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Performing to re-interpret Kaikeyi

P. Anima

AN EPIC REVISITED: "Kaikeyi" by Geeta Chandran

NEW DELHI: One of the most reviled characters in mythology -- Kaikeyi from the Ramayana -- will be re-interpreted and given a voice through a solo dance-theatre performance by renowned Bharatanatyam dancer Geeta Chandran here this coming week.

The performance, a collaborative effort between Geeta and director Rashid Ansari, will be a highlight of the annual Bharat Rang Mahotsav at the National School of Drama here on January 9.

The collaboration between a consummate classical dancer and a celebrated martial artiste and theatre director promises to create a new vocabulary of movement and also mark the meeting of two stylised methods of motion.

Geeta's expertise in the traditional "Devadasi abhinaya'' and abstract "nritta'' postures will combine with Rashid's techniques drawn from Butoh and Kabuki theatre. The choreography will also showcase nuances from Tai Chi Chu'an, Ba-gua and weapons techniques.

During the hour-long movement-theatre production comprising three acts, an attempt will be made to understand Kaikeyi, a character maligned in every version of the Ramayana.

The presentation will re-work on the traditional portrayal of the character as the scheming woman and manipulator who ripped apart a family for selfish interests.

After an in-depth research into Valmiki's text and a line-by-line translation from Sanskrit to English, the production team unearthed enough facts to build up a case for Kaikeyi's defence.

She emerges not as a singularly dark or uni-dimensional character but a complex one: at once brave, sensitive, accomplished and beautiful. The production will also place Kaikeyi in the political and contemporary context and show her as a victim of an unforgiving patriarchal establishment.

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