Satya@60 has become a #hashtag on social media! Connoisseurs, students, family, gurus, colleagues (barring a few), friends of arts, fans and senior Artists all gathered to felicitate Sathyanarayana Raju on his 60th birthday and the unimaginable completion of his Sankalp of performing the most tough Varnam – the pièce de résistance of a Bharatanatyam repertoire, the ashtaragamalika Saami ninne korinaanu ra….. 60 times through the year, averaging to 5 shows per month!!! When he told me I thought it is certainly a tall order, but Satya can surely take it up and successfully complete it. And He Did It!!
Who is this Sathyanarayana Raju, Satty to colleagues and Sathya to me?
Sathyanarayana Raju, a very well-known, actually the word well-known is not ideal to use for this wonderful, very humane and dedicated artist. With a lot of difficulty, he began his dance learning, coming from a family which had nothing to do with the art form or any kind of artistic interests. He almost hid his love and passion for dance and started learning. And by and by, that passion turned into a real devotion that made him dedicate his life for this dance form, which is Bharatanatyam. He also learnt Kathak from Maya Rao ji. He ventured a little bit into all this, but it was eventually the love and the devotion to his Guru Narmada and the pristine beauty of Bharatanatyam that made him remain in this world of Bharatanatyam.
Every time one saw him perform, it was melodic yet very beautiful and a linear presentation of the style. He stayed true to it, always. Whatever he had learnt from his guru, he stuck to that format and to the form, not deviating, kept to that traditional repertoire as much as possible because he felt that the pristine purity of the art form is what is the beauty of it, and that’s why he chose to be in it very sincerely.
What would have been those advantages that he had with him intrinsically and also what he derived from Bharatanatyam?
By all standards, Sathyanarayana Raju was an extremely good looking and almost perfect personality for a dancer. Physically and also inwardly. Yes, you can be extremely good looking, but internally also you have to be able to be a very human and pure person, honest, sincere and dot of all one must love the art form. All these characteristics were already present in this artist. So, Sathyanarayana Raju with all these attributes gradually rose to become one of Bangalore’s most popular and watched dancers.
From being a person and a dancer in Bangalore who could draw good crowds and even fill a Chowdiah Memorial Hall, he moved all over Karnataka and towards other cities of India, slowly making a name for himself. And what would, maybe a connoisseur in Bombay who saw his program say about him. They say, “My God, what perfection! What neatness! How pristine his form is. Without any gimmicks. How beautifully he dances”. Even in Delhi, he would have received similar reactions. And because I have organized his performance, I could vouch for that. Even in Chennai, where one finds that there is always a stiff resistance and competition Sathya has always emerged as a respected dancer. And of course, we all know that Bangalore was not the choicest favorite of the people in Chennai. But still, Sathyanarayana Raju breached all those walls and became quite loved by people even in Chennai.
As one grows in the field and also gains a lot of experience, what were the other aspects of Sathya that helped him in his performance?
One of his major strengths was Abhinaya. Abhinaya which was subtle, and suggestive at the same time very dignified. I remember many of the great dancers who would always say that Bharatanatyam is a suggestive style. We don’t have to actually do too much. We just have to suggest what is going on in the story. And that was something that Sathya did very, very beautifully. His extremely restrained kind of behaviour on the stage through his abhinaya expositions was appreciated by a lot of people. That was his main strength. Apart from the fact that his Nritta, may not have been indulgent in calculations and mathematical wizardry, every adavu he performed, he began and concluded it beautifully. So, he would end every adavu clean and neat and reach the point beginning very comfortably. The lines were so beautiful and clean that it looked like geometry displayed in a melodic way which is a very unique ability and that is what made his dance very attractive.
Another of his very strong skills was management of his energy, especially in items where you need to maintain the energy right up to the end, like in a Varnam. It was very surprising and shocking to many dancers that how he would keep himself sprightly and full of energy till the last swaram of the Varnam where one never found that he had even an ounce of tiredness in his delineation. So that was also a very, very strong skill of his. Especially in this ashtaragamalika varnam, where he would execute the “mandi adavu” with tremendous control, ease and full sitting.
What is this Shashti Varna Chakra that he engaged himself in the whole of last year?
He was turning 60 and one looks back and sees mostly all the troubles and travails that you face, the challenges that you overcome in the journey and then remember that we reach somewhere having climbed with a lot of huff and puff and have achieved you know to be at the peak of a mountain where it is very difficult to reach without hard work and when he saw that he looked back and he remembered every moment of his dance journey he felt that he has to do something in the 60th year to mark his dedication and to also re-convince himself and his followers, students that the pristine form and the mainstay of Bharatanatyam is the execution of a Varnam and that is what one has to master and in his case it was the Ashtaraga Mallika Varnam which always found space in his Margam Repertoire whenever it was an important program. That was a Varnam he loved. And he felt that this is the Varnam I have to choose. The Varnam itself is a very hard task master, a heavy Varnam that requires a lot of effort to execute it. He chose that Varnam and said that in this 60th year of mine to reconfirm to my own self that I have been able to do this piece throughout my life and I will continue to do it and gain the kind of love of the people to see that the Varnam is always respected and celebrated. So, he chose the Varnam, the Ashtaragamalika Varnam to perform it 60 times during this whole year. When I first heard about it I told him “Are you sure you want to do this?” which means you’ll have to do a minimum of 60 programs and in a year of 12 months 60 programs is quite hard. Well, age also has its own factor that comes into play when you are 60. So, I know that he does 108 Surya Namaskars and still manages to do that. I think physically he will be able to go through it. I thought it was a great idea that he came up with. And all of us said we should support him in this idea. And he said, “I want to do this to reconfirm my faith in Bharatanatyam and also give back to the repertoire what it gave to me in my years of growth.”
The 60th program was on the 6th of January and of course, there is not a soul whom he has not been respectful to. Whoever has touched his life, he has maintained a very cordial and loving relationship. Some people more, some people less, but yes, he has been very kind and loving to everyone. He is very gentle in his relationships, he is warm, he is always helping, and especially in times of need, if you ever dial his number, he is just a call away and he will come rushing. So that is Sathyanarayana Raju. You will find these good things that I have said about him all together on the stage, when each person who is adorning the stage is going to talk about the manner in which he touched their lives. It is not just rejoicing that we have matured in our life and come to 60, but also it is rejoicing that you chose Bharatanatyaam……It is rejoicing that you maintained the margam through your life……..It is rejoicing that you kept to the form truly and sincerely all your life……..It is a rejoicing that one is able to do the most difficult adavus which are sometimes impossible to imagine at that age, and still do it with perfection and to do it in a manner that remains in the minds of the young students who watch it, that this is what is perfection. Sathya fell in love with Bharatanatyam, but I think after he married Bharatanatyam, he has lived a very fulfilling and romantic life with this style and I think that is what is proved in this whole journey of his. Hats off to this concept of doing the Varnam, which is a tough nut to crack. 60 times in this year and then concluding it on the 6th January in the presence of all the people who love him. I think that is a master’s stroke. Continue the good work, continue to inspire young students. With all these performances, he has not left aside the reins of an institution, teaching and producing wonderful dancers as his students who are all gathered together to regale their Guru. I think this is a 360 degree achievement and hats off to Sathyanarayana Raju for it.
