Of feminism and male assertion
LEELA VENKATARAMAN
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If Santanu Chakraborty stressed the concept of male performers, Prathibha Prahlad presented Sita in a contemporary feminist light. Keeping the balance was the Kathak duo, Hari and Chethana!
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DIFFERENT HUES, DIFFERENT VIEWS Prathibha Prahlad excelled in abhinaya.
Can gender be danced? The question occurred after reading the publicity material for a male dancer, specifically mentioning his Bharatanatyam recital as being by a male dancer on a male God Shiva. Dance is not about being male or female but about becoming, and one hopes we will not design dance separately for male or female. One, however, fully sympathises with the male dancer's plaint of being relegated to the fringes of the performance scene heavily loaded in favour of his female colleagues — preferred for all the wrong reasons of prettiness suitable for the male gaze. Is a macho presence then the counterpoint the male dancer provides?
Which is not to deny the unique features of Santnu Chakraborty's Bharatanatyam performance at the Habitat attracting a surprisingly good audience despite the hail and rain. With his guru, V. Krishnamurthy, singing and providing nattuvangam, with not even a mridangam percussion for added support, the entire performance had a threadbare starkness, minus the heavy orchestration padding, often camouflaging the dancer's faults. It was brave of both guru and dancer to take on a whole recital with so little ornamentation. Even though the singing, by the latter part of the opening Shiva Panchakshara Stuti in lines set to ragas Kalyani, Kamboji and Revati began to show strain, the guru gamely carried on. In the end, despite the occasionally flagging vocal stamina, his was a laudable effort, combining cymbal playing and reciting of the sollus, calling for a lot of steam in breath.
Santnu Chakraborty's performance was convincing in its simplicity.
Santnu is a much-improved dancer, particularly in the interpretative involvement, his dance convincing in simplicity. Despite a broad `plie' (more a square than a triangle), he must concentrate on maintaining his araimandi, at times flagging with the sideways knee deflection becoming frontal.
In Swami Dayanand Saraswati's composition "Bho Shambho" in Revati, the dancer brought out the limitlessness of the Shivalinga better than the nirguna formless Shiva calling for more imaginative abhinaya. Kalyanasundaram Pillai's "Tiruchittrambalam" in Kalyani, describing the dance of Shiva Nataraj with the Gods providing the musical accompaniment, was a group rendition with Santnu's female students participating. "Nangaiye nee paarudi natanam aadum azhagai" (Friend, watch the beauty of that dance) had the four girls standing in a diagonal line with Santnu alone on the opposite side, each dancing in one's own space. Except as embellishment for the male dancer, one missed the logic of having the students, the sudden cluster freezes designed more for visual appeal with little reference to the song, stemming the ideational flow.
Purandara Dasa's Shivaleela song found an episodic dance treatment of Shiva becoming Neelakantha, the blue-throated, destroying Manmatha, saving Markandeya and fathering Harihara in union with Mohini. The Tamil song sung in Sindhu Bhairavi and Neelambari describing the all-pervading nature of Shiva embodying the elements and nature in His entirety, did not unfortunately register with the Hindi-speaking audience.
Kathak recital
Hari and Chethana of Natyalakshana, Bangalore, in a Kathak recital under Habitat's HCL Concert Series, while making a charming twosome with their excellent technique and understanding, not to speak of tasteful costumes, failed to emphasise the real weight of Kathak, thanks to the recorded music which cut out the improvised element, the mainstay of this dance. Though perfectly coordinated in movements, with both dancers very graceful and well trained, Omkar, Nadopasana and Jala Anjali, the last composed by dancer Geetanjali Lal, did not go into the subtle intricacies of laya and tala, and at times looked too pat and contrived in the very tailored and structured format. In Tala Mala and the tarana in Maulkauns choreographed by Vaibhava Joshipura, the dancers showed fast footwork and chakkars, but without the immediacy of live percussion, the dance looked only ornamental. One hopes the twosome is not trying to model itself on the Bangalore couple Nirupama and Rajendra (some of the costuming seemed very similar).
Feminist Seeta
The story of the Ramayana appropriated by a multiplicity of Asia groups has created myriad versions of each character conceptualised according to the ideological concerns and aspirations of respective groups. Prathibha Prahlad's Seeta — Parallel Realities, presented at Akshara Theatre, visualises Sita in a feminist mould as the self-born (swayam-bhu), self-activated and self-dissolved, who, born from the earth, re-enters its bosom voluntarily, without joining the husband who deserted her when she was expecting his children. Inhabiting neither Janak's palace, nor Ram's home, nor the guru's ashram, Sita remains the ultimate expression of Prakrti. Well researched with fine music and literary inputs, Sunit Tandon's commentaries added a special touch. Prathibha's abhinaya was excellent.
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