Kasi Aysola and Dr. Madhvi Venkatesh, students of well-known U.S.-based Bharatanatyam dancer-guru Viji Prakash, are co-founders and co-artistic directors, Prakriti Dance. They presented a narrative-based group production, ‘Amba Shikhandi: A Journey of Courage’ in Chennai. It was conceptualised and choreographed by Kasi.
The story is from the Mahabharata. Bheeshma, the selfless, celebate warrior of the Kuru clan is one of the heroes of the Mahabharata; he inadvertently wrongs Amba, and has to eventually face the consequences. Kasi’s version tried to go beyond the specificity of the ‘Amba Shikhandi’ story, to extend its significance onto a larger canvas of life. He used narration in between the episodes, abstraction during Amba’s suffering and a theatrical technique of shifting role-play within scenes, to achieve this. And he succeeded to some extent.
It was a well-rehearsed performance, yet the overall impression was uneven — clever in some places and immature in other. Amba’s role had been fleshed out with sensitivity. With the introduction of the Kasi princesses, Amba, we presume, falls into a reverie; this role the three dancers perform in quick succession. It was done so intelligently that there was no break in thought when one dancer replaced another. The abduction was visualised without undue melodrama.
CHENNAI, 18/02/2018: For Friday Page: Artist performing Amba Shikandi Journey courage dance festival at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan on Sunday. Photo: R. Ragu
Amba’s conversation with King Salva, her preferred suitor, developed organically with the king’s drunken anger, a high point of the show. Amba’s shock and despair at being turned away was driven home with metaphors such as a flower withering away petal by petal and an abstract sequence with disjointed movements. Her isolation and society’s condemnation was shown with her fallen in pain, while others walk past indifferently. As her anger rises and she meditates, Ganga’s curse and Siva’s assurance follow suit.
Like a lotus that emerges on the water surface after having kept its faith through the muck beneath, Amba emerges out of her suffering as a resolute woman. She builds a fire and jumps in. The next part was Amba’s rebirth as Shikhandi. This was most disappointing. The dice game and conversation with Drupada was pedantic. However, the music in Shivaranjani, Kapi, etc was enjoyable, with the violinist (Embar Kannan) playing an inspiring Kapi. The instrumentalists (Sruti Sagar - flute) kept up a high standard throughout.
The original music score (Ramya Kapadia) was a rainbow of beautiful mood ragas but tended to be repetitive, especially the swara-sequence format. The other musicians were: Ramya (vocal), V. Vedakrishnan (mridangam) and Kasi (nattuvangam). The lyrics used were from the original text. The other dancers were Ramya and Madhavi Reddi. The lighting (Murugan) with its predominant use of back lights and some wing lights established a new technique of minimal lights, maximum impact.
