Remembering Ghantasala’s music via dance

His daughter-in-law, Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala, wished to do something on behalf of the family to celebrate the legendary singer’s 96th birth anniversary this year. So she decided to invite stalwarts from the field of dance and request them to perform to her father-in-law’s songs.

“All this while, us dancers and musicians have been performing to Thyagaraja krithis and other compositions, but it feels so delightful to know that they’ll all be dancing to Ghantasala garu’s songs,” she says. On Friday, the evening will begin with a few singers from Hyderabad rendering the late musician’s songs, followed by a dance recital from Parvathi and her students. “Afterwards, legends like Dr. Vyjayanthimala Bali, Dr. Saroja Vaidhyanathan, Prof. CV Chandrasekhar, the Dhananjayans, Dr. Sobha Naidu and Ms. Leela Samson will perform to his evergreen compositions. They will also be conferred with the Kala Pradarshini Ghantasala Puruskar, at the end of the performances,” she adds.

More than anything, Parvathi says she is blessed to be in the Ghantasala family. “Ever since I got married, I’d been wanting to showcase his songs to a wider audience and I achieved this for the first time in 2007. I took a few of his songs and began choreographing them, along with my students. From then on, it’s been a long journey for me, since I’ve taken this production across the world and India,” she explains. She doesn’t use the same songs but rotates them for each show. “Tomorrow too, the dancers and I mutually agreed upon what they will be performing to — they have each choreographed it according to their own styles.”

Additionally, in the hope for a cleaner tomorrow, 1,000 plant saplings will be given away in memory of Ghantasala Venkateswar Rao. “We came up with this concept last year for his 95th birth anniversary when 95 of my students gave away saplings. This year too, we’ll be following it because we would love to see greenery all around us,” concludes the guru.