News & Notes
Mahabharathanatyam

Mahabharathanatyam
By Devika Murthy
As
it did millenniums ago, the great epic has countless relevant things to teach
even today, which was highlighted by the three heartfelt performances by
different groups, headed by young women.
The
annual theme-based dance festival, with facets from the Mahabharat, was held under the auspices of the Padmalaya Dance
Foundation and the International Dance Alliance, on 5 November 2023 at the ADA
Rangamandira Hall on J.C. Road in Bangalore, sponsored by the TVS Motor Group.
On
the occasion, the Leela Sekhar Memorial Award was presented to guru Lalitha
Srinivasan, a dancer, teacher, choreographer, research scholar, and the flag
bearer of the Mysore style of Bharatanatyam. Especially lauded for her anga
bhava, Lalitha Srinivasan is the holder of several prestigious awards,
including the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award. The Karnataka Sangeetha Nritya
Academy has published two of her books as well. For more than thirty years, she
has directed Nitya Nritya, a national festival of dance that has brought many
gurus and talented dancers to Bangalore.
After
the traditional lighting of the lamp, the audience witnessed a wonderful
rendering of the tales of Ekalavya, Karna, and Gandhari respectively, with the
undercurrent of, every action or inaction by them ended up being a game changer
in the entire itihasa.
The
event titled Mahaan was indeed so!
Poornima Kaushik, also a part of Padmalaya, and Padma Murali’s daughter-in-law,
gave the introductory speeches.
Dakshina,
from Chennai, is the youngest of the three foundations and was envisioned by
Divya Nayar in 2022, to create and stage works that inspire an appreciation of
classical dance, poetry and music of the Indian diaspora through innovative and
engaging narratives.
That
evening’s offering was conceived and choreographed by her, and she was matched
by Sayujya Srinivasan, Shrinaagi Venkatesh, Srimalli, Swathi Karthik and
Padmesh Raj. And the musicians whose contributions were recorded and mixed at
2bq studios in Chennai were Abhishek Ravishankar (vocal), Kiran Pai
(mridangam), Anjani Srinivasa (veena), Prasanna (ghatam) and Divya Nayar
(nattuvangam).
Bengali
poet Toru Dutt’s (Tarulata Datta 1856-1877) precise and poignant lines of
rhymes from Buttoo, aptly added to
the whole. The tillana was in raga Purvi composed by T. Vaidyanathan
Bhagavathar.
The
proceedings started with the inspiring tale of Ekalavya, a self-made
individual, who as demanded by his guru, immediately gave up what he loved
most, and the craft that was most necessary to him for his livelihood, being
the forest dweller that he was, is truly heroic and heartrending.
Ekalavya
is the singular – the seeker, the simple soul. Dronacharya in this piece is a
collective symbolising power, society and the learned, interestingly represented
by a set of dancers. Some readings
revealed that the present-day tribe in the region practices archery without the
use of the thumb. Did Ekalavya go on to devise this ingenious method after he
relinquished his thumb to Drona? Maybe this story doesn’t have such a sad
ending after all. An uplifting sequel, that Ekalavya’s surrender was perhaps
his biggest strength and success!
The
second piece was Satpurusha, by the
Padmalaya Dance Ensemble, based on the ill-fated firstborn of Kunti. Right from
his birth to his death, Karna was a man torn between his abandoned self and the
loved child, torn between his instincts as a leader and his duties as one who
abides.
Janani
Murali, the Associate Artistic Director and daughter of Padma Murali, who
created the piece led from the front in the role of Karna, clearly expressing
his anguish, with the others being Poshini Zunjarwad, Anindita Ashok, Ranjitha
Kumar, Niveda Balaji and Anushka Kiran. Everyone played their part extremely
well, whether it was the helpless Draupadi, the hapless Karna, or the dancer in
the role of the egoistic and arrogant Duryodhana! Rohit Bhatt’s vocals were resonating, and he
was accompanied by Shrihari Rangaswamy on the mridangam, Narasimhamurthy on the
flute and Padma Murali on the nattuvangam.
The
third performance was presented by the Nirali Collective, born in 2016 and
based in Bangalore, headed by Priyanka Chandrashekhar. Nirali means unique and
colourful and began with a dream to re-imagine Indian classical dance. The
piece titled Kaafi elucidated the
personality and the purposeful step taken by Gandhari, who by blindfolding
herself failed to see the wrongs due to her attachment to her sons, and refused
to see the world both materially and metaphorically.
Nobody
told Gandhari – Kaafi! Unsurprisingly neither did she realise she was doing too
much nor did she feel she was ever enough. Strangely, she resembles in many
ways the lives of women even today. Aspiring to be ideal, she is always doing a
lot, yet always falling short. The act introduced by Garima Mishra began
resoundingly. Most amazingly the dancers kept their eyes closed throughout and
not once did they miss a beat! One can only imagine the consistent practice
that must have gone into it. A part of the dance had one linked to another by
ropes, and yet through all the intricate movements they never got entangled!
The
artists in this group were Adithi Ravi, Ganashree Gowda, Karuna Kirtivasan,
Priyanka Chandrasekhar and Talin Subbrayya. The music compositions and
direction by Dheeraj Banerjee were notable, as were the vocals by Deepti
Baskar, supported by Karuna Kirtivasan and Talin Subbrayya.
The
Urdu poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Akthar were from excerpts of the book Sheerani; Until the Lions, was translated into Hindi by Karthika Nair, and
the creatives were by Arvind Sridhar. The lighting and special effects by
Keerthi Kumar were spot on, and the excellent photos are by Srivatsa
Shanndilya.
As
the curtain fell, we were compelled to reflect on the Ekalavya, the Karna and
the Gandhari within ourselves... Would we have behaved otherwise, and would the
outcome have been different?
(The author is a freelance creative writer with a
Master’s Degree in Literature from the U.K.)