Shanmugasundaram pays tribute to guru K.J. Sarasa with a well-structured show

Shanmugasundaram presents 'Shivane porri' at Sarasalaya Dance festival, showcasing devotion and surrender through Shiva compositions.

During Shivaratri, Rama and Krishna take a breather and Shiva makes an appearance in all his majesty on dance platforms. Performing at the Sarasalaya Dance festival, Shanmugasundaram presented ‘Shivane porri‘, a compilation of three compositions on Shiva.

The presentation highlighted the feeling of devotion and surrender. A Thevaram by Tirunavukkarasar was the opening piece, where the form of Shiva and his various attributes were depicted.

Shanmugam then moved on to explore the emotions in the Thodi raga Padavarnam ‘Roopamujoochi’ (Muthuswamy Dikshitar). The devotee requests Shiva to not be angry and accept his love and cast his benevolent gaze on him. The opening sequence showed how the devotee, who is busy plucking flowers, rushes to catch a glimpse of Shiva is being taken in a procession on the Rishaba vahana. He is overwhelmed at the sight. Shanmugam presentation included all the details such as the shape of the vahana, grandeur of the temple and the instruments carried in the procession. 

The sancharis for the line ‘ Samu inthakopamu’ where the flowers that he had so lovingly plucked to make a garland being shredded in anger or the chandanam paste bring thrown asunder were handled excellently by the dancer. The visualisation of the panchabhootas was also done with finesse. The jathis were interestingly constructed — there were moments of restraint marked by sculpturesque poses followed by fast-paced theermanams.

In the concluding piece, the dancer elaborated Shiva Panchakshara stotram ‘Nagendra Haraya’. Each line were explained through relevant gestures. Though the performance was based on bhakti, a variety of emotions would have made for a better impact. Sukanya Ravinder conducted the recital with flourish. Kaushik Champakesan on vocals, Venkata subramaniam on the mridangam, Soumya Ramesh on the veena provided competent support. Lights were by Venkatesh and choreography was by Chitra Visweswaran .