Kalasri Dr. P. Rama Devi, at a two-day event held at Shilparamam Amphitheatre Madhapur, on March 20 & 21 presented Bhama Kalapam and Dadinamma Kalapam on the first day and Golla Kalapam on the second day. The evening began with Dr. Rama Devi emoting the character of Satyabhama to a script written by Siddhendra Yogi and fine-tuned by Vedantam Parvatheesam garu. Rajarajeswari essayed the role of Krishna. Both Guru and Shishya held the audience spell-bound with Krishna’s and Satyabhama’s actions.
The next Kalapam, they presented was Dadinamma Kalapam, which is also known as Neelavathi Vijayam, written as Yakshagana by Allampati Agasthyudu. Dadinamma Kalapam was performed till 1940s, and after a gap of 75 years it was revived by Pasumarthi Seshubabu garu and Dr. Rama Devi performed it here. It tells the story of Neelavathi, daughter of Bhojaraja, who was abducted. The king then announces that whoever brings his daughter back will get half his kingdom. The king then gets Neelavathi married to the young prince, who rescues her from the captive of a thief.
On the second day of the event, Dr. Rama Devi presented Golla Kalapam also known as “Aath ma Yagnam”. There were two main parts in this Kalapam – Pindothpathi (conception) and Yagnapattu. This presentation reveals the crux of the cycle of birth and death in a simple manner. Golla Kalapam is a combination of Philosophy, Knowledge and the ultimate Brahma Gnana. The main rasa in Golla Kalapam is Shanta. It is known that milk, curd, butter and ghee are the materials used for Yagna. According to the Vedas, Milk belongs to the “Mrityu Loka” and Ghee to “Swarga Loka”. That means curd is taken by the Devatas and the lady who carries it would definitely become dearer to Gods and Goddesses, and hence the character of Golla Bhama was introduced to preach Vedanta.
The next character, Vipra, considers himself as brahma jnani by virtue of his birth and his ultimate goal in life is Moksha. In short, the duo mesmerised the Sunday audience. The evening performance was ably supported by Guru Pasumarthi Seshubabu garu and Sweta Prasad on the vocals, I V Renuka Prasad on Nattuvangam, Sridhar Acharya on Mridangam, Kolanka Sai on Violin, Uma Venkateswarlu on Flute. The make-up was by Suresh.