Thoughtful leaps within the tradition

Through Sridevi Nrithyalaya’s (SDN) whooping YouTube presence worldwide, Bhairavi Venkatesan is a familiar and popular name. Many also know that she is the niece of Sheela Unnikrishnan and daughter of Shobha Korambil. But that did not fetch Bhairavi the first opportunity to present a margam through SDN’s Kriya series that started last year. A completely SDN funded programme where a senior dancer conceives, choreographs and presents a margam, she earned it this year and made sure that her new ‘Tanjore margam’ reflected her creative instincts to challenge and step out of the box.

The fact that she opened with a slow Nilambari Keertanam Amba neelayadakshi, end of the day amidst the hustling epicentre of Mylapore instead of a fast pace Anjali is just one of the many to begin with. Her sensible movements of tapping the feet slowly in the tattu mettu’s to have the right effect of the salangai without disturbing the ears and swiftly moving onto the Madhyama kalam gave an aesthetic appeal.

Bhairavi then moved onto a Jathiswaram in Purvi Kalyani, the korvais of which were composed by Guru Bharadwaaj. The connections in between the korvais were different – with a tinge of Mohini Attam’s andolika effects, followed by the retreating back using suchi pada, also popularly used in Kuchipudi, made it seem like dance is universal end of the day and a thoughtful choreographer can use amalgamated movements beautifully!

The varnam was led by the Virahotkhandita nayika in ‘Samiyai azhaithu’ in Khamas. The nayika longing for Sundareswar Bhairavi showcased ‘medha’ while choreographing her jathis. Her araimandi and standing postures were distributed such that nothing was too more or less and she can handle the pressures of a new presentation within her comfort zones. A sharakkal adavu was followed by a kuditta mettu, a walk was followed by an utplavana (leap). An interesting feature was how she used the back and forth stamping in between the korvais and the aridi’s as a part of the character or scene instead of disconnecting them.

Even in the second half of the varnam, she gave away the typical nritta segments or adavus during the swarams and replaced them with abhinaya gestures while continuing the footwork. This made the varnam more relevant, produced a sort of continuity to the situation instead of disconnected adavus in between statements. To many ‘traditional’ minds this may be a change in the visual structure.

Bhairavi chose to present a javali ‘Mutta vaddura’ in saveri a composition attributed to Chinnayya of the Quartette. While her abhinaya of the Vipralabdha nayika angry upon being cheated, was swift and apt, there was a monotony set in the connecting lines – every time the woman was wearing a piece of jewellery or putting makeup, the man started to talk and pacify her. Perhaps intended for the little hasya, that didn’t quite take off.  

The Behag tillana in misra chapu brought the evening to the end. Guru Bharadwaaj made a fabulous presence supporting the budding nattuvanar of SDN, Mridula Sivakumar. G Srikanth rendered the vocals, Nandini Sai Giridhar was in the violin and Sujit Naik in the flute.

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