Honouring the guru

A felicitation ceremony was organised by Tulasi Shivamani of ‘Shankarabharanam’ fame to honour her guru and mentor, the celebrated film director Padma Sri Dr K Vishvanath on the occasion of his receiving recently the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award at Shilpa Kalavedika recently.

The program interspersed cultural events between award giving to reputed actors, directors etc. Hyderabad based Natya Swara was the organiser of one of these events as a tribute to the veteran director. The featured item was a ‘Thillana’ in Hindolam.

Out of diverse musical forms in Carnatic music, Thillana has a sensational and special place in a classical dance repertoire and that was the reason for her choice, one of the artistes, Subbalakshmi Rana explained.

As it is pure dance or Nritta with very few lyrics it was appropriate for bringing the various styles together. In this brisk and vigorous Thillana, the devotee seeks blessings from Goddess Kamakshi and praises her glory. Ultimately after beautiful footwork by the various dancers of several classical dance forms, the piece ended with a sculpture like frieze formed in unison by all the dancers offering flowers to the deity.

The theme was to combine all the forms on stage to create a richly eye catching effect garnering resounding applause from the film personalities and audience present. Bharatanatyam was represented by Subbalakshmi Ranaa Kalakshetra alumni and Harini and Harshita Kaja students of Padma Sri Dr Ananda Shankar Jayant. Kuchipudi by Hari Mangalampalli, Rama Devi and Druthi, student of Sindhuja.

Odissi represented by Debashree Patnaik, Mohiniattam by Anjana Menon and Kathak by Dr Mythili Anoop. It was indeed a treat to watch together the lyrical grace of Kuchipudi, the staccato vigour of Bharatanatyam, enchanting flow of Mohiniattam, elegant swirls of Kathak and the gracefully intricate movements of Odissi blending and contrasting harmoniously.