In January this year, dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai passed away at 97, leaving behind a rich legacy of art and activism. She was a sprightly presence in the dance world, authoring an online advice column, where she answered questions by dance enthusiasts. It is this joie de vivre that her daughter Mallika Sarabhai and grandson Revanta Sarabhai seek to convey in a travelling retrospective of her life and work.
Celebrating Life, an evening of talks, documentary clips and live performance, calls on a diverse selection of Mrinalini’s associates in the arts to offer glimpses of the person she was through their personal narratives.
The format of the show has its genesis in a film made in 2012, when the Public Service Broadcasting Trust commissioned Yadavan Chandran to make Mrinalini Sarabhai: The Artist and her Art . Some of her key works were recreated for the film. Mallika says, “We wanted to showcase her multifaceted-ness and her strong Bharatanatyam. So we have some speakers talking about different aspects of her life, and Revanta and I dancing some pieces she taught us.”
Brij Bhasin, erstwhile managing director of Gurjari, the Gujarat handicrafts corporation, reminisces about working alongside Mrinalini, who was its chairperson. He says she worked to revive the handloom sector with a focus on creating livelihoods for starving craftspeople who were in the midst of a famine. Dance critic Sunil Kothari, who was privy to Mrinalini’s creative process, will talk about what it meant to witness her creations.
Mallika and Revanta will dance a solo each: a varnam and natanam adinar , a composition in praise of Shiva. They come together for the Dhanashri thillana , a pure dance piece; all choreographed by Mrinalini.
Much of her work, made several decades ago, resonates even today. She is particularly remembered for the gut-wrenching, Memory is a Ragged Fragment of Eternity (1960s), her piece on dowry deaths and forced suicides. Mrinalini stumbled upon the idea while reading Gujarati newspapers in an attempt to learn the language.
Revanta says, “As part of her Gujarati reading practice, Amma [Mrinalini Sarabhai] came across an article on dowry death. Coming from Kerala, she had never heard of such things. She decided to create a dance piece because it was the only way she could talk about things that mattered to her. Jawaharlal Nehru saw her dance and instigated a national enquiry on dowry. Thus, the performance impacted a very real social issue.”
Memory … was recreated with Mallika playing the young protagonist whose marital life quickly takes a nasty turn. Tired of the barbs that come her way — imagined in Mrinalini’s choreography as pure dance sequences with dark undertones of malice and mortal peril — she commits suicide by jumping into a well. Mallika remembers Memory … for its particular use of Bharatanatyam.
She says, “Avoiding lyrics and the boundaries of a particular spoken language, Amma used the sollus [rhythmic syllables] of Bharatanatyam as a language, putting emotion into them, yet making them universally comprehensible. And the style of sringara [love and beauty] spoke for the first time of hatred.” Revanta says some pieces would have been different had Mrinalini created them today. “There was something in her usage of Bharatanatyam and her choreography that was well ahead of its time. Even when we recreate it and perform it now, the audience responds as enthusiastically as it did 30 or 40 years ago. Unfortunately, the content of pieces such as Memory …is as relevant today, because the situation hasn’t really changed.”
Between Mrinalini and the Kumudini Lakhia, the kathak dancer-choreographer who pushed boundaries with her work, Ahmedabad has been a crucible for creative practice in classical dance in previous decades. Mrinalini came to Ahmedabad and realised that she would have to start from scratch, teaching enthusiasts to create the troupe of dancers she wanted to make work with. Yet, it was also dream terrain for someone who was ready to walk on untrodden paths.
Mallika says, “Before Amma, there was no classical dance in Ahmedabad or Gujarat. She established classicism and innovation. And that is the atmosphere in which Kumiben [Lakhia] also started her work. There must have been a great freedom then in not having gurus of paramparas breathing down your neck. Perhaps that is what created the atmosphere of experimentation and innovation.”
Celebrating Life is a tribute to an artist who found expression in the balance of art and activism. Her social consciousness was at the centre of her work, and as Revanta says, “It continues to be at the heart of my mother’s work, perhaps in a bigger way than it was for Amma.”
Mrinalini Sarabhai: Celebrating Life, June 26, 7 p.m., at the Experimental Theatre, NCPA. Details at bookmyshow.com
The author is an Odissi dancer and freelance writer
Celebrating Life is a tribute to an artist who found expression in the balance of
art and activism
