 |
       |
|
|
 Narayaneeyam Revisited - A M Hari Shankar e-mail: hshankar252@gmail.com Photo: Sreenath Narayanan November 18, 2019 Mohiniattam, the dance form of Kerala, has over the years, faced several existence crisis due to lack of patronage in its own motherland. The profound efforts led by Vallathol Narayana Menon revived and revitalized this art form. Since then, dancers across the nation have strived for reconstructing and restructuring the form. Guru Dr.Kanak Rele is one of the foremost names among them. Being one of her senior-most disciples, it was not surprising to see Dr.Sunanda Nair dancing the Nalanda bani of Mohiniattam in an eloquent presentation in a recent performance at Triveni Kala Sangam, Delhi, in an event organized by Navaneetham Cultural Trust. 
The new thematic production titled 'Namamrutham' conceptualized by Sunanda Nair was based on the medieval Sanskrit text Narayaneeyam by Melpathur Narayana Bhattathirippadu at Guruvayoor, Kerala. The whole presentation was segmented into several episodes mentioned in the text. Starting with an invocatory sloka in praise of Lord Ganesha and Lord Vishnu, she presented the first dasakam or canto of the text, praising the eternity of the Lord. The episodes of Gajendra moksham and Prahlada charitam left the audience spellbound. Sunanda's visualization of the scenes remained distinct from the usual way by incorporating thunderous movements for Hiranyakashipu and Narasimha. The way she enacted Garuda, Gajendra (elephant) and Crocodile needs a special mention of how skillfully she used body movements and facial expressions in a composed manner without overdoing it. Followed by the scenes of Krishnaleela, the childhood plays of Krishna and the quick changing into Yashoda worked well with the fine emotive gestures and the scenes of Krishna's hard try to reach the buttermilk pot on top drew much appreciation from the audience. In this series, the Poothana Moksham episode where Poothana in her disguise as Lalita, her arrival and approach to baby Krishna and the most appreciated scene of attaining salvation on feeding baby Krishna with poison smeared breast was adorned with commendable eye movements, wriggling in discomfort during the last breath, showcasing the artiste's intense practice of netrabhyaasa. The concluding episode with 100th or last dasakam of the Narayaneeyam took the audience to the picturesque description of Keshadipaadam (head to toe) of Lord Krishna and seeks the blessings of Lord Guruvayoorappa for healthy long lives of his devotees. The music composition for this production by Ajith Edapally found total felicity through Kalamandalam Gireesan and Kalamandalam C Gopalakrishnan Nair on vocal and nattuvangam respectively. The bold beats of Satish Krishnamurthy (mridangam) and the sensitive playing of Satish Poduval (edakka) was accompanied by VSK Annadurai (violin) and Kiran Kumar (flute). Lighting by Sushant Jadhav needs a special mention for the way he meticulously used lights to generate the ambience and mood of the scene depicted. Delhi based A M Hari Shankar is a research scholar in Life Sciences at Central University of Punjab by profession, a percussionist and an art enthusiast by passion. |
