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Brilliant recital from Leela Samson Nobody who is a dance enthusiast in Chennai will miss the performance of the former star of Kalakshetra, Leela Samson. It was not any different this time at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai. She is one of the most decorous artists of today. Her deportment, her dress, her humility, and her dance all speak for themselves. The centerpiece of the programme, the varnam, in Kalyani ragam, Adi talam, followed a slokha on Ardhanareeshwara. The varnam, a composition of the Tanjore Quartet, was dominated by Leela's ingenious use of the tala structure, and the theermanams of Karaikudi R.Krishnamurthy. Her 'kala pramanam' or sense of timing was impeccable. The shollus of the theermanams, or the syllables of the pure dance passages, were different from the actual steps being performed. So the syllables of the 'nattuvanar' go one-way, and his cymbals another. No wonder, that it was an uphill task for Shivakumar, the nattuvanar, and the mridangist, M.V.Chandrasekhar. The dancer found herself at times in an unenviable position of holding the fort with no help from her orchestra. The vocalist Sudha Raghuraman is an excellent singer, but seemed more aware of her music than Leela's dance. The young violinist, Akkarai Subbalakshmi was very good.
Coming back to the dancer and her choreography, her 'arudis' too kept people craning their necks and on the edge of their seats. In the second half of the varnam after each swaram, Leela left a gap of one tala-cycle, before her finishing steps. She seemed to be teasing the viewer with her manipulation of the beats. The text of the varnam was a plea by the heroine to Padmanabha not to be indifferent to her love. Leela is intense in her emoting. Her gestures and eye movement are minimal, but eloquent. Her understated costume is worth a special mention. Off-white pyjamas with a small green border, and a green blouse was set off by a purple and gold shawl worn as an odni. The shawl was not the most aesthetic colour-combination she could have used to complete the outfit, but the effect on the whole was refreshingly different. From Kalyani to Todi ragam, in which the dancer performed a javali 'Mayaladi'. The heroine tells her friend about how another girl jealous of the nayaka's love for her, used magical tricks and lured him away from her. Leela was very powerful in her presentation. 'Valapu datse', a Kshetrayya padam in Varali ragam, misra chapu talam, describes the attitude of a sammanya nayika, one who loves openly. ''I cannot hide my love like the others do…I receive him openly…and give him all he asks of me'', says the young courtesan. On popular request, Leela continued with a bhajan in Shivaranjani ragam, 'Shyam tori murali naek bhajao' where Radha suggests to Krishna that they dress and act as each other. This yearning to be one with Krishna can be taken on a more spiritual level as the principle of advaita philosophy, where the yearning to be one with god is the basic ideology. Leela performed a thillana in Revathi ragam, a composition of Lalgudi Jayaraman. It was in misra chapu talam and again brought to the fore the dancer's concentration and dexterity. She was well appreciated for her efforts with a full auditorium and a complimentary audience. |
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