Culture and Conversation

I read the book ‘Muthulakshmi Reddy – A Trailblazer in Surgery and Women’s Rights’ by V.R.Devika and I have to say it was a highly engaging biography that was simple to read and process. Those of us who know Dr.Devika are aware of the hard work that she has put in for this book, the research for which began about four decades ago. Having attended many of her online talks, I was already quite well informed on Dr.Muthulakshmi Reddy and this book provided a more extensive view o

T.M. Krishna performing with Jogappas in Bengaluru in 2016. | Photo Credit: BHAGYA PRAKASH K Picturise a village, not far from the sea, full of lush green fields with clusters of coconut palms swaying in the wind. A group, led by a woman accompanying her young daughter and friends, walks slowly to Thirukkannapuram. Hoping to make the long journey less tiring, the group breaks into a song —  thoNdIr! uyyum vagai kaNdEn  thuLangkA arakkar thuLangka  mun thiNthOL nimirach silai

The Bhagavata Mela theatre form is a tradition rooted in Puranas or Hindu epics. The Bhagavata Mela Utsavam that takes place in Melattur today uses the dance dramas composed by Melattur Venkatrama Shastri for the last 200 years. Vijay Madhavan who formally learnt Bharatanatyam from Chitra Visweswaran trained to become a Bhagavata Mela artiste from a very young age and has been a part of this hallowed tradition for the last 34 years. Vijay took over a set of roles like Bhumi D

Every year, during the month of May, a village not too far from the Chola heartland of Thanjavur lights up with much pomp and grandeur. Narasimha Jayanthi, a Hindu festival that is celebrated in the month of Vaisakha holds great significance for the village and hence a grand fortnight-long Nritya-Nataka Utsavam is organised.  The Varadaraja Perumal temple on Agraharam Street at Melattur in Thanjavur. | Photo Credit: The Hindu In the truest sense Melattur is an art village bec

The dancer blazed a trail in Bharatanatyam | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement Bharatanatyam as a dance form in the post-revival years was popularised greatly by someone so famous that many parents named their daughters after her. She inspired girls from middle-class families to take up the dance form at a time when women from non-hereditary caste locations were discouraged to do so.  Described as the ‘Queen of Dance’ by none other than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Kumari Kamala

Deepa Mahadevan’s solo production ‘Maiyal’ examined love mainly through the lens of an enraged nayika, who wishes to claim ownership over her lover Krishna. While the performance featured a few popular pieces, it was anchored by a Tamil composition of Deepa’s guru Madurai R. Muralidharan, which stood out for its simplicity and directness. Maiyal, the thematic Bharatanatyam performance by Deepa Mahadevan at NGS on May 6, 2023. | Photo Credit: SRINATH M As the performance progr

When it comes to abhinaya, one can never forget T. Balasaraswati. While it is undeniable that she was a crucial link to the past by way of her illustrious lineage, representing seven generations of hereditary performers, she also had the extraordinary ability to floor audiences through her extempore abhinaya. One recalls American ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown’s words, “Balasaraswati performed the same piece 15 times during a concert tour, yet rendered each version anew by

Weaving together the pieces of a typical maargam into a thematic presentation is quite a complex task. However, Rakshita Raghunathan & Ragini Iyer did this quite convincingly in their recent Bharatanatyam duet titled ‘Adhyantara – The Journey of a Goddess.’ Pieces that were centred around Meenakshi (and Devi as an extension) were taken up in their short recital.  Starting off with an Alarippu that incorporated several gestures associated with Devi like her eyes that are shape