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 Bharatha Muni Jayantotsavam 2023 - Sudha Sridhar e-mail: sudhasridhar@hotmail.com January 5, 2024 Shri Akhila Bharatha Kuchipudi Natya Kala Mandali (ABKNKM), Kuchipudi, organised, Bharatha Muni Jayantotsavam in Kuchipudi village, Andhra Pradesh, showcasing classical dance forms Kuchipudi, Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi Yakshaganam in chronological order.   Mandali The Mandali was founded by Chinta Ramaandam, Vedantam Rattaiah Sarma and Pasumarthi Keshavaprasad, a good forty years back as a very envious genesis worth recollecting. Kuchipudi is probably the only classical dance form of the country being named after the place of its origin and that is a very big pride for the traditional families who have pursued the art form very assiduously for several centuries from the present day Kuchipudi. The performance of the stalwarts of the Kuchipudi traditional families revolved around all the activities of the Kuchipudi village as well as a travelling team - Bhagavathamelam - throughout the length and the breadth of the country with the likes of doyens like Chinta Venkatramaiah with Venkatramaiah's Natya Mandali, Chinta Krishnamurthy, Vedantam Parvatesam, Rama Kottiah, PVG Krishna Sarma and others. They performed Kuchiipudi Yakshaganam and other genres of Kuchipudi as part of the Kuchipudi village temple utsavs, Thyagaraja Swamy Aradhana, Narayana Teertha utsav, Rama Navami celebrations, etc. The uniqueness about ABKNKM is that, it was probably the first to encourage not only the Kuchipudi stalwarts to perform in Kuchipudi village but also set out to give opportunities to perform for the artistes from other classical dance forms of the country too in the hallowed pristine surroundings of Kuchipudi village.  P Keshavaprasad In that endeavour, P Keshavaprasad was the backbone of the Mandali right from inception in the year 1983. He was a multi-faceted Kuchipudi artiste, a dancer, singer, nattuvanar, writer, choreographer, thinker, research scholar, and guide and worked closely with almost all of his peers Vempati Chinna Satyam, Vedantam Satyanarayana Sarma, PVG Krishna Sarma, Vedantam Parvetsam and others. He not only worked at bringing the best of the artistes from the other art forms to perform at Kuchipudi, but also organised several lecture demos and seminars to disseminate and educate on the nuances of Kuchipudi and other art forms. The Mandali organised Bharat Muni Jayantotsavam for the first time in the year 2003 and started to give Siddhendra Yogi awards to artistes for their outstanding contributions to their respective classical art form. The 2023 edition organised with the backdrop of the temple at the Sri Siddhendra Yogi Kalavedika, Kuchipudi, on 23rd September, was very captivating and saw some scintillating performances right through the evening.  Kuchipudi recital The stage was set with an invocation to Lord Ganesha - Ganesha vandanam - with a very unique choreography of Vempati Ravishankar performed by the disciples of J. Lalitha Kalpana Srinivas, wherein he had strung together a few slokas on Lord Ganesha set to Ragamalika and adi tala. This was followed up with two choreographies of the Kuchipudi legend Vempati Chinna Satyam, 'Kesava Narayana' an excerpt from his famous ballet 'Sri Pada Parijatham' and 'Siva Ashtakam'. Kesava Narayana was set to Gambiranata raga and adi tala, while Siva Ashtakam was set to Mohana raga and kanda chapu tala. Both of them were very confidently performed with aplomb by the team. The second team to perform was that of Deepak Nair from Kerala. The team started with a choreography of Vempati Ravishankar, "Paripahi ganadhipa" set to Saveri raga and adi tala. The performers did justice to the excellent trademark eye pleasing choreography by Vempati Ravishankar. The performance of Kuchipudi is never complete without a Tarangam and the evening saw the team from Kerala perform Durga Tarangam, very briskly which was followed with a Bhadrachala Ramadasu composition "Ramajyoti andhukunarae" set to Karakarapriya raga and adi tala. After the group performances, Deepak Nair performed one Bharatanatyam item "Sringara rasapriya nayaki" set to Ragamalika and adi tala, showcasing his prowess as a Bharatanatyam artiste too.  Monalisa Das and Sasmitha Behera The evening saw an Odissi duet performance by Monalisa Das and Sasmitha Behera from Bhubaneswar. The audience was given a display of Odissi classical dance form with their performance of Shankarabharanam Pallavi, a choreography by Odissi legend Kelucharan Mohapatra. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of Kuchipudi Yakshaganam 'Bhakta Prahalada' by disciples of Chinta Ravi Balakrishna. The most popular Kuchipudi Yakshaganam usually performed by mature senior artistes was performed this time by a team comprising of young children. The team gave a spectacular, immaculate as well as very mature performance belying their age and stature which was thoroughly enjoyed by even doyens of Kuchipudi traditional families. Ravi Balakrishna with his nattuvangam and as sutradhar took us to a different world. Each time one sees the same episodes that led to the Narasimha avatar, the messages received by the audience is exactly what they require in their life at that particular moment, the folly of personal arrogance, meaning of devotion and surrender to the will of the Almighty and our journey to salvation. The young team neither overacted nor made us feel that they were only children, but truly took us through the story invoking a response from the bottom of our hearts.   The hallmark of Kuchipudi Yakshaganam artistes is that of their near perfect performance which stems from the fact that they train hard from a very young age and this was reflected in the outstanding performance by the young disciples of Chinta Ravi Balakrishna. In Bhakta Prahalad, in a very poignant scene, to the arrogant King Hiranayakasipu's genuine enquiry about whether his son Prahalad will ever chant his name and not that of his arch rival Lord Narayana, his minister very nonchalantly tells that "Prahalad deserves one more chance, after all." It meant that the evil gives one more chance for the good to toe its line before it consumes them totally, while the virtuous, magnanimously is ever ready to forgive and give yet another opportunity for the evil to mend its way. In this backdrop one felt that it was great to see Pasumarthi Mruthyumjaya Sarma taking the opportunity and chance to ring in the glorious heydays of his illustrious father Pasumarthi Keshavaprasad by organising the Bharatha Muni Jayantotsavam in a befitting manner that would make his father proud. Pasumarthi Keshavaprasad organised several festivals with the valuable support of Sangeet Natak Akademi, Cultural Department of Andhra Pradesh, Tirupati Devasthanam, other patrons, donors and last but not least his own funds too. That Mruthyumjaya organised this edition with the support of a few private donors speaks volumes of the efforts taken by the Mandali to continue the rich tradition. In this backdrop, what is felt as the need of the hour is to revive some of the festivals which were not only very famous but also contributed handsomely to the cause of art and culture and gained a heritage status, based on sound founding principles. It would augur well for the cultural scene of the country to bring back to glory such organisations and Mandalis and re-establish the festivals which have lost its prominence primarily due to lack of support and patronage and enable them to continue their yeoman service to the art and culture of the country.  Sudha Sridhar, a double graduate in Law & Dance, is a cultural activist working on advocacy efforts to preserve, promote and propagate art forms and for the cultural rights and welfare measures for artistes. Her main focus is on Kuchipudi heritage village and promotion of all the three streams of South Indian Yakshagana - Karnataka Yakshagana, Kuchipudi Yakshaganam and Melattur Bhagavatamela. |
