Thillana Mohanambal

It was the time when I had just started dance classes in full ardor. Dreams of becoming the next padmini and dominate the screen had started their deceitful webs in my mind. Amma and appa poured in fuel to the fire and I was practising hard. I was around 8 at that time.

I had watched thillana mohanambal a 1000 times in video and doordarshan. Padmini and ragini were a cult to me. Do not know why but I always liked ragini better than padmini. But still as ragini passed away early, I was enamoured of padmini. Also Vyjayanthi mala Bali had never a competer in any standards. The dance sequence in Vanjikkottai valiban was clearly a show of prowess of VB.

I am digressing. I read of the sad demise of Shri. Padmini today. I was clearly affected. For here was a great pioneer in dance who had done so much for the art that it can possibly be never appreciated how much. The spread of Bharatanatyam overseas was mainly due to her. I was surprised to read that the former soviet union had had a stamp issued in her honour. She won the best classical dancer in a Russian dance festival.

Her legacy is rich and replete with honours. Her films were varied from playing a selfless chithi to a plotting grandmother who hates her daughter memories and learns to respect it later in her later years. Thillana Mohanambal where she plays the title role is a different league altogether.

I respect her. Her memory and bare my head to her. May her memory be cherished always.

The twin demise of Shri.Jikki also took my heart away for a moment. Her voice that has enthralled millions of our parents :)). She was the consort of Shri.A.M.Raja and were a much respected couple in playback singing of yesteryears.

Though after Raja's demise in a train accident, she stopped singing, I guess nobody would ever forget that voice that crooned immortal songs. Again, "kannum kannum kalanthu.." from Vanjikkotai valiban takes the cake.

I mourn this loss deeply. I feel that today's singers and dancers need to look back and learn the "bhava" that flows in their predecessors. It is not the rules.It is not the structuring. It is not even the voice. It is the heart that is beckons the listener. The expressions that pull the viewer into the drama. It is the soul that overflows through the voice.

I feel in losing these two stalwarts in a short span, indeed we have been deprived of great art that was living amidst us.

Amen