How senior dancer Neena prasad reinvented the Mohinyattam repertoire

Neena Prasad’s Mohiniyattam performance showcases unhurried grace, stylized abhinaya, and rhythmic complexity, accompanied by soulful music.

Neena Prasad’s performance was comprehensive, giving a wholesome feel of the dance style. Unhurried music, graceful dips, unobtrusive rhythm and stylised abhinaya are Mohiniyattam’s hallmark.

Rhythmic complexities are usually not a feature of Mohiniyattam, but Neena, The Music Academy’s Nritya Kalanidhi awardee for 2024, commenced with a fairly complex one — a khanda gati khanda jaathi matya tala Cholkettu, paying obeisance to the five elements in the five ghana ragas. Changanasseri Madhavan Namboothiri sang this in an evocative vilamba kala, while the footwork was in a rhythmic madhyama. Neena introduced many ‘dhi dhi thais’ as against a simple back-leg heel lift, but that did not mar the piece.

Rameshbabu on the mridangam played low pitched, flat-toned beats to add to the beautiful musical symphony. Violin by Shyamkalyan lent melodious support to the accomplished Madhavan Nampoothiri, who sang in the Carnatic style, but kept the emphasis on mood and sahitya. Nattuvangam by Aswathy Unnikrishnan was competent. The edakka by Kalamandalam Arundas, however, was barely heard. Sad, because this is an important component of Mohiniyattam and should not have been ignored.

The next piece was Swati Tirunal’s ‘Andolika Vahane’ in Anandabhairavi (misra chapu), picturising the grand procession of Padmanabha. The bees hover around the sweet flower garlands and the girls presume it is Cupid. This featured softly intoned nritta sequences.

A Charukesi padavarnam followed in ‘Kamopamaroopan Kamanan’ (Adi, Balakavi Rama Shastri) in which Usha, daughter of Banasura, dreams of the handsome Anirudha. Her friend Chitralekha helps her identify him by sketching his face as per her description. This sringara piece was the show-stopper in terms of music and visualisation (Kalamandalam Guru Suganthy). It was beautifully suggestive and the gentle sways and bobs to the music showed keen musical sense.

The contemporary offering ‘Soorpanaka’ in ragamalika (written by Jayakumar and tuned by Madhavan Nampoothiri) was a soliloquy about her encounter with Rama and Lakshmana, in which she feels she could have been handled with respect instead of being trivialised and injured. This was tuned well and mimed with good understanding.

The Kapi thillana (Adi, Madhavan Nampoothiri) stood out. The dancer’s energy was inspiring as was the music. The programme had some bhakti, sringara, roudra and hurt. It also had wonderful music and pretty nritta.