The 29th edition of the Parampara Festival by gurus Radha Raja and Kaushalya Reddy was held at Kamani auditorium, New Delhi recently. Not many festivals present both classical dance and music in equal proportion. Kaushalya Reddy said “There can be no dance without music, so we choose to present both forms.”

The Reddy family has literally transformed Delhi’s landscape vis a vis Kuchipudi. The dance form was unknown to Delhi-ites till the 1970s; today it has an ever growing tribe of exponents, 90% of whom are not from South India. Kuchipudi today in Delhi is arguably the most popular South Indian dance form, perhaps eclipsing Bharatanatyam.

The festival opened with Bhavna Reddy’s electrifying though brief ode to Ganapati, in raga Mohanam, set to Adi tala. Apparently, the piece had been choreographed by Raja Reddy forty years ago, then forgotten and never performed. Bhavna shared she loved exploring forgotten compositions that needed ‘airing’. 

The next pieces were by the students of the institution; dancing in unison. The first piece was Rasa Sabdam. After that was an innovative depiction of Gajendra moksha, the inspirational story of how Gajendra the King elephant in his last moments remembered his past life and called upon Lord Krishna to save him from the crocodile.  Gauri Taneja played the crocodile most explicitly. The moment Lord Krishna comes in aid of his devotee’s prayer to rescue him, wonderful spot lighting by Sandeep Datta transformed the stage. The third piece was the scene from the Mahabharata in which Draupadi is disrobed, sloka Vaidyalingam who played Duryodhana was memorable. The last piece was the thali dance (tarangam). Choreography was as usual wonderful, the male singer Shreshta Hariharan should have perhaps focused more on remaining in tune. 

The evening ended with Ulhas Kashalkar, today one of the senior most vocalists. His seamless merging of the three vocal gayakis he trained in (Gwalior Jaipur and Agra) have today been established as an independent vocal form, with over ten performing disciples singing in his style.      

Ulhas started with raga Shuddha Kalyan; an expansive magnificent presentation. He chose a rarely sung ‘teen taal’ composition to open the concert with; ‘aeri aali mohe manavan aaye piyarava.’ This composition was composed by the founder of the Jaipur gharana, Ustad Alladiya Khan. The ‘antara’ emphatically and beautifully showed the elusive Shuddha ‘Ni’ of the raga. The maestro was visibly immersed in his singing, even choosing not to come back to the ‘sam’ for a cycle or two; something he very rarely allows himself. The next ‘madhya laya’ composition was the more well known composition Neend na aaye. Next he sang raga Shahana Kanhra, a raga this writer has not heard from him before in her twenty years of listening to the maestro. This is one of Ulhas Kashalkar’s great virtues – his enormous repertoire and his willingness to sing different items even at his age of 70 years. After a brief Agra ‘dhrupad’ style ‘auchar’, the maestro moved to the compositions. The ‘vilambit bandish’ in ‘jhaptaal’ and ‘ek taal’.  He concluded with two compositions in raga Durga in ‘teen taal’ (‘chattar sakal’) and ‘ek taal’. The latter’s lyrics were unusual Aayi basant bahar. His intricate ‘taans’ and dramatic landing on the ‘sam’, immense ‘dam saans’ (breath control) and sweeping movements were totally enthralling. Suresh Talwalkar on the tabla interacted musically when appropriate, deftly moving away from the ‘theka’ to improvising alongside the singer. Ojesh Pratap Singh and Ashutosh Bhattacharya for vocal support were inobtrusive, Vinay Mishra on harmonium as usual brilliant.  

The next evening opened with the talented Odissi dancer Rahul Acharya. He opened his performance with a Pallavi set to raga Shankarabharanam, in adi taal. Rahul’s prowess as a dancer, showcasing traditional pure ‘nritya’ was  established. The second piece changed the tempo totally, with his self composed ‘ashtapadi’ on Lord Krishna, set to raga Des, in ‘rupak taal.’ The final piece de resistance was an ode to Surya, the Sun God, in raga Bairagi, which was deeply moving. His accompanying musicians were excellent;  vocalist Sri Sukanta Kumar Kundu, Guru Niranjan Patra Mardala on the pakhawaj, Sri Agnimitra Behera on the violin, and Sumukha Tamankar on the manjira.

The concluding item was a jugalbandi between mridangam maestro Patri Satish Kumar and table exponent Satyajit Talwalkar. Despite the decisive opening piece, played without the accompanying ‘lehra’ on the harmonium, in which each crisply played a small phrase, matched by the other, the concert did not have the punch it could have. Each played brilliantly on his own, but that synergy and cohesive interaction musically that one expects from great exponents was lacking. Lalit Sisodia’s harmonium was too loud.

The concluding evening featured the Bharatanatyam duo Shijith Nambiar and Parvathi Menon. The first piece was a varnam, an ode to Lord Shiva set to raga nattakuranji adi taal. The excellent synchronization of movement in the unusual over 40 minute piece was impressive. The carefully thought out pauses of stillness in the midst of movement were effective. The costumes were excellent; the red sash on Shijith’s dhoti matching the subdued red of Parvathi’s sari. The next piece was an Ashtapadi of Jayadeva’s Geet Govinda, in which Shijith’s fluidity impressed. The concluding piece, again longer than usual, combined slow abhinaya sections, with vigorous movements. The musicians were superb; vocalist Sudha Raghuraman, mridangam Kalamandalam Sreerang, flute Raghuraman, nattuvangam Uday Shankar Lal.

The concluding concert was by veteran violinist duo Ganesh and Kumaresh Rajagopalan. Playing together in Delhi after decades, the duo made magic. The opening piece was in Poorvi Kalyani, the mellow tone of their violins so pleasing. The composition was set to a 17 beat cycle – 5 beats, 2 beats then 5 and 5 again, rising in crescendo to a thrilling finale. The second piece was a ragam tanam pallavi in raga Kalyanavasantam. One noticed that their deep gamaka movements are minimal. In an interaction after the concert Ganesh shared that some ragas lend themselves to a heavier gamaka movement, but it’s not appropriate all the time in every raga. Nalinakanthi, and the famous ode Bho Shambho were beautiful. Ganesh’s innovative bowing techniques impressed; Kumaresh’s lyricity was amazing. The tani avartanam between mridangist Patri Satish and ghatam maestro Trichy Krishnaswami was crisp and interesting. Ganesh unusually sang the concluding bhajan, Bhagya Lakshmi baramma, with Kumaresh following on the violin. This was a fitting conclusion by a legendary duo to a much loved festival.