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 e-mail: khokar1960@gmail.com Bharat Ratna!January 27, 2026 On the eve of Republic Day, the much coveted Padma Awards are announced. Artistes wait with bated breath to get the news. Some know much in advance, by aakash vani. Buzz in the air. In India, nothing can remain hidden! Bharat Ratna is rarely given to dancers, not one has received till date. On the eve of Republic Day 2026, those who missed Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam's solo act on Bhagavad Gita - done for Drishti's 21st Dance Festival in Bangalore - missed out on one of the last greats of classical dance, in an all-time high performance that was punctuated by economy of movements, minimal need to impress and a talent so vast that no words are enough. Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam is not a human, she is an ocean of art. The Mahabharata is the vast ancient Indian epic, a sprawling narrative of a dynastic war between Pandavas and Kauravas, while the Bhagavad Gita is a key philosophical dialogue within the Mahabharata, occurring on the battlefield where Krishna counsels Arjuna on duty (dharma), action (karma), and devotion (bhakti), offering spiritual guidance amidst the epic's grand story. Think of the Mahabharata as the ocean and the Gita as a profound, sacred main river. That the veena vidwan B. Kannan, who introduced each segment of the 4-episodic natya show, in the end added, "May all you rasikas have a peaceful, prosperous and purposeful life" said it all... Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam is a dancer's dancer, but more than her station in life, it is her life in art itself that makes a diminutive, 5 feet something fill a huge Chowdaiah stage with her giant presence. What a show, what an artiste, nay, complete artiste!  Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam She is a complete artiste because she knows the 3S's inside out: Shastras, Sangeet and Sahitya. This is a lesson for lesser dancers, even seniors, who think their few items, forced and manipulated stardom, even national awards, make them great. They are busy bodies on social media too. Thousands of followers. But they can't fill one hall of 500 and tickets, forget it. Students and parents are cajoled when not forced to attend their shows. So, those who think they have arrived on the national scene and are here to stay, please don't mistake Delhi for the nation. It may be the political capital of India but the cultural capital of Indian traditional dance forms remains South India - Chennai for Bharatanatyam, Bangalore for Contemporary, Hyderabad for Kuchipudi, Trichur for Kathakali, Mohiniattam and Koodiyattam. Padma Subrahmanyam is a reference point if not a benchmark in not merely a form but totality of and in Indian arts experience, not just classical dance. She has total mastery of an ancient artform like Bharatanatyam and has infused its 200-year-old revived avataar with Natyashastric inputs, making the karana movements her mainstay and creating a band of followers who espouse Bharatanrityam. Actually, her school and thought of dance ought to be called Padmanatyam. Each movement is so her: informed by grammar, each line is understood for its text and context and each nuance is enunciated with finesse. But above all else, there's beauty. How often in dance does that happen? She is royal (by birth, to a distinguished art family of Madras), she can be pedestrian also (come down to level of commoner, even become a kurathi, in her youth in many a Kuravanji). She can be filmy (not in aharya but dance for the camera, born as she is to Director K. Subrahmanyam, who created mega opuses in 1930s to 1950s and brought traditional nattuvanars like Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai to Madras, film and dance world) and she is high art (Padma Vibhushan, no less). She is a true ratna of Bharat, give her a Bharat Ratna officially or not, she remains one. She can be a teenager in one frame, she can be a grown-up in another. In less than 10 seconds she can show all four awasthas or states of life - baal, yuva, grihasta, vridha... A mere glance here, a flick of eye there, make her the most fluid abhinaya artiste. Don't forget she was discovered as a child artiste for a Tamil film first! (Geetha Gandhi, 1948). Her face is elastic beyond rubber band. Nothing laboured or prolonged to impress like some do in other forms like say Koodiyattam. One eye movement for half hour, what for? Foreigners may be impressed but those of us who have seen Koodiyattam of the real Masters, like Mani Madhava Chakkyar in his home village in Killikkurussimangalam, Lakkidi or Ammannur in Irinjalakuda, the pasty new versions for markets abroad or natya conferences here, make very little impression. She can use Kathakali expressions and merge with manodharmic flair. She can look loka-dharmic in aharya and yet shine with layers of Natyadharma on stage. Definitions created by neo scholars of past, dead and gone, fade into insignificance. Get real, an 85-year-old standing properly today is itself like a major achievement, what with 50-year-olds having knee replacement surgeries. With heart attacks at 40, this 83-year young dances like a 20-year-old. With stents in heart, her light frame jumps like a teenager. Forget the 4 episodic parts of this yoga and that yoga (dhyan, shakti, bhakti, whatever!), the real yoga lay in using one stool to occasionally sit on and no other prop, except a dhwaja with Hanuman flying high on the chariot of Sri Krishna at end for the Great War in Kurukshetra, of which, the two visible wheels were two circular props with Pipli circular cloth craft work. Minimalist props with maximum transportability and effect. Great artistry lies in small things.  Nirupama and Rajendra Such an artiste comes to earth once in a century - Dr. One and only Padma Subrahmanyam. She was preceded by star of two forms and in one offering the two styles merged so well - Kathak and Padmanatyam!- that one should have given a standing ovation to gurus Nirupama and Rajendra, the most popular teachers, performers and choreographers of Bangalore. Here's a couple that's fit for huge stage spectacle. They understand scale and scope of aharya, auchitya and appropriate music of Praveen D Rao that makes one dance like there's no tomorrow. I was dancing in my tilted, broken seat! Chowdaiah type halls charge so much, can they replace last century seats to 2026? Swalpa adjust we have for years. Now swalpa spend, Chowdaiah management/owners, please! The festival started about 20 minutes late and must have affected not only those who have made the effort in Bangalore's very bad roads and traffic to come in good time but a disadvantage to the last artiste who often suffers anyway because the audience in any city gets fidgety and wishes to start the return trudge home by 8.30/9pm. Anuradha and hubby Vikranth waited perhaps for hall to fill in the beginning and their own students of Drishti showed how neighbourhood classes are doing their bit to popularise Indian dance. The group work gelled well with each dancer acquitting well. The sole solo act was so-so. There was no proper finish to one-legged poses. An organiser has enough on head to attend to, prior to even a one-day event, so why dance? Matching Padukka (as Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam is called fondly, universally) totally was the music orchestra with student/bahu Dr.Gayathri Kannan and her daughter Mahati singing. Saraswati sits on their kanthth (vocal chords). While the mother is nightingale, the daughter is koel. Live music singing for almost 2 hours and no fatigue? Veena vidwan - nephew too of Padukka - Balakrishnan Kannan played the veena of which each note and string was so clear that one knew that pure sound exists. Kartik junior on mridangam and an excellent flute completed the orchestra that filled the hall named after a famed violinist Chowdaiah and designed to look like a violin from an aerial view. Shama Krishna, the fine Kuchipudi dancer, compered with grace and good taste. Lights were superb. The hall was full and this is the first time in 25 years I've been here in this city my wife loves and made home that I saw audiences stay till end, even at the late hour of 9.45pm! The standing ovation said it all. By 8pm most folks start going home. By 8.30pm most halls get empty. Not when Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam performed. Did she perform? Or did she just live her religion? Dance is her religion. Bhagavad Gita, Krishna lore is her way of life. Where did art begin and where did life?  Critic, connoisseur, historian, author, artivist, archivist, administrator and more - editor, columnist and mentor Ashish Khokar remains true to his muse. More on attendance-india.com Post your comments Please provide your name along with your post. All appropriate comments posted with name in the blog will also be featured in the site. |
