Shobana Spells Colour and creativity

" There was richness all around — in the music, in the orchestration and in the abhinaya, besides the richness in Shobana’s costumes." says Rupa Srikanth in her Hindu review...

Shobana ought to get full marks for visualisation. She had worked out a breathtaking opening at Bharat Kalachar; the curtains went up on her recital to a brilliant frieze with six dancers, all bathed in a pool of yellow light from the wings. Dressed in pleasing yellows and oranges, they sprang to life with the Mallari (Gambhira Nattai, Adi) with vibrant adavus set in khanda nadai.

Shobana is this year’s Nritya Choodamani awardee, and her recital was an unapologetic display of glamour, colour and creativity. She is an artist of high calibre and creativity is her strength. However, there is a tendency to get carried away with it. The routine aspects too need attention and one felt the lack of application in the nritta segments. One missed her play with laya as well. Despite this shortcoming, there was richness all around that evening — in the music, in the elaborate orchestration and in the abhinaya, besides of course the obvious richness in Shobana’s costumes. Her frequent costume changes triggered Mrs.Y.G.Parthasarathy’s comment, “Shobana is a quick-change artist!”

The veteran art-promoter was right; Shobana is a quick-change artist in more than one sense. Her expressions are so quick and sharp, she can capture nuances in expressions so easily. In the Dikshitar kriti, (Mamava Pattabhirama, Manirangu, misra chapu) she did this in the Pattabhishekam scene and gave each character a distinct gait and expression

The Dasavathara depicted in the Swati Tirunal composition (Kamalajasya,

ragamalika, Adi) was perhaps the best one has seen in that genre. Each avatar had a storyline behind it and again it was her treatment that made the difference. Her portrayals are original and instinctive. The Vishwaroopa seen through the eyes of King Mahabali was one such instance. The king is not only shocked at the Brahmin-dwarf’s growing form, but one could see the changing expressions on the king’s face as the form grew bigger and truth dawned on the proud king.

As elevating as the sancharis were, as disappointing was the nritta. The Dasavathara kirtanam was then the best and the worst in the evening’s offerings. Nattuvangam (Revathi Kumar) was hardly heard; nor were the bells on the dancer’s feet. Only the mridangam (Ramakrishnan) served as the torchbearer for nritta. Shobana’s students who joined her occasionally were more enthusiastic about nritta. They were: Suma, Seetha, Archana, Bhavani, Ashwini, Chitra, Aparajita, Anoorupitha, Shivani and Gayathri.

It goes without saying that melody ruled. Radha Badri (vocal) excelled in her rendering. Artists of a high calibre — Seetharama Sharma (violin), Rajhesh Vaidya (veena) and the occasional eddakya (Krishna Kumar), supported her excellently.

Guru Radha and Shobana receive titles in Krishna Gana Sabha

Pondy Bazaar looks like Jaffna's suburbs. Like a bombed neighbourhood.
With the neon lights and banners of the jewellery and clothes stores, the scene is stark.
And with the intermittent rains, it gets starker.
Civic works to construct a flyover in this maddening shopping area is now on.

A scene which greeted all the people who headed to Sri Krishna Gana Sabha for its opening evening-December 5.

The hall was one-fourth full. Never seen such a scene at KGS' opening evening. Was it because of the wet weather? Or because there were other events at other sabhas featuring well known dancers?

The dance community turn up in finery and fiesty spirit for the opening evening here. It is in many ways a dancers' celebration with two awards for a dancer and a guru. But this evening was rather pale. And the paleness rubbed in with the delay in the arrival of the chief guest of the evening, Swami Dayananda Saraswathi.

It wasn't an upbeat event.

ne man who has always taken his seat in the front row at all the inaugurals at KGS is the violin maestro Lalgudi Jayaram. He was there. As was Kamala ('Baby' Kamala) to cheer for her sister Rhadha, the guru to be honoured with the 'Aacharya Choodamani' title.
The other awardee, Shobana ( given the 'Nritya Choodamani' title) , was fidgety and somewhat tense. Butterflies on an evening to remember?

The swamiji hit the philosophical phrases often in his speech but wandered. Opening evenings need to be rousing affairs. This wasn't.

Writer and arts consultant Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, a guest on stage, mined guru Rhadha's career and her character. "She is at her class from 9 am to 9pm with a break for lunch," said Sujatha. "And she gives so much time to freshers because she wants them to have a good foundation."

Shobana is used to responding to titles at such functions. She has done them more often at the National awards for cinema.

She recalled her first recital 20 years ago at the sabha, at a time when people turned a nose at film stars who also performed classical dance. And she had warm words for her students and well-wishers who had helped her realise a project - have her own dance studio in the city.

The Shobana sishyas and fan club was in full strength this evening. And when it was all over on stage, they had gifts and flowers for their guru.

Rhada had all the well known dance gurus around her - Padma Subrahmanyam, Prof. C. V. Chandrasekar, Sarada Hoffman, Prof. Jayalakshmi.

Dancer Bharathi Shivaji, the convenor of this year's Natya Kala Conference, presented the programme themed 'Sangeetham in Dance', a subject she said she chose when she began to explore it in the dance forms of Kerala.

The hall emptied after the function. Three dozen rasikas sat back to watch Poornima Ashok Kumar, sishya of Anandha Shankar Jayant, perform on stage.

P. S. : The khicchidi at the canteen here is great. The supervisor promises more goodies once the fest warms up.

Source: Kutcheribuzz.com