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Epic replay
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Rukmini Devi's famous Ramayana series will be staged at the Kalakshetra from March 25 to 30
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FROM "Sita Swayamvaram" to "Mahapattabhishekam", Rukmini Devi's six-part Ramayana series took 14 years to produce, paradoxically the same number of years as Rama's exile ending in his coronation. Acclaimed as her most innovative choreographic work, the series won plaudits from such unlikely persons as Rajaji. Moved by its beauty and bhakti he hailed it as "a temple to Rama".
Some parts of this popular series are usually staged at the annual Kalakshetra festivals. But 2004 will see the whole Ramayana at the institution's own beautiful theatre (March 25 to 30). It may come as a surprise to learn that at first Rukmini Devi had wanted to produce the Tulsi Ramayana, with music by the redoubtable Omkarnath Thakur. But she was fated to choreograph Valmiki's original epic, with one small portion from the Ananda Ramayana. The script was assembled by pandits Adi Narayana Sarma, Venkatachala Sastri and S.Sarada.
To set to music a pageant so full of contrasts and diversity, Rukmini Devi needed a composer who could get into the contrasting situations, and into characters from several worlds — men, birds, beasts, gods, demons... Someone who could understand the motives of a third queen who wanted to banish the stepson so that her own son could ascend the throne; a demon king who wanted the woman he had abducted to fall in love with her captor. The music had to reflect the wiles of a golden deer, the loyalty of a royal eagle, the might of a monkey, the wisdom of a bear, to bridge the ocean, to resound with the cries of wars.
Mysore Vasudevachar was then 90 years old, but he fulfilled her demands magnificently, leaving grandson S.Rajaram to complete the task when he passed away.
Rajaram remembers how Vasudevachar headed the team which went to offer the music at Tirupati. The sanctum was closed. "But just as we sang "Iyam Sita mama suta" (Janaka offering his daughter to Rama in marriage) the utsava murti came in, and the main sanctum was opened. Thrilling!"
Krishnaveni Lakshmanan, who played Sita through the series, smiles as she recalls how Rukmini Devi dismissed everyone from the room when she composed the romantic forest interludes. "Your body must thrill to the touch of the garland Rama puts on you, your intimacy must be seen in the way you tell him to decorate you properly," she would say. She would demonstrate the draining of all hope in the imprisoned Sita until the sudden appearance of Hanuman.
Rukmini Devi's own feelings were reflected in Sita's ordeal by fire. She told Krishnaveni, "No weeping, no movement, no mudra, your look must say it all — `Rama, is this what you are, how can you do something no decent human being would do?' When you come out of the fire you must be a different being altogether, your suffering has made you divine."
Between rehearsals A. Janardhanan long identified with Rama, explains, "One afternoon Athai (Rukmini Devi) suddenly said I want four girls. The war scene had been a problem but she overcame that by making the watching apsaras from the skies describe it all." Balagopal adds, "Athai was a visionary. I was short and slight, but she saw the great Hanuman in me. Through her choreography, she made others see me as she wanted them to." Both recall how she herself would demonstrate the expressions, with the right emotional shades. She was against theatricality. "Rama must not weep when he loses Sita. His abhinaya should make audiences weep."
In a sense, her disciples performed for the guru who seated in front, aware of every nuance, good and bad, and very vocal about them after the show. But at the last Ramayana performance she saw, Rukmini devi called Janardhanan between the scenes, and said, with tears in her eyes, "You have all taken me to Ayodhya. You must maintain the divinity of this production, always."
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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