Santosh Nair excelled in all aspects of dance.
Santosh G. Nair’s full-fledged dance recital for the Indian Fine Arts showed a lot of promise. Every posture, tap of the foot and bhava spoke volumes of the training given by her gurus V.S. Rama Moorthy and Manjula Ramaswamy. After paying obeisance through pushpanjali she did a small padam ‘Vande Shambu,’ a raagamalika in praise of Lord Shiva.
The highlight of the recital was the varnam which was pulsating and where the dancer kept time to the rhythm of the percussion. It was a navaragamalika pada varnam and a composition of K.N. Dandayudhapani Pillai with the underlying mood ‘viraha.’ Beginning with the line ‘Swamiyai vara solladi,’ it talked about how the nayaki pleads with her friend to unite her with the Lord by bringing him to her as quickly as possible. The heroine talks about the various ways in which her Lord could be received. In the line, ‘Thamatham yeno vasantha’ set in ragam vasantha, Bhibatsa and karuna rasas came to the fore when her friend tests her patience by delaying her departure, by having a good meal, chewing on betel leaves and so on. She even wants to be dressed and bejewelled like the nayaki for her meeting with the nayika.
Originally written for The Hindu, read more at https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/wellhoned-talent/article2795566.ece