Raining taal
T R Dhandapany |
On the 4th
of July, ‘Laya Gana Nritya Madhura Lahiri’ was held at IHC in Delhi. The
concert is the brainchild of leading percussionist Sh. T. R. Dhandapany. A
renowned exponent of Talavadhyam, he is perceived as the pioneer who brought percussion
and percussion instruments to centrestage. Percussion is usually seen as an
accompaniment, or secondary. In this concert, equal importance was given to
vocals, both Hindustani and Carnatic, melodic instruments, percussion
instruments and dance forms.
Praskar Nirwan, Kiran Kumar and Suraj Nirwan |
Dhandapany
took his initial training in mridangam from Sikkal Shri Natesa Iyer. Later, he
specialized under the tutelage of Late Shri Harihara Sharma and Shri KM
Vaidyanathan. He has been performing for the last five decades and has
accompanied many top-ranking musicians. He started the taalvadya programmes
in1980 to bring percussion instruments to the centrestage. In 1982, to ‘Laya
Gana Madhura Lahiri’, he added music to make it more attractive to the audience.
Since then, he has given more than 350 of these performances at various
cultural events in India and abroad. In 2001, nritya was added to the programme
and the title. This, he said, was done to give it a more holistic approach. The
dance was added to give it a visual aspect on the request of European
audiences. His son, who organizes the events, said that they thoughtfully
incorporated the theme of the seasons to the choreography. He wanted to welcome
the advent of monsoon by ending with a composition on the monsoon. He was
accompanied by Sh D. Kartik Narayanan on mridangam, R. Krishnan on Morsing, P.
V. Raghvanasimhan on ghatam, R. Ramkumar on pakhawaj , Suraj Nirwan on tabla ,
G. Navneeth on kanjira, Dr. S. Vasudevan on Carnatic vocal and nattuvangam,
Sudhanshu Sharma on Hindustani vocals and Parhant, D. Venkatasubramanian on
violin and music composition, Gayathri Sharma on violin and vocals, Kiran Kumar
on flute, Puraskar Nirwan on sitar, Varsha Ramkumar on Bharatnatyam and Sunny
Shishodiya was the Kathak dancer - all together 15 of them.
R Ramakumar, P V Raghavanasimhan, T R Dhandapany, D Karthik Narayanan and G Navneeth |
The composition,
the music and the choreography were based on a raga to depict the season. They
started with winter depicted by Malkauns or Hindolam. The raga was chosen to
show the calm and sombreness of winter. The composition was set to Sankirna
jati Jampa talam, a cycle of 12 beats. The spring season was depicted by raga Basant.
The composition was set to Chatusra jati Matya talam, a cycle of 10 beats.
Deepak raag is associated with summer. The composition was in raag Brindavani
Sarang and is set to Khanda jati Ata talam, a cycle of 14 beats. The rainy
season was depicted using the Malhaar group of raagas. The composition was in
miya ki malhar and set to Chatusra Triputa talam, a cycle of 8 beats.
Gayathri Sharma, D Venkatasubramanian, Sudhanshu Sharma and Dr S Vasudevan |
The
percussion and the music set hearts racing, besides bringing out the mood of
each season. Each performer exhibited his individual skills and then they all
performed as a group to finally join in a crescendo. The piece for monsoon had
excellent music, the sounds of the rumbling clouds, lightning and rain. Each
musician was commendable with mridangam and the tabla player warranted a
special mention.
Sunny Shishodiya and Varsha Ramkumar |
The dancers,
Varsha and Sunny, presented some good nritya. Each season and its composition
depicted the state of nature - the birds, the lotuses, the bees and the rivers,
the romance between couples. There were some costume changes, a different
colour for each season.
Pics: Anoop Arora
Note: This article first appeared in narthaki.com
Pics: Anoop Arora
Note: This article first appeared in narthaki.com
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