Serendipity Festival's first Delhi edition begins

The Serendipity Festival is on till April 16 at Bikaner House in Delhi

After successfully curating the Serendipity Festival in Goa, the Serendipity Arts Trust organised its first edition in the national capital. The essence of the festival is to bring traditional art forms to the modern-day audience. In line with this, in an informal atmosphere, Amrita Lahiri performed Kuchipudi on the first day of the festival.

Lahiri performed a full production called Samudra, which was choreographed for the occasion. Samudra is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Somudrer Proti where the ocean is addressed as the mother. The production revolved around the various facets of motherhood, depicting the ocean as the creator. Here, the mother is not portrayed in a stereotypical form, brimming only with tenderness and a spirit of sacrifice. Rather, she is naïve, impulsive, powerful, animal-like and fallible.

Despite the concept being philosophical, the production was well balanced in the nritta (pure dance) and natya (drama) aspects. It was interwoven were intricate jathis (pure feet movements set to a rhythmic pattern) in the typical Vempati Chinna Satyam style. That was not surprising, considering that Lahiri has been trained in the Vempati Chinna Satyam style of Kuchipudi.

To those familiar with the Vempati style, some of the jathis would have reminded of the famous Pravesa Daruvu (a piece introducing a character in a dance-drama) from the Bhamakalapam. They were similar to the patterns in the maestro’s choreography of the item set to Misra Chapu Talam (a cycle of seven beats).

Lahiri included the Tarangam (dancing on the rims of the brass plate). However, it was not a conventional Tarangam, which is a piece from medieval composer Narayana Theertha’s Krishna Leela Tarangini. One could see an influence of her most recent guru, Jai Kishore Mosalikanti, a disciple of Padma Bhushan Late Dr Vempati Chinna Satyam, in the way she got onto the plate and started the Tarangam. In the traditional manner, the portion had fast-paced jathis in the pattern of a jugalbandi with the mridangist M V Chandrashekhar and the Nattuvannar Thanjavur Kesavan from Delhi.

The vocalist for the production, Sudha Raghuraman, who regularly accompanies Delhi artistes, also rendered a solo.

Artistes like Ayona Bhaduri (Odissi) and Srinibasa Satapathy (flute) are also performing at the festival, which includes an art exhibition.