Krishna - The Divine, an excellent dance ballet by Sheejith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon.
Old theme, old stories put together with new movements and ideas.
Performed last month at Narada Gana Sabha.
The dance Drama started with the depiction of krishna's favourite - Yamuna ' nadhi ' . It was an impeccable nritta portion and this was followed by a song 'nanda lala' where the birth of krishna.
The town then celebrates the birth of ' Janardhana' - boys pick up their drums and start their grand celebration when the audience were left spell- bound by the scintillating performance of the like of Pung Cholam by the 4 boys. out of them, 2 were kalakshetra products and 3rd, a disciple of the Gurus and 4th - Sheejith himself.
I have attached a link below of this. http://www.youtube.com/
After this, we could here the favourite Yaman Kalyani - Krishna nee begana Baro, where Krishna gives his grand entry. Though the entry of the main character was done in an old fashioned way, more like the pravesha daru of yakshagana, it still gave a good effect.
Here Little krishna, though enacted by Sheejith Nambiar himself was convincing enough to be a little one! :)
The Gopikas, usual complaints of steeling butter were well depicted. Although when Krishna started playing the flute, one could hear the mridangam, vocal and nattuvangam, this could have been restrained to only flute, which could have sounded alluring.
in the charanam ' Jagadho dharana...' the scene where krishna shows the entire universe to His mom was effectively portrayed, a few distractions by the others dancers on the stage could have been avoided!
Valachi Ragam began the scene II, here the usage of many karanas for deer and peacock movements were excellent.
for the song 'Gaana Mazhai' in behag, the dancers had enacted extempore on the stage portraying the given character, which was absolutely stunning to watch given the odds of a group dance! it was a fantastic job.
The favourite Dance depiction of krishna was shown in the next scene with Purvi Kalyani ragam, a well selected ragam - 'Tasmeen kale' - the song with good lyrics for 'Kalinga Narthanam'. 3 snakes and the snake like movements were well choreographed , krishna's striking steps on the head of the snake was very good, though one could a lot of repeatition in krishna's steps. A special mention has to be made here, in the last posture, One of the best mishap management on the stage. though the boy carrying Krishna slipped, though Krishna's one leg fell on the floor, the posture was so perfect, it was marvellous, probably better than the original one!
The other miracle that krishna performed was lifting of the Govardhan. This scene carried a palpable sense of devotion.
A jathi here with words 'Uddhaara Govardhana' was well composed. Govardhan Giridhara, a popular song, was then danced by all. the end of this scene was natural. I liked the way, a bhaktha sits devotionally on the stage when everybody leaves the stage along with krishna, suddenly realising this, krishna turns back , everybody turn back, krishna makes a run to this bhaktha, hugs and takes him along too.
Oh, yes, the Gopikas are here, 'Chaliye Kunjanamo' - an awesome song, beautifully choreographed by the Dancing Couple and well portrayed. this scene ended on the boat with all the gopikas on river yamuna. And yes, how can one miss 'Raas' when talking about vrindavan, neither did Nambiar and menon forget this. A powerful raas piece was inserted here and relaxed the audience with the song 'Gopi gopala bal'.
The ever depressing situtation, krishna leaves Vrindavan and the depression could have been more effective!
Scene 6- entering Dwaraka, people of Dwaraka sing in praise of Sri Krishna with 'Swagatham Krishna'.
towards the end, the ballet started dragging, it was time to end but it dint! various songs like, Bhaktha hridya mandara, nanda nanda ( a bhajan type), dasavatharam ( an unnecessary insertion), bhagavad gita (yada yada hi dharmasya), shanthakaram, vishva roopa dharshanam... there was everything. The bhajan type of dancing was excellent and the vishvaroopa dharshnam would have been more effective with use of better back lighting! All in all, it was admirably composed ballet, just like Divine Shri Krishna.
Old theme, old stories put together with new movements and ideas.
Performed last month at Narada Gana Sabha.
The dance Drama started with the depiction of krishna's favourite - Yamuna ' nadhi ' . It was an impeccable nritta portion and this was followed by a song 'nanda lala' where the birth of krishna.
The town then celebrates the birth of ' Janardhana' - boys pick up their drums and start their grand celebration when the audience were left spell- bound by the scintillating performance of the like of Pung Cholam by the 4 boys. out of them, 2 were kalakshetra products and 3rd, a disciple of the Gurus and 4th - Sheejith himself.
I have attached a link below of this. http://www.youtube.com/
After this, we could here the favourite Yaman Kalyani - Krishna nee begana Baro, where Krishna gives his grand entry. Though the entry of the main character was done in an old fashioned way, more like the pravesha daru of yakshagana, it still gave a good effect.
Here Little krishna, though enacted by Sheejith Nambiar himself was convincing enough to be a little one! :)
The Gopikas, usual complaints of steeling butter were well depicted. Although when Krishna started playing the flute, one could hear the mridangam, vocal and nattuvangam, this could have been restrained to only flute, which could have sounded alluring.
in the charanam ' Jagadho dharana...' the scene where krishna shows the entire universe to His mom was effectively portrayed, a few distractions by the others dancers on the stage could have been avoided!
Valachi Ragam began the scene II, here the usage of many karanas for deer and peacock movements were excellent.
for the song 'Gaana Mazhai' in behag, the dancers had enacted extempore on the stage portraying the given character, which was absolutely stunning to watch given the odds of a group dance! it was a fantastic job.
The favourite Dance depiction of krishna was shown in the next scene with Purvi Kalyani ragam, a well selected ragam - 'Tasmeen kale' - the song with good lyrics for 'Kalinga Narthanam'. 3 snakes and the snake like movements were well choreographed , krishna's striking steps on the head of the snake was very good, though one could a lot of repeatition in krishna's steps. A special mention has to be made here, in the last posture, One of the best mishap management on the stage. though the boy carrying Krishna slipped, though Krishna's one leg fell on the floor, the posture was so perfect, it was marvellous, probably better than the original one!
The other miracle that krishna performed was lifting of the Govardhan. This scene carried a palpable sense of devotion.
A jathi here with words 'Uddhaara Govardhana' was well composed. Govardhan Giridhara, a popular song, was then danced by all. the end of this scene was natural. I liked the way, a bhaktha sits devotionally on the stage when everybody leaves the stage along with krishna, suddenly realising this, krishna turns back , everybody turn back, krishna makes a run to this bhaktha, hugs and takes him along too.
Oh, yes, the Gopikas are here, 'Chaliye Kunjanamo' - an awesome song, beautifully choreographed by the Dancing Couple and well portrayed. this scene ended on the boat with all the gopikas on river yamuna. And yes, how can one miss 'Raas' when talking about vrindavan, neither did Nambiar and menon forget this. A powerful raas piece was inserted here and relaxed the audience with the song 'Gopi gopala bal'.
The ever depressing situtation, krishna leaves Vrindavan and the depression could have been more effective!
Scene 6- entering Dwaraka, people of Dwaraka sing in praise of Sri Krishna with 'Swagatham Krishna'.
towards the end, the ballet started dragging, it was time to end but it dint! various songs like, Bhaktha hridya mandara, nanda nanda ( a bhajan type), dasavatharam ( an unnecessary insertion), bhagavad gita (yada yada hi dharmasya), shanthakaram, vishva roopa dharshanam... there was everything. The bhajan type of dancing was excellent and the vishvaroopa dharshnam would have been more effective with use of better back lighting! All in all, it was admirably composed ballet, just like Divine Shri Krishna.
No comments:
Post a Comment