Simply sparkling

LEELA VENKATARAMAN

The U.S.-bred Mythili Prakash gave a scintillating performance in New Delhi the other day.

PASSIONATE PORTRAYAL Mythili Prakash in a Bharatanatyam performance.

Can an Indian plant born and nurtured in the cultural melting pot of Los Angeles grow to be such a Bharatanatyam delight, smiting the viewer speechless with the power and passion of the dance?

Thanks to the five-day festival mounted by Rimpa in the aesthetic environs of the Ravi Shankar Centre at Chanakyapuri, a select gathering of art lovers was treated to the unusual talent of Mythili Prakash, daughter/disciple of Viji Prakash, who on her frequent Indian visits has also had the benefit of guidance from teachers like Guru Harikrishnan, son of Viji Prakash's guru Kalyanasundaram of Bombay and others.

Geography and distance have not dented the Indian in Mythili who is an uncommon aggregate of talent, commitment and presence with that precious ingredient of integrity, which burnishes her art with a special lustre. While describing her dance, one has to constantly rein in the unbridled praise threatening to run away. At her sparkling entrance itself to a bristling tillana in Maand, followed by a deeply reverential "Ganapataye namah" homage to Vinayaka in raga Desh, the audience was alerted, made to sit on the edge of the seat.

The feeling of being overwhelmed continued in the homage to Shiva in "Engum Chidambaram" from Tirumoolar's Tirumandiram.

What amazed this critic was the dancer's unusual flair, at such a young age, for movement composition suggesting the idea of the Akasha Lingam of Chidambaram, where the dancing Shiva's connection with space or ether connotes a limitless concept, difficult to capture in visual terms. The ultimate dance of Chidambaram is within oneself and it was the dancer's inner fire that spoke. The strikingly bold stances, often appearing as frozen final moments just before the starting point (sama) of a tala cycle after electrifying movement, the chiselled beauty of the araimandi and the toe/heel kudittu-metta, all executed with such joy and passion sprang from the obvious fountain of youth and agility. But what of the interpretative skill where Mythili's capacity for internalisation carried everyone on a magic carpet, the entire space charged with emotion, never allowed to be maudlin. And what a fine idea to depict dancing Shiva presiding over the elements through sollukattu-s designed by mridangist Venukrishnan, each element set to a different rhythmic gait (jaati) with the mnemonics Ta Dhin Taka Dhin running as the main theme component in the teermanams.

Musical support

Hariprasad's bhava- soaked melodious vocal support with Guru Harikrishnan (nattuvangam), Venukrishnan (mridangam), Kandaswamy (flute), Annadorai (violin) and Prasanna (morshankh), the music support could not have been stronger.

The persuasive charm of the scene showing child Krishna as the butter thief in "Main nahi makhana khayo" could only come from unsullied innocence and the dancer's integrity. In Subramania Bharati's Panchali Shapatham, Mythili handled the natya element of Draupadi's shame and anger in the Kaurav court with superb control.

Mythili is special. One prays that an overdose of adulation her dance is bound to evoke, and the cynicism of the performance syndrome do not in any way puncture that precious inner core in the dancer.

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