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Classical dance in the tri-colours

Dancing patriotism Odissi dancer Ranjana Gauhar at the Sare Jahan se Achha festival

The two-day dance festival “Sare Jahan se Achha” mounted by Utsav led by Odissi dancer Ranjana Gauhar, to herald the landmark of 60 years of India’s freedom, had some dance commentators wondering “Can patriotism be danced?R 21; The issue is not one of just getting away from sublimated themes, which is fine, but of understanding how the solo art form, given the long existence of transcendental techniques, does not dilute the aesthetic in grappling with realism and theatricality.

A packed Stein auditorium, with six established dancers featured, were treated more often than not, to descriptions of the fluttering flag, (a persisting imagery) than the individual’s emotional and inner responses to it, which makes for more evocative dance expression.

Songs and poetry proclaiming freedom often take on a tone more in keeping with the political speeches at Marina Beach or Chaupatti than with the delicate poetry of classical solo dance — such themes, in the swell of group rendition faring better.

Literal portrayals of Gandhi and history, and communal disharmony become didactic histrionics, far from the stillness of interpreting the poetic grandeur of say, Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam “Asti uttarasyam dishi devadaatma, Himalayo …”‘ (describing a land crowned with the Himalayas as a measuring rod linking the eastern and western oceans) or even “Vande Mataram”.

The two most convincing performances came from Chennai-based Mohiniattam dancer Gopika Varma and Hyderabad’s Bharatanatyam exponent Ananda Shankar. Gopika, in an intense dance narrative based on verses from Purananur (Sangam literature circa 3rd Century) exemplified the strength and courage of Indian womanhood.

The heroine having lost both father and young husband to the enemy’s sword, sends the son she raised as a single parent, to war. Agonising over rumours of the boy’s death while fleeing from battle, the mother’s pride is restored, even as grief overwhelms, on locating the son in the body-strewn battlefield, lying with arrow in the chest.

With abounding grace and her exquisitely expressive mukhabhinaya with Kalamandalam Vinod’s simple but stirring vocal support, Gopika’s dance saluted Indian motherhood and bravery.

Using Raya Prolu Subba Rao’s “Vande Tvam Bhoodevi Aryamantram” paying homage to the Motherland endowed with “Dharma, Marma, and Bhakti”, Ananda Shankar’s sensitive choice of poems featured Suryakant Tripathi Nirala’s work, glorifying the physical beauty of India in Bharati Vandana. Subramanya Bharati’s “Jaya Bherikai” set to ragamalika was the finale.

The definitive strength in the dance blended subtle abhinaya suggesting abstract messages like openness and eradication of divisiveness advocated by the poet, with tightly knit, vibrant teermanams in the khanda chapu tala. Swami Chandra Shekharendra’s “Maitreem Bhajata” concluded the recital supported by competent accompanists.

Ranjana Gauhar’s festival curtain-raiser “Jaya Jaya Devi Janani” formed the stuti of mangalacharan. Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s “Rani Jhansi” was a good theme with the Chhau component an inevitable choice.

But she herself in the main role needed to put more of punch into the hathyadhar movements. The impact, despite Bankim Sethi’s music and trained male dancers, was tame.

An invocation to “Pankaja Netra Krishna” based on Sankar Dev’s lyric, saw Sattriya dancer Sharodi Saikia Borboyan, aesthetically costumed as usual, flanked by two Dhemali drummer/dancers, Prahlad and Pankaj.

The “Dhanya Dhanya Bharatha” patriotic song remembering martyrs, visualised in the regional Ojhapali style, neither in the dance nor in the supposed chorus who keep rhythm, lived up to any classical weight.

Kuchipudi dancer Deepika Reddy’s traditional beginning to Tyagaraja’s Pantuvarali “Shambho Mahadeva” sung in the conventional Carnatic concert fashion with the pallavi/anupallavi elaborations found the dancer, despite convincing abhinaya on Shiva rescuing bhakta Markandeya, hesitant in the teermanam sequences with smudged footwork and faltering laya.

“Ramamyaam Bharati”, the Sanskrit verse saluting the panchabhoota(s) suggestive of an ecological message, was well composed in the Kuchipudi idiom.

Pratibha Prahlad’s forceful entry to vibrant nritta spun round the lyric “Veeradhwaja” was spurred by a competent orchestral team.

In the description of the tricolours, (emulated in the costume combination), and communal disharmony, with screen projecting the India map and Gandhi, the treatment became literal.

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