Bharathi Shivaji (mOhiniATTam) in San Diego on 05 Apr 2009

[bilahari]

Earlier in the afternoon, I had also attended a mOhiniATTam performance by Smt Bharathi Shivaji and her daughter Vijayalakshmi. Next to PP's concert, this would easily rank as my favourite performance of the weekend and I am deeply indebted to Ravi (rshankar) because if he hadn't recommended that I attend this dance recital, I would have skipped it without a second thought. The dance recital was just amazing, with excellent song choices (recorded music), and the synchronisation of mother and daughter was just perfect (so much so that when they were holding each other and retreating at the end of the performance it really looked like a floating mirror), and both the danseuses were extraordinarily graceful. I loved Bharathi Shivaji's brief English explanations of the song prior to each piece, as I would otherwise have been totally lost. I especially enjoyed the pieces where two women are debating whether the man they see on a golden horse far away is Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, etc. The ashtapadi in kEdAragowLa and srI was also very well rendered. The highlight, however, was a piece in the middle where Smt Bharathi Shivaji portrayed a mother trying to put her child to sleep, studying the moon and asking herself if the moon or her child is more beautiful that night, etc. The final tableau of the danseuse with a sleeping child on her arms looking so perfectly content is a memory that I will probably carry with me for ages. There was a special touch to this presentation as upon its completion the audience burst into heavy applause and Smt Shivaji returned suddenly from backstage gesticulating to us to be quiet since she had just put the baby to sleep! It was comic genius, and her expression of mock anger was just too good. But more than that it also emphasised that the artiste and the audience are not separated in a performance, that the audience is not a mere witness but a participant in the performance, and that the audience is an integral part to the outcome of the presentation. It was just a brilliant performance and my friends who complained to me that all the mOhiniATTam performances they'd seen had the same cliched pieces were also awestruck by this performance, so, Ravi, an extremely big THANK YOU!

[bilahari]

Ravi, with regard to the music, some of the pieces weren't hardcore carnatic (there was a piece in ragamaliga and talamaliga with pretty uncommon ragas; another piece in raga navarasa, etc), but apart from the percussion difference, I didn't sense a distinct difference from CM in, say, the ashtapadi and the way in which a composition is rendered. It was about as slow as bharatanATyam music, but I'd like to listen to pieces of ragas I'm more familiar with (unlike navarasa which I don't understand) to see if indeed there is a difference. Sorry I'm not being of much help here, but this being my first mOhiniATTam performance, I wasn't paying attention to the details of the music!