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Of Chinna Nadam and periya talents!

August 16, 2026

Nartanam Academy of Dance and Music (NADAM) is among Bangalore's best Kathak and Bharatanatyam teaching and performing society. Coconut is a fruit of which no part is wasted! Tender water, add protein rich fruit, even the shell makes Fab India buttons now! Then there's coir mat, rope, carpets, beds and more. Add the tree itself... Dancing in the winds when you see it! That's why NADAM is aptly located on Coconut Street! In where else? Centre of Bangalore's traditional culture - Malleswaram, the other bastion being Basavangudi. R.K. Narayan's famous book that Shankar Nag and wife Arundhati Nag made into a beautiful DD teleserial - Malgudi Days - partakes of these two wor(ld)ds Mal - (from Malleswaram) and Gudi from Basavangudi. Great ideas are simple; clutter leads to confusion. Or Confucius!

Confucius sounding, read 'sorted,' are NADAM founders Murali Mohan Kalvakalva and Nandini Mehta. Stable, sensible and solid, both have trained many, performed much and steered 25 years of Bangalore's best dance festival, nay, two festivals - Chinna Nadam for children under 13 and Periya Nadam for grown up talents in December.

It's a sheer delight to watch the young ones, all dolled up like - dolls! Often lil girls love to dress up with jewelry and shiny costumes anyway and for dance, in a under teen kids, one set of Praveen Kumar students did so. He made them dress simply that suited their age. They shone in the whole evening best because they looked as dressed like children. Lessons for other teachers / acharyas / gurus.

Praveen Kumar's young disciples

Praveen Kumar is the most happening BN dancer of Bangalore today. Nay, India! In BN male soloist. There's a reason for it: hard, hard work of past 30 years, against many odds. A firm foundation under 3 gurus... Narmada, C.V. Chandru anna of Chennai and his mother who taught him much. This slender-looking dancing talent doesn't care how he looks but cares how he is looked at. He is first rate in angashudhi, auchitya and aharya. Young wannabes in rest of India please study him as a case study to understand what it takes to be a first rate PROFESSIONAL. No short cuts. Full focus. Like a chameleon he can adapt, change colours of his art, costumes and self to fit in anywhere.... India or Italy; France or Japan. Next stop USA.

The first day of Chinna Nadam festival at Rabindra Kalakshetra began on the dot with the soothing, dulcet voice of a complete dance talent Smita Srinivasan, later assisted by Aryaman. Pavanee and team managed backstage and more. NADAM trains kids to compere and conduct. What a good way forward.

The ten year old singer who started the Day One, Anagha Krishna, was a maami in the making, full of prose and poise - though her mummy sitting in front row - was more nervous than the child! She was giving rhythm from far, telling the child what octave to take by sign language and on the whole shaking seats by her excited movements. We felt we were in a 5D hall where - with a film going on screen - seats moved and vibrated! Mridangam by youngster Anshuman and violin by Rishabh Bhagavath were good support.

Gautham Vishwanathan

The first dancer of the first day of the two-day fest was a young boy Gautham Vishwanathan with big fish-like eyes, who reminded one of his teacher Rupesh K.C. who also has big, big eyes. He gave a good account of his training. Neat and clean. Should 30/40 years old with barely 5/10 years in professional dance field, start calling themselves gurus?

Parvathi Sridhar's shishyas

The maroon costumed group next, all students (Mokshitaa A.S, Viswanatha D., Vijaya Shraddha, Kavyasree Manam, Vidhya Sanskruti) of acharya Parvathi Sridhar were the best group of the whole evening, each one well synchronised and turned out. Excellent choreography too. This year's selection was good but rather generous, as in the end one suffered fatigue from watching dance 4 hours!

Solution: cut some BN. Try to get other forms. No Yakshagana? The dance of the state of Karnataka. If none in Bangalore then get from Udupi or Huballi for variety. Seeing BN one after other is rather demanding. Bad Natyam it becomes, not Bharatanatyam if kids sloppy and can't even stand straight. Some teachers sent just about anyone without correcting basic postures. It is for Selection Committee to be firm and select only the best.

Next year, strictly select only 5/7 best of BN. Not 20! Too much of a good thing like mithai becomes bitter. Unless there's more variety of forms, Kathak, Odissi, even modern, Kuchipudi, folk, there's no point inflicting on audiences an endless diatribe of passable dancers, some over dressed for children's age like the Kuchipudi girls (Aradhana Acharya, Aaradhya Deepak). Over the top with pasty smile. The taller of the two was actually a good dancer, though.

Acharya Rohini Prabhat's student gave a good account of legacy of star Kathak artistes Nirupama-Rajendra. Tanvi Shetty looked like a twinkle twinkle little star, smiles and all. Costume was garish but that the guru's style statement and kids love strong colours. Let it be. Her tayari was good.

Divya Raman

Other memorable ones was Nidhaga Karunad's student Prabhasmi Shetty. Good postures. He has 200 students. Mithun Shyam has 800! Happy that male dancers / teachers are able to make a good living. His Diya Raman looked yogic but filmy, which Mithun's guru Padmini Ramachandran too delighted in (Life of Pi, was her last cameo on screen, as the BN teacher in Pondi).

Odissi students (Saanvi Sahoo, Samaira Sahoo, Prishita Bal, Prasiddhi Samal) of Madhulita Mohapatra, performed well too, though had not much expressions. They just went through the paces. Her daughter Mihika Mahnoor was the centre of attraction dressed and dancing as Krishna. Others played their parts. Bharatanatyam of Shree Ganesha Nruthyalaya school of Dance and Music by acharyas MG Ganesh and Bhavana Ganesh and shishya M.G. Amulya was commendable. More Bharatanatyam! This time by Sree Gurukrupa Natya Kala Mandir acharyas S.R. Lakshmi, Jayapriyaa, Dhanashree Hariharan followed. Later, Srikanteshwara Kala Kendra's Sammhita Nadig trained under Acharya Gowri Sagar, impressed.

Kalari Gurukulam, students of Ranjan Mullarat

The concluding offering was riveting and showcased martial art Kalaripayattu of guru Ranjan Mullarat. All acquitted well - Aryanath Mullarat, Shravan Sharath Nair, Aarushi Sharvari K, Aadrith Subramanya, K. Lavanya Arun, Jaanvi J, Shreya Sameer Murthy, Ahana Aabhilash. Music support by Prajwal was befitting. It showed this form of Kerala is good basic self defence techniques and though done by boys earlier is more useful for girls as karate is in kaliyuga.

ICCR's new RD for South India, Nishi Bali - no, not from Bali but coming from a posting in Fiji - shared her pearls of wisdom! Bangalore being the best climate and people QUALITY in metro of India (with worst roads and civic admin) welcomed her.

Chinna Nadam festival shows India's got so much talent and Murali Mohan Kalvakalva with Nandini Mehta do every bit to help them grow. The thoughtful gifts in end - crayons and mythological story books - were an apt choice.

Rathna Kumar

Speeches didn't galore at Ratna Papa eve of 80th birthday and 75 years of dancing. Put together lovingly by her sister Seetha Ratnakar, the evening was classy and cute. The film montage culled from family and perhaps DD archives (Seetha Ratnakar worked for years at DD Chennai) showcased Ratna Papa's prodigious talent from a child artiste to a chilled guru at 80.

Film over, Ramaa Bharadvaj, a vocal dancer from USA now settled in namma Bengaluru, did a theatrical cameo on Ratna Papa' s life. The content of her presentation was almost a kindergarten rendition: It's like one is talking to kids, not grownups in the hall. The use of 5 colours of stoles / dupattas for the five phases of Ratna Papa's life in dance was well shaped and Ramaa held audience attention. In these 80 minutes commissioned act, Seetha Ratnakar got 10 minutes and Chitra Sundaram 7! Seetha was earnest and sisterly and Chitra being a first-rate editorial talent from London (who edited Pulse magazine of U.K. in the early 21st century, for long), was pithy and clear. Both were genuine and not contrived.

Bala Devi Chandrashekar

Genuine involvement with dance and bhakti was the leitmotif of visiting - from New Jersey via Paris, Pune and Pandharpur - Bala Devi Chandrashekar. Her teeth shone and she gave a Colgate smile often and at her senior age, she danced with aplomb like a kid with abandon. Mauli is basically about the process of pilgrimage to Pandharpur. Bhakti, there's not much dance to it, intrinsically, but she could sustain the show. 90 minutes is a tad too long and can be cut to 45, max 60. The Varkaris, the cult, the culture was talked about but dancing the same in cameo becomes repetitive. Maybe a screen visual support will help those who have never been there? Her sincerity was for all to see.

Sincerity and bhakti to great Jaipur gharana guru Kundanlal Gangani - in his centenary year - came through in a two-day montage Sangam festival featuring youngsters like Anoor Vinod Shyam on mridangam (with Prabodh Shyam giving lehra, Karthik Pranav giving taala support), then Manipuri dancer Malabi Choudhry, a disciple of last surviving of the 4 Jhaveri sisters Darshana Jhaveri and Anuradha Vikranth with Drishti ensemble in Bharatanatyam (Karna intense of Dr Padma Subrahmanyam school) and at end the able disciples of Pt Rajendra Gangani, Kathak, in namma Bengaluru at Wadia Hall of Institute of World Cultures, a fine hall in Basavangudi where ample parking is hidden behind the hall.

Akshata mounted a two day feast where the equally illustrious son is the great Jaipur gharana guru Rajendra Gangani who himself came from Delhi to pay homage with Anoor Mridangam Swami, that's his new adage! His two sons showed mastery over mridangam and harmonium. Did you know that harmonium was banned, yes, read-my-lips, banned by AIR till 1972 then from 1972-1974 allowed as accompaniment and finally recognised as a solo instrument by the AIR in 1990s!

Homage to Guru Kundanlal Gangani

Guru Kundanlal Gangani too didn't get a national award like the Padma. But he was the most proficient guru of his times. First in Mumbai, then Delhi. My father and he were great friends, so he took no fee to teach me when I was like ten years old. I continued till 16. I'm now 16.30 going by my leap year birthday! I wasn't a good student at all because at school sacrificing my lunch time, at the same time as learning Kathak, I was trying to learn Bharatanatyam from Swarna Saraswati amma's shishya Shanta Raghavan @ BVB, Delhi. While BN taught me to sit with knees bent, Kathak taught me to go in circles! Later, I added Odissi. OMG, guru Mayadhar Raut with principal shishya Aloka Panikar tried hard to teach me six months but gave up as I had by then taken to modern ballet taught by visiting London-based talent Marianne Balchin (ex-wife of famous critic Fernau Hall). I could not comply with demi-plie. By the time I was 16 and out of school, I realised my feet were Kathak (still are, going in circles!), my heart was BN (full of briskness and angularity!), my outlook on life was modern and my aesthetics are Odissi, laalitya, keep it simple but beautifully meaningful. But if truth be told, I most wanted to learn Kathakali because the makeup alone was so powerful. Minimal dancing! But lot of drama. Though I'm told when I'm charged up, I can look like a cool KK character!

Pt Rajendra Gangani

Character guru Kundanlal Gangani had, unlike many others, no drinking, no womanizing. He was totally focused on dance and teaching. Other than his own offsprings, he taught many: Urmila Nagar, Prerna Shrimali, Rajendra Gangani, who has now outdone his ancestors and how. Most amiable and affable, he has devoted shishyas in each major city of India. He is without nakhras or natak. He trains well and with affection and he dances like a man today making him the best male Kathak solo dancer and guru. Need more be said?

Ashish Mohan Khokar

Critic, connoisseur, historian, author, artivist, archivist, administrator and more - editor, columnist and mentor Ashish Khokar remains true to his muse.
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