When the curtains rose at The Music Academy on Sunday, Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala and her troupe, who were prepared to showcase their latest production - 'Chakra' - had a plan that was two-fold. First, to portray the four seasons of a year on stage and second, to tell the story of a young couple as they go through life. While the trope of the four seasons is a fairly common one in the practice of dance, one was curious to see how the couple's story would be woven into the nature narrative.
The event began with a prayer song - 'Sri Jagadeeshwari Durga' rendered beautifully by Shreya Ramnath. This was followed by a black-out on stage with P.C. Ramakrishna introducing the concept of the programme through a pre-recorded voice-over. Ramakrishna's deep and passionate voice dramatised even the narration of the concept which was: each season’s portrayal would comprise three components- an opening sloka that would describe the ritu or season, thereafter a song that would talk of the young couple's predicament during that season and lastly, a segment on the festivals and celebrations that belong to the particular ritu from across the many regions of the country.
While this seemed like a carefully thought-out plan, the three components did not always blend well. For instance, the first season to be portrayed was winter. After the initial description of the season, the metaphor of Radha and Krishna was used to describe the couple's equation. Parvathi herself played Elakshi, the nayika and L. Narendra Kumar was Vishwa, the nayaka. The couple's story in this segment revolved round themes of viraha and playfulness - of appearance and disappearance. Now, the festival segment that succeeded this simply did not fit into the narrative. A group of little girls walked on to the stage dressed in white frocks. Then, Santa Claus entered, marking the arrival of Christmas with a screen displaying scenes of snow and a Christmas tree. Right after the section with the couple, introducing Christmas this way was a bit abrupt and out of place. This happened with other segments too where the transition from the couple’s story into the festival segment was not always smooth.
Further, individual components needed more delineation. The couple’s story was not adequately developed and explained. The narrator mentioned that Vishwa goes to ink a business deal and hence the two lovers are separated but the context for this event was not explained in the dance itself.
Perhaps, conceptually, the couple’s story was meant to be said in this snapshot-like format. In that case, ‘Chakra’ was the story of a prototype couple narrated in snapshots across four seasons.
There was a multimedia component that aided the story telling throughout the production. A feature of most dance productions these days, the screen at the back in this production often repeated what was already shown on stage through the idiom of dance and music, making the component itself entirely unnecessary. However, the same screen was used rather well in the last segment where through a pre-recorded version of a shadow play, the troupe narrated the story of Ramayana.
One of the other highlights of 'Chakra' was the fact that four different musicians had composed music for the production, one for each season. Flautist Balasai composed the music for winter and the soft notes attempted to evoke the cold associated with this period of the year. Ganesh Rajagopal’s music for vasanta ritu was upbeat and engaging. Rajesh Vaidhya’s summer notes were fierce and accurate and lastly Rajkumar Bharati’s rendition of the monsoons was fascinating. The script for all the songs was penned by Dr. Pappu Venugopala Rao. In fact what stood out in this production was Venugopala Rao’s prowess in writing a multi-lingual and layered script.
As While the combination of different dance styles worked in some segments, it was jarring in some others. The entourage, on the whole, should be congratulated on keeping up their energy throughout the performance. Some dancers stood out - among them was Vasanth in the Bharatanatyam sections, the suryanamaskars of Grishma ritu and as Hanuman in the shadow play. While Parvathi’s abhinaya was satisfactory, Narendra Kumar's forte was definitely his footwork.
Costume could have been simpler in a production where there was already so much happening on stage. Further, there was a luxurious use of props too.
‘Chakra’ attempted to do too much in a matter of two hours. While the concept itself was interesting, the postcard-snapshot format made it a rush-hour ride.
