Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya and Uma Sathyanarayanan in ‘Sakhyam’.
| Photograph Credit score: Jinkal Dabi
Lakshmi Parthasarathy Athreya and Uma Sathyanarayanan, two senior dancers and disciples of guru Chitra Visweswaran, re-visited ‘Sakhyam’, a manufacturing commissioned by Natyarangam for its ‘Bandhava Bharatham’ competition in 2012. ‘Sakhyam’ was concerning the journey of friendship between two girls from childhood.
As little women, they hear the Aesop’s fable of the lion and the mouse. They plant a sapling as a logo of their friendship. They learn tales of different enduring friendships — Duryodhana and Karna, Rama and Guha and Krishna and Sudhama. And that’s how the narrative flowed.
Acquainted tales had been linked by contrived conditions, and the general visualisation was flat. It didn’t assist that there have been silences between items, with no reside orchestra.
Nonetheless, every section was a standalone success, when it comes to the dancers’ well-thought out delineations and mature abhinaya. They’d sourced lyrics from numerous sources equivalent to Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (Hindi), Kamba Ramayanam (Tamil), Bhagavatham (Sanskrit), Swati Tirunal (Sanskrit) and Sangam literature (Tamil).
The introduction of Karna was with a khanda jathi with the phrases, ‘….Surya putra, veera Karna…’ Within the Guha story, the retelling begins as he waves to a departing Rama, ‘Anjana vannana..’ goes the episode, as he touches the boat reverentially and recollects the expertise. Uma as Guha recited the phrases in tisra Adi, adopted by singing of the lyrics, kavuthuvam model. It was an fascinating use of theatre methods.
One other memorable scene was between Sudhama (Lakshmi) and Krishna (Uma). Sudhama appears to be like for his residence on his return from Dwaraka, and realises what Krishna has achieved for him. He recollects the go to and his assembly with Krishna. Lakshmi’s was a soul-stirring characterisation.
The little women have, within the meantime, grown up. One is in love, the opposite appears to be like on with understanding, assuring her of her paramour’s return from the forest. She quotes from Sangam literature: ‘When he sees elephants and different animals in pairs, he’ll consider you’.
The music (Rajkumar Bharati) added a lot to the temper. All components of the music had been in steadiness, as was the mime and the nritta, with nothing overdone. Guru Chitra supplied inventive steering.