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 Margazhi Shorts: Margazhi Medley - 3 - Chitra Mahesh e-mail: chithoo@gmail.com Photos courtesy: Madras Music Academy January 26, 2024 So what is Margazhi Magic without some Real Magic? As in Magic Magic? I was invited by this interesting person, Raghav Krishna, to Artery to see what he does with a simple deck of playing cards. He called it the Army of 52 Covers and what he showed a set of people including excited children, was some amazing things in the most innocuous manner. His deck of cards became a Universe of Immense Possibilities and I wanted to ask him whether he could produce money - cash - like the way he showed Clubs, Diamonds, Spades and Hearts. Imagine how that would be if it is possible! His charming manner endeared him to all there and he is an interesting mix of a Carnatic vocalist, an Animator and a Magician. He says V.V. Ravi, a violinist, trained him in music along with PS Narayanaswami and uncle V.V. Subrahmanyam. He feels the way he deals with cards has a musicality that only those tuned into the whole process will understand. He is an Animation Supervisor at Ubisoft, France, and has been performing magic for nearly 20 years. He is totally inspired by Micheal Ammar, Dani da Ortiz, Shawn Farquhar (the world champion of card magic) and even when he appears unsure, one realizes that it is part of an act. He guessed numbers, brought out cards that we never thought could be in sequence and pointed out to thoughts of places and numbers in the audience. It was a welcome diversion to all the dance and music happening all around.  Meenakshi Srinivasan As the year turned into 2024, we were treated to the Annual Dance Festival at the Music Academy and the two that I managed to get into the day, were that of Mythili Prakash and Meenakshi Srinivasan. Mythili in a beautiful blue costume (I tend to notice costumes especially) chose to do something that was out of the template (the Margam no doubt) but started with a Tillana and then worked backwards. Her performance was good undoubtedly, but a bit slow. One could not help but admire her fine form and the delicate nuances of her abhinaya. Meenakshi in a brilliant red costume, started with the Salutation to the Devi through the verses from the Soundarya Lahari. Visually, she being on stage itself is a treat and one gets quite carried away with the way she holds the body in the most beautiful postures. Her Swarajathi in the Karnataka Kapi, was a true test of the stamina and unflagging adherence to the hand and foot movements. It is always a pleasure to watch everything that is precise and in clean geometric lines.  Harinie Jeevitha In one of the morning sessions I was witness to the performance of Harinie Jeevitha, a disciple of Sheela Unnikrishnan - she is already such a fine dancer with such good training evident through the way she is faithful to the method taught by her guru. The Ganga Stotram set to tune by Srikanth Gopalakrishnan and the jathis by Guru Bharadwaj, she did a neat job and with dedication. This piece is a collection of verses selected from Adi Shankaracharya's Ganga Stotram, interwoven with sollukattus and musical interludes indicating the different gaits and flow of the Ganga and concluding with the beautiful Ganga Aarathi. Like I said before, such dancing does not allow you to get distracted by your phone or anything else. And on that note I would like to add that most programmes begin with a rule of "no photography or videography." But reality is such that it is a signal to whip out phones and start taking videos or photos! While it may be a record for those connected to the artiste on stage, I really wonder how many of them look at these photos later or often? Or is it to post on social media / WhatsApp groups? The Varnam (Mohamana en meedhil) in Bhairavi and roopaka talam, a composition of the Tanjore Quartet, was really well done. I was told that the choreography of all that she did was done by Harinie herself. Excellent vocal by Srikanth Gopalakrishnan for me enhanced the quality of the programme very much.  Arisi It did seem propitious that the onset of the Thai month leaving behind Margazhi featured a rather lovely and sedate Arisi- Rice by Apsaras Arts Dance Company, Singapore, at the Music Academy. This was a presentation by the Music Academy and the Usha Marti Subrahmaniam Endowment Dance Programme and the premier of this production here in Chennai. It was supported by the Consulate General of The Republic of Singapore. The grain Rice and something we tend to take for granted has a history and a story that tie many Asian countries - this makes us all bound together in a cultural web, making us somewhat similar in the way we deal with things. The production, aided by audio visuals (the parallel film was directed and produced by K Rajagopal), spectacular sets (especially of the rice plants positioned so well across the stage - Wong Chee Wai), the marvellous costumes (Mohanpriyan Thavarajah), the use of Balinese artistes from GEOK Ensemble and a lovely musical score (that did tend to be monotonic at times - Dr Rajkumar Bharathi), use of the Chinese Orchestra overlaid into the stories of migrants and their journeys—honestly, it was a show of international standards. The attention to details - as they say the god is in the details - is what makes a production (conceptualised and directed by Aravinth Kumarasamy) stood out and there was no room left for any anomalies to creep in at any point. This production was created as a co-production between Apsaras Arts Dance Company and the Esplanade Theatres on the Bay and premiered at Esplanade's Kalaa Utsavam 2022, supported by Temasek Foundation, Singapore, and TVS Motors, India. All involved in this production have persistently and consistently given it their all and taken nothing for granted. This qualifies it as something to remember and worthy of time spent!  Chitra Mahesh is a senior journalist based in Chennai. |
