Bhagavata Mela Nataka Mahotsav, Melattur
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“Nartanam” Vol. X No. 2 April 2010 – June 2010 A quarterly Journal of Indian Dance A pure heart and complete devotion - Bhagavata Mela Nataka Mahotsav, Melattur MADHAVI PURANAM The countryside make s a lovely si ght as one app roaches M ela ttu r from Tanja vur and it adds to the charm of the dusty an d sleep y v illage of Me lattur. The villag e wore a festive look with a va riety of ut savas tak in g place in the lo ca l temples , the month being of va isaka . The veda pundit s goi ng around the vil lage in group s reciting th e r itu al texts and the ch ariot fe sti val p rocessions suff used the at mos phe re with de votion. It is here that Sri L aks hrni N arasimh a Jayanti Bh agavata Mel a Naty a Nataka Sangam , establi shed in the year 1938 , org anized its yearly Bh aga vata M el a Nataka Ma hot sav for the 70 th c on sec utive year from 19 -27 May, 2010 as a part o f Naras imha Ja yant i Vasa ntotsava ce lebrations . A tall order b y a ll means! The tradition of Bha gav ata Me la w hich dates back to roughl y 300 yea rs w as nouri shed through the patr onage of t he Nayaka rule rs and later t he Marat ha r uler s and then sustained b y local effor ts after them . The tradition flou rished in Saliamang alam, Melat tur, Te pperumannalur, Oot hukad u and Soo lamang alam where obser ving th e Narasim ha J ayanti by stagin g the P ra hlada stor y was pre valent . Now t he Bh agavata Mel a tr ad ition is mainly s ee n in the first three of the above ment ione d centres. The Melattu r tradition was s trengthened by Venkatrama Sa stri ( 1743 -1809 AD ) th rough his twelve plays af ter wh om the tradition was kept alive b y Venkatr amanayya and Venkatrama Josyar a nd t hen by Natesa Iyer followed by his disciple Kin chin Kothandarama Iy er. Fr om 1936 , for a few years, prominent persons like R amani Iyer , Gopala Iyer, Su brama niy a Iyer and Balu Bhagavatar continued the t radition in Melattur after whi ch V Gane sa Iyer and his family members emerg ed as a major group which continu ed the tradition of staging the Bagavata Mel a na ta kams and preserved and strengthened the t radition to the current le vel. S. Na tarajan , grandson of V Ganesha Iyer and s on of G S waminathan , has been acting in the B hagavata Mela natakams since 195 4 an d has steered the g roup , Sri Lak shmi Narasimha Jayanti Bhagavata Mela Natya Nat aka Sangam , w hich is conside red to b e doi ng a fine jo b amongst all the pr evalent group s of Bhagavata Mela in Mel attur and other villages. The other group of Melattu r is the Bhaga vata Mel a Natya Vidya Sangam also know n as the Mali group. The Bhagavata Me la t radition has continued in M elat tu r as traditional theatre with devotion b eing the central ingredient and has always been a thrilling combination of carnatic mus ic, dance and drama dedicate d to the presiding deity of Melattur village. The fes tival began with the Mang ala Isai - nadaswaram by Thirukaruka voo r brothers, Sri T K Raman an and Sri T K Sara va nan . Padma Subrahman yam , Vyjayanthim ala Bali , Chitra Visw eswaran, Sudharani R aghu paty, BM Sunda ra m, Pappu Venugop ala Rao and also many dance student s and enthusiast s we re pre sent to witnes s the P rahl ada Charitam on the inaugural da y. As is w ell known, thi s na ta kam i s ne ver staged ou tside Melattur and on no occasi on other than the Naras imh a sw am i jay anti. The intense drama o f t he grow ing dis en chantment of Hiran ya ka sipu with A scene from Pra hlad a Ch aritam Prahlada' s fa ith in Lo rd Vishn u, Leelavati being torn betw een he r s on and her husb and , he r a gon y as Pra hl ada i s punished are presented throu gh be auti full y etched out ch aracter s and sequ ences of dance and drama . The prav es a of Hiranyakasipu and that of Lee lava ti b ehind the curtain make an impa ct . The fi nale of the natakam which is an int ense d rama , unfolds with the dialog ue bet ween Narasi mha on the st age and Hir anyakasipu below the stage on the street lea ding to th e temple. The charac ters c halle nging each other interspersed with s ub tle philosophy of Vedanta and devo ti on keep s the spectators who are sta nding o n the eith er sid e of the lane , spellbou nd. It is interesting to watch Narasimha, playe d b y S Venkata subramanian , s on of R Su ndaram, a founder dancer o f the gro up, rest rained by a couple of people hol din g on to the rope tied ar ound him. Hiranyak as ipu when in a state of inte ns e emotion tries to clim b u p th e sta ge to challenge Nara si mh a and is restra ine d by the group members . The spectato rs w ho watch the natak am e very yea r do so i n a state of devotion w he re as sp ect ators new to this form watch in aw e a s the ch aracters app ea r in a stat e of trance , on and off , during the course o f t he last s cen e of Prahlada Charitam . It is di ff icult to comp rehend which of the unfold ing action is drama and which is the su rre al and trance. However one cannot but ma rvel at the dev otional com po nent w ov en into the entire pre sentation . The team o f s inger s consists of the Thiruvayyaru brothers Nara simhan and Venk atesan who have been singing wi th this group sin ce 198 4, their sons Manjunath and Gopinath re specti ve ly w ho have been singing f or the pa st 4 years and Prabh akar an (Nat araj an's cou sin ). All of t hem make an excelle nt tea m along with the veteran And anko vil Du rai w ho h as b een playing the v iol in fo r the p ast 50 years for the group , Sriram on mrudang am, Gokul on flute an d Kan na n who pla ys the suddha maddala m for P rhalada Charitam every year. Th e d ia logue in Telugu i s rende red cle ar ly wit h con viction though the actors are Tami li ans a nd do not understand much of Telugu . S N atarajan as Leelavati is exquisit e and a complete natu ra l and S Kumar a s Hi ran ya ka sipu is regal and both the br others in fuse their cha ra cter s w ith their experti se and ex perience . One can see all th e elements of drama- the dialogue , s ong , mu sic, dance , mim e, costumes and abov e all de votion which make a head y mix and th e resu ltan t i nvolvement of the sp ectator and the de votion e voked in them ma ke i t a compl ete theatre. Ha rischand ra w as pre sented in t wo p arts on 22 and 23 Ma y. Once again the brothers S Natarajan and S Kumar e xcelle d in their role s as Chandrama ti an d Hari schand ra. Whe n t his w rit er en qu ired from Kum ar if t he pla ying of hi s charac te rs is a cake walk for him as he has be en d oi ng i t s ince 1978, he informed that the audie nce is very discerning a nd that one c annot afford to take the performance lig ht ly. He also recounted as to how he was not accepted easily both b y the group and the village folk when he w as ordai ned to play the Hiranyakasipu which hi s fame d fa th er G Swarninathan used to pla y w ith elan and that it is only with the d ivi ne grace of Lord Narasi mh a t hat he h as grown to po rtray such a variet y of r oles skilfully . Natarajan recou nts that in hi s early years of pe rformance he was mot ivat ed by the fame earned as an actor and how it became worship to him i n d ue course of time . He is now penni ng a boo k titled , 'Mystic e xperiences wi th Bhaga vata Mela'. N Srikanth, in th e fir st part of H arishchandra , made a lo vel y and g ra ce ful Chandramati and Vijay M adha va n e xcelled a s the Matanga k anya.