The story of a historical character acquires many accretions over the centuries, so that we have with us many incidents and episodes in his or her life, but not the entire picture. So representing historical characters on stage could result in a fractured narrative. The problem is compounded if philosophy has to be got across to the audience, because this can result in overloaded sentences. And if the philosophy lies hidden behind erotic poetry, the problem acquires yet another dimension. Mahalakshmi Ladies’ Drama Group’s ‘Bhakta Jayadevar’ surmounted all these hurdles and how!
Its biggest strength was a taut, well written script, for which the credit goes to Bombay Gnanam. Some of the lines stood out by slipping in a message quite casually. When Jayadevar’s parents decide to retire to the forest, his mother explains the rationale behind their decision. Moving away from worldly ties must be an act of volition, not an act of compulsion, she reasons.
Gokulanatha (Bombay Gnanam hardly recognisable in the role, thanks to Kannan’s make up) asks Kudara Panditar what is vulgar about Jayadevar’s portrayal of physical intimacy, which is as much a part of life as anything else. Gnanam’s dialogue showed how Jayadevar saw the temporal world as a stepping stone to the spiritual, and that the Ashtapadi, which might superficially seem to dwell on Krishna’s amorous liaisons with Radha, is, in fact, about the relationship between the Paramatma and Jivatma.
Synchronisation with the pre-recorded dialogue was perfect. And yet this did not distract the actors from emoting. Usually, when anyone with a philosophical bent of mind is depicted on stage or in films, they have a uniformly wooden look and a vacuous smile, which one finds more amusing than inspiring. But Arthi Ravichandran as Jayadevar was just right - lively, without being overly ebullient.
Sushmita as Padmavathi matched Jayadeva measure for measure - her dance to his verse, her Krishna bhakti to match his. When Padmavathi sings snatches of Hamirkalyani, Jayadevar comes up with ‘Madhu Mura Naraka Vinaasana’ in the same raga. Kamala Eshwaran as Subhadra, the officious, but affectionate next door neighbour, was brilliant. Giridharan’s music was in consonance with the sentiment of the songs, the tunes based on appropriate ragas such as Hindolam, Mayamalavagowla, Vasantha and Kharaharapriya.
The diction of the singers (Vedanth and Mumbai Shilpa) did justice to the euphony of Sanskrit. With rich sets (Mohan Babu) and vibrant dances (choreography Chitra Muralidharan), the play was a visual treat too.
At the end of the play, Gnanam came on stage and said that each show costs a lakh to stage, and made an appeal for funds for future shows.
‘Bhakta Jayadevar’ will be staged at Narada Gana Sabha, January 27-31, 7 p.m.
When the penny dropped
The story of the bhakti poet Jayadeva is now on stage, thanks to Bombay Gnanam’s Mahalakshmi Ladies’ Drama Group. As with all of Gnanam’s projects, this too involved a lot of research. Gnanam consulted Hariji, Visaka Hari, and Nochur Venkatraman. She also read many Tamil books on Jayadeva, including a very old book from Jayakrishna Dikshitar’s collection. “I also visited Odisha, where I consulted Upadhyaya, a retired civil servant, who is an authority on Jayadeva,” says Gnanam. When the script was ready, she ran it by him.
Gnanam also wrote to the government of Odisha, and they were glad to help. “We visited Jayadeva’s birthplace. We studied the traditional garments worn by the Brahmins of Puri, so that we could design clothes for the play.” Would what is worn today give us an idea of how Brahmins dressed in the 12th century? “Traditional dresses in Odisha haven’t changed much over the centuries,” says Gnanam.
Apart from finding a place in concerts, Jayadeva’s verses have been popular in films too. But Gnanam decided not to use any of the old tunes, and asked R. Giridharan to come up with new ones. “I was inspired by Balamuralikrishna sir’s tunes. When we visited Odisha, I also heard the traditional tunes. Dancers in Bhubaneshwar, also gave us some pointers about the bhava of the verses,” says Giridharan.
“The 45 characters in the play are played by 25 people, and getting such a huge cast together for the 30 rehearsals we had wasn’t easy,” says Gnanam. Jayadeva’s verses brim with eroticism, and yet they are offerings of bhakti. Did she have difficulty reconciling what seem diametrically opposite emotions? She says that initially she couldn’t comprehend how eroticism could have a place in bhakti. But she happened to read Adi Sankara’s Jagannatha Ashtakam and then the penny dropped.
Sankara, a sanyasi, talks about the loving embrace of Radha and Krishna, and it dawned on Gnanam that prema bhakti was one facet of devotion. “And yet writing lines to depict sringara as an aspect of bhakti was what I found most difficult when I worked on the script,” says Gnanam.
