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| Young Artists Hold Audience Spellbound |
Ranjani Saigal
05/22/2014
"Sita Ram Charit Ati Paavan, Madhur Saras Aur Ati Mann Bhavan. Puni Puni Kitani Ho Suni Sunaye, Hiya Ki Pyaas Bujhat Na Bujhaye"
Ramayana always held a great fascination for me. I have had the opportunity to study parts of the Ramayana in different languages. What amazed me is that no matter what the language, who wrote the piece or when in history the piece was written, it has come to be regarded as one of the finest piece of literature in that language.
The poetry of Valmiki Kamban and Tulasi Ramayana are marvelous. Later we have musical pieces like Arunchala Kavirayar's Ramanadagam and the many songs of Thiagaraja dedicated to Lord Rama.
The grand composition of Swathi Thirunal in Ragamalika - Bhavayami Raghu Ramam is yet another gem. It had been my dream to create a dance piece that can bring these gems to the attention of modern audience.
When my student Amudha Pazhanisamy and I received the Traditional Arts Apprentice grant, I decided to create this piece as the final presentation for the grant. I decided to use the idea of having a narrator who acts as a sutradhar and have Amudha present this as an Ekaangi Abhinaya - Solo Abhinaya presentation. Once I created the framework for this presentation I reached out to Smt. Geetha Murali who used her brilliance to set the piece to music. Thus with fabulous original musical compositions and poetry taken from different languages interwoven with English narration we created a theatrical piece to tell the Story of Rama.
On May 18 we represented the piece to benefit Udavum Karangal. Udavum Karangal (Helping Hands) is a registered, non-governmental, non-religious and non-profit social service organization, established in 1983, with the sole objective of serving people in need.Udavum Karangal believes that everyone deserves to be loved. Till date, there have been around 2000 unfortunate brethren from new born babies to dying destitute who have found a home here. The centre provides individualized services - treatment, care, rehabilitation and education.
The novelty in this presentation was that the entire team, except for myself was made up of Indian American children born and raised in the US who had learned music and dance in the US. The youngsters were brilliant and the entire show received rave reviews. "The best show I have ever seen" , "It was flawless", "I have been to many fundraisers but nothing came to close to the level of this event" were comments heard from the audience which went to prove the fabulous caliber of the youngsters presenting this event. The program opened with a very thorough introduction to the Ramayana traditions by Sohini Pillai, a Wellesley graduate who is a Fulbright scholar studying the Ramayana traditions.
Amudha Pazhanisamy (recent graduate from Washington University, St. Louis), the dancer held the audience captivated with her powerful dance and Abhinaya which she performed non-stop for 1 hr and 30 min. She ably presented a myriad of characters from the Ramayana in a very convincing manner.
She was aided in this effort by her sister Kavita Pazhanisamy, a high school student who learned the Veena from Dr. Revathi Ramaswamy and played the veena effortlessly. She gave the background score for many scenes. The singers Bhavna (freshman at Tufts) and Swathi (Junior at Amherst College) Sivasubramanium stunned the audience with their rendition of songs in so many languages with excellent pronunciation and amazing bhavam. They are students of Smt. Tara Anand. Ajay Ravichandran's (recent graduate from University of Maryland) mridangam playing was simply superb. Be it accompanying jathis or adding to the dramatic element of the piece, this young man delivered. He is the student of Prasad Swaminathan. Flute accompaniment by Prayuth Naduthota (sophomere at Brandeis) added such a wonderful touch to several scenes. He is a Skype student of Chandankumar. The youngest of all, Ajay Karthik, a seventh grader provided violin accompaniment and proved that he could keep us beautifully with the rest. Sitting on the podium, doing the nattuvangam I could not help feel a great sense of pride to be surrounded by such amazing talent.
It was clear that the audience loved the piece. While of course the artists should take a lot of credit for their fine presentation, I am convinced that it is the Ramayana that has magical powers for it can touch a 21st century audience in New England the same way it perhaps did when Valmiki first narrated the tale.
The event was also special for it opened with a fabulous rendition of Kurai Ondrum Illai and Oli padaitha Kananinay by students of Sandya Sridhar, a keyboard presentation by a skype student of Shriram Gangadharan (brother of Smt. Tara Anand) and a Violin medly by students of Tara Anand. The quality of all the musicians was outstanding. Kudos to the gurus, kudos to the children, kudos to the parents and of course great thanks to God for keep the arts alive at such a high level in New England.
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