Starting this Saturday, the Kalakshetra Repertory from Chennai performs the six-part “Ramayana” series of dance dramas choreographed by late Rukmini Devi Arundale. Presented by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, this is an exciting opportunity for Delhiites, since these productions represent a unique amalgam of classical dance, music and theatre at their highest.
The dance dramas produced at Kalakshetra between the late 1930s and ’80s, today regarded classics, were actually a pioneering creative initiative of Kalakshetra founder Rukmini Devi and her group of dedicated scholars, musicians and dancers.
Having played a significant role in getting Bharatanatyam socially accepted as a solo proscenium dance form, and having set up Kalakshetra (‘temple of arts’) in Madras in 1936, where Bharatanatyam, Carnatic music, Kathakali and visual arts were taught in an ashram-like atmosphere, she began producing dance dramas. These productions married theatre technique with Bharatanatyam’s structured classicism. They made the Kalakshetra Repertory famous across India and the world.
Each was a magnum opus, but the “Ramayana” series, produced over 14 years ago, was perhaps special. Not least because it narrated one of the world’s most gripping tales, but also because those simpler times were theatrically more challenging. In the absence of digital light and sound systems, and wiring systems that not uncommonly caught fire, it was largely Rukmini Devi’s ingenuity that enabled her to encompass the vast sweep of the epic in not only her own theatre at Kalakshetra but on unknown, ill-equipped stages across the country.
Rukmini Devi’s senior disciple A. Janardhanan, who has been guiding the revival of the dramas, recalls a performance of “Mahapattabhishekham” (the culmination of the series) in Lucknow years ago in the city’s Botanical Gardens. “There were about 10,000 people. They ignored the trees all around and felt they were seeing the coronation of Ram. They started prostrating from their places.”
The approach, notes Janardhanan, was simple: No lavish effects that would overpower the dance. The concentration was on the features of the Ramayana itself, he says.
“With the lyrics, the music and the way she choreographed, she could create an atmosphere.”
With stalwarts like Mysore Vasudevachariar to compose the music, and scholars like Venkatachala Sastry and Adi Narayana Sarma to collate and edit texts, the entire process, he points out, had the meditative essence without which such results were not possible.
After Vasudevachariar’s death, his grandson S. Rajaram composed the music for the last two dramas. But not without great hesitation and persuasion, as he felt unsure he could live up to the task, recalls Janardhanan.
Another great pillar was Janardhanan’s father, Kathakali maestro Asan Chandu Panikkar, who moulded Kalakshetra’s seniors into great Kathakali artists. Among the unique features of the Kalakshetra dance dramas was the blending of Kathakali and Bharatanatyam. But it was not always overt.
“The spirit of Kathakali runs through the male characters, even if their gestures are of Bharatanatyam,” says Janardhanan, adding, “Like Athai (as Rukmini Devi was addressed by disciples), my father also believed in beauty without vulgarity.”
Janardhanan, who joined Kalakshetra as a young boy, training in both Kathakali and Bharatanatyam, played Ram for decades. This trip, however, sees him in the roles of Vishwamitra and Dasharatha.
Not long before Rukmini Devi’s passing, the series was performed at Kalakshetra’s annual festival. Janardhanan remembers, “Athai said, ‘I am now convinced the ‘Ramayana’ (productions) will grow, because my senior disciples are there.’ And we must do justice to that.”
Though the cast mostly comprises young dancers who have not seen Rukmini Devi, he is pleased with their complete cooperation. He also credits Kalakshetra’s director Priyadarshini Govind who has given him a free hand.
Since retiring from Kalakshetra, says Janardhanan, every day he would look at the photograph of Athai in his home and feel, “I should go back and give these children what you wanted.” This revival has been his chance. Emphasising that the current crop of teachers and students is not incapable, only unaware of Kalakshetra’s guiding spirit, he remarks, “It was not easy to work with Athai. She was very vehement. We have worked months and months. She would recompose and change until she reached the target.”
It was like tuning a tanpura, he says. Just a small thread, the jiva, properly placed, makes the difference between perfection and ordinary strumming.
(The festival takes place at Sangeet Natak Akademi, Rabindra Bhawan, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi, November 15 to 20, 6 p.m. daily)
