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 Tyagaraja Hrt Sadana by Praveen Kumar & Chithkala School of Dance - Ramaa Venugopalan e-mail: ramaa17@gmail.com Photos: B.V.Madhukar December 22, 2023 Concept and Choreography: P. Praveen Kumar Dancers: Praveen Kumar & Chithkala School of Dance - Shreema Upadhyaya, Navyashree, Divya Hoskere, Vidyalakshmi, Pooja Desai, Shruthi Doss, Raaga Srinivasa. Musical Ensemble: Nattuvangam, pakhawaj & kanjira - Anoor Vinod Shyam, vocal - Raghuram, mridangam - Harsha Samaga, flute - Mahesha Swamy, violin - Nagaraj Mandya. Lights: TM Nagaraj This Bharatanatyam production was the latest year end offering in Bengaluru, an artistic hub known to embrace varied interpretations of artistic liberties and myriad story-telling explorations across genres of performing arts. Praveen Kumar, one of the best soloists of our country, is known for his invested and uncompromising approach towards the art. His Chithkala School of Dance nurtures several dancers, many of who are promising soloists and also boasts of a strong group ensemble. Tyagaraja Hrt Sadana is a production that Praveen mounted confidently to sold out shows on two weekdays (Dec 13 & 14, 2023) at ADA Rangamandira, Bengaluru, presided by musician Dr. S. Soumya and Prathibha Prahlad. I have watched Praveen since my teenage years, through my growth as a Bharatanatyam practitioner. His hard work, tenacity, and commitment towards the art form are attributes I applaud with deep respect. This article is an artistic observation of my personal engagement with this production. Essence of Tyagaraja and his Rama Tyagaraja, synonymous with Rama, epitomises a communion that is beyond the realm of human mind. Believed to be the incarnation of Valmiki, he outpoured his daily experiential existence with Rama through hundreds of musical compositions. The Tyagaraja Ramarasanubhavam Pravachanam of Erode Balaji Bhagavatar on YouTube is a compelling one hour discourse that I have been listening to for over a week now. Also, the daily practice of reading the original Samskrutam and English transliteration of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana raised a curiosity to watch Praveen's production on a weekday braving the horrific Bengaluru traffic.  A glimpse into the Elements, Visualization and Choreography The title of a production anchors the expectation of the audience. I was keen to observe how Praveen would portray, as the title suggested, Rama in the heart of Tyagaraja. The production opened to a meditative musical utterance of Rama Nama as the dancers took stage with the shloka Vyaasonaigama charchaya mrugadeera Valmiki janmamunihi, which places Tyagaraja on an equal pedestal amongst the great Valmiki and Shuka Muni, Prahlada in devotion, Brahma and Narada in music. A string of movements to a pre-designed set swara pattern charged the invocatory number with momentum. Delineated with choreographic precision, execution and good dancing, the number justified the practised effort invested in this production. A segue into Sri Rama Jaya Rama Shringara Rama… a lullaby introducing Rama as a young child was the next emotional fare. Three dancers seated in centre stage focussed by a spotlight, exploring the vatsalya bhava was the essence of this piece. While I engaged with the portrayal of Vidyalakshmi and Pooja Desai who handled the emotion using simple to subtle Vira overtures, Navyashree's contour of shringara was way off the mark. How can there ever be a presence of shringara in vatsalya bhava?  Dancers often pay scant attention to the physicality of a baby while portraying vatsalya, handling the character more like a weightless toy than a live child. This segment, apart from the musicality, provided no direction to the trajectory of the production. The medley continued with the kriti Uyyala logavayya… portrayed by Divya Hoskere narrating stories to baby Rama while cradling him to sleep and placing him on her knees. As she delineated the Matsyavatara sequence, one wondered how a tiny baby managed to balance itself on the knees while she swayed her hands extensively to portray the story! Praveen's grand entry as Rama got the audience in uproar with hoots and claps to the score of Dasharatha tanuja… leading to Sogasu chooda tarama…, portraying the youth and his encounter with Sita. The love blossoming between them marked this short but beautifully crafted segment. The dance of the deer as a metaphor for love, set predictably in Praveen's signature style of silence, and clinical synchronised effect with the orchestra ensemble to every movement of the nritta, including the flicker of the drishti was stylized execution at its best. As Shreema Upadhyaya donned the role of Sita, her shringara bhava was more static and rehearsed than responsive to the moment and sahitya. As the strains of Jagadanandakaraka overlapped from the instruments, the stage burst alive with high energy as Praveen and his group took centre stage to foray into delineating this grand kriti. Pancharatna kritis, due to its complex musicality, speed and extensive usage of words and philosophical subtext, is a difficult task to adapt to dance even with a decent basic angika abhinaya treatment. Praveen, however, cleverly weaved short excerpts of stories from the Ramayana, executed by him and his dancers with technical finesse, energy and practised ease. In his predictable style, he handled the long winding swaras alternatively in Tishra Gati and Chouka kalam to the tunes of the flute by Mahesha Swamy and violin by Nagaraj Mandya. The usage of space, sharp and swiftly carved movements added to the visual synchronicity. The impeccable and confident execution, with accentuated finesse by him and dancers made this Pancharatna kriti an exuberant roller coaster ride. Raghuram was at his vocal ease handling this famous kriti with his fine tonal and musical quality. The lighting by Nagaraj enhanced the episodes of Subahu Vadam, Ahalya Shaapa Vimochanam and Sita Kalyanam.  The climax of this kriti came in the form of Rama - Ravana Yuddham executed energetically by Praveen and Navyashree to Anoor Vinod Shyam's recitation of jathis and Harsha Samaga's mridangam. The victory and the Pattabhishekam was a coming together of the other dancers Vidyalakshmi, Shruthi Doss, Raaga Srinivasa adding colour to the overall canvas. Valmiki Ramayana's excerpt of the Rama - Ravana Yuddha The Yuddha Kanda of Ramayana is a momentous juncture. All the Pancha Bhootas, the Gandharvas, the Yakshas, the Shiva, Brahma, the Devatas, Vanaras, Rakshasas, the universe, the galaxy, the planets…await this intense historic moment. Both Rama and Ravana have battled arduously and it is now the time for Rama to use the Brahmastra and kill Ravana who stands tumultuously fearing his moment of death. Amid this chaos, Rama stands as an epitome of serenity. He wields the Brahmaastra, strung with a poignant moment of confidence, killing Ravana in an instant. Praveen, perhaps could have referred to such a layered approach to this moment. His treatment of breaking into a stereotypical jathi, failed to elevate this momentous juncture and prevented it from pivoting the quality of the kriti beyond the ordinary. As the curtains came down, post the Rama Pattabhishekam episode in the kriti, the dancers moved into a thillana-like piece to the soft overtones of a Stuti on Tyagaraja which states - The world may be short on singers like Kusha and Lava and musicians who pay no heed to good songs or poems. But how fortunate are the ones who listen to Tyagaraja's nectar like poems! The soft, meditative strains of Rama Nama by Raghuram and the orchestra brought the evening to a close with a final visual of all dancers portraying obeisance to Tyagaraja to a thunderous standing ovation by the audience.  Voids in the production The key aperture in this entire production was the absence of Tyagaraja as a character or presence failing to justify the title. Tyagaraja or his hrt made no appearance in the production, except for a passing imagery in the end, rather than any layered, emotional tapestry of Tyagaraja's tryst with Rama. Star dancers and teachers who mount productions and dance along with their students have a challenging task to place themselves in a vantage point. As Praveen matched with grit and energy as one amongst his group of dancers, I wondered why he chose not to approach with a layered perspective, adding any unique characterisation to the production or even eulogising how Rama was embedded in Tyagaraja's heart. That would have pinned Praveen to the sthayi and the crux of the production. The dancers Shruti Doss, Raaga Srinivasa, Vidyalakshmi and Pooja Desai had no crucial role to play. Impression Tyagaraja Hrt Sadana is an honest, energised, well-executed weave of compositions. A must watch to realise how strong, good dancing is impactful - a contrast to the mediocre ideation and explorations in practice, on social media and other platforms. As fusion and self-styled mindless dancing make rounds, Praveen along with his disciples, stands as a lead warrior to proclaim and uphold the value of adherence to the Bharatanatyam vocabulary with unwavering commitment, honesty, integrity and sincerity.  Ramaa Venugopalan is a Bharatanatyam performer, teacher and writer from Bangalore. |
