Shriya Srinivasan performing on the Narada Gana Sabha’s Margazhi pageant, 2022.
| Photograph Credit score: Particular Association
Shriya Srinivasan appears to have inherited her ardour for Bharatanatyam from her mom, senior dancer-teacher Sujatha Srinivasan, who can be her guru. Her grace, timing and azhutham counsel rigorous coaching and preparation.
Shriya’s efficiency was a musical deal with, replete with melodious compositions introduced by stalwarts — Ok. Hariprasad (vocal), Kalaiarasan (violin) and T. Sashidhar (flute). Opening with the Kuntalavarali invocatory piece ‘Bhogindra Sayeenam’ (Jhampa tala, Swati Tirunal), she moved on to the weird tana varnam in Behag, ‘Vanajaksha’ (Adi, T.R. Subramaniam), adopted by the Bhairavi Ramanatakam track, ‘Yaro ivar yaro’ (Adi, Arunachala Kavi) after which the Pantuvarali padam ‘Netru varen’ (Adi, Subaramaiyer). She concluded with the Niroshta thillana (Adi, T.N. Seshagopalan).
Sujatha, who was on the nattuvangam, introduced the ‘Sashankha’ shloka earlier than ‘Bhogindra’, which was layered with a jathi in khandam and thattu mettu sequences to maintain it energetic. Shriya was a storehouse of vitality and dealt with all that got here her means with ease.
The varnam’s trikala jathi had the same old elements of pace, tisra and usi segments, but the choreographer (Sujatha) added extra. One wonders how the nattuvanars of yore arrived at an ideal mixture. The second was an previous Vazhuvoor favorite, ‘Thadikku dingu’ adopted by one in khandam. They have been pleasant. Sujatha’s nattuvangam was deft, although her sollu supply was unclear. Was it the mike or the voice?
Brief sancharis highlighted the lyrics. Rukmini’s runaway marriage to Krishna was one — it was attention-grabbing to see how Sujatha used the sarpa nadai as Rukmini walked to the temple earlier than being carried away by Krishna. One other notable one was for the phrase, ‘Swami Sri Venugopala’ when the dancer described how the animals stopped of their tracks once they heard Krishna’s flute. The conclusion, with many friezes of Krishna, proved her versatility and agility.
Shriya is pretty expressive, although her roleplay of Rama in ‘Yaro’ might have been sharper, as there already was some confusion whether or not the speaker was Rama or Sita.
In ‘Netru’, Shriya used the alapadma, ardhachandra and alapadma mudras in succession, with an arm stretched out. Sujatha later defined that she was denoting the passage of time – from a full moon and a crescent moon to a full moon, to convey that the nayaka had not proven up.
The sprightly thillana ‘Tanana dhirana’ proved Shriya’s vitality. It spurred mridangist Ramesh Babu so as to add his personal dramatic fillers for the mei adavus and some others.