo composed by Meenakshi Subrahmanyam, mother of dancer Padma Subhramanyam. With the help of a simple Sanskrit composition tuned in rag bhairavi, Vineeth described the divine personality of Sree Rama through a series of events in his life. When Vineeth presented some immortal moments from the epic Ramayana with his smooth body movements and gestures, Sunilkumar and Veeramani gave their support through their flute and violin.
Conceiving the seriousness of a bharatanatyam performance, Vineeth and Lakshmi jointly presented a varnam in rag nattakurinji.
Here the duo blended their individual styles without losing their identities. This presentation of the subtle elements of bharathanatyam and bharatanruthyam created a vibrant mood among the viewers.
Lakshmi then went for a Swathi composition in rag behag to delineate the sweetness of sringara. Her expressive eyes and movements portrayed the pensive mood of a lover which was well supported by the soulful rendition of the padhams (lyrics) of Swathi by vocalist Murali.
Through this solo performance Lakshmi proved her inimitable talent and her eyes easily conveyed the romantic feelings in the verse of the great composer.
The next solo performance by Vineeth opened a new vista for bharatanruthyam as he gave a dance version of the famous Ayyappa devotional song, ‘Ore Oru Lakshyam Sabari Maamala………’ “This version, titled Sabarimala Sannidhi, is choreographed by my guru Padma Subramanyam and influenced by the concept of Lord Ayyappa. My guru asked me to popularise the concept of divinity where the border line between the devotee and Almighty evaporates at a particular moment,” Vineeth said.
When the lyrics of this song found form in the gestures of a great dancer, it turned to be a mesmerising experience for the dance buffs gathered at JT Pac.
Vineeth narrated the serene ambience of the holy forest of Lord Ayyappa and the harmony of animals and tens of thousands of devotees who come there every year.
Each and every movement of this gifted dancer echoed the divine spirit of Lord Ayyappa which provides an indescribable feeling of security to lakhs of Ayyappa devotees spread all over the world. Lakshmi presented an excerpt from Ashtapadi in ragamalika where she unveiled the tranquil love of Radha towards Krishna and virtually created a Vrindavan through her mesmerising performance.
Before concluding the show, Vineeth and Lakshmi jointly presented a thillana in rag brindavan.
Here the frensied movements were well supported by Shakthivel’s mrudangam and Nattuvangam K S Balakrishnan’s voice.
Later Mohanlal felicitated Annamala Pulavar, the renowned tholpaava koothu artist, as the artist of the month.
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