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Guru Charana Smaranam |
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‘If God and the Guru were to stand in front of me, I would rather prefer touching the feet of the Guru first for, he gave me the knowledge to identify God", says the famous fakir Kabeer. Here is a sishya who stands as an epitome of Guru bhakti. He is none other than Natyacharya Udupi Laxminarayan, who learnt this divine art form from his guru Bharata Sastra Ratna Kanchipuram Ellappa Mudaliar in the ancient Gurukala system and recently celebrated the 11th Guru Jayanti of his Guru in a programme titled ‘Guru Charana Smaranam’. This occasion was meaningful not only to the Guru but also for the students who participated in the programme as a mark of reverence to the doyen Guru. A grand group production by students of Guru Laxminarayan's school, Natya Manjari is staged every year on this occasion. This year the dance ballet ‘Krishna Leela’, choreographed by Guru Laxminarayan was staged at the Krishna Gana Sabha, which is celebrating a month-long Gokulashtami series. The staging of this ballet remained a fine prelude to the same. The ballet was a wonderful compilation of Dasar kritis and included an exceptionally classic choice as ‘Ba Gumma’ and ‘Gummana Karayadire’. The show commenced with the Pushpanjali, offering floral invocation to Lord Ganesha, Trimoorti and Ashta-dik-palakas. It was followed by ‘Enna Punniyam Seydeno’, which was an ideal song for the present day dance scenario featuring Guru Bhakti. The ballet included select episodes from Bhagavatam such as Krishna Jananam, His journey to Gokulam, Pootaki Vadham, Kalinga Mardhanam and so on. |
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The
choreographic
genius of Guru Udupi Laxminarayan was quite
visible in the episode, ‘Krishna’s
journey to Gokulam’, crossing the river where the
water level was shown to rise until it touched the feet
of the Lord and how after touching the lotus feet it
slowly came down. Similarly the delicate episodes as Pootaki Vadham were handled with care.
Madhumathi
Prakash as Yasodha, Master Ashwath as little Krishna,
Lakshmi Nandini as Kalinga, the snake, and other
disciples including Srividya, Divya Kasturi, Hemalakshmi, Bhoomika and Mamatha Rao
participated in the show. Fine
elaboration by dancers and neat rendering of the ideas
definitely need special mention. The essence of the
Ellappa Mudaliar tradition was lucidly seen in the
production. The noteworthy orchestra included Natyacharya Udupi Laxminarayan himself proudly seated on the Nattuvangam, Shanthi Jayaraman (Vocal), Venkat (Mridangam), Sikhamani (Violin), Subbu (Keyboard) and Parthasarathy (Effects). |
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Terrific Audio Visual Impact Lakshmi V N |
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Posted on 27th August 2001 |
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