SARANYA MENON’S ARANGETTAM
I spent the 20th August evening most enjoyably in Kolhapur in company of members of the families of my cousins
(late) Chnadran Menon and Ram Menon. The occasion was the debut Bharat Natyam
stage performance by Saranya, daughter of Ram Menon’s son Sachin, the Managing
Director of Menon Pistons Limited.
Saranya’s Arangettam or Rangapravesham
was a professionally managed event at the Sahu Sanskritik Mandir which started
at 6pm after high tea at 5.15. I knew nothing about Sarany’s Guru, Kavitha Nair
or the dance school Narthana School of Dance at Kolhapur. Truly, therefore, I
had not anticipated the splendid performance I watched from a debutante. Well,
it was an enthralling experience I would like to acknowledge and narrate to those who read my blogs direct and through the Facebook:
Saranya performed on the stage to
live music by Nandakumar Unnikrishnan (vocal) Lingaraju (mridangam), Madhusudan
(violin), Narasinhamurthy (flute) and Prasanna D V (rhytm pad) all
Bangalore-based artists and Kavitha Nair at nattuvanga. The program
was in the concert format, starting with Pushpanjaly, and then on to Ganesha
Stuthi, Alarippu, Jathiswaram, Lakshmi Stuthi,
Varnam, Shiva Panchakshara Stuthi, Bhajan, Thillana and Mangalam.
It was indeed an enchanting recital in which Saranya glided from pose to pose
effortlessly, forming visual compositions with great perfection. In the
lyrical, curvaceous flow of movements on the stage, appealing mudras
and mukhabhinaya,
footwork, the commendable stability of poses, and the expression of adavus
Saranya performed beautifully to the rhythmic syllables of the remarkably good
music. It was difficult not to notice the great artistic spirit and nuances she
exhibited during the entire performance. I therefore felt that though she would
before long qualify as an engineer, and eventually join management of one of
the Menon Group enterprises, she would certainly carry forward the great
tradition of South Indian classical dance, and love doing it
.
