The Ramayana has been a source of inspiration to explore in all disciplines of art. One such was the natyanadakam, ‘Ramakatha’, staged recently.
Choreographed by Sheejith Krishna with musical score by O.S.Arun, it was part of the three-day festival ’Satkriya’, a fundraiser organised by The School.
Popular bhajan ‘Sri Ramachandra Kripalu’ was taken up by a group of dancers as a prelude, before the show moved on to portray some popular episodes from the epic. There were a few interesting interpretations, but they were few and far between.
The timeless song, ‘Thumak Chalath Ramchandra’, describing toddler Rama’s unsteady steps and the sound of his anklet bells, had an interesting interpretation.
The child is given a small bow to play with and suddenly the string breaks. Mother Kausalya tells the child, “this is not the time for the bow to be strung, it is ordained to happen when you grow up.” This thought would have had a greater impact, if the swayamvaram sequence had this as flashback.
The pathos and pain experienced by the people of Ayodhya, when Rama is exiled to the forest, was visualised beautifully by the dramatic use of diagonal lights to highlight a group of women, jostling with one another for space, to express their anguish.
Emotional depiction
The love between the two brothers and their reaction on hearing the news of exile were conveyed with sensitivity as Rama gently pacifies an angry Lakshmana to the song ‘Sun Lakshman bhai’.
The choreographic patterns in certain sequences like the one where dancers criss-cross to depict the Lakshamana Rekha and golden deer lacked clarity in depiction.
In the war sequence, Rama and Ravana had similar movements that did not bring to the fore the confrontation. Vishwamitra transforming into Gautama and coming back to his original self in the Ahalya episode needed some fine tuning too. The use of fabric as props such as blue cloth to depict water and red to show mutilation of Surpanaka’s nose lacked finesse in execution. A patchwork of vibrant colours lessened the aesthetic impact of costumes.
O.S.Arun has developed a signature style of singing by using a medley of musical expressions and swara passages. His singing enhanced the appeal of certain sections of the production, but it would have been better to have had different voices in between to avoid monotony in a lengthy production of this nature.
Some fine editing can elevate ‘Ramakatha’ from being just one more addition to a series of interpretations of the Ramayana.
