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 A brilliant Mohiniattam performance by Swapna Rajendrakumar - SK Venugopal e-mail: venugopalsk@hotmail.com Photos courtesy: Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre December 27, 2023 Swapna Rajendrakumar is a dancer based out of Bangalore. Born and brought up in Mumbai, she had started learning Bharatanatyam from the age of 5 and Mohiniattam from college days. She continued learning and practicing Mohiniattam under the training of her Guru Dr. Sunanda Nair for almost 25 years. However, she could not cope up with higher learning in Mohiniattam in the same Bani, as her Guru was away in the U.S. Though a tough decision, she chose to pursue her passion for learning and go to the next level by following a slightly different Kalamandalam style of Mohiniattam. It was her good luck that around the same time, Guru Kalamandalam Kshemavathi was conducting classes in Bangalore. She has been learning under the caring wings of Kshemavathi teacher for the past 7 years both in Kerala and Bangalore. Similarly, she started pursuing her Bharatanatyam under the able guidance of Kiran Subramaniam and Sandhya Kiran. She conducts classes in Mohiniattam and Bharatanatyam at the Nrithyangana Institute of Performing Arts in Bangalore imparting the acquired knowledge to discerning students.  I had an opportunity to watch an intense presentation by Swapna, with 4 very well-crafted dance pieces in Mohiniattam style on the 14th of December 2023 titled 'Sarvam Vishnu Mayam'. Swapna Rajendrakumar started her performance by paying obeisance to 'Vignaharta' Ganapathi, with an item "Ekadantam," a composition of Late M.K. Vasudevan in Ragamalika and adi talam. A great start indeed to a very absorbing 90 minutes of classic Mohiniattam. All the items presented were choreographies of Swapna's Guru Kalamandalam Kshemavathi. After the Ganesh Vandana, she went on to the central piece, the varnam in ragam Saramathi narrating the story of Manjula, a staunch devotee of Lord Guruvayurappan, and the glory of 'Manjulal' (banyan tree) standing tall in front of the east side of the temple of Guruvayur. The lyrics of this varnam were written by Thrissur Mohan Kumar and music by Vayala Rajendran. Manjula, the ardent devotee of Krishna known for her innocent devotion, makes a garland as usual for her beloved Krishna with so much of love and devotion and rushes to the temple to offer the same and pray, but finds the doors of the temple closed as she was late by a few seconds. With so much of disappointment, she walks back weeping all the way and happens to meet the saintly Villwamangalam Swamy, who tells her not to worry and advises her to put the garland on the banyan tree in front of the temple. He goes on to say that the garland would be accepted by the Lord, since it was made with so much devotion and love. Manjula did the same with purest heart. The next day when the priest enters the shrine to conduct morning rituals, he finds this beautiful garland on the deity along with other garlands. As he tries to remove the garlands placed the previous day, for conducting usual rituals, he was astonished to see this particular garland re-appearing again and again on the idol as if not ready to part with it. He comes out to inform about this phenomenon to the devotees. Villwamangalam Swamy who was there at that time realizes that the garland is the one made by Manjula, and asks the devotees to summon her immediately. Manjula was overwhelmed with joy to find that her Lord has accepted her garland and she yearns for salvation. The banyan tree thus came to be known as 'Manjulal'. Swapna did full justice to the depiction of this story with brilliant expressions and graceful moves. The highlights were the 'bhakti bhava' of Manjula in disappointment on seeing the closed door of the temple and the astonishment of the priest at seeing the miracle happening in front of him. The selection of raga for this varnam was so apt for conveying the feel of the story and the musicians really did a marvelous job in producing such a masterpiece varnam.  The next item was selected verses from the adaptation of a Kathakali padam from Kuchela Vritham, "Ajitha hare" in Sreeragam. This most popular work of Muringoor Sankaran Potti deals with the episode of Kuchela venturing out to meet his old friend Krishna, upon insistence of his wife to seek help to overcome the extreme poverty they were undergoing. Krishna, the all-pervading, pretends not to know of anything and instead asks why for so long Kuchela didn't come to meet him. Kuchela replies, "Oh Krishna, you are invincible and revered even by the creator and my mind is ever kept brightened by your divine self." He refrains from speaking of his poverty ridden life but goes on with reference to Krishna as the charioteer of Arjuna and how he motivates Arjuna with 'Geethopadesam' during the Mahabharata war and how he manifested the magnificent 'Viswa Roopam' in front of Arjuna. Swapna uses this portion of Geethopadesam as the major sanchari. Swapna concluded the piece with Kuchela expressing his gratitude and contentment to Krishna for granting the opportunity to meet him. He says, "Oh Krishna I had the desire to meet you, but since my time was bad, I could not come. Now that I have met you, my wish is fulfilled, I have nothing more to ask for." Swapna's entry as Kuchela was unique and noteworthy. The skillful abhinaya and the soulful music made the interaction between Kuchela and Krishna very much absorbing for the audience. The manifestation of 'Viswa Roopam' in the sanchari portion was the major highlight, with thunderous applause from an appreciative audience. Swapna concluded her performance with "Pralaya payodhi jale," verses taken from poet Jayadeva's Geetha Govindam, presented in Ragamalika and adi talam. Each of the 10 incarnations of Lord Mahavishnu was presented by Swapna with clarity in expressions and hand gestures with precise dance movements to match. It was a blissful experience watching each incarnation unfold in front of us. The performance was staged at 'The Cube', on the first floor of the grand Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Mumbai. The ambience was amazing with top class light and sound management. The auditorium, though with limited seats, is designed in such a way that the performer gets a feel of intimacy with the audience, bringing out the best in them. Even though it was not a live orchestra, the recorded music did compliment the quality of performance of the artist in a big way. Music credits go to Kalamandalam Kshemavathi - nattuvangam, Bijeesh Krishna - vocal, Charudutt VV - mridangam, Murali Krishna - veena, Murali Narayanan - flute and Thrissur Ajithkumar - Idakka.  S.K.Venugopal is a businessman in the field of Engineering projects, a singer, composer, accredited artist in Light Music at All India Radio, auditioned and graded member of panel of speakers in Films Division of India, who is associated with Mohiniattam as accompanying musician and music composer. |
