An evening of love and longing in Bharatanatyam by Ragini Chandershekar

 

Ragini Chandershekar

On 11 August, Ragini Chandershekar gave a Bharatanatyam performance at IIC Delhi. Ragini is a well-known soloist, choreographer and teacher who has been trained by various gurus, including her mother, the renowned Guru Jamuna Krishnan. For this performance, she was accompanied by her husband M.V.  Chandershaker on mridangam, Sudha Raghuraman on vocals, G. Raghuraman on flute and V.R. Rajasekharan on nattuvangam. 

M.V.  Chandershaker on mridangam, Sudha Raghuraman on vocals, G. Raghuraman on flute and V.R. Rajasekharan on nattuvangam.

Ragini looked stunning in her purple aharyam. This was a more than one and a half-hour margam performance on ‘Moham, songs of love’. She danced with unfailing stamina and energy. In fact, she totally enjoyed dancing the last thillana with verve. 

Moham is an emotion of love and longing for the beloved. The emotion can be simple yet profound; it is deep and yet superficial; the longing could be for the divine or the lover; in perfection, silence, energy and ananda. The states are overlapping and are about the journey within. 

The first composition was by Mohan Dasa for Mohan Vitthala in Kannada. The poet tells Lord Krishna, you have pushed a simple person like me into the bhavasagar, and you look on with disdain. I do not desire worldly, material things. I desire only enlightenment. While You, my Lord, lie on the kshirsagar, I simply want to cross the ocean of materialism. This was in raag Mohanam, aditalam. The music was by Sudha Raghuraman and the rhythmic pattern in the pushpanjali had been set by Karaikudi Sivakumar in raag Mishrachapu. 

 

After the Pushpanjali, Ragini held stances for Krishna with bansuri, holding the tail of Kaliya Naag and that of caressing his calves. The poet prays to Udupi Krishna to help him cross the bhavasagar. Ragini depicted the attributes of Vitthala, like holding butter, using leg balancing and back leg stretches. The bhakta pleads with Krishna not to look upon him with a smirk and to quickly throw the ropes to him so that he can swim ashore.

The next piece was a shringar varnam in Kharaharipriya, aditalam, a composition of Dandayudhpani Pillai. The nayika is totally lost in her love for Shiva. The chirping of the birds accentuates her pain. 

 

Here, Ragini chose to portray the concept of Purush and Prakriti, Shiva and Shakti. The nayika is reminded of Shiva when she sees herself. Her beautiful hair reminds her of his matted locks, her beni, of the Ganga that flows from his jata. The bangles and anklets remind her of the snakes that he wears as ornaments. She wants to lose her identity to his. Sound and rhythm emerge from his dancing feet.
Ragini depicted the nayika dressing in front of a mirror, combing her beautiful tresses as she reminiscences about his locks. The flowers in her hair are like the Ganga. The bindi on her forehead reminds her of the chandra, her sari of his bagambar, her ornaments are like the snakes that adorn him. His third eye makes her lifeless as Manmatha strikes her with his arrows. His words and his voice make her mad in love. The panchbaan or the flower arrows strike her. 

 

As the nayika meditates, the kundalini rises and Shiva and Shakti unite in the sahasrara chakra. She walks to the temple of Lord Chidambaram and opens the door. She sees the procession, with all the instruments, and as she admires his looks, he looks at her. She tells the sakhi to go to him immediately and get him to her as she yearns for him. She even tries to reward the sakhi with her ornaments. She stands waiting for him, watching his path. Ragin’s abhinaya was very expressive, depicting all the expressions of a lovelorn nayika. 

 

The nritta was just flawless. Her neck and eye movements, footwork and expansive hastas are mesmerizing. In the nritta interludes, she opened up her plethora of jatis with leaps squats and leg stretches, moving in all directions – diagonally and back and forth – covering the entire stage. She depicted the attributes of Shiva – his jata, third eye, the chandra on his head, the aura of light that emerges from him. She ended the piece on the note that the nayika is still looking at the environs, the birds, the lotuses, they still fan her desires and she pleads to the sakhi to go to him. The interlude had vocals and flute by the talented Raghuramans.

The next piece Ragini performed was a Surdas pad in the ninda stuti style. This a different type of love or moham where the nayika, a gopi, sarcastically tells Krishna about his shortcomings while singing his praises. The composition is in raag Pilu, aditalam. The research, ideation and music composition for this were by Guru Jamuna Krishnan. 

The sakhi tells Krishna that no doubt he is like the moon, and she is the chakor that looks at it, but the moon does not look for it; it is the same for all. She is like a fish who has been swept ashore and is dying for him, and he like the waves who take their water elsewhere. The patanga dies in the flames, but the fire does not care. The chatak dies of thirst but the clouds take their water elsewhere. His murli also takes on his attitude and she too is indifferent (nirdayi) to the pain she causes. The lyrics were extremely moving, and the vocals by Sudha gave you goosebumps. Add to that Ragini’s abhinaya of a distraught gopi, and it made the piece an experience. Of particular mention were her expressions of a despondent chakor, fish and chatak. 

The next composition described a young girl who has had her first taste of moham or love. Her wise friend tells her that falling is love is not for moral, good girls. The young nayika exclaims that when you see a handsome man, it is not possible to lock one’s heart away. When two good-looking people meet, there are going to be sparks on both sides. It is not possible to keep one’s feelings pent up. 

The javali was in raga Khamas, roopaktalam. It was taught to Ragini by her guru, Smt. Kalanidhi Narayanan. Ragini drew a picture perfect image of a young mugdha nayika who is sitting down to comb her hair. She wears her kajal and ornaments and ties her beni. She summons her sakhi and confides to her about her love. That her heart flutters when she looks at him, that her heart is unstoppable. Though she can hear the whispers about her romance, she cannot resist. As he comes near her, she cannot take her eyes off him or pull her hand away from his and free herself from his arms as he embraces her. Kamadeva strikes her and then all advice becomes useless. Again, Ragini performed the entire narration very aptly through abhinaya.

The final piece was also a Surdas pad about the khandita nayika. The nayika is praudha, mature, and has seen Krishna’s dalliances with other gopis. She forbids him to come near her. She tells him that the other gopi is the one in his heart, and she herself is not a slave, though the other one may be a queen. The composition was in raag Abhogi, aditalam. 

 

As Ragini said, the entire ideation, research and composition were by her mother and guru Smt. Jamuna Krishnan, and the focal point in this composition was whether the nayika succumbs to her deep-rooted love or to the rationale that she will have nothing to do with him. In her very sensitively rendered nritya, she depicted the nayika plucking flowers, threading them, then bedecking herself and her chamber. She lights diyas after a day-long wait in the evening when she hears the knock. 

 

She sees the signs of a dalliance on Krishna and immediately pulls away her hand. Forbidding him from touching her, she draws a line between them. She taunts him that he should go and embrace the one whom he hovers over like a bee on a lotus. She stops him on swear that he is innocent. She states to him that people make fun of her, saying that she is the queen and she just a slave. She does not want to be fooled any further and shuts the door on his face. Yet, as she turns around, she waits to hear his footsteps, to check if he has left or not, and then very determinedly walks away. It was a totally different perspective on moham or love that Ragini undertook. 

The thillana had elements from all her gurus in raag Tillang, aditalam. She called it the bhakti moham, and it was here that Ragini unfolded her cache of jatis and movement. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying every step of it as she moved all over the stage, cutting diagonally across with a leap. Her coordination of neck and eye movements was awesome. She ended with a mangalam in praise of Lord Shiva.