Sri Lalitha Bhandasura Chraitam in Vizag

The grand finale of the 7 day Music and Dance festival in Kalabharathi by the VMDA on 2^nd December 2014 saw the dance Ballet “Sri Lalita Bhandasura Charitam” performed by the students of Kuchipudi Kala Kendram, which was choreographed by  "Kalaratna" Smt. AB Bala Kondala Rao, left the audience asking for more. 

The Kuchipudi Maestro Smt. AB Bala Kondala Rao, fondly called as Bala Akka had brought down to earth, all the mythological characters like  Godess Lalita, Demon Bhandasura, including Manmada, Mohini, Indra, Lakshmi, Saraswati along with the Trimurti’s Bhrama, Vishnu and Shiva. Every posture,  movement and abhinaya  were done to perfection by the students under the able guidance of Bala Akka.

The ballet started with the episode where Goddess Parvathi (Uma) tries to appease Lord Shiva, while cupid Manmada disturbes him with his arrows of love. Angered by this act, Lord Shiva burns Mammada to ashes. Chitrakarma, one of the Lord’s Pramathaganas, creates a statue of a boy with the ashes of Manmada.  The gods give life to the boy and name him Bhanda. Lord Shiva blesses him with a life of 60,000 years and also gives a boon wherein half of his enemies strength would be his during any conflict. Soon Bhanda becomes head strong and starts harassing the people. The Gods create a Sri Chakra in the inter stellar space and perform  sacrifices  whose outcome is a powerful Goddess Sri Lalitambika. The ballet then goes on to explain how the goddess with the help of the Trimurthi’s  fights a war to kill the demon.

The music was enthralling and captivating. It was supported with an equally perfect vocal background. The ballet was performed by over 50 students aged between 8 to 50 years and was a duration of 2 hours. The VMDA honored Smt A. B. Bala Kondala Rao with the  “Saraswathi Memorial Award” and conferred the  title “ Vidushi” on her. Finally, the 7 days VMDA music and dance festival was given a bidding farewell with the astounding performance of the students of  “Kuchipudi Kala Kendram”.

Some of the press reviews of the programme in various papers: