AnAdelaidetribute toanoldmaster

Shankar Kandasamy's Bharatanatyam piece is highlight at Thyagaraja Aradhana

BY LP AYER

The anniversary of the legendary coa1poserStThyagaraja is marked asThyagarajaAradhana, and is celebrated whereverSouth Indianswithimerestinclassical (Carnatic) music,settle downin numbers. Athis birth place inThiruvaiyar inTanjore district,.itis held inJanuary, coinciding with the dayof his sr1111adbi,whenhundreds of musicians sing hiscompositions en mas.re.Shruthi, Adelaide's carnaticmusic outfit,has been conductingthiseventin February-Marchforthe past 23 years. In tl1etypicalformat followed elsewhere, tl1eeventinvolvesthe singingof manyof hiscompositions,partirnlady fiveof his famous compositions !mownas 'panchan1tna k1iti', meaningfive gems.

Departingfrom tradition,tlus year's amdha11t1was heldinmid-May since Sh.ruthi presented a music and dance extravaganza inMarchas part of Adelaide Fringe Festival,joiningthe bigleague. Amajor featfor the new committee indeed. Witl1 many of theregulars having movedinterstate for employment and a few others currently overseas,tl1e singing was mostly byroungsters - from tiny rots to teens.This alsohelped co fulfil theorganisation's current missionto promote youngsters and showcasetheir singingskills. Understandably,the very yonng ones,tutored by Smvmya Anand, who herself isnewtoAdelaide,gave their bestshoeand scored points just for tl1eir courage incomingto the stage.The teenagers,manyof whom are turorecl by RajiKrisbuamoorthy,showedremarkable improvement,proving theiryearsof trainingarewortlnvhile.

Theopeningitself wasa departure from tradition.Suma,SowmyaandAbishek, all talentedsingers,eachrenderedin rotation, acoupleof stanzas from seven differentkritisinas many ragas. Geetl,a Sadagopanperformed a brilliant piece of Bharatanaryamcombiningthreeof Tbyagaraja'sktitis.Thatwason mpof her presidentialduties inorgaiusingtl1e whole event. I wonder where she gets the energy from.

A very traditionalitem of tl1e aradha11t1 tl1ough, therendering of 'pm1chamtnt1kritis', wasmissing, perhaps clue to theabsence of manyregulars. ltwas romy dismay.But this feeling wasdispelledby ilie last itemof the evening - a scintillatingBharatanaryam ballet onthe lifeof Hanuman byShankar Kandasamy, dai1cedirector of Templeof FineArcs International,headguarteredin KualaLumpurwith branchesina few cities includingAdelaide.lewasShrutl1i's good forrnne hehappened ro visit hereas chief examiner of theAdelaide chapter's students.

If anyonehad doubts howHamunai1, the monkey god, could form thesubject of a ballet, that dissipatedinamatter of seconds once Shankarsteppedon mestage. He gave a brief prologueof the ballet spanning the birthof Ha.numan,his grabbingtl1e Sun, boppingacross tl1esea to SriLanka in searchof Sita,challengingRavana and settingLai1ka ablaze, uprooting tbe mountainto bring the herbSanjeevani to reviveLakshman and eventually becoming theever-presentdevotee of Ram. The balletinfourepisodeslasted45 minutes and consisted of non-stop dancingto the accompai1imenrof Tanllisong'Ad!Jarkellam

Adi1y11' meaning devotee of the devotee. Shankar Kandasamy's footwork was fast andfurious,'mudras' meticulousand masterly, andfacial expressions Aawless. His seamless progressionfromone episode to theother wasinterspersed withavigorous bout of 'jt1thir111am11lthat drewrepeated applause from tl,eaudience. Although the background music was inTamil,his earlier introduction helpedthe audience understandbis movefromoneepisode to thenext.

He glided gracefully likeagazelle,leapt like a leopard, twirled and tweaked likea twister. Hehardly stopped for asecond throughouthisvigorousand vibrant dancing, with pearlsof sweat addinga glisteningsheen tohis slitheringframe. He reminded me of two of India'sfamous male dancersof yore, Rai11 Gopal and Uday Shankar (brotherof RaviShankar). Perhaps tl1e nameShankar hasa magic spell of its own. The show wasindeed spellbindingand awesome.

That theaudienceenjoyed Kanclaswamy's performai1ce greatly wasevidenced whena few spectators rushed to touch hisfeetin reverence,tohis embarrassment- andmine too.There wereothers whopreferred a selfie,and he happily obliged.