Ode to an Iconic Guru

Reimagining the Ramayana: Group performance of “Bhavayami Raghuramam” marks Kanak Rele’s legacy

In connection with the golden jubilee celebrations of Dr K N Pisharody Kathakali Club, Irinjalakuda, various cultural programmes are being held every month. Among them, the one organised in June was praiseworthy as it paid tributes to the iconic guru of Mohiniyattam, Padmabhushan Dr Kanak Rele.

Needless to mention that monumental have been her contributions in popularizing this lyrical dance of Kerala origin at the national level by awarding undergraduate , post graduate and doctorate degrees for the first time by affiliating her institution Nalanda Nritta Mahavidyala to the University of Bombay.

Myriad have been her choreographies of different themes that had fetched her encomiums from all quarters. For that matter, even from Kerala government that conferred on her the first Guru Gopinath Memorial Natya Puraskaram.

An ode to Kanak Rele

The Club roped in Kalamandalam C Gopalakrishnan Nair, an ex-faculty of Nalanda to stage the programme “An Ode to Our Guru Padmabhushan Dr Kanak Rele”. While the mainstay of the programme was a group recital of the famous Swatithirunal composition “Bhavayami Raghuramam”, a seminar on the Concept of Lasya by Kanak Rele amplified by lecture-demonstrations was also held.

It may be remembered that the Swati composition was choreographed by Kanak Rele as a solo. But the group performance conceived and directed by Gopalakrishnan spoke for his choreographic dexterity. Further, he could also accommodate ten of the alumni of Nalanda in this. That the group also performed at Sopanam in Cherpu and Melpathur Auditorium at Guruvayur was an index of the acceptability of the show.

‘Ganapathy’ in Madhyamavathy was staged as a prelude to the 75-minute performance. It was quintessential of the extremely rich lasya nritta, peculiar to the ‘Kanak Rele style’.

As is well known, the composition Bhavayami encapsulates the entire story of Ramayana and therefore includes vivid description of slew of events. Gopalakrishnan was successful in allotting the right role to each of the ten dancers since he was aware of their potential being a teacher in Nalanda. And all of them executed it commendably.
Worth mentioning were the events involving Jatayu, Soorpanakha and Lankadahanam. Pattabhishekam deserved special mention as it marked an ideal denouement in conformity with the concepts of theatre in which all the dancers were present.

Seminar on Sopanam ragas and thalas

The seminar moderated by the Mumbai-based cultural activist Keli Ramachandran deliberated on the talas and ragas employed in the choreographies of Kanak Rele. The interlocutors included Gopalakrishnan and the musician Kalamandalam M S Girishan, also an ex-faculty of Nalanda.

It may be remembered that during her endeavour to formulate her own style of Mohiniyattam, Kanak Rele had received unreserved support from Kavalam Narayana Panicker who had insisted on the use of Sopana Sangeetham of Kerala which would impart an indigenous identity to the dance form. She had wholeheartedly accepted the same and Gopalakrishnan and Girishan were involved in the creations of Kanak Rele since then. Interestingly, both found it easy to assimilate the same being Kathakali products of Kalamandalam.

The seminar was highly didactic as it explained talas Kumbha, Marma, Kundanachi etc and also the rare ragas involved. It turned out more appealing as Dr Dimple Nair demonstrated a small part of the character Amba and Sneha Nambiar, of Kubja. While the rendition by Girishan was alluring, jatis by Gopalakrishnan in ragas were especially remarkable.

Other dancers were Bhadra Rajeev (Sita), Nayana Prakash (Lakshmana), Radhika Nair (Hanuman), Unnati Ajmera (Jatayu), Ananya Amrutraj, Deepanita Dass , Aishani Chatterjee and Sruti Mohan. Accompanying artistes also included Thrissur Muralikrishnan (Vina), Kalamandalam Kiran Gopinath (mridangam) and P Nandakumar (Edaka).
The programme would have been more enjoyable but for the venue, the premises of Irinjalakuda Town Hall, which was noisy due to the heavy traffic through the adjacent public road. Also the stage was far distant from the audience.