Gearing up for the big ballet

A Kuchipudi Dance Ballet, Sri Rama Katha Saram, is being staged at Houston, Texas in the Unites States of America, on July 15. The ballet is being presented by the VedantamKalakshetramwith 53 participants and will be staged at the local Stafford Centre for the Performance Arts.

The Vedantam Kalakshetram is the brainchild of 45-year-old Master Venkatarama Vedantam Raghavaiah who is popularly known as Raghava Vedantam. He hails from the famous Vedantam family and initially learnt the art from his father Vedantam Rattaiah Sarma.

Later, he learnt the art from Natyakaladhara Pasumarthy Ramalinga Sastry, Dr Sobha Naidu and Padmabhooshan Vempati China Satyam as well as from many more famous artists of Kuchipudi. Raghava also has a Master’s Degree in Kuchipudi dance from Potti Sriramulu Telugu University.

To his credit he played the roles of many Puranic characters such as Vishnu, Shiva, Rama, Krishna etc. He is honoured with several titles. Raghava established the Vedantam Kalakshetram School of Dance in Houston and teaches Kuchipudi to many Indian enthusiastic children and even adults.

The ballet, Sri Rama Katha Saram, attempts to capture the essence of Lord Rama’s journey, as written by sage Valmiki, on earth as the model human being. The ballet starts with the invocation prayer-the Naandi Stuti, seeking the blessings of the Guru and Gods for a fruitful and uneventful stage display.

This is followed by the Bala Bhogam, a prayer to Lord Hanuman. Lord Vishnu’s incarnations symbolising evolution theory, to defeat evil and establish righteousness, beginning with water borne Matsyavatar to that of Human Being Lord Rama is played next.

The main story of the ballet begins with the Aranya Kanda LordRama’s exile to the forest along with his brother Lakshmana and wife Sitadevi. The brothers prepare their life as hermits in Panchavati in the Dandakaranya forest. While everything was going on peacefully, Ravanasura’s sister Surpanakha steps into the scene and makes advances to Lord Rama. However, on the instructions from Rama, Lakshmana grapples with Surpanakha and defaces her cutting off her ears and nose.

Moparthy Hyma and Sandhya Muchimilli playing the roles of Lakshmana and Surpanakha exhibited the best of the Kuchipudi Art probably excelling their master Raghava! It would be the highlight of the ballet.

One after one the ballet has the scenes of “Maya Ledi”-the golden deer, dancing in front of Sita; Rama killing it; the Lakshmana Rekha episode; Sita’s abduction by Ravanasura; Rama meeting Hanuman; friendship with Monkey King Sugriva; killing of Sugriva’s brother Vali; search for Sita by Hanuman and Vanaras; laying of bridge across Hindu Ocean; Rama-Ravana war and killing of Ravanasura and finally the coronation of Lord Rama with great pomp and show.

Each scene has been meticulously planned by the director, Master Raghava assisted by his wife Padmaja Sharmi Vedantam who also played the role of Sitadevi.

Among others, some of the artists who excelled in their roles, to name a few, are the Maya Ravana-Bhavya Kethireddipalli, Ravana-Aruna Jyothi Nanduri, Hanuman-Murali Lanka, Sugriva-Sudhesh Pillutla and so on. Master and Director Raghava Vedantam played the role of Lord Rama and it is literally thrilling to watch him performing the art of Kuchipudi.

The rehearsal days are like a social gathering. Telugu families in large numbers participate with lot of enthusiasm and team work. A great and memorable event and a wonderful experience.

By Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao