Mohiniyattam dancer Pallavi Krishnan's Rituranga was a smooth blend of Kerala's Mohiniyattam and the Rabindra Sangeeth of Bengal. Presented at the Kerala fine Arts Hall at Ernakulam recently (Tagore Day Celebration), Rituranga amply proved the need for more and more experimentation in fusing the distinct strains of cultural entities that form the rich composition of our cultural heritage.

It could be easily seen that for Pallavi, the need for experimenting with the two forms was natural, since she is poised between two rich cultures of India which bear interesting similarities. A Bengali by birth, Pallavi had chosen Kerala as her second homeland, learning Kerala's own classical dance form, the Mohiniyattam as well as settling down after marriage.

Composed by Rabindranath Tagore himself and set to Rabindra Sangeeth, the dance drama Rituranga was the natural choice for Pallavi in her research programme with the assistance of the Human Resource Department, since its theme, Tagore's beautiful illustration of the season, was apt for Mohiniyattam.

Pallavi had chosen slokas from Kalidas's Ritusamhara as well to combine with the Tagore songs. A Sanskrit sloka from Rithusamhara, describing each season, starting with Grishma, followed by a song from Rituranga, portraying the corresponding season, was the general pattern of the production.

Ritusamhara had already been presented in the format of Mohiniyatam by many dancers before, but it was for the first time that Rituranga, was appearing to the steps of this lasya dance form.

The performance began with an opening song from the Rituranga, adoring the glory of nature and her eternal rhapsody, beginning Biswa bina rabi, biswa jana mohichi.. Then the song Daruna agni banere…followed the sloka describing the onslaught of Grishma, turning arid the earth below and sky above. Next followed the sloka picturising the rains, piercing the hearts of the love-lore, and the song, Shanguna gagane…describing Varsha and the dark, rainy night when Radha sets out towards the abode of her lover.

Next Pallavi presented the song Amar sharat prati… describing the Sarat, after the sloka portraying the translucent radiance of the earth in that season. It is the festival season. In the next sloka beginning Navapralolgama …., Jayanthi described the Hemantha, followed by the song, Hemanthe kone basanteri…with two other dancers.

The other dancers included senior disciples of Pallavi were Jayanthi, Rashmi, Seena, Gayatri and Sreeja. The vocal accompaniment given by Indrani Chatterjee and Mita Roy for Rabindra Sangeeth was remarkable. Tapas Chatterjee gave accompaniment on the Tabla. Indrani says she had taken extreme care so as to not allow the singing to dominate.

Pallavi herself had composed the music with guidance from Kavalam Narayana Panicker, Sadanam Hari Kumar and Kalamandalam Jayaprakash.

Sajeev Kumar provided accompaniment on the mridamgam and the maddalam, with Paravur Viswanathan on the flute, Thrissur Murali on the veena and Peringode Sreedharan on the idakka.