Mahathi Kannan- KTN

Coming from the illustrious family that she does, soaked in the arts of dance and music, every move, word and gesture of Mahathi Kannan is bound to be watched with intent interest and expectations. It's a joy to watch her perform outshining these expectations and carrying them effortlessly and responsibly on her slender shoulders. 

It is a huge responsibility being called out to revive a legend's classic work. Mahathi made a delicious cake of it and served it with finesse in presenting Krishnaya Tubhyam Namaha, a piece, her legendary grand aunt Padma Subramanyam premiered in the 1970s. The piece came alive in all its splendor in young Mahathi's presentation, giving us a glimpse of what an exquisite piece it would have been in young Padma's presentation and giving it a touch of her charm and sensibility.

The production is a riveting one in itself in the huge gamut it covers of Krishna's life from his birth through his growing up and segments portraying his various virtues; and in the eclectic choice of songs to portray the segments.

It struck a beautiful chord at various levels and with the flavor margazhi to start with ' oruthi maganaai piranthu' and more so with Mahathi's hair dressed in the Aandal Kondai. The performance proceeded thereafter with segments featuring Krishna's progression in a lullaby, Kaalinga narthanam, Lover of Rukmini, Krishna the Friend, and finally Krishna the Gita purusha. 

Mahathi made her mark early in the performance and set the high standard in the Lullaby piece. She dished out a wide range of emotions and expressions completely at ease. Be it the loving gesture to put the child to sleep, the growing anxiety, that slowly turns to restlessness that tires you out, and finally, just as you think the child has dozed off, the desperate helplessness when some stray noise wakes the child up. She brought to stage all these travails that every mother undergoes, with so much grace and elan. Just as you were thinking that a great piece was coming to an end, a surprising turn brings so much joy and colour to close the piece.

The swaying movements in Kaalinga narthanam, evoke the features of signature interventions/ interpretations of Padma Subramanyam. The 'Achyutha' piece that followed was a joy unparalleled. The piece was about Rukmini struggling to write a letter to her beloved Krishna summoning him to carry her away and save her from a forced marriage. Rukmini's struggles to pen a letter was reminiscent of many such scenes portrayed in films, evoking a timeless romantic appeal. It was a pinnacle of a moment when Gayathri Kannan's vocal brilliance and Mahathi's cute bhavam came together and created a beautiful sequence to be treasured forever. This sequence forms the central piece of this production and should appeal to sensibilities across all strands of rasikas.

The segment glorifying Krishna as the friend saw Mahathi toggling with ease and proficiency of acting skills between the humble and overwhelmed Sudhama and the gracious Krishna.

KTN in Mahathi's rendition will be etched as a milestone in the dance annals of the sabha era for gloriously doing justice to a legend's creation and giving it a new lease of life of it's own. Mahathi as PS' protege has proved to be a roaring success without any trace of doubt, this was also evident in her short presentation i got to witness at Navadisha 2019. However i look forward to seeing her breaking out of her gurukul mould create a distinct personage of her own. That's going to be another himalayan task ahead of the young shoulders of Mahathi.

Sree n Meera

Sree n Meera

Season snippets- Natya Darshan 1

It was very thoughtful of Priya Murle, convenor of Natya Darshan 2019 to have conceptualized and brought together Meera Sreenarayanan and Sreelakshmi Govardhan together on a stage in the opening performance of the 3 day show. The dancers had been briefed to portray spritual and emotional transfromation over a dance piece. It was a brilliant strategy of the dancers in choosing to adapt aspects of Silapathikaram for the purpose.

Sreelakshmi, the kuchupudi artist, found a natural affinity to performing the Character of Madhavi and Meera, the Bharathanatyam artist, gloriously brought to life the vacccilations of fortunes and transformations in the Charecter of Kannagi. It was refreshing to see the dancers alternatingly taking to the stage in presenting segments portraying the evolution of the characters in the emotional and spiritual realms, as they traversed the storyscape of Silambu. 

Meera's performance was marked by her ability to synchronise and sway perfectly in unison with the music and lyrics. She showed great suppleness and energy in bringing force to her movements. Though there was a streak of sadness running through her portrayal of Kannagi, yet she did not let the performance limp in pathos, and rather spruced it up with her suppleness. Subsequently, when she had to scale the tempo up towards the climax, it felt natural and very convincing.

Sreelakshmi was revelling in her portrayal of Madhavi. She looked very much at ease with the charectar and seemed to enjoy herself in the performance. She was ecstatic starting with Madhavi's arangetram in the Indra vizha, where she is proclaimed the best and wins over the affection of Kovalan, luxuriant through the good times she has with Kovalan and composed in the sad loss of Kovalan and in the grief that leads her to adopt asceticism. Her poise and grace lent itself very naturally to strengthening the portrayal of Madhavi.

Parts of the performance when both the artists appear together on stage were rich in splendor and possibilities. it was a treat to watch two different style and inclination play out together on stage, like waves from two different sources meeting and finding a high in resonance.

 The musical rendering of lines from the Silambu was executed in a very fine and enlivening manner. It was an interesting and innovative intervention on the part of the artists to end the performance on a high and positive note by portraying the climax in terms of the Characters seeking after the ultimate truth and invoking lines from Narayaneeyam (?) 

It would also be pertinent to think beyond the brief of ND and explore other interesting possiblities offered by this context. For instance, it would be interesting to  introduce a couple of segments where Madhavi and Kannagi meet during the course of the story, one while Kovalan is still around and again after his death.

Some aspect about Meera's costume n make up did not quite work for this performance. She had quite rightly and judiciously toned her paraphernalia down, to evoke the simplicity of and the sad fate to befall upon Kannagi. But the pared down appearance did not quite sit well with the brilliant green sari.

 Kannagi's travails leading upto the tragedy at Madurai deserves a lot more delibration. There was a sense of being hurried up in the segment of burning down Madurai; the subsequent fate and state of Kannagi after the burning episode also begs for a lot more expansive treatment.

There is also a lot of scope in exploring the versatility of Madhavi's character as portrayed by Ilango. The minor glitch in prompting of the lines could be averted.

The concept of Madhavi and Kannagi holds a lot of possibilities. The artists could only do little justice to this immense potential subject in the 50 minutes alloted to them. Further, not withstanding the short time and limited oppurtunities to meet and work together on the concept, the artists still managed to pull off a brilliant show. The idea that they have stumbled upon is highly potent and should be developed into a full fledged production featuring the two artists. Sree n Meera is an idea that Priya Murle has sown and on Friday they showed us glimpses of the promise they hold and i strongly believe it's an idea that's going to travel far and wide. Here's to wishing them great success..