Ganesham, Soorya Festival 2017 in Kuala Lumpur (Review)
Mollywood playback singers and contemporary dancers stole the show at Ganesham held under the Soorya India Festival banner at the Shantanand Auditorium, Temple of Fine Arts at Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur last weekend.
Halfway through the show, the bhajan team comprising playback singers, Ziya ul Haq, Saritha and Siju Kumar had the audience clapping their hand ecstatically with their rendition of Ganesha bhajans mostly in Malayalam and Hindi.
Ziya in particular was electrifying with his Qawwali style bhajans causing the whole auditorium and the hearts of the audience to reverberate with his high scintillating notes.
The show organised by Sopaanam Arts started with a Jugalbandhi featuring local musicians, sitarist Kumar Karthigesu, violinist Achyutan Sashidaran Nair, Selvendrrah Krishnan (tabla) and Theban Arumugam (mridangam).
A Ganesha worship ritual complete with a Kerala temple premises prop was then performed by a combination of dancers from Bharatanatyam, Mohini Attam, Odissi, Kathak, Kutchipudi and contemporary and folk dance troupes.
The performers also did a series of dance items depicting the birth of Ganesha and his subsequent pastimes.
One felt the short fast paced cinema styled choreography by founder-director of the SOORYA Stage and Film Society, Soorya Krishnamoorthy did not do justice to the classical dancers assembled.
The prominent classical dancers, Dakshina Vaidyanathan (Bharata Natyam) , Pratiksha Kashi (Kuchipudi), Dr Anjana jha and Deepthi Gupta (Kathak), Abhayakshmi (Odissi) and Veena Nair and Dhanya Nair (Mohiniyattam) were not given sufficient space to display the full beauty of their respective artforms.
The loudness of the recorded background music also appeared somewhat distracting to the dancers’ movements and hard on the ears of the audience.
It was Mollywood choreographers from the Madhu and Sajeev contemporary dance team who were in their element in the performance. Together with folk dancers, Aswathy and group they gave a vibrant performance much to the delight of the audience.
The guest of honour at the event held in aid of the Cansurvive Centre Malaysia Berhad was Health Minister and MIC president Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam.
Review by R. Sittamparam
