As part of Bharata Kalanjali's 4th edition of Jharna festival,  Anita Ratnam's Arangham Dance Theatre presented her latest production Naachiyar Next on 2 February 2025 at the Spastn's TEACH auditorium in Taramani, Chennai. 

A magical ensemble with minimal accompaniments brings myriad effects magnifying the entire production to a mega ensemble, enriching and elevating the rasikas to an everlasting memory.

A four-member women's dexterous delineation penetrated the onlookers' hearts putting to shame all electronic noises. Unlike the stereotyped so called 'dance dramas' or Bharatanatyam thematic productions with garish costumes and heavy makeup and electronic musical ensemble, Anita Ratnam's Naachiyar Next proved to be imaginative, creativity at a high level taking care of minute details, retelling an often repeated story without boredom, for its judicious amalgamation of tradition and modernity. This would go well with urban English speaking people and rural uninitiated audiences familiar with their vernacular regional languages if the narrator adopts the modern technology for instantaneous translation. 

An artist with consummate understanding of the idiom, conductor par excellence (L Subhasri Ravi), a singer with mellifluous and expressive voice (Janani Hamsini), veena artist (Anjani Srinivasan), capping them all the nimble lady's fingers on a couple of percussions (Aswini Srinivasan) including a mridangam, did all the magic to lift the production to a sublime level of  divine dignity and decorum. As the scriptures quote Natyam bhakti vivardhanam - natyam enhances devotion or spiritual thinking / spiritual enlightenments. Almost a 300 "aasthika” audience (mind you, a ticketed show) truly experienced the divine power of the mystic Tamil poetess Andal. Andal's foster father Periyalwar, played by prolific scholar, singer and Bharatanatyam artist Sridhar Vasudevan, fitted the bill appropriately and effectively. Prof. Madhusudhanan Kalaichelvan played the role of Araiyer (a ritualistic performer in the temple) taking the audience to Srivilliputhur Araiyar sevai in the sanctum sanctorum.

Anita Ratnam judicially distributed the beautifully choreographed nritta and nritya passages between the well trained professional dancers she picked up from different natya schools around the city.  Every one of them had equal parts to play, yet the heroine "Andal" played by Nandhini Ganesh Subbulakshmi stood out for her immersive delineation of a pious character. Anita Ratnam as the narrator joined the group off and on, emerging unobtrusively on the flow of her cleverly modulated storytelling, synchronising with the balletic group formations.  

The simple Madurai Chungidi saree costumes (designed by Sandhya Raman) lent the production authenticity of the era Andal lived and feeling of traditional flavor. However, personally I would have preferred Anita, the Sootradhar to also wear the usual "Madisar kattu" costume to go with the storyline and the era of Andal. At least for the local audience, narration in Tamil would have sounded divine. 

This sleek production met all the requirements for a musical theatre and the technical director Victor Paulraj elevated the stage with his appropriate lighting design that highlighted the facial expressions of each individual actor and the serene atmosphere of a temple precinct. 

The final procession - Andal's journey to Ranganatha sannidi - raised goosebumps in the audience. Kudos to Anita Ratnam for bringing such educative, elevating entertainment, not often seen here in Chennai.

Naatyaachaarya VP Dhananjayan 

The author is the founder-director of Bharata Kalanjali, Chennai.