A fitting tribute to the Lord of seven hills

The 57th SICA Art Festival’s final two days ended with precision, perfection and a pleasing feeling among audiences. Day 6 saw a dance ballet by Krishnakumari Narendran and his team portraying the seven hills, and the final day ended the celebrations on a pleasant note with a vocal recital by classical musician Vijaya Siva

Lord of Seven Hills, the celestial God Venkateswara (Swamy) Viabhavam Dance Ballet portraying the seven hills episodes and Vaibhavams of Alwaruswamy, Garudaswamy and Utsava Sampradayam followed (Temple rituals as envisaged by Saint Ramanujacharyulu) was neatly presented by Abhinaya Natyalaya of Chennai with a team of 30 students. The choreography by Natya Guru Krishnakumari Narendran with all its precision was performed, and proved to be a showpiece of the ongoing series of SICA’s Art Festival 2015.

In the one-and-half hours’ brisk display of this dance ballet, they narrated the nomenclatures of Vrushabhadri, Neeladri, Anjanadri, Seshadri, Garudadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri (Seven Hills) briefly depicting the relative episodes. The ballet started with Swagatha Nrityam followed by Alivelu Manga Vaibhavam, Gowpooja (adoring cow), Venkateswara Darsanam, Garudotsavam, Dolotsavam and finally followed by Utsava Samprdaya keerthans related to daily rituals as is being practiced in Thirumala Temple even today.

While some songs were in Tamil, some were in Telugu. The young dancers gave a scintillating display with apt foot work and with fascinating abhinaya that suited the familiar songs such as “Kanti Sukravaramu”, “Chakkani Talli Changu Bhala”, “Venkatachala Nilayam’ and “Tandanaana ahi Tandanaana” and other songs, which received wide applause from the audience.

The music provided by the violin wizard Kunnakkudi Vidyanathan was pre-recorded, yet the students followed with precision and perfection. But it is to be pointed out that the performance of Bharathanatyam in the ballet was done with semi-classical music. Besides, it was more of a folk-style with non-stop display of artistes and with a heavy sound system that spoilt the serenity of the classical form of Bharthanatyam. Except for this vital point, the ballet was well-presented.

A majority of people agree that Thyagaraja, Muthuswamy Deekhsitulu and Syama Sastri popularly known as the ‘Music Trinity’, the pioneers of Carnatic classical music strived to popularise as many krithis as possible during their lifetime, and their disciples also continued that tradition. Their lyrics are time-tested krithis even applicable to the present day world in letter and spirit.

Of late, many musicians are not giving much importance to the trinity sahityam during their concerts. It was pleasing to note that the Carnatic musicans who participated in SICA 57th Art Festival devoted their attention to this aspect. On the concluding day of SICA’s Art Festival, veteran musician N Vijaya Siva rendered Trinity Sahityam, much to the delight of the audience who witnessed the concert with pin-drop silence.

Vijaya Siva started the concert with a familiar Saveri Raga Varnam “Sarasuda” with a matching swarakalpana too. He then took each of the Trinity works in an order, starting with “Rama Nannu Brovaraa” (Hari Kambhoji), “Arunachalanatham Smaraami” (Saranga), “Mariverey Gathi Eavaramma Mahiloh” (Anadabhairavi) which Vijaya Siva rendered with befitting Ragalapana and lucid swarakalpana.

While dwelling Neravals and Sangathis Siva was totally emotive and spread “Atmanubhoothi” to the audience too. He then moved onto a familiar number, “Darasanam Kandarku” (Mohana) of Gopalakrishna Bharathi, “Karunichutaku” (Sindhu Mandhari) of Patnam Subramanya Ayyer, both rendered appealingly with sizeable ragalapana.

Young and promising violin musician Charumathi Raghuram followed the vocalist with ease and gave an outstanding performance. Similarly, Manoj Siva (Mridangam) and Krishnan (Ghatam) provided good instrumental support. V Rajagopal, secretary of Kalasagaram honoured the artistes of the day.

The week-long Annual Art Festival of SICA was ably monitored and turned out to be an overall pleasing experience.