Gopika Varma wowed the audience with her Krishna-themed concert.
For its well-choreographed performance, the ensemble chose several popular and unusual tunes.
Ankush Pandey
Dancers frequently use Swati Tirunal's popular Kriti 'Bhavayami Raghuram' in their performances, which depicts major incidents from the Ramayana. However, Mohiniyattam exponent Gopika Varma performed the composer's 'Bhavaye sri gopalam,' which highlights numerous aspects of Krishna's life, at the recent Sri Krishna Utsavam at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Vishnu Mohan Foundation and Gyana Advaitha Peetam arranged the event. Performing alongside the pupils of her school ‘Daasyam’, Gopika began with an invocatory song before going to the major piece. This dance form's poetry and elegance were conveyed in the choreography.
The intriguing forms demonstrated the time and work that had gone into putting together this presentation. The successions —
From Vasudeva releasing Krishna from the prison in torrential rain to the interaction between the venomous snake Kaliya and Krishna, to animals, birds, and villagers fleeing Indra's wrath before seeking refuge under Govardhana mountain and the Viswaroopam Darshanam on the battlefield — everything was depicted in great detail.
The dancers' delicate emotions and lack of dramatization made these sequences stand out.
Gopika finished the concert with a beautiful rendition of Adi Shankaracharya's "Bhaja Govindam." The dancer's maturity and experience were evident in the many sancharis she utilized to depict the concepts of birth, death, and rebirth for the phrase 'Punarapi jananam punarapi maranam'. She was able to articulate the underlying philosophy in these sentences with sincerity, moving beyond the banal. Despite its brief duration, the performance was put together in an artistic manner.
