Her approachability is endearing. For one with an illustrious pedigree – the TVS family – and a classical dancer of repute, Anita Ratnam is absolutely down-to-earth, charming and candid with a poise and intellect that is magnetic. She speaks her mind with conviction, sensitivity and sensibility. How come? Her take on this: ‘the complexity of life has made me a simple human being'.
One look at an unforeseen incident that had taken place just an hour or so before her scheduled performance would throw ample light on her compassionate nature. Her lighting expert who was part of her team had a health breakdown.
“He just collapsed at the auditorium. This is an unknown city to me and he had to be rushed to a hospital which was done in due course. But it had a shattering effect on me. I went through the performance all the same but inside me, only I knew, how my heart sank,” she says recounting the episode next day. It doesn't end there. She is all set to take care of the person monitoring his condition from Chennai, where she stays, while his kin has been summoned to stay here in this city hospital with him.
This humanitarian trait flows into her dance productions too whatever be the theme. Coupled with progressive outlook contributed by her background as well as her own nature, she is able to delve into the depths of religious thought like Vaishnavism and cull out universality of divine love which is what her production ‘Neelam' is all about.
“I went back to my roots. I grew up in a Sri Vaishnava household. Neelam is my way of acknowledging and reminding myself that there is something very beautiful in my roots. It doesn't mean I am back to conventionality. I had entered into a world where my experience is complete and total. Neelam is my resting moment – it is reminiscent of my mother, my gurus, my early Bharatanatyam days and all the values they stood for. My pragmatic outlook is in no way dented. I continue to question certain lapses in the system, analyse immemorial myths that have become part of our psyche.”
She however, goes by the pulse of the audience. Like for instance, in Neelam which she presented recently for the SICA festival, she introduced two new elements: Annamacharya's Ksheerabdi kanyakaku… keertana to connect with the Telugu audience. Secondly, she says. “I also ensure pre-performance talks so that the audience has an overview. I brought in the very talented Revathy Sankaran to give a prelude to each of my pieces.” ‘Neelam' had its share of criticism too. The slow-paced footwork sans laya (percussion) for most part drew comments. As if responding to such questions, Anita makes herself clear on one point, “I am done with dancing like a 25-year-old. I would like to dance my age. Also, the theatrical element dominates my presentations. Hence it involves a mature handling and more of expressiveness. To me laya is everywhere, not just in percussion.”
With a doctorate in ‘Women studies' (again her mother's desire fulfilled), Anita takes up the feminist template through her work ‘Her and Bliss' on the occasion of 150 years of Rabindranath Tagore. “In December this year, I am planning ‘Mad and Divine' wherein the women mystics like Rabia and Akka Mahadevi will figure. These women interest me for having resisted patriarchy in a very conservative society of their times.” Trust her to come up with something unique and exotic. Well that's Anita Ratnam for you.
