November 23, 2007

The Telugu Literary and Cultural Association celebrated Deepavali in a grand style at the Hindu Temple Auditorium on Saturday, Nov.17. It was a blockbuster celebration, attended by almost 800 people during the course of the evening. The program began with a prayer song Sree Ganesa Sivunikumaaraby Sanjay Jonnavithula. This was followed by a Kuchipudi dance ballet "Chandalika" * by the Nritya Madhavi School (Divya Yeluri, Director) and had over 40 participantsand lasted for about 90 minutes! Dr.Usha Rani, Phd in Dance, then performed a short dance item to a Thyagaraja Krithi "Pakkala Nilabadi", followed by a specially choreographed dance to a Shirdi Sai bhajan sung by Sriram Garikapati. The Sadhanalaya students(Sadhana Paranji, Director) then followed with a four part tribute Jaya Jaya Devi* , saluting the goddess and bringing forth the spirit of Deepavali. The mythological costume drama Mohini Bhasmasura* was next. This involved a cast of about 25 kids starting with a six month baby (the youngest TLCA Star!), with adults delivering the lines in graandhika Telugu, and attracted a lot of applause at each scene. The Dancing Stars* followed next, kids danceing to a mixed track of high energy songs (Choreographer: Krishnasri Gandham). The pre-dinner program was concluded with the ever popular ladies dance Vanithala Vayyaraalu*, also choreographed by Krishnasri Gandham. The surprise addition was movie actress Navneet Kaur, who joined the group halfway during the dance to thunderous applause.

After a delicious dinner, the second half of the program began with a welcome by the President Prasad Kambhampaty. The awards for the TLCA Tennis Tournament were then handed out by the sponsor Dr.Vidyasagar Annam. Our first guest of the evening was the famous comedy star Kota Srinivasa Rao. TLCA was proud to present him with a plaque and award him the birudu "Koti haasya chitra Kota". After he entertained the audience with his popular acts, Navneet Kaur was formally presented and joined in a couple of dances by our own stars. Rallapalli, Veteran comedian of the Telugu screen, was introduced next, and entertained the audience with some comedy songs. Then we had the program everyone was waiting for - a musical performance by Parthu. With a mixture of old and new hit songs, Parthu completely won over the audience, who were applauding his every song. A measure of his talent is that most people were glued to their seats until the conclusion of the program, at almost 11:00 PM. Sreeenadh Jonnavithula, the secretary, delivered a brief vote of thanks.