Vipanchee's Celebration of Dr. BMK's 81

[SREE]

An exceptional occasion and what a fitting way to celebrate it! Vipanchee, the organization founded by danseuse Dr. Saraswathi, had organized the splendid event to commemorate Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna's 81st birthday. The first performance on stage was that of Dr. Priya Jayaraman, who performed a Pushpanjali. She danced to a composition in praise of Dr. Balamurali composed by Mr. Srivatsa of Bangalore and choreographed by her. It was a great start indeed to the grand fête.

Then, Prince Rama Varma of Travancore palace, one of the leading disciples of Dr. Balamurali gave a demonstration of BMK's compositions. He rendered a few of them and the presentation as a whole was a revelation of sorts of many intricate aspects of the maestro's compositions.

What followed was the highlight of the evening! 81 dancers representing various genres of dance were featured on stage performing a Thaya Ragamalika Thillana composed by Dr. BMK. The thillana comprising of five ragas lasted for forty minutes and was rendered live brilliantly by Sri. S.R. Veeraraghavan. Every charana was rendered by a different genre of dancers and finally, all the 81 dancers came together on stage. It was a moment of ecstasy and the audiences were awe-struck. All credits to Dr. Saraswathi who had managed to choreograph and co-ordinate the entire team. It included dancers from other cities and states as well.

Smt. Sudha Raghunathan's concert was up next. While expectations ran high that it would be a concert of Dr. BMK's compositions, it was in fact disappointing that she rendered just a thillana of his.

[cmlover]

May he live actively for many more years to come!
He is the living Icon of the best in CM...