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 Drishti National Dance Festival - The pride of Karnataka - Veena Murthy Vijay e-mail: veenamurthyvijay@gmail.com Photos courtesy: Drishti April 18, 2022 Spring season waits for no one during the warm summers in India. Whether there is COVID or no COVID, whether there is the Russia-Ukraine war or the sun doesn't set in another country, the spring season sees all its blossoms blooming in our beautiful Bangalore roads in hues of purple, yellow, red. So is the Drishti National Dance Festival; amidst all odds Drishti has stood up to its values and commitment towards propagating Indian classical dance. For the last 17 years it has made a mark as one of India's most popular festivals from Bangalore. This year Drishti has a double bill of celebrations - one the celebration of dance and dancers and two the most important celebration of the 75th year of Indian Independence - Azadi ki Amrit Mahotsav. Predictably the themes that were chosen by all the dancers were based on all the aspects of glory of our country and about personalities who have contributed richly to the independence of India. As the evening skies filled with darkness and stars, the stars in Chowdiah Memorial Hall were all set to present some of the finest performances to the audience. The audience was treated to a beautiful and outstanding fair of dance performances by both our country's senior most renowned artistes as well as the next generation popular artistes.  Drishti Ensemble The evening began with the bright and colorful performance by the Drishti Ensemble with a sprightly dance as a preamble for their next production 'Anthardhwani' as well as an invocatory piece for the evening to unfold. Beautiful coordination, most suitably costumed in the colors of the Indian flag, made the performance by the Drishti Ensemble an auspicious beginning for the festival. The dancers included Shubha Chethan, Ramya M Bhat, Aishwarya Tholpady, Deeksha P, Chandralekha C, Varsha Shankar, Abhinaya Sriram, Anagha Jain, Anvita Kodange, Apeksha V, Dedeepya RE, Dharshini V, Gowri S Bharadwaj, Laalithya A, Meghana Hubli, Preethi S, Rhea Vikranth, Shamitha K, Shephali KP, Shweta Raj, Sukrutha TS.  Anuradha Vikranth The next number was by the director of Drishti, Anuradha Vikranth. Anuradha has emerged as one of the senior exponents in Bharatanatyam from Karnataka, going places with her energetic and scintillating performances. Currently pursuing her Ph.D under the guidance of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam, Anuradha Vikranth has several other tasks that she has coped with marvelously and delivering it with great success. Whether it be teaching and bringing out able students from her institution or her performances or the academic learning that she has been pursuing, in all these aspects she has emerged successfully as an able teacher, brilliant performer and an academic scholar. Anuradha Vikranth performed the well-known kriti "Meenakshi memudam", which is a composition of Muthuswamy Dikshitar and a choreography of Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam to the soulful music rendered by Dr. Gayatri Kannan. Anuradha has put her best foot forward to match the high level mastery required to deal with Padma Subrahmanyam's choreographies and music. This composition in its sanchari had a unique story line of one of the lesser known heroes of our nation, Kumarakampanna. The choreography brought about the story of how Kumarakampanna discovered the idol of Goddess Meenakshi which was hidden during the Muslim invasion and resurrected the temple rituals thereon. Anuradha proved her excellence in every nuance of her movement and very ably executed sathvika abhinaya making this composition a beautiful start for the evening.  Rama Vaidyanathan Rama Vaidyanathan, one of the top line dance exponents of our country, began her recital with a very interesting number based on one of Kalidasa's verses from the Kumarasambhavam which vividly described the Himalayas. Kalidasa's verses picturize most beautifully the snow capped Himalayan range. Rama made these verses come alive with her well-crafted set of movements. Her angika was completely blended with the sathvika, the majestic stance of the mountain which was seen not only through her body language but also through the keen intellectual application of the poetry and the feel of the poet. The jathis which were choreographed to bring out the sturdiness of the mountains was intricately woven with linear movements and geometric twists and turns across the stage, covering the stage and bringing alive the vastness and magic of the gigantic Himalayas. The next number was a composition of Rabindranath Tagore calling out to the spirit of freedom of the citizens and what exactly is freedom. Is it the freedom of the mind, heart or free spirit of the soul? That is more important - to look at each day with great onus and look forward to a bright future. This number was dealt with great delicacy and the music was very soothing retaining the Bengali style of rendition of the Rabindra Sangeet along with retaining the Bharatanatyam technique. It looked effortless but I'm sure great efforts must have been made to blend these two styles and do justice to its original forms. It was not at all a limitation to artistic creativity and craftsmanship of the artiste. All in all, the audience was enthralled by both these performances. The stage felicitation ceremonies were done in a brief manner. Amidst the presence of the chief guests, senior Guru Lalitha Srinivasan, art patron Dayananda Pai, chief patron of Drishti Dr. TM Manjunath and President of the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy Suneel Puranik, Rama Vaidyanathan was honored with the 'Drishti Puraskar'. Rama gave a beautiful speech upon receiving the award and declared that she feels like the coronate queen at the Drishti Awards. Her speech was truly inspiring to every aspiring dancer when she said that the awards from peers or co-dancers in the field always makes one strive better and makes her feel like a queen.  Rahul Acharya and Pavitra Bhat The second half of the program began with an interesting collaborative work from bright young male dancers Pavitra Krishna Bhat (Bharatanatyam) and Rahul Acharya (Odissi). Their theme of portraying temples as a mirror of life was skillfully brought out. Pavitra began with an energetic Mallari composed by Vasudevan Iyengar bringing to light the rituals of the temples like Ashtadikpalaka Pooja, Pallaki Utsavam and other sevas including the Nritya Seva. With intricate footwork and command over angashuddhi, Pavitra did full justice to the Mallari. Contrary to the energetic Bharatanatyam by Pavitra, Rahul Acharya along with Sourav Mohanty showcased with grace and clarity a performance in Odissi by presenting a piece by the name 'Sthayee' in raga Shankarabaranam and Ektali choreographed by Guru Debaprasad Das. This piece portrays the various sculptures of Orissa. Beautifully woven with complex movements and rhythmic structures, the dancers showed their prowess over control of their body and rhythm sense. As a conclusion to their performance, both Pavitra and Rahul came together to pay an ode to the Indian temple architecture and Vishwakarma by performing to the shlokas from the Shilpa Prakasha. A unique collaborative attempt by both the artistes brought about the festival's theme of celebrating Indic Arts through their charismatic presentation.  Nadam Dance Ensemble The final performance of the night was Kathak by the Nadam Dance Ensemble, which soared with great energy and left the audience struck with their vibrancy. Lead members of the Nadam team, Nandini Mehta and Murali Mohan along with their disciples Pavani and Vibha presented an invocatory piece "Pashupathe" on Lord Shiva composed by Samanvitha Sharma and followed it up with a rich technical piece involving the recitation of bols and intricate footwork called 'Freedom.' The well-coordinated team performed the compositions with such ease and comfort that engaged the audience throughout. The concluding piece 'Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai' was a befitting conclusion for the theme of the entire festival, performed by Poorna Acharya, Prerna Koushik, Srinidhi Bhat, Usha Nataraj, Shambhavi K, Megha and Kanak Mehta. Filled with the emotion of patriotism, this composition was very well executed with props and formations that were pleasing to the eye and won the hearts of the audience. With the performance of the Nadam Dance Ensemble, the 17th Drishti National Dance Festival on March 19 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall came to a wonderful end. Drishti Art Foundation, Anuradha and Vikranth always standing true to their motive of serving the audience with a wonderful platter of various genres of Indian classical dance, along with a thought provoking theme and brilliant lineup of artistes, proves yet again with a magnificent celebration that culture and its representation in India is still loved and accepted with open arms by all.  Veena Murthy Vijay is a senior Kuchipudi exponent, Director - Sri Rajarajeshwari Kalaniketan, Director - Bangalore International Arts Festival and President - World Dance Alliance, Karnataka Chapter. |
