Nandanar Charithram @ Cleveland

annamalai · Post by **annamalai** » 23 Apr 2009, 09:31

I presumed this program should have been one of the highlights of this year's Cleveland aradhana. However, I have not seen any reviews of this program in this forum.

VP Dhananjayan is one of the best dancers. He is a master of abhinayam and his portrayal of Nandanar should have been phenomenal.

It is very rare to have a dance program such quality of vocalists - (other than for T. Balasaraswathi's dance program and the Vocalists were Jeyammal, T. Viswa, ... ). I have read ardent rasikas including Semmangudi used to attend Bala's dance program to hear Jeyammal's music. My general pet peeve with dance programs is that usually the vocal music is not at the same caliber as the dance and that takes away the enjoyment for me.

The vocalists for this Nandanar program are of such quality - Suguna Varadhachari, B. Balasubramanian, Prameela Gurumurthy, S. Sowmya, Gayathri Venkataraghavan and KN Sasikiran, ...

A couple of years back, I read VP Dhanajayan also performed a dance program on Thyagaraja Krithis with D. Pasupathy (Vocal), Adayar Lakshmanan, VV Subramanyam (Violin) and Vellore Ramabhadran.

srini_pichumani · Post by **srini_pichumani** » 23 Apr 2009, 10:11

Annamalai,

I too was looking forward to a detailed review of this program but was disappointed not to find any... hopefully someone will write about it.

However, I sat through both the practice session and the program held at SIFA in the Bay area and was truly moved. I heard a lot of chatter later that it was not put together well etc etc but I think the comments missed the entire spirit of the presentation.

Yes, it was not as slick as one would have wished, but the narration by Sowmya, the music of Suguna Varadachari, Prameela Gurumurthy, Sowmya, Wesleyan Balu, Shashikiran/Ganesh, Gayatri Venkataraghavan, and the fantastic mrdangam accompaniment of Neyveli Narayanan was a wholesome treat on the music side.

Meenakshi Chittaranjan's dance was beautiful and was characterized by the right amount of feeling and restraint -- I was left wishing for more -- she danced for vazhi maraitthirukkudu, sattre vilagi nillum pillAy, varugalaamo ayya, and naTanam AdinAr.

Having been to the TiruppunkUr temple as a child, having heard the story of nandanAr, Gopalakrishna Bharati and his composing of the nandanAr caritram from various sources, I listened to the whole program in a reverential mood (and in a bit of reverie from time to time !) and hence it was all the more appealing to me. A friend who grew up in Chidambaram felt the same !

-Srini.

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 24 Apr 2009, 22:24

I feel that the staging of the Nandanar Charitram at the Cleveland Festival this year & the way it was done easily represents the summit of acheivements in terms of musical happenings in USA since 1959(when I arrived here) along with the UN Concert of the immortal MSS.
Unfortunately i have to refrain from reviewing it as I am on the organiisng committee myself! I must however congragulate Cleveland V.V.Sundaram & all the artists as well as anyone involved with it for bringing out the BEST in our culture, music& fine arts as well as the very profound contribution of Gopala Krishna Bharathiar. My Salutations, regards& respects to EVERY ONE of you WHO WAS PART OF IT. I request anyone knowledgeable to review it who attended it VKV

suma · Post by **suma** » 24 Apr 2009, 22:30

I attended both the reharsals and the dance. Right from childhood I admired dance and watched a lot of shows. What do we say about this? This was ultimate! All the artists that sang did a fantastic job. Evoked a lot of bhavam out of the song. The dancer was predominantly Shri Dhanajayan. In between at one part, his wife comes in a saree itself not in dance costume. May be that's how it is supposed to be as I dont know. Towards the later part their student does the thillana and fast paced bharatanatyam part.
For me the highlight was Shubashree's translation in english and narration of the dance sequence in english. A lot of youngsters were around and this was very valuable.

For those of you that missed it in Cleveland, I know that they are repeating the performance this weekend in New Jersey with different singers and dancers. Google up Bala Devi Chandrasekar and she can give you the details like venue etc as she is the dancer for this event in New Jersey.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 24 Apr 2009, 22:55

Here you go - http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... le-nj.html for the event in NJ on Saturday

kmrasika · Post by **kmrasika** » 25 Apr 2009, 08:37

Can someone post the list of items performed? Is this the complete work?

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 25 Apr 2009, 09:34

kmrasika wrote:Can someone post the list of items performed? Is this the complete work?

The list of items was quite large & covered all the major key compositions but not all of them due to time constraints. Both the compositions & key viruthams were brilliantly renderd by the various artists in a very moving fashion. Prof.S.Ramanathan's book is Must Read for any one interested in finding out why Nandanar Charitram of Gopala Krishna Bharathiyar is probably one of the greatest creative works ever written. Smt. Kamala Murthy's Musical Discourse on Gopalakrishna Bharathiyar (broadcast on Tiruchi AIR) is one of the most inspiring accounts I have heard. I will be happy to share it with those interested. VKV

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 25 Apr 2009, 20:36

Please do, VKV.

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 25 Apr 2009, 20:41

All ears VKV!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 25 Apr 2009, 22:12

VKV sir please post it in GKB thread please in
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... hi-p5.html

cacm · Post by **cacm** » 26 Apr 2009, 05:37

rajeshnat wrote:VKV sir please post it in GKB thread please in
http://rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... hi-p5.html

Dear Rajeshnat,
Due to my time constraints- I just returned from India & Cleveland just two days back. Easiest thing for me is to mail the Kamalamoorthy piece to you as MP3 CD & YOU CAN TAKE CARE OF THE REST. Pl write your mailing address to me at: [email protected]. Regs, VKV

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 26 Apr 2009, 07:12

The ball will now be in Rajesh's court; and we look forward to it!

rajeshnat · Post by **rajeshnat** » 26 Apr 2009, 09:46

vkv sir
I have mailed you through the forum, I will do the rest.