Meenakshi Srinivasan brings alive vignettes from Krishna’s life

Meenakshi Srinivasan's thematic-rhythmic performance at Dance for Dance Festival was a blend of intricate choreography and melodious music

Meenakshi Srinivasan opted for a soft opening to her thematic-rhythmic performance for the Dance for Dance Festival, organised by Kalavaahini, in association with Kartik Fine Arts. She began with ‘Krishna — Born as a Saviour’, a verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam ‘Atha sarva’ followed by a Swati Tirunal kriti in ragamalika (Rupaka tala). ‘Kalyani khalu’ brought happiness since it showed instances where Krishna saved his devotees.

Mahesh Swamy’s interjections on the flute were melodious. The musical team put in a lot of hard work in the opening ragamalika composition, and M. Balamuralikrishna’s padavarnam ‘Omkara’ in Shanmugapriya, Adi tala, and his thaya ragamalika thillana ‘Ta nom nom ta’ in Kalyani raga, Adi tala.

Kaniyal Hariprasad (vocal) kept a low profile with his soft melody touching the right notes. Ishwar Ramakrishna (violin) was faithful, while Jayashree Ramanathan (nattuvangam) played a masterly role with her non-intrusive guidance.

Meenakshi seemed to enjoy the challenges. While she filled the silences with little beats in the Swati Tirunal kriti, she let the gaps be in Balamuralikrishna’s pieces. The varnam, Krishna - The embodiment of Supreme Consciousness, composed by M. Balamuralikrishna, was tricky with the charanam swaras starting after one beat. Within the swaras were also gaps that Hariprasad and Meenakshi adhered to. The dancer has an affinity to lasya-kind of steps that go with her overall delicate image — kudichi mettu adavus, tha thai thai tha adavus, low araimandi, rounded arms and agility marked her nritta. It is a sort of concise ‘within-her-body’ movement vocabulary, so to speak. Even Vedakrishna Ram responded to this ‘lasya’ style by soft-pedalling the mridangam.

The mood of the varnam was contemplative. It reflected the abstraction of Krishna being the embodiment of that Pure Consciousness. Nature coming alive with Krishna’s presence was a detailed sanchari as was Krishna’s Viswaroopa vision to Arjuna on the battlefield. Meenakshi’s liquid eyes captured the composer’s devotion.

The Kshetrayya padam on Krishna’s viraha ‘Yemiseyyudu ee mohamu’ tuned by Hariprasad in a surprising Charukesi, Misra Chapu, brought out the melancholy of the lyrics. Meenakshi was subtle as she built up the emotions, with Mahesh’s help. The tryst with Krishna all evening was eventful.