Vasundhara Performing Arts Centre (VPAC), the name itself brings delight to the connoisseurs. The sutradhaarini behind this is Vidu. Dr. Vasundhara Doraswamy, an internationally acclaimed Bharatanatyam artiste. Her style of classical dance is now famous as Vasundhara Baani.

She is not only an ideal Guru, but also ‘Amma’ as for as her students are concerned. She takes care of their mental as well as their physical needs. She has always realised the need for platforms for showcasing the talents of the artistes and hence creates such opportunities by regularly arranging programmes.

Parangatothsava is one such programme arranged annually by VPAC. During this year’s festival, Dr. Vasundhara Doraswamy presented ‘Amma,’ a nritya rupaka, a one woman show.

She is very well-known for her one woman show like ‘Paanchaali,’ etc. She is a very matured artiste who is true to her art. Every concert is a fresh one for her and hence her performance is fresh and new.

The one woman show ‘Amma’ is based on ‘Krishnana Koneya Dinagalu,’ written by Prof. K.S. Narayanacharya. Here, Krishna was breathing his last after he was wounded by the poisonous arrow shot by a nishada. Notwithstanding the agony and pain, he moans Ammaa. Immediately his biological mother and foster mother Devaki and Yashoda come one after the other. Then comes his third mother.

The audience are in for a shock because it is none other than Putana who in fact had tried to kill Krishna feeding him her poisonous milk. She outpours her suffering and misery and her final decision to die in the hands of Krishna rather than suffer from Kamsa. Krishna understands her predicament and accepts her as his mother.

Dr. Vasundhara has done full justice to all the three characters through her body language and abhinaya. She was able to bring out the state of mind and individual identity of each mother very sensitively, subtly and successfully.

Slight variations in the costume heightened the impact. The expression of Vibhavas, Anubhavas and Sanchari bhavas of Vatsalya rasa were graceful.

The concluding pieces Jaavali and Tillaana were remarkable for their abhinaya and lightening and perfectly accurate footwork in fact showed her control over nritta, which is very difficult                                       with growing years.

Her performance kept the audience spellbound for 120 minutes. With her ease and elan, she was really amazing at 70. After the programme, the chief guest, Ashish Mohan Khokar remarked that so far he has seen several performances throughout India, but none has paralleled Vasundhara’s.

Dr. Jyothi Shankar’s script was apt and her narration was good. Sandesh Bhargava, the senior disciple of Dr. Vasundhara supported in natuvanga while P. Rama lent the vocal support and Kalmandalam Srirangam, Narayan, Rakesh Sudheer and Skanda supported on the mridanga, violin, flute and rhydam pad respectively. It was a wonderful team work.

—D. Sheela Kumari