A Neat Bharatanatyam by Vidushi Geeta Sirisha- B’luru
Mangaluru: Vidushi Geeta Sirisha of Bengaluru gave a neat bharatanatyam recital in Shashi-Shankara Hall, Puttur on October 14th on the occasion of 19th series of Nrityaantaranga conducted by Sri Mookambika Cultural Academy (R.), Puttur. The evening was inaugurated by Prof.Vedavyasa Ramakunja, ex-principal of Vivekananda College,Puttur and a promoter of art. Kum.Sai Shreepadma recited the prayer. Vidushi Soujanya, senior student of the academy welcomed the gathering. Kum.Shrutha Jain introduced Geeta Sirisha to the audience.
Kum. Dhanyashri Prabhu, a student of the Academy gave a small lecture demonstration on the topic ‘Chaturvidha Lakshanas of Adavu’. Dhanyashri’s mother talked on behalf of the audience and the parents. She admired the hard work and perseverance of guru Vidwan Deepak Kumar in creating opportunity to the students as well as outstation artistes. She opined that by arranging performances of artistes of outside like Geeta Sirisha, students who come to watch the programme will be informed about various schools of Bharatanatyam tradition and thereby making the people of Puttur to be well informed about the current status of classical dances in the national and international arena.
Later on Geeta Sirisha gave a neat presentation. She started her performance by a traditional Pushpanjali in Naata Raga and Adi Tala which was followed by a small shloka on Lord Ganesha. It was rather a simple and neat presentation. Geeta then continued with a Varnam in Ragamalika and Adi Tala. The lyrics were in Kannada and were about Lord Krishna. “Neelamegha shyama sundarana karetaare sakhi” – in the Varna Geeta showed the compassion to Lord Krishna as a heroine talking to her sakhi, the mediator. Here Geeta assumed various elements in nature like deer, birds, bees, lotus etc as sakhi to convey her message of love.
The overwhelming longing to be united with the Lord and uncontrolled love towards him has created restlessness in her. In the Varna Geeta emphasized more on the abhinaya part though Nrittha was simple and neat. The picturisation of the emotions of the heroine came out to be effective. The Varna was very comprehensive and went off for more than 30 minutes. Next piece was a popular padam in Thodi Raga , a classical composition of Uthukkadu Venkatasubba Aiyyar. In this number Sirisha was very effective in bringing out nuances of the script. The complaints of Gopikas explaining mischieves of Krishna and Yashodas final reaction was entertained a lot. Even the next item, Ashtapadi was presented beautifully. This item was outstanding. Sirisha gave her best in effectively, emotionally bringing out the lamentation of Radha for the betrayal by Krishna.
The Sindhu Bhairavi Raga added to the Karuna Rasa and the choreography of Kalanidhi Narayanan was in very high standard. Geeta Sirisha emphasized more on Sathvika bhava rather than Angika in which she was successful in reaching the audience in Padam and Ashtapadi than in Pushpanjali and Varna. Lastly Geeta extended her gratitude to Sri Mookambika Cultural Academy for arranging a new and very special platform in small town like Puttur. She appreciated the positive consequences of intimate audience like this both on the performers and the spectators. She admired the director of the Academy Vidwan Deepak Kumar in promoting the classical dances and educating the audience. The event was highly appreciated by the audience which gave them a special experience of abhinaya.
