Went to a Bharatnatyam performance on Saturday. At Rabindra Kalakshetra.

The thing started with a prayer from a Chorus of kids of various shapes and sizes. The girls were heavily made-up, with red-lipstick and lots of powder. They looked like puppets. The boys were loudly dressed, that's all. But the prayer itself was excellent. Carnatic classical. I envied those guys. Learning music from childhood is something. I had been started on music as a kid myself, but I generally ditched it because gully-cricket seemed more interesting then. Anyways, I will write about my mis-spent childhood someother time.

After the prayer, there was a small prayer-dance by kids. More girls. More lipstick and makeup. Reminded me of the time my sister had participated in a dance competition as a kid. Another thing, the song they were dancing to, that was in raga Shankarabharana and sections of it I have learnt in Flute. Listening to it gave me a real kick.

Before that. The chief guest at the Show was the famous producer/director of Kannada cinema and theatre G.V.Iyer. Sri GV Iyer used to live very close to our house when we lived in Vijaynagar, Bangalore some 15 years ago. I know from my Mom that he produced the first Mahabharat (or was it Ramayan and was it a serial or a Movie?). I used to see this Wooden Rath (I mean charriot) in his compound everytime I went to buy some chillies or Corriander leaves from a veggie shop.

After the prayer-dance, some lady came and spoke about the performance of the evening 'Geet Gangadhara'. It was written by a minister in the Kingdom of Mysore in Sanskrit. It is modeled after Jaidev's 'Geet Govind' and it shows Shiva in a romantic light. All the speech making in the evening was in Kannada, by the way, and Lokesh who I had gone with was getting pretty pained.

So the dance was about Shiva and his estrangement with Parvati because of his 'friendliness' towards some 'Rishi-kanya's'. And about how he charms Parvati back into good humour. Enjoyed it very much. Especially Parvati's facial expressions. Again felt this urge to study Sanskrit. If I had understood the lyrics of the songs it would have been so much more fun.

Saw 'Phone Booth' later in the night. Four Stars. Must See.