NrithyaRanjani '07- yet another milestone!

A purple skyline, the sound of falling rain and good music to soothe the nerves - the perfect October evening. We simply couldn't have had a better day to host NrithyaRanjani. The show went really well, but to cut it short here would be a gross injustice to the efforts that people put in and as we all know, beauty lies in savouring each and every moment, reliving the memories and revelling in the glorious time that we had.

The day started of with an air of frenzied activity. There were groups getting the dharis from Saini shop, groups buying rangoli and salt (instead of kolamav :P) from nuthan, some arranging cots and setting the stage, some working on brochures and acknowledgements and some being moral supporters. All this within a short span of 5 hours. One could find us in all places: back IC, front Audi, c'not, nuthan, Backstage, S9 and even Ganga stores. :D

6.00 pm, and along with it came the sparks of a tensed mind. Lots of things still had to be done - compering rehearsals, mike testing, setting the correct shruti for mridagam, dressing up and not to forget the lights people adding to the already burgeoning chaos on stage. Time flew in leaps and bounces. By the time, i could get my eyes on the watch again, it was 7 30. Another 15 minutes and our faces would be scorched by flood lights from all corners.

After the usual delays, the show started at 8 pm. This NR was a first to many things. One of them was a CCTV presentation. The fact that we did the whole movie work on our own makes it all the more exciting. Then came the backdrop opening. Solely sketched and painted by just three people (of course, art n dee had its share too), and that too two weeks ahead of the show is something of a feat. This NR was also the longest one, stretching for a whopping 2 hours from 8 to 10pm . Surely a test of endurance for the dancers, considering the fact that it was the first time on stage for 2 of them. Kudos to them!

The whole structure was divided into 2 parts with an instrumental ensemble filling the gap. We had pieces that bore the traditional Bharatnatyam style and ones that were exclusively Mohini Aatam styled. We also had a fusion piece that sought to bring these 2 dance forms into one.

The first piece was a traditional mallari, tuned in Gambheeranattai and set to Adi talam. With the guyz on the vocals, and all 4 dancers on stage, it set in the right mood for the upcoming pieces. Following this came Shivakameshwari in Ragam Kalyani set to Adi talam. Again done by the guyz group, this piece elucidated the splendour and magnificence of Shivakameshwari, the consort of Lord Shiva. Perfect coordination amongst the dancers. Pics would be uploaded soon.Then came the varnam, Taraka Brahmame, in Kapi ragam. This was essentially a sequential portrayal of significant events from the Ramayana - the Sita swayamvaram, redemption of Ahalya who was cursed to turn to a stone by her spouse Gautama, abduction of Sita and finally concluding with the battle between Rama and Ravana. Bp as Ravana did a wonderful job at that and Namratha perfectly suited the calm, composed role of Rama. Lights guys did a splendid job (substantial part of the credit goes to Hardik for the cues) and that had its effects on the audience too.

Next was something that we've never done before. It was time for the Geetha piece. Verses were taken from the geetha and each one set to a different raga in the style of a virutham ( you guyz need to hear them, it would be an insult to try to put into words the beauty of each composition). However, there was a lot of stage work before this could start. 4 guyz had to pull the cots apart on both the sides, one of us had to close the half screen (Gita happened only in the first half of the stage). The second half was being readied for the next piece, the instrumental ensemble. This done, the stage opened with bp (Lord krishna) and pd (Arjuna) riding into the battlefield. Vsp and Radha were the voices of Lord Krishna and Arjuna respectively accompanied by Ganesh on the violin.Suited the situation to a tee. Intially it portrayed the confused state of mind Arjuna was in ( With some great work on the mridangam, the dancers enacted the splitting of Arjuna;s mind into two - one that urges him to fight against his rivals and the other that refrains him because of the personal bondage). Throughout the piece, Krishna explains to Arjuna about the 4 yogas that leads to the attainment of salvation.This was depicted with the help of various stories from mythology - the story of AdiShankaracharya answering questions to Goddess Saraswati (Again some good work by the Lights guyz where they had to flicker the neons to depict the swapping of souls by shankaracharya in the story) , the story of Prahalada, etc. This piece concludes with Arjuna requesting Krishna to reveal his viswaroopam, which was again orchestrated by cleverly concieved shadow work. ( The stage lights from below were slowly titled at a constant rate so that bp's shadow grew to a huge size, signifying the grandiose and magnificence that the viswaroopam essentially is).

There concluded the first half of the concert and 1 hr was already gone. Then came the instrumental with fast paced phrases in brindavani, moving on to behag and then concluding with Kanada. The tabla and Mridangam only added glitter to the peppy number. However, the first few minutes of this was screwed by the sounds guyz with unfortunately feeble volume for the violin. Brilliant composition by Ganesh, and rendered equally well by nandy and ganesh himself.

The second half started with a solo Mohiniaatam piece by pd. Omanathingal set to Nilambari was a lullaby that brings out the unconditional love of a mother to her child. Pd's expressions were the main highlight. Then came the fusion dance piece that depicted the story of the demon basmasuran. This was also purely instrumental. It starts off with the demon asking a boon from Lord shiva that sought to turn anyone to ashes once he places his hand on their head. Shiva turns to lord Vishnu when the asura attempts to kill him. Then Vishnu incarnates as Mohini who entices the asura to place his hand on his own head. This was done by the clever interplay of the violin (folk music in bilahari for Mohini,) and the mridangam for the asura.

The finaly piece was an effervescent thillana in Madhuvanti and by the time it got over, the time was already 10 pm. Whoa! 2 hours of uninterrupted performance. You could see a thousand smiles on everyone's faces. Then the couple snaps, "yo '0x" snaps, funds like ps senior, B5 snaps, and what not. Of course, the V fast grub that followed. Then the temple lawns lacha until 1. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

The realization of a dream - a dream that we, on campus ppl, dreamt together- A testimony to the planning, the screw up sessions, the practices, the hard work, the expectation, the worry, the tension, the confidence - and more than everything, the learning. The gussed tests, sacrificed movies, missed c'not sessions- everything seemed insignificant. After all, it was but for this one day!

Marching ahead with the head held high, with the enormity of our success yet to sink in. Retiring into bed, with dreams sweet. NrithyaRanjani 2007 would be etched in our minds forever!

To the music, without which we would be dried souls.
To the enthu, without which there wud be no fun.
To Raag, for what it has given us!

Amen!