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 Nadeshwar Natyanjali 2024: An emerging festival - Dr. Jintu Sarma e-mail: drjintusarma@gmail.com November 23, 2024 Nadeshwar: The Temple of Performing Arts, an institution for teaching, learning and research of dance, specifically Bharatanatyam and co-related subjects organized with the collaboration of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Kolkata, for the first time, a two day Indian classical dance festival named 'Nadeshwar Natyanjali 2024' at Tamluk, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal. This festival was held on 9-10 November at Subarna Jayanti Bhavan. The festival was designed with four (each day two) concerts in traditional Margam format with the philosophy of 'Guru-Shishya Parampara' and solo, duet, trio and group performances were all included in these four concerts. The institute and the festival are the brainchild of Bharatanatyam practitioner Dr. Debaldev Jana, disciple of Guru Kalamandalam V. R. Venkitt, Preetha Venkitt and Guru Thanjavur B. Herambanathan. The festival started with a grand inaugural ceremony on Nov 9th evening by the chief guest, Rabindra Sangeet artiste and cultural pioneer Somnath Maiti, president of the organization Debjani Mitra, Anita Sharma from Guwahati, Odissi Guru Rina Jana from Kolkata, Bharatanatyam Gurus Swaminathan Pillai Herambanathan and Anuratha Swaminathan from Thanjavur and many more local dignitaries. The inaugural ceremony was followed by an award giving ceremony where the dance institute created an award named "Thalaikol Aasan Guru B. Herambanathan Memorial Award" in fond memory of the legendary Bharatanatyam Guru Thanjavur B. Herambanathan. The award for 2022 was conferred on Guru Kalamandalam V. R. Venkitt and Preetha Venkitt for their outstanding contribution in the field of Bharatanatyam and the award for 2023 was given to Guru Rina Jana for her remarkable contribution in the field of Odissi. The first day opening presentation was Bharatanatyam with live orchestra by the students of the institute - Aradhya Dutta, Prapti Paul, Adrita Samanta, Atreyee Adhikari, Kinara Quila, Sayani Maiti, Arpita Giri, Anwesha Banerjee and Meghna Dhara. The recital started with a prayer "Vatapi Ganapatim Bhaje" in Hamsadhwani ragam-adi talam, a composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar. After that, dancers entered the stage with a Melaprapti which was set to ragam Nattai-khanda chapu talam, a musical composition of Guru Herambanathan. It was followed by Vinayaka Kauthuvam, a composition of Gangaimuthu Nattuvanar in Nattai ragam and chatushra eka talam. Dancers depicted Ganesha suitably with good adavu skills. It was followed by traditional Alarippu. The Jatiswaram in ragam Vasantha, talam rupakam, a composition of the Tanjore Quartet, was choreographed with pancha nadai and dancers performed well with full energy. Next was a rare Keerthanam "Natesha Namami Sathatam" in ragam Manurangi, where dancing lord Nataraja was described beautifully. The Devarnama "Ya Devi Sarvabhooteshu" in Subhapanthuvarali was followed by the finale Thillana in Desh ragam, a composition of K. N. Dandayudhapani Pillai, and Mangalam. The entire performance was choreographed by Dr. Debaldev Jana. The students were well groomed and they performed with energy and spirit. The music ensemble had nattuvangam by Dr. Debaldev Jana, Swaminathan Pillai Herambanathan on mridangam, Velmurugan from Pondicherry on vocal and Nataraj Radhakrishnan from Kolkata on violin. The orchestra was very well synchronized. The performance gave a deep feeling of a Thanjavur temple performance at a glance to the audience.  Anita Sharma and Tiyasha Bera Next was a Sattriya dance performance by Anita Sharma, and CCRT Junior Scholarship holder Tiyasha Bera. Anita Sharma started with a 'Krishna Vandana' in a very traditional way of Sattriya dance. With Tiyasha Bera, she performed a 'Chali Nach', one of the most characteristic and distinctive form from the Sattriya repertoire which basically comprises of 3 segments viz.- Ramdani, Geetor Nach, Mela Nach. This piece was set in talam Suta and ek taal. Next Tiyasha alone accomplished an abhinaya on "Kanairo komolo mukho pekhite noyono xukho koti indu jini porokaxe" where different leelas of Krishna was depicted. Anita Sharma presented "Utho Mere Lal", a choreography set to pieces from three different Borgeets written by Madhavdeva which was set to raag Aahir and pori taal, a composition of Bhaskar Jyoti Ojha. The item was very elegant with the nimble dance of Tiyasha. The second day's program started with a beautiful Bharatanatyam performance by Anuratha Swaminathan from Thanjavur, along with her talented musical ensemble - Swaminathan Pillai Herambanathan on nattuvangam, Velmurugan on vocal, G. Surya Narayan Iyer on mridangam and Nataraj Radhakrishnan on violin. Performance started with a prayer "Mayaatheertha Swaroopini" set to ragam Maayamalavagowla and rupaka talam, a Tanjore Quartet composition. The dancer came on stage with graceful aharyam and presented Kaali Kauthuvam in Kanda Nadai. Next she performed a varnam "Sakhiye Intha Jalam" with skillful nritya and abhinaya in the style of Guru Herambanathan's school of Bharatanatyam. The two beautiful abhinaya pieces were "Enneramum" and "Vazhi maraithirukuthey" of Gopalakrishna Bharathi. Enneramum depicts the eagerness of the devotee to be eternally in the presence of Lord Nataraja in his holy sanctum. Vazhi maraithirukuthey is a part of Nandanar Charitram where Nandanar pleads with Lord Shivaloganathan of Thiruponggur to get his Nandhi to move at least a foot away so that Nandanar could have at least a darshan from outside the temple. Her skillful performance mesmerized the audience of Tamluk.  Arrghha Chatterjii & disciples Nadeshwar Natyanjali 2024 ended with a dynamic Odissi performance by Arrghha Chatterjii and his two disciples Meghamala Ghoshal and Meghna Das from Kolkata. They started with Mangalacharan and "Manikya Veena". Meghamala Ghoshal and Meghna Das performed Hamsadhwani Pallavi which was choreographed by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and music composed by Pt Bhubaneswar Mishra. Both of them performed with high energy and skill. Arrghha Chatterjii presented an ashtapadi "Sanchara dadhara" from Jayadeva's Geeta Govind, where he depicted different characters like Krishna and Radha. He could create the Rasa Leela alone on stage. They finished their performance with "Jaya Bhagavati Devi" with full devotion, elegant postures and high dancing skill with good synchronization. The three of them were outstanding on stage and the audience was thoroughly impressed by their performance. Such hold an Indian classical dance festival with full Margam format along with live orchestra in a small town called Tamluk was really praiseworthy. On the first day after the award giving ceremony, Swaminathan Pillai Herambanathan and Anuratha Swaminathan awarded Dr. Debaldev Jana the "Bharata Kala Ratna" samman for his extraordinary dedication and passion. The program ended with the vote of thanks by Dr. Jana indicating the importance of such a classical dance festival which is deeply rooted in our Indian tradition.  Dr. Jintu Sarma is an Asst Professor of Botany, Guwahati College, by profession, and a dance critic and columnist by passion. |
