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 The 29th edition of Parampara Festival- Tapati Chowdhuriee-mail: tapatichowdhurie@gmail.com Photos: Innee Singh November 15, 2025 Natya Tarangini presented the 29th edition of Parampara Festival (Oct 8 - 10) in Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi.  Bhavana Reddy The festival opened with Ganesh Vandana in ragam Mohana and talam adi, performed by the very talented and well-groomed scion of the Reddy family. An excellent dancer, Bhavana Reddy knows the pulse of the audience. She captivated them with her presentation right from the start to the finish. She appeased Ganesha and her dance was her prayer to him, who is most approachable than any other god of the Hindu pantheon for the success of the festival. The well-trained repertory members of Natya Tarangini performed Rasa Sabdam, an exquisitely choreographed piece also known as Krishna Ganam that told the story of miracles performed by Krishna. After all, one should keep in mind the Vaishnavite background of Kuchipudi dance and the reason why the Krishna theme recurs again and again. Jathis, sahityam and swaras used in the composition provided a kaleidoscopic view of the presentation.  Crocodile and the elephant The lyric "Marakata mani maya chela" written two and a half centuries ago by Oothukadu Venkata Ramaya has praised Krishna's compassionate quality. To describe Krishna's supernatural powers the poet has taken the example of the struggle of the elephant from clutches of the crocodile from the Bhagavata Purana, which ends with the slaying of the crocodile by Vishnu when Gajendra solicits his help. The second example has been taken from the Mahabharata which describes the evil machinations of the Kauravas in inviting the Pandavas for a game of dice and deceitfully winning the game and dragging Panchali in open court to disrobe her but prevented from doing so by Krishna who makes her robe endless so much so that Dussasana fails in his evil act. The piece ended with performers dancing on the rims of brass plates and making complicated rhythmic patterns.  Dancing on the brass plate  The Natya Tarangini accompanying musicians The doyen of Kuchipudi, Raja Reddy explained that dancing on rims of plates has a reference to Varaha Puranam. "Varaha swamy has said that Vrigumaharishi did austere penance for Brahma Gnyanam by dancing on the brass plate, which is nothing but Natya Yogam. Dancing on the brass plate is a tradition in our country from Vedic times." The story of Rasa Sabda was enriched by the energetic dancing of Shloka Vaidyalingam, Pernia Qureshi, Gauri Taneja, Atisha Pratap Singh, Prakriti Prashant, Yukta Vaishnavi, Vyshnavi Chamarthi, Sahira Singh, Ayhra Hussain, Nittya Baid, Chandrika Sagar, Radhika Tandon and Harish Narayan.  Pt Ulhas Kashalkar Though the Reddys are Kuchipudi dancers, they have always presented both sastriya music and sastriya dance in their annual Parampara festival. Hindustani music vocalist Pt Ulhas Kashalkar adept at Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra gharana, made an easy impact on the rasikas with his gayaki style. The much famed vocalist started with raga Shuddha Kalyan, subsequently switching to a teen taal composition. The appreciative audience was treated to Ustad Alladiya Khan's "aeri aali mohe manavan aaye piyarava." The next piece he sang was a madhya laya composition "Neend na aaye". Next he sang raga Shahana Kanhra from his long repertoire. An Agra dhrupad style 'auchar' was followed by 'vilambit bandish' in jhaptaal and ek taal. Raag Durga in teen taal and ek taal mesmerized listeners. Suresh Talwalkar on the tabla provided the support with his improvisations. Ojesh Pratap Singh and Ashutosh Bhattacharya for vocal support were phenomenal. Vinay Mishra on harmonium was amazing.  Rahul Acharya In the second evening's first half, aficionados were treated to a rich fare of Odissi by Rahul Acharya, disciple of Guru Durgacharan Ranbir. He began with a Shankarabharanam Pallavi in adi taal. The dance was choreographed by late guru Pankaj Charan Das to a music composition of Harihar Panda. Having started with slow movements, the speed increased till he reached a crescendo. He made his mark in the nritta piece with his fine-tuned body attained by yoga practices coupled with the sculpturesque grace of Odissi. It was a remarkable rendition. Vocalist Sukanta Kumar Kundu, mardala artiste Guru Niranjan Patra, violinist Agnimitra Behera and Sumukha Tamankar on the manjira gave him fitting support. Rahul's performance was outstanding. Minutes flew by and before one could realize his recital ended. Attention to details gave perfection to every movement and expression. His first love is dance which is why in spite of having a Masters in Biotechnology, he is betrothed to dance and all its allied subjects. "Priye Charushile" from Jaydeva's Gita Govinda to display his ability for expressional dance followed next. It is a unique ashtapadi where Krishna pleads his innocence and asks Radha to forgive him. With earnestness, he offers his apologies. When nothing seems to work, Krishna mitigates her anger with thousand phrases in raga Desh and urges her to place her beautiful flower like feet on his head. Suryashtakam brought his recital to a close. Rahul's vibrant dancing made me see Surya riding a chariot drawn by seven horses. Never did I feel that he was dancing solo. Through his dance, he described Surya as Divaakara, maker of the day, Jagatkartaa, maker of the cosmos etc. This was in raga Bairagi and tala Jati. Dance and music were choreographed and composed by Guru Durga Charan Ranbir and Guru Ramahari Das respectively.  Percussion jugalbandi In the second half, music took over with a jugalbandi between mridangam artiste Patri Satish Kumar and tabla maestro Satyajit Talwalkar. The opening piece played on the harmonium was rather unusual. Both the mridangist and the tablia played a small phrase each that matched the other. They were two accomplished artistes in their respective field whose combined effort did not yield results. Lalit Sisodia played the harmonium as support.  Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon Bharatanatyam artistes of Kalakshetra style, Shijith Nambiar and Parvathy Menon gave us a glimpse of their flawless and aesthetic dancing skills acquired with years of love and dedication. The varnam "Sat chit anandam" in ragam Nattaikurunji and adi talam was a treat. Papanasam Sivan, an ardent devotee of Nataraja, is the composer of the piece "Swami naan undan...". The verse shows the devotion and yearning of a maiden for Nataraja, who is Ardhanariswara, to whom she has given herself up. She is his slave and he should accept her, is her ardent plea. The description of Nataraja as he dances in Chidambaram with all the accoutrements such as the crescent moon on his matted hair; the divine Ganga in his locks etc moving rhythmically with him, endearing her to him, has been excellently translated into dance by the duo. The friezes of Nataraja and his mortal devotee were sculpturesque pieces never to be forgotten. Putting himself in the shoes of the nayika, the poet beseeches Siva to calm him. He is envious of Nandi and the other gods who sees his cosmic dance day in and day out. The composition is full of metaphors and other alankaras and has layers of meanings. The true balance and bliss of satchitanandam can only be granted to the nayika when she joins Nataraja, says the poet. Shijith and Parvathy vividly expressed the beautiful varnam sung beautifully by Sudha Raghuraman. The piece "Kuru yadu nandana chandana sisira tarena karena payodhare", the last ashtapadi from Jayadeva's Gita Govinda brought their performance to a close. The ecstasy of Radha to be in complete union with her immortal lover shows the individual soul's yearning to be with the supernatural soul. Bhakti sringar was beautifully brought out in this piece. It gives Radha immense pleasure when she asks her immortal lover to bedeck and bejewel her and bring back her looks as it was before their union. Radha's blissful sense of spiritual transcendence and freedom from pain and fear were tellingly expressed by Shijith and Parvathy. Parvathy as Radha is the representative of all human beings who aspire to be with the immortal soul - the only Purusha to all of us. Shijith as Krishna did live up to expectations. Radha pleads with Krishna to dispel all evils of Kali yuga and to bring to people the joy of being one with him. Easwar Ramakrishnan composed the lyrics in Ragamalika. Vocalist Sudha Raghuraman matched her rendition with the strains of Raghuraman's flute. Uday Sankar Lal on the nattuvangam and mridangist Kalamandalam Sreerang gave good support.  Ganesh and Kumaresh Veteran violinist duo Ganesh and Kumaresh Rajagopalan were electrifying. They opened with playing Poorvi Kalyani in soft tones to the great liking of the rasikas. The composition was set to a 17 beat cycle. A ragam tanam pallavi in raga Kalyanavasantam followed. The famous ode "Bho Shambho" was beautiful. Ganesh's innovative bowing techniques were impressive. Mridangist Patri Satish and ghatam maestro Trichy Krishnaswami complimenting each other was entertaining. In the end, Ganesh's vocalization of the concluding bhajan with Kumaresh accompanying him on the violin provided an element of surprise.  Tapati Chowdhurie trained under Guru Gopinath in Madras and was briefly with International Centre for Kathakali in New Delhi. Presently, she is a freelance writer on the performing arts. She is the author of 'Guru Gopinath: The Making of a Legend.' |
