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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 - 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 the tradition was kept alive b y Venkatr amanayya and Venkatrama Josyar a nd t hen by Natesa 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 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 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 - 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 ' 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 , 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 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 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 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.

N S rikan th, a student of Padma Su brahmanyam , brings in a neat Bharatanatyam techniqu e to the dance aspect of the natak am and so do es Vi jay Madhavan, a discipl e of Chitra Viswe swar an who is quite a tal ented a cto r and impa rts s ponta ne ity to his charact ers . It 's interesting to note that Natarajan and Kumar's technique of d an cing is quite different from t hat o f t he youn gst ers . T he veterans R Varadara jan a nd M R Kris hnamurthy still don various roles . Young ste rs like Talin who is th e curren t Pr ahlada , A nir uddh a alias Prasanna, Natara jan's nephew , a tal ented youngst er who has been ordained to t ake o ver Natara ja n's r ole of Leelav ati, Na taraja n's grands on Dr uva and nephews S ai Ajay and Laks hmikan t a re being groomed b y Pri yam va da, n's da ughter. Natarajan 's another brother Neelaka ndan alia s Subhash i s a lso ade pt at donnin g various role s. Almo st e very ma le member of Natarajan's fa mil iy is t rai ned to take up some role or oth er!

N Srikanth as Chandramati In the works hop on Bhagavata Mela from 19 -21 M ay , the salient features of the Bh agava ta M ela dance technique cam e up for d isc uss ion and the view that the Bharatanaty am tec hnique is pr edominant in the d ance technique of the younger generation wa s d ebated . Natarajan expla ined th at the foot work is like Bharatanaty am bu t the presentation is quite dif fere nt. There is also an abundance o f has tas w hich ar e quite different in usage in Bha ratanat yam. Ho wever no clear answers emerged. Most of the young artists of Natarajan 's troupe are trained by Padma Subramanyam , Chitra Vis wesw ara n and Priyamvada in th e Bh aga va tamel a style . A point to be noted i s that e ven in the earlier days th e Bh arat anat yam nattuvanars / exponents were as sociated with the Bha gavatam ela tr ad ition the prominent being Natesa Iyer , E. Kri shna Iyer, Kittapp a P illai and B Herambanathan. Scholar B M Sund ar am info rms that most of the Bhaga vata Mel a exponents through generations have been t rained b y th e desc enda nt s o f the Tanjore Quartet . It would be a worthy academic e xerci se t o undertake a det ailed study of the dance technique in Bhaga vata Mela and the changes that h ave come about over a period of time , if any , and ev al uate ho w the ch ange s in the d ance technique have altered the character of Bhagavata Mel a. What ever is th e dance technique , the commitment and devotion to participate in t he natakams a s a form of worship is deeply imbued in all the youngste rs and the sta lw arts alike in Natar ajan's group . The workshop was conducted ably by N S rika nth and Aravind Ramadurai , a Bharatanatyam dancer and al so a Charte red A ccountant by q ual ifi cation and profession, in the presence of Natarajan and w ho offered valuable inputs to the students at tending the workshop .

It is indeed commendable of both Natara jan and the youngst ers t hat the ne xt generation of Bhagavata Me la art is ts is w ell trained and dedicated to c arr y the tradition further. To further h is eff ort s in this direction Natarajan has identif ied boys from the Veda Pathashala which was est ab lished in 1990 and p lans t o train them in the Bhagavata Mela tr adition . Nata raj an who foots the entir e cost of hosting the festival every year with p ar tia l suppo rt from the San geet Na tak Akademi and some other sponsors , is look ing for a mode st 15 lakhs to complete the construction of the Bhagavatamela Vid yala ya and to set up a fund to carry on the festival every year. Natarajan is ver y cle ar that Bh agavata Mela cannot provide the actors with livelihood, it ha s to rem ain in the realm of wors hip and devotion and he does not expect the next generation to bea r th e finan cial responsibility. Natarajan also plans to have a libra ry and is looking for a suita ble place for the archives of Bagatvata Mela which he has painstaki ngly built up ove r decades. He has also obtained all the twelve of Ven katrama Sast ri 's plays from vari ous sources. Kanakangi Srinivasa Josyulu, a descendent of Venkatrama Sastry ha s helped him correct the scripts . Natarajan no w pl an s to r etu rn to Melattur from Du bai w he re he works and devote all his time to the Bha gavata Mela. Kumar also echo es hi s brothe r' s thoughts and plans to retu rn to Melat tur eventually .

Reflecting on the change s brought about b y him ove r a perio d of time Na tar ajan reminisced that in 1965 when the Melattur grou p of Bh aga vata M ela split , tea ching was casual . He has brought in more structu re d learn ing and he plans to i mpro ve upo n th e pedagog y by having struc tured co ur ses at his Bhagavata Mel a Vidyalaya in Melattur . Nat arajan has r efin ed th e stage deco ration , stop ped the usage of front curtain as dr awing the cu rt ains bet ween the scenes del ay ed the n atakam s. He got all the imp ortant peopl e who sat on the stage, as w as the pra ctice then , le avi ng l it tle place fo r th e perfor mers, to get down and sit am ong st t he s pectator s. A praise wor thy aspec t is the beau tif ul managemen t of t he not so 'sta te of art' sound system whe reby the singers and accompanists creat e a pe rfe ct ly balanced presentation al ong with the actors m aking the Bhagavata M el a nataka m not only a brea thtaking vi sual but also a treat to the ears. How ever, the gl itzy decorations on the backd rop a re an eyesore and c an be done away wit h.

The H ar ih ara L ee la Vilasam on the 25 May was a much sho rt er natakam , of ab out two hours du rati on , wherein gr ant s Chandasu ra the boo n to r educe anybod y to ashes jus t by pl acing a hand on other's head . Shiva then run s fo r his life as Chandasura chases him to use the bo on o n him and then Mohini entices the r akshasa a nd tricks h im to place hi s palm on his ow n h ead a nd get reduced to ashes. The n ataka m also presents the bi rth of Hari Hara Putran (Sastha). Once again Nataraj an as Chandasur a and Kum ar as Shiva are delight ful. However the high poi nt of this natakam is the exquisite po rtrayal o f M ohin i by Aravind , a student of Malathi Do minic . He has mastered the nuances of female imp ers on ation from N atarajan and hi s a bhinaya does not fall in to the Bharat anatyam style and is spontane ous . Howe ver, hi s n rtt a is executed in a ne at technique of Bh ara tanatyam. He is a delig ht to wa tch and a fit ti ng su cce ssor to Natarajan 's a rt of fe male impersonation.

The inte rv ening days, 20, 21 and 24 May w hen the Bhag avata Mel a natakams were not schedu led for performance saw va rious Bhara tanatyam pr esentation s. Jayashree Rajagopal a nd Nrithyoda ya artistes o f Mumba i pr esente d Bhakta Sakha Vittala, an intere sting and well chore ogr ap hed p resentation of Marat i abhang s on Varka ri S aints . Memb ers of ABHA I (Associa tion of Bhar ata N atyam A rt is te s of In dia, C hennai), attending the worksho p on Bhagava ta Mela presented B haratanatyam . The solo item s presented b y v ar iou s danc er s w ere well app re ciat ed by the spectators . One also got to witnes s th e Bha ratanrtya sty le propounde d b y Pad ma Subrahmanyam which was well presented by Ga ya tri Kannan and o th ers . N Srikanth, Roja Kannan and Priya Mu rle exce ll ed i n th eir presentat ion Bharatam-Bharathy- Bhaaratam. Deepik a Vaid yana than, Karpaga and Dhana , disciples of Swarnamalya G anesh exhibited good Aravind Ramadurai as Mohini train ing and Deepika came across as a dancer with potential to excel . Kiran Rajagopalan fr om the USA gave a good a ccount of his Bharatanatyam training .

Valli Thiruma na m presented on 26 May is th e sto ry of Valli , the da ughter of Nambi Rajan and her love for Lord Murugan . The natakam is in Tam il and the scr ipt is by Shankardas Swami . Ara vind as Val li was imp ress ive but the show was stolen by Vijay Mad havan who pl ay ed Kurathi, t he g ypsy soothsayer . Vi jay Madhavan did an excellen t job as t he impish, viv ac io us and a lit tle foolish Kurat i and wa s applauded by t he spectators who enjoyed the entire drama with many dia logues in a ligh ter vein. The street was fully packed with spectators indicating the popularity of t he natak am which is as compulsory a feature as the Prahlada Charitam every year . A fte r th e conclusion of every natkam it's a tradition for al l the a rti sts to offer obe isa nce a t Vijay Madha van a s Ku rathi the Varadaraja temple and then go around the village s tr eets to th e templ e of Swaminatha, the family deity of Natarajan. The conc luding day of t he fest ival featur ed Sri An janeya Aradhana and other concluding ritu al s and also the naama sankeertan by Udayalur Balarama Bhagavatar . Nataraja n's trance during the rituals before Prahlada Natakam and after the Valli Thiru manam , the Narasimh a character addre ssing the problems of de votee s in a trance a fte r the Pra hlada Ch arita m, the chariot festival of Narasimhasw ami with hi s conso rts, the nama sa nki rta na are all an innate part of the Melattur Bhaga vata Mela, bringing art , ritual , wors hip and the underlying devotion together into a la sting tradition in Melattur .

"One need s a pure heart and as long as dev otion i s the main sta y of Bhaga vata Mela, t he tradi ti on will never di e! " s ays Na tara jan . W ell s aid! When it come s to de votion, Bhag avata Mela pr opou nds the v ery bes t of human values and uni ver sa l spiritua l truth s and Sri Lakshmi N aras imh a Jayan ti Bh aga vata Mela Na tya Nata ka Sa nga m and its members exhi bit ev er y bit of the de votion emanating f rom a pure he ar t. On e hopes that God's w ill man if ests in the fo rm of support from the Go vernm ents of both Tamil Nad u and Andhra Pradesh negotiat ing the parado x who does the form belong t o? Andhr a, as th e na taka ms a re in Telugu? Or , as th e practitioners are Ta rnilian s and it is perfo rmed in Tamil Nadu ?