Yearly, through the month of Could, a village not too removed from the Chola heartland of Thanjavur lights up with a lot pomp and grandeur. Narasimha Jayanthi, a Hindu pageant that’s celebrated within the month of Vaisakha holds nice significance for the village and therefore a grand fortnight-long Nritya-Nataka Utsavam is organised.
Within the truest sense Melattur is an artwork village as a result of it has produced a few of the most excellent artistes, composers and personalities, who’ve made unparalleled contributions to artwork. Even at the moment, the performs composed by the eminent playwright Melattur Venkatarama Sastri are enacted to honour the nice inventive legacy of this village. The unparalleled and heartwarming hospitality that’s provided by villages to their visitors wants no elaboration. Members of each family information guests to the Varadaraja Temple the place a stage is put up on the road, going through the deity.
Sustaining a practice like Bhagavata Mela is a monumental activity and the pageant thrives even at the moment as a result of efforts of a number of artistes and artwork lovers. The household of the famend dance guru and Bhagavata Mela exponent Melattur S. Natarajan continues to organise the Utsavam even after his passing. Natarajan’s brother Kumar took over the baton and has taken a number of steps to make sure a bigger viewers attends and, most significantly, appreciates the price of the custom.
All the fest is livestreamed for the advantage of world audiences. Along with this, Kumar has launched a number of movies on the group’s official YouTube channel, demystifying the nuances of the custom by that includes each member concerned to spotlight their particular person contributions as effectively. Efficiency slots are additionally provided to budding dancers and reputed dance faculties who take part with involvement to be part of this grand custom.
Music performs a major function on this dance-theatre kind. Perfecting the songs for the performs demand a specialised strategy. And Melattur S. Kumar’s portrayal of Harischandra, with intensive utilization of footwork, aligns to the music and percussion.
| Picture Credit score:
N.C. Srinivasaraghavan
Bhagavata Mela dramas invariably show to be a musical deal with and this side must be examined individually to completely perceive the enchantment of those Natakams. The twelve Telugu dramas written by Venkatarama Sastri are stuffed with conventional daruvus of various contexts – pravesha daruvus, uttara pratyuttara daruvus, samvaada daruvus, svataata daruvus, pralaaba daruvus, and so forth. Each Daruvu is a gem by way of the literary and musical gadgets which were included by Venkatarama Sastri. Using the choicest poetic expressions each within the dialogues in addition to the lyrics of songs, Sastri has ensured that lovers of the Telugu language rejoice each phrase. Every character has a novel persona and each Paatra Pravesha Daruvu (self-introductory entrance) makes an attempt to color a portrait of the qualities of the character, requiring musicians and dancers to pay attention to each the musical in addition to contextual features. The daruvus are set in troublesome ragas corresponding to Ahiri, Ghanta and Maanji other than ghana ragas corresponding to Shankarabharanam and Arabhi. It’s to be famous that Venkatarama Sastri’s musical experience is obvious from how he totally disproves the idea of utilizing a specific raga just for a sure rasa or a persona sort. For instance, one can hear a Paatra Pravesha in Atana, a raga representing Veera rasa, for a swish feminine character. A robust and fearsome male character surprisingly makes use of Kalyani, a raga that’s usually considered to characterize grace and sweetness.
From the play Harischandra Half 2.
| Picture Credit score:
Picture Courtesy: Melattur Bhagavata Mela Natya Nataka Sangam
Carrying ahead a terrific Guru Parampara that traces itself again to Saint Tyagaraja himself, Tiruvaiyaru Brothers (S Narasimhan and S Venkatesan) lead the musical orchestra that’s an integral a part of these dramas, together with L. Prabaharan. Perfecting songs which are a part of a Nritya-Natakam demand a specialised strategy as they require musicians to stick to the composer’s inventive imaginative and prescient by way of ragas and general bhava along with working intently with the dancers onstage. It’s optimistic to notice that the kids of those singers N. Venkatasubramanian and V. Venkatakrishnan at the moment are helping them to protect the household’s heritage. The opposite long-time instrumentalists who’re a part of the orchestra embrace Lalgudi Ok. Ramaprasad on the violin and B. Gokulakrishnan on the flute, who vastly contribute to the dramas by means of calculative musical interludes and aesthetic raga insertions, along with accompanying the vocalists.
Mridangam is of paramount significance within the dramas and requires data of the contents of the songs in addition to anticipating the strikes of the dancers onstage and coordinating with their footwork. Nagai P. Sriram single-handedly gives percussion assist, providing much-needed rhythmic variety for each line that’s musically repeated a number of instances with totally different lyrics in a typical Bhagavata Mela Daruvu.
From the play Harischandra Half 1.
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Picture Courtesy: Melattur Bhagavata Mela Natya Nataka Sangam.
The play Harischandra covers the life story of Raja Harischandra specializing in his travails as he struggles to meet his guarantees to sage Vishwamitra, who calls for his whole wealth and even his kingdom. Taking part in the titular character, senior Bhagavata Mela performer Kumar retains a definite model of presentation related to lead male characters. Fairly just like the Yakshagana custom, Kumar’s distinctive portrayal of Harischandra with intensive utilization of footwork aligned to the music and percussion together with syncing of the lips to the music being sung with acceptable expression is to be appreciated as a uncommon ability. Kumar mastered the fundamentals of this model from his father, the late G. Swaminathan, taking nice efforts to inherit the finer features. Kumar’s performing abilities particularly stood out when his character is pressured by circumstances to work in a cremation floor. His power and enthusiasm onstage elevate the performs.
Senior dancer Srikanth Natarajan, who is part of Bhagavata Mela for the final 45 years, performs Chandramathi, a job that earlier belonged to the late veteran Melattur Natarajan. Srikanth, who is understood for his mature Saatvikaabhinaya aced this function. A specific Daruvu, reserved for Chandramathi in raga Ghanta, is likely one of the play’s highlights. The Daruvu talks about Chandramathi recollecting the privileged life that she led earlier, earlier than being pressured to work for an aged man. Srikanth’s lokadharmi the place he portrayed Chandramathi performing day by day chores was fairly convincing. Nagai Sriram’s mridangam enhanced the musical high quality of this Daruvu. Srikanth’s expressions, upon listening to the unhealthy information that Chandramathi’s son Lohitaksha dies, have been poignant and stirring. It’s noteworthy that Srikanth took utmost care to manage his facial expressions even when he stood on the stage when different characters spoke. There isn’t a doubt that the character of Chandramathi is an integral a part of the play and nobody may have achieved it higher.
From the play Harishchandra Half 2.
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Picture Courtesy: Melattur Bhagavata Mela Natya Nataka Sangam
Mathanga Kanya is a seductress despatched by Vishwamitra to entice Harischandra. The character is feisty, flirtatious, and provocative. Senior dancer Vijay Madhavan has a separate rasika base only for the portrayal of this character and he has developed and carved this character with a private contact through the years. It will not be an exaggeration to state that Vijay regularly explores the multi-hued persona traits of Mathanga Kanya in a layered method yearly. This time he selected to utilise the staircase main as much as the stage to place himself as he performs the veena within the Nadanamakriya daruvu. The tense state of affairs that prevails between Mathanga Kanya and Chandramathi as they throw shade at each other in rivalry is a scene to behold by itself. Vijay have to be appreciated for his knowledgeable dealing with of the overt shringara in these items in a way befitting the character of this tantalising feminine character.
From the play Harischandra staged at Melattur Bhagavata Mela mahostsavam.
| Picture Credit score:
Picture courtesy: N.C. Srinivasaraghavan
Bhagavata Mela brings collectively individuals of varied age teams and it is a optimistic function of those dramas. Kids like Rakshit A and Sudarsan S sincerely portrayed Lohitaksha. Octogenarian R. Varadarajan astonished viewers together with his genuine portrayal of the king of Kashi. Particular point out have to be made to Venkatasubramaniam who performed Nakshatriyan, a comical character that left the viewers in splits. Younger dancer Sundaresan Pandurangan was an apt alternative for the character Madanavathi. It’s encouraging to notice that the kids of the current actors and dancers take up roles in these dramas. It is very important go on the artwork to youthful dancers regularly to make sure continuity and that is one thing that Kumar has been engaged on consciously.
A suggestion to make the dramas extra audience-friendly can be to make out there copies of books that include the lyrics and Tamil/English translations of the Telugu Daruvus and dialogues, in order that rasikas who have no idea Telugu may also utterly grasp the finer features that spotlight the literary genius of Venkatarama Sastri.
