Mahathi Kannan- KTN

Coming from the illustrious family that she does, soaked in the arts of dance and music, every move, word and gesture of Mahathi Kannan is bound to be watched with intent interest and expectations. It's a joy to watch her perform outshining these expectations and carrying them effortlessly and responsibly on her slender shoulders. 

It is a huge responsibility being called out to revive a legend's classic work. Mahathi made a delicious cake of it and served it with finesse in presenting Krishnaya Tubhyam Namaha, a piece, her legendary grand aunt Padma Subramanyam premiered in the 1970s. The piece came alive in all its splendor in young Mahathi's presentation, giving us a glimpse of what an exquisite piece it would have been in young Padma's presentation and giving it a touch of her charm and sensibility.

The production is a riveting one in itself in the huge gamut it covers of Krishna's life from his birth through his growing up and segments portraying his various virtues; and in the eclectic choice of songs to portray the segments.

It struck a beautiful chord at various levels and with the flavor margazhi to start with ' oruthi maganaai piranthu' and more so with Mahathi's hair dressed in the Aandal Kondai. The performance proceeded thereafter with segments featuring Krishna's progression in a lullaby, Kaalinga narthanam, Lover of Rukmini, Krishna the Friend, and finally Krishna the Gita purusha. 

Mahathi made her mark early in the performance and set the high standard in the Lullaby piece. She dished out a wide range of emotions and expressions completely at ease. Be it the loving gesture to put the child to sleep, the growing anxiety, that slowly turns to restlessness that tires you out, and finally, just as you think the child has dozed off, the desperate helplessness when some stray noise wakes the child up. She brought to stage all these travails that every mother undergoes, with so much grace and elan. Just as you were thinking that a great piece was coming to an end, a surprising turn brings so much joy and colour to close the piece.

The swaying movements in Kaalinga narthanam, evoke the features of signature interventions/ interpretations of Padma Subramanyam. The 'Achyutha' piece that followed was a joy unparalleled. The piece was about Rukmini struggling to write a letter to her beloved Krishna summoning him to carry her away and save her from a forced marriage. Rukmini's struggles to pen a letter was reminiscent of many such scenes portrayed in films, evoking a timeless romantic appeal. It was a pinnacle of a moment when Gayathri Kannan's vocal brilliance and Mahathi's cute bhavam came together and created a beautiful sequence to be treasured forever. This sequence forms the central piece of this production and should appeal to sensibilities across all strands of rasikas.

The segment glorifying Krishna as the friend saw Mahathi toggling with ease and proficiency of acting skills between the humble and overwhelmed Sudhama and the gracious Krishna.

KTN in Mahathi's rendition will be etched as a milestone in the dance annals of the sabha era for gloriously doing justice to a legend's creation and giving it a new lease of life of it's own. Mahathi as PS' protege has proved to be a roaring success without any trace of doubt, this was also evident in her short presentation i got to witness at Navadisha 2019. However i look forward to seeing her breaking out of her gurukul mould create a distinct personage of her own. That's going to be another himalayan task ahead of the young shoulders of Mahathi.

Sree n Meera

Sree n Meera

Season snippets- Natya Darshan 1

It was very thoughtful of Priya Murle, convenor of Natya Darshan 2019 to have conceptualized and brought together Meera Sreenarayanan and Sreelakshmi Govardhan together on a stage in the opening performance of the 3 day show. The dancers had been briefed to portray spritual and emotional transfromation over a dance piece. It was a brilliant strategy of the dancers in choosing to adapt aspects of Silapathikaram for the purpose.

Sreelakshmi, the kuchupudi artist, found a natural affinity to performing the Character of Madhavi and Meera, the Bharathanatyam artist, gloriously brought to life the vacccilations of fortunes and transformations in the Charecter of Kannagi. It was refreshing to see the dancers alternatingly taking to the stage in presenting segments portraying the evolution of the characters in the emotional and spiritual realms, as they traversed the storyscape of Silambu. 

Meera's performance was marked by her ability to synchronise and sway perfectly in unison with the music and lyrics. She showed great suppleness and energy in bringing force to her movements. Though there was a streak of sadness running through her portrayal of Kannagi, yet she did not let the performance limp in pathos, and rather spruced it up with her suppleness. Subsequently, when she had to scale the tempo up towards the climax, it felt natural and very convincing.

Sreelakshmi was revelling in her portrayal of Madhavi. She looked very much at ease with the charectar and seemed to enjoy herself in the performance. She was ecstatic starting with Madhavi's arangetram in the Indra vizha, where she is proclaimed the best and wins over the affection of Kovalan, luxuriant through the good times she has with Kovalan and composed in the sad loss of Kovalan and in the grief that leads her to adopt asceticism. Her poise and grace lent itself very naturally to strengthening the portrayal of Madhavi.

Parts of the performance when both the artists appear together on stage were rich in splendor and possibilities. it was a treat to watch two different style and inclination play out together on stage, like waves from two different sources meeting and finding a high in resonance.

 The musical rendering of lines from the Silambu was executed in a very fine and enlivening manner. It was an interesting and innovative intervention on the part of the artists to end the performance on a high and positive note by portraying the climax in terms of the Characters seeking after the ultimate truth and invoking lines from Narayaneeyam (?) 

It would also be pertinent to think beyond the brief of ND and explore other interesting possiblities offered by this context. For instance, it would be interesting to  introduce a couple of segments where Madhavi and Kannagi meet during the course of the story, one while Kovalan is still around and again after his death.

Some aspect about Meera's costume n make up did not quite work for this performance. She had quite rightly and judiciously toned her paraphernalia down, to evoke the simplicity of and the sad fate to befall upon Kannagi. But the pared down appearance did not quite sit well with the brilliant green sari.

 Kannagi's travails leading upto the tragedy at Madurai deserves a lot more delibration. There was a sense of being hurried up in the segment of burning down Madurai; the subsequent fate and state of Kannagi after the burning episode also begs for a lot more expansive treatment.

There is also a lot of scope in exploring the versatility of Madhavi's character as portrayed by Ilango. The minor glitch in prompting of the lines could be averted.

The concept of Madhavi and Kannagi holds a lot of possibilities. The artists could only do little justice to this immense potential subject in the 50 minutes alloted to them. Further, not withstanding the short time and limited oppurtunities to meet and work together on the concept, the artists still managed to pull off a brilliant show. The idea that they have stumbled upon is highly potent and should be developed into a full fledged production featuring the two artists. Sree n Meera is an idea that Priya Murle has sown and on Friday they showed us glimpses of the promise they hold and i strongly believe it's an idea that's going to travel far and wide. Here's to wishing them great success..

Experiencing life 'Queen size'

Experiencing / witnessing certain art works/ performances can be a very ecstatic experience. Life is bound to never be the same, such is the impact of a truly great art work. I had a taste of such a work when i got to witness the performance of ' Queen size' conceived, choreographed and on this occasion in 2018 at the ITFOK in Thrissur also performed by Mandeep Singh. 

pc: ligament.in

It was a performance of sensuousness, passion, love and relationship. The music, energy, lighting, the ambience, the choreography and the magic was all of a surreal level and a string of very hard hitting punches of energy and beauty that i had never before encountered. I had become a big fan of Mandeep and 'Queen size' ever since witnessing that performance. Coming more than a year later, it was a great opportunity to learn more about the work and the artist when IFA put together a workshop on the occasion of a 3 day festival show casing works of IFA grantees in celebrating 25 years of IFA.

Mandeep started off the workshop by narrating an incident from his childhood that occurred to him in a park when he was bullied for the way he walked. In narrating this incident, he was subtly hitting out at how we had all been trained to 'perform' a certain idea of sexuality in one way or the other. What followed was reflections from each of the participant about what kind of advice and inputs they had received as they grew up in ' performing' a set idea sexuality very religiously.

Articulations around the idea of performing Masculinity led to the making of his dance production ' A male ant has straight antenna' in 2013 . It drew inspiration from  Rahul Roy's 'A little book on men'. This aspect of Mandeep's dance making in which he constatntly looks up to literary and art references to evolve his dance choreography is a fascinating one. Mandeep was not happy making dance just for the urban elite crowd. He wanted to take his dance to the corners of the country and engage the audience in a dialogue on aspects of queer rights.

It was at this juncture that he went back to late documentary maker Nishit Saran's essay , 'Why my Bed room habits are your business'. Nishit Saran's essay is about provoking the public by being open about his sexuality and confronting the public to react to it, as he has been forced to this situation as a result of the public invading his private space in section 377 ( Sec 377 of IPC framed in 1861 criminalised homosexuality and read, 'Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse aganinst the order of nature with any man, woman or animal shall be punished'. Th esection was ruled unconstitutional in Sep 2018 by the SC). Mandeep also happens to come across a painting by Pakistani Artist Asim Butt that showed two men in a bed. Mandeep was slowly arriving at the idea of exploring the bed as the site of a performance. 

Further, when he hit upon the idea of the charpoy, it's universal and simple appeal, its allusion to the laid back rural life across the length and breadth of the country, it's occasional overtures as the symbol of power, as a site of deliberation were all overwhelming reasons to make the charpoy the central piece of the performance. One has to give it to this idea of the charpoy, for it really is a very integral part of this performance, given how it bounces, creaks, embraces and dances around along with the performers. 

pc: Ligament.in

Confounded with the actual choreography, Mandeep was toying with the idea of working around 108 sex positions of the male body. But stringing a series of sex positions was not quite achieving what he set out to achieve. He was averse to stitching a narrative together either. It is at this juncture that he happens upon Roland Barthes' 'A Lover's discourse', a book which is more an assortment of fragments shorn of any overarching narrative. This lead Mandeep to devise the piece in a highly non linear format, leaving a lot to the judgement of the performers in mixing up the pieces.

Thus was born 'Queen size', a performance of intimacy, which can be quite tasking on the audience in terms of constantly being pushed to limits of comfort and constatntly throwing questions and breaking barriers. It takes quite an effort to look directly at the performers. The magical, ethereal quality of the light that seeps through a layer of water from the lamps held afloat above the charpoy adds a sting to the vigour of the performance. The lights designed in the shape of a bunch of wine glasses hung from above sets an element of drama and adds sophistication to the show.

The piece runs for two and half hours with 7 fragments that get repeated 3 times. at the end of each fragment the audience can change position or leave and make space for new audience to enter. this way Mandeep constantly keeps disrupting any attempt at building a narrative. The music complements the tempo and racing beat of the performance.

In a bid to give the participants a feel of the thinking process that goes into performing intimacy, Mandeep introduced a small exercise that in its build up of complexity was quite revealing to us. The participants were set into pairs and instructed to explore each other's hand by hand. 

This was a touch that was unlike any touch i had experienced. This was a touch of reducing the other to just the sensual aspects of the hand. the touch was devoid of any other layer. it was a sensual exploration of every square inch of the palm and it's back. there was this choreography when to let the other feel you and when to take the initiative to explore the other. the intensity of the touch and the desperation to take in more of this other through the touch was building up with each turn. Mandeep's instructions to introduce aspects like 'push - pull', 'playfulness' was adding spirit to this dance of the touch.

And then came the instruction to ask one half of the participants to play the audience, and the other half to continue performing brought a great shift to the dance of touch. The consciousness of having an audience look at brought a sudden vanishing of the intensity of the touch and transfigured it to an exercise of 'performing' the touch.

This simple exercise in the workshop was quite instructive of what sensitivities the performers of 'Queen size' might have had to undergo. It is no wonder that Lalit, one of the performers almost wanted to quit and thankfully it was his craftsmanship in putting together the charpoy made him stay in the performance.

Finally, Art arrives in Annanagar!!

Annanagar is a clueless space in Chennai, when it comes to Art events in the city. It's a question that keeeps nudging at many in the city, why certain pockets of the city are the favoured hosts to bulk of the art events. Annanagar, despite all its potential and promise has not managed to lay any significant claim to this art space. Initiatives by VR mall in recent times could be seen as an attempt at correcting this course, but for me they lack in intensity and they are too clouded in the mall environment and fail to make the impact, for instance, that exhibits in Phoenix mall manage to create.

It is in this context that a fledgling initiative by Madras Art collective, came as a sweet news to me and made me look up to the photography show they were hosting over a weekend with great interest. I was even more eager to catch up with the show as i had been following works of Sharan Devkar, one of the participants, and found his oeuvre to be of an exciting  range to look up to.

pc Sharan's fb page

The location of the venue in an apartments besides Thirumangalam metro station, as given in the address in the poster, set me up for what to expect of the venue. For these are the typical TNHB apartments that could not be missed by anyone who has been in the vicinity and can be easily traced to the 1960s when Annanagar was being developed as a planned settlement, post the Industrial exhibition held around Tower park. But what set me all excited was the revelation of how the energy of a bunch of art work can transform an otherwise modest and mundane space. It was this overwhelming experience and revelation that was the hallmark of this exhibition for me.

pc: Sharan's fb page

The exhibition had works of 6 artists- 3 from Chennai and 3 from other states. 

Divya's works were an exploration of a series of unobtrusive intrusions into and capturing poignant moments of the subtle drama in the everyday and the personal space, as evident around her living space, and at times in the public sphere. The potential drama played out by these passing moments is immense and can be very moving for a viewer open to take in the flux that transpires in this series. Adding rhythm and mood to the pathos in the photos is the mood she sets out in the short note so aptly quoting from the poem 'Somehow we survive' by Dennis Brutus. The poem and the photos compliment each other perfectly in an act of such rare and pulsing resonance between two art forms. 

The work of the poet is not to restore the connection between the inner and the outer, but to conjure phrases and images which make the painful difference between the self and the rest of the world all the more acute and laden with pathos.- David Ayers in 'Modernism'

Shankar Devkar's work was a series of diptychs put together in the form of little books. the books had an interesting cover design, apparently to suggest what was inside. However, in the absence of some prompting i had not figured out the idea of the book and was for quite sometime puzzled only looking at the cover design. When i approached Sharan with my anxiety, i was told that i had to open the books to figure it out. it was a fascinating world of surprising correlations and interesting patterns and pictures that was waiting to be explored inside. each book held a small bundle of joy in the unwrapping of the element of surprise in the found object/ pattern and the deciphering of a relation between the two pages of the book and finally looping back to figure how the cover design fits into the puzzle. Sharan's work was also interesting in that it held the promise of engaging a viewer with a playful bend of mind and equally as well with someone open to engaging deeply with the subject.

'art should not be judged as the simple impression of life, by standards of realism and fidelity, but should be understood as a stylized meditation which reflects the artist's creative and synthetic mode of seeing..' Roger fry in  'Vision and Design'

Cyril Paulrose' 'Dark room' was a kind of triptych with portraits of his grandmother seated in her living space. This work again resonated so well with the Whistler's 'Mother', that the artist had drawn inspiration from. The work was a meditation on loneliness, old age, helplessness and an eternal waiting. The lighting and the profiles helped improvise the mood of the series. 

Sushavan Nandy's work " Ebbing away of identity is a deeply engrossing work on the brunt borne by a people and a landscape as a result of lifestyle that degrades our environment and life's priorities that put livelihoods in danger. It is a stark documentation of a slowly dying habitat and the lives that hang on it's edges. The gravity of the issues this work has undertaken to project is immense and very moving. They are a mix of moods of poetic longing, a clinical procedure and a mournful lament.

Punith Hiremath's 'Religious dip' is a playful and disturbing work around double exposure, throwing disturbing questions on our ideas of the sacred and the profane.

Can art or any force be independent of the two great forces of imperialism and nationalism. James Joyce in 'Portrait of the Artist..'

Vivek Mariappan's work around the kitchen was a familiar work from an exhibit in a CPB show. The idea of locating it in the kitchen space of the facility somehow did not work for me.

It was exciting and exhilarating to witness this show, and be witness to a historical moment when a bunch of young talents have come together and silently work on shaking Annanagar  out of it's deep, laid back, retired, slumber. 

pc Sharan's fb page

This Monday morning,  the space would have transformed back into it's usual office bay. I had insisted the show should be on for a longer time for more people to engage with it, and have requested them to put this show back on during the next weekend as well. I am hoping more people do get to engage with this show.

My sincere and heartfelt salutes to the people of MAD collective who have taken the heart to host and support art and activate a locality. May this breed prosper.

These avant gardists considered themselves to represent the few who had to advance into unknown territory in order that the rest of the society could follow..

Oh that's Bhanu

Chennai's own documentary film maker, Ramani feels the gravity and is enamored by the 'artistic' presence in the proximity and touch of Bhanu during their first meeting with the 92 year old Bhanumathi Rao, and instinctively asks Maya Rao, Bhanu's elder daughter, if he could make a film on Bhanu. Maya had some how seen this coming, as she had noticed how possessed Ramani looked during the brief interaction with her mother. What then started was a film that was 5 years in the making, with footage shot on and off between Delhi and Bangalore, and culminates in the documentary 'Oh that's Bhanu',that was premiered in Chennai this Sunday and also has already earned Ramani the Balakailasam Memorial award, in its fifth year, instituted by Cinema Rendezvous, who also hosted the screening.

Ramani is known for the personal streak in his film making. He is a constant presence in his films. even if he doesn't appear on the screen, you can feel his presence. This film revels in and has let this style prosper and bloom to it's fullest glory, more so because it adds spice to the Chemistry between the beautiful soul of Bhanu and the enamored spirit of Ramani.

The viewer is smitten by Bhanu, right from the first shot, just as much as Ramani claims to have been in their first meeting. it's quite difficult to identify what is it about Bhanu that ties the viewer tightly up to this close to 2 hour long movie. 

At one level Bhanu is this 95 year old lady who has the spirit of a young girl. Her walk is a march of joy, it resounds with the the jubilance and self assuring feeling of walking free of any support or a stick. 

Bhanu is this loving friend when she courts Ramani with a warmth of making friendship every time they meet; she is this obedient child when she waits for instructions to get down from the car; she is this complaining house holder when she talks about the mali; she is the purposeful and devoted student when learning music; she is a possessed lady while immersed in music and dance; she is the busy mother in Maya's recounting;  she is a coy young widow lovingly reminiscing memories of the good times with her husband; she is a dark koel in the lush green groves of  Calicut; she is the performer who loves to play the jester; she is the independent minded who loves socialising; and she is the caring comrade who dips into her own insecurities of the past and is bothered about Ramani's future.

At another level, Bhanu is troubled by memory. Unlike others who might feel defeated or frustrated by the loss of memory, Bhanu is happy accepting it for a fact and makes it interesting for her and for us by playing around this handicap by inventing stories of the past and improvising in the present. 

Bhanu's memory is tricky and is fascinating and exciting for that reason. She does remember some facts. for instance she remembers her year of birth, can identify her grand parents in a photograph and can even identify Indira Gandhi in a photograph, but she can't remember who she learnt Bharathanatyam from, but has no doubts that she learnt it in Madras. Her brilliance sizzles when she remarks how sad it is that we keep remembering things that we wish to forget.

Every time she meets Ramani, he has to go through the motion of introducing himself and answering curiosity of how does he mange a living. Ramani makes himself vulnerable in this sequence;  but every time it sounds different and the coolness of a rock that Bhanu shows in not blinking while asking the same question for the umpteenth time, the innocence and genuineness she radiates in her curiosity are never tiring and ever interesting because of the freshness it reeks of, in spite of the repetition. 

Bhanu revels in the gaze of the camera. she is an ever green performer, ever happy to make herself up and ever ready to perform. she courts the gaze of the camera and flirts with it in a very romantic way. she is at her spontaneous best and bursts with energy and quick wits all through the movie. She is in fact the one who comes up with a name for the movie about herself. there is never a dull moment when she is around.

she is ever obliging for the camera and even the occasional walking away as a result of tiredness, is very soon followed by another flash of a performance. Ramani seems to have had a good measure of Bhanu's moods and capabilities, and his camera never gives up even Bhanu walks away. The capturing of the wonderful and spirited dancing sequence in the garden is a gift won by this perseverance of Ramani's camera. 

Ramani has brilliantly used this dynamic Bhanu-scape to investigate and make us reflect on the nature and role of memory. It is thrilling to watch the process of Bhanu pick upon some cues from Maya and perform spontaneously , while retrieving from her physical memory of the mudras while performing a Kathakali piece. The evident tension, and the supple creation of a performance from the thin air of a distant memory of a training is a glorious sequence that can summon an aesthetic equal in a 'time motion' captured blooming of a flower.

It is also quite fascinating how Bhanu keeps coming up with some brilliant articulations brimming with wisdom and makes the viewer pause and wonder how can a someone with a faltering memory produce such brilliant articulations.

Ramani uses the siblings Maya and Tara to bring out different facets of Bhanu. Through the stories shared by the daughters we get a fair idea of Bhanu's early life and the influence she has been on her daughters. Maya comes across as the more tightly bonded of the two. The mother and daughter constantly draw inspiration from each other. Bhanu jovially drops a remark that she likes the 'people' in Delhi better and Maya is brimming with thoughts about her mother that invariably find place in her works like 'loose women', excerpts of which Ramani so beautifully captures and juxtaposes fragments of the performance with what could be perceived as the seed in Bhanu.

While Bhanu comes across a person obssessed with 'performance' while she is in Delhi with Maya, she seems to be a different person when she is Bangalore with Tara. In Bangalore, she is obsessed with music, trying to learn it and trying to unravel a new strand of herself through music, again another flash of brilliance in articulation.

when one looks back at the end of the film there is not much we get to know about the biographical details of Bhanu's life. But that is not Ramani's brief and i am not complaining.

Ramani has not approached the subject of Bhanu through an investigative lens of her early life , character, etc. He has rather let us just relish the beauty of Bhanu, letting her just be and letting stories drop by on their own and not going for a biographical and psychological dissection of the 'Truth'. Ramani has 'seen' the beauty in Bhanu, and through this film shares the joy of this beauty with us. 

Congratulations to Ramani on treating us to the joys of a beautiful mind and to Cinema Rendezvous for hosting the show. 

பெர்ச் ன் சிறகை விரி

சென்னையின் நாடகச் சூழலில் தீவிரத்துடனும் வீரியத்துடனும் இயங்கும் குழுக்களில் ஒன்றான பெர்ச் குழுவினரின் முயற்சியில் ‘சிறகை விரி’ என்ற புதிய கலைப் படைப்புகளை ஊக்குவிக்கும் திட்டம் சென்னையின் கலை வானில் புதிய வண்ணம் பாய்ச்சும் , புதிய வேகம் மற்றும் உற்சாகம் சேர்க்கும் முயற்சியாக வளர்ந்து வருவது நம் நகரத்திற்கு வாய்த்த பெரும்பேறு.

இம்முயற்சியில் ஓவியம், நாடகம், நடனம், புகைப்படம், குறும்படம், எழுத்து என்று எந்த ஒரு கலை படைப்பிற்கான மூலக் கருத்தையும் முன் வைத்து விண்ணப்பங்கள் அனைவரிடமிருந்தும் எந்த வயது/ தகுதி வரம்புகளின்றி வரவேற்கப்படுகிறது . அவற்றிலிருந்து சில தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டு அந்தக் கருத்து, முழு கலை வடிவம் பெற்று உருவாகிட பெர்ச் குழுவினர் உதவித் தொகையாக ரூபாய் 30000 தந்து ஊக்குவிக்கின்றனர் .

இம்முயற்சியின் இராண்டாம் வருடத்தில் பெறப்பட்ட நூற்றுக்கும் மேற்பட்ட விண்ணப்பங்களிலிருந்து தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்ட 7 கலை படைப்பின் வித்துக்கள் பெர்ச் குழுவினரின் பொருள் மற்றும் தார்மிக ஊக்குவித்தலுடுன் சிறந்த படைப்புகளாக உரு பெற்று பார்வையாளர்கள் முன் சென்னை கதே இன்ஸ்டிட்டியூட்டில்படைக்கப்பெற்றன. இப்படி உருவான படைப்புகளில் மின்னிய வீரியம் மற்றும் திறன் பிரமிக்க வைப்பதாக இருந்தது. அவற்றைப் பற்றி இங்கே உங்களுடன் பகிர்ந்துக்கொள்ள விழைகிறேன்.

முதலில் ‘சிறகை விரித்த‘ பிரேமா ரேவதியின் ‘ ஒரு கொடடும்  அழகு ‘ என்ற ஓராள் நாடகம், முற்போக்கான பெண்ணிய கருத்துக்களை மிகவும் எளிய மேடை அமைப்புகள், எளிய வஸ்துக்களின் திறன்மிகு பிரயோகம், மேடையைப் பிரித்து புதிய பரிமாணங்கள் செய்வது, உடல் மொழியில் கூர்மை, வசனங்களில் கவித்துவம், அசைவுகளில் நாடகீயம் என்று நவீன நாடக உத்திகளுடன், கலைஞரின் முதல் முயற்சி என்று நம்புதற்கரிய விதத்தில் அரங்கேறியது.

கோடு , வட்டம், சதுரம் என்ற புனை மொழியின் ஊடே பெண்ணியம் எதிர்கொள்ளும் கட்டுப்பாடுகளையும், அடக்குமுறைகளையும், சுதந்திர உணர்வின் வேட்கையையும் அழகுடன் இயம்பிச் சென்றது பிரேமா ரேவதியின் நெறியாக்கம். ‘இழப்பதற்குக்  கை விளங்குகளைத் தவிர வேறொன்றும் இல்லை, வென்றிடவோ ஒரு பொன்னுலகம் உண்டு ’ என்ற கருத்துக்கள் தோய்ந்த பெண்ணிய வேட்கையின் சித்தரிப்பின் நடுவே, ஆண் மைய அடக்குமுறையைக்  கொன்றழித்து, அதன் இரத்தம் தின்னும் , கொய்த சிரங்களைக் கழுத்தில் மாலையாகத்  தரிக்கும் காளியை உருவகம் செய்யும் காட்சி அமைப்பு , பிரேமா ரேவதியின் பெண்ணிய சிந்தனையில் ‘காளி ’ தான் ‘ ஒரு கொடும்  அழகாக ‘ உருவகம் பெருகிறாளோ என்று எண்ணம் தோன்றுகிறது.
பிரேமா ரேவதியின் நடிப்பில் சிறந்த பிரயத்தனம் தெரிந்தது. ஒரு காட்சியில் கையில் எதோ ஏந்திய படி பாவனை செய்யும் பிரேமா, அடுத்த காட்சிக்கு நகரும் முன் கையில் இருந்ததை ஒரு பாத்திரத்தில் வைக்கும் பாவனை செய்து அடுத்த காட்சிக்கு நகர்ந்த பாங்கு, அவர் காட்சியின் ஓட்டத்துடன் ஒன்றியிருக்கும்  பாங்கு வியக்கச் செய்தது.
பிரேமா ரேவதியின் கணவர் நடராஜன் ஒரு ஓவியர். அவரது ஓவியங்கள் இரண்டு, மேடையை அலங்கரித்து இருந்தன. நாடகத்தின் ஒளி ஒலி அமைப்பு சிறப்பாக நெறியாளப்பட்டிருந்தது.
படைப்புகள் பெரும்பாலும் இன்னும் முழுமை பெறாத வடிவங்களில் அரங்கேறுவதால்,  பார்வையாளர்களிடமிருந்து படைப்பை மேலும் மெருகூட்ட கருத்துக்கள் வரவேற்க்கப்பட்டன . இது  ஒரு  சிறந்த செயல்பாடாகும்,  பார்வையாளனுக்கும் படைப்புக்குமான தொடர்பை மேலும் ஆழம் செய்யும்.  என்னளவில், மதுராந்தகம் பகுதியில் வெள்ளப்பெருக்கின் அனுபவம் என்று விரியும் ஒரு சிறு பகுதி நாடகத்தின் மைய ஓட்டத்துடன்  ஒட்டாமல் இருந்ததைப் படைப்பாளியிடம் எடுத்துக்கூறினேன் .

இரண்டாவது படைப்பு பத்மபிரியா என்ற நுண்கலை மாணவியின் புகைப்படங்கள் மற்றும் ஓவியங்கள் வழி பெண்கள் மேற்கொள்ளும் தனி பிரயாணங்கள் பற்றிய அனுபவங்கள் மற்றும் விசாரங்களின் பதிவாக அமைந்தது. பத்மபிரியா தனி பிரயாணங்கள் பற்றிய தனது தனிப்பட்ட மன அழுத்தங்களை நேற்கொள்ளும் மற்றும் கேள்விக்குட்படுத்தும் ஒரு சுய பரிசோதனை முயற்சியாக இந்த படைப்பை அணுகிய விதம் படைப்புக்கு ஒரு புதுப்  பொலிவையும் உயிர்ப்பையும் ஊட்டியது.

சம்யுக்தாவுடனான அறிமுக உரையாடலின்போது பத்மபிரியா வெளிப்படுத்திய நேர்மை மற்றும் எளிமை அவரது படைப்புக்கு இன்னும் வலு சேர்ப்பதாக அமைந்தது. புகைப்படப் பதிவுகள் என்ற கருத்துடன் இந்தப் பயணத்தை தொடங்கிய பத்மபிரியா , தன் முயற்சிக்கு வலு சேர்க்கும் விதமாக கோட்டோவியங்கள், வாக்கியங்கள் என்று விரிவு செய்துள்ளார். கூடுதல் முயற்சியாக பார்வையாளர்களை தங்கள் அனுபவ பதிவுகளையும் பகிரும் படி கோரியுள்ளார். அவரது படைப்பு ஒரு நல்ல குறும்புத்தகமாக மலரும் வாய்ப்புள்ளது.
படைப்பாளி, பிரதியின் வேடம் அணிந்து காட்சியில் அவதரிக்கும் பாங்கு என்பது cop Shiva , Pushpamala போன்ற கலைஞர்கள் தங்கள் படைப்புகளில் கையாளும் ஒரு உத்தி. அந்த உத்தி பத்மப்ரியாவின் இந்த முயற்சிக்கு கச்சிதமாக பொருந்திவரும் என்று எனக்குத் தோன்றுகிறது.

மூன்றாவதாக அறிமுகம் செய்யப்பட்ட முத்துவேலின் படைப்பு பொருள்வயின் இடம் பெயர்ந்த உழைப்பாளிகளின் கவிதைகளைத் தமிழில் மொழிபெயர்த்து அவற்றுக்கு குரல் வடிவம் தந்து சிந்தையைத் தூண்டும் நிலைப்படக்  காட்சிகளுடன்  வடிவம் தந்துள்ளது. சீன இளைஞர் ஒருவரின் காவிதையினின்று அரும்பிய முத்துவேலின் இந்த பயணம் பல புலம்பெயர் வாழ் கவிஞர்களின் கவிதை வழி கண்டுள்ளது. தற்போது தனது பார்வை தன்னைச் சுற்றியுள்ள புலம்பெயர்ந்து வாழும் சிப்பந்திகளின்பால் இடறியுள்ளது என்பது இந்தப் படைப்பு அதன் முழுமையை நோக்கி சரியாக நகர்கிறது என்பதின் அறிகுறியாகத் தோன்றியது.

முதல் நாள் மூன்று படைப்புகளும், அடுத்த நாள் பிற படைப்புகளும் அறிமுகம் செய்வது என்பது பெர்ச் குழுவினரின் நடைமுறை. என்னால் மறுநாள் வரமுடியாத காரணத்தால் பிற படைப்பாளிகளையும் முதல்நாளே கண்டுகொள்ள ஆவல் கொண்டேன்.

தக்ஷினியின் அசைவுறு ஓவியங்கள் என் கவனத்தையும் கற்பனையையும் பெரிதும் கவர்வனவாக அமைந்தன. தச்சர் உதவியுடன் தனது அரூப/ விந்தை ரூப ஓவியங்களுக்கு அசையும் தன்மை வழங்கியுள்ளார் தக்ஷினி. வினோதமான முகங்கள், மூன்று கை , மூன்று கால் கொண்ட மனிதன், அவனது சிப்பந்தி, அவனது தோழன், ட்ரோஜன் பெண்கள் அவர்களது எஜமானர்கள் , அவர்களது வாட்சண்டைகள் என்று விரிந்து கொண்டே செல்கிறது தக்ஷிணியின் படைப்புலகம். இவை சிறியவர்களுக்கு பெரிதும் களிப்பூட்டக்கூடியவை , பெரியவர்கள் சிந்தித்திடவும் தக்ஷினி இவற்றில் பல பொருள்படும்படி வடிவமைத்துள்ளார்.

காண்பியல் மொழி பயின்றுள்ள தக்ஷினி தியேட்டர் நிஷாவின்  நாடகங்களில் பங்காற்றி வருகிறார். இவர் தனது ஒவ்வொரு படைப்பையும் பார்வையாளர்களிடம் விளக்கிய பாங்கு,  ஆர்வம், ஈடுபாடு ஆகியவை , இவரிடமிருந்து சிறந்த படைப்புகள் உருவாகும் உறுதியை நமக்கு எடுத்துக்காட்டுகின்றன.

சரண் ராஜ் குவாரியில் உழைக்கும் மக்களின் வாழ்வையும் வலியையும் நம் கண் முன் காட்சிப்படுத்துகிறார் . கவின் கலைக் கல்லூரியில் தாள முத்துவின்  ஈன்றெடுக்கும் குதிரையின் சிற்பம் அதன் தத்ரூபப் பதிவிற்க்காக என்றென்றும் நம்மை பாதிக்கக்கூடியது. அந்த ஈனும் வலிக்கு ஒப்ப, ஒரு சொல்லில் அடங்கா துயரத்தை, குவாரி வாழ்க்கையின் வலியைக் காட்சி, ஒலி , மற்றும் தொடுதல் பதிவுகள் மூலம் நம் நெஞ்சில் நீங்காச் சுவடைப் பதித்துச்  செல்கிறார் சரண் ராஜ்.

நாடகக் கலைஞர் பகுவின் படைப்பு மறுநாளே அரங்கேறும் என்ற நிலையில், அந்த படைப்பை மட்டும் நழுவ விட்டேன்.

இங்கு அரங்கேறிய ஒவ்வொரு முயற்சியும் சிறிய முயற்சி என்றாலும் எண்ணம் மற்றும் நோக்கத்தில் மிக உயரிய சீரிய ஆக்கங்கள். நமது கலைச் சூழலைப் பெரிதும் பாதிக்கக்கூடிய அதிர்வுகளை ஏற்படுத்தக்கூடியவை, ஒரு பெரும்போக்கிற்கு எதிராக தலைதூக்க முயலும் எளிய முயற்சிகள். இவற்றை மிக சிரத்தையுடன் கண்டெடுத்து ஊக்கப் படுத்தும்  பெர்ச் குழுவினர் மீது நமது நம்பிக்கையும் எதிர்ப்பார்ப்பும் பன்மடங்கு உயரச் செய்கிறது.  

Kinetics- Sensation

Kinetics are back with a sensational show. Gallery Veda, that hosts the show, has an exceptional way of sprucing itself up for every new show. It feels like the gallery is reborn to host a new show. This time it was no different either and it is a pleasant feeling to encounter art in such a credible space. The etching of texts on the wall, the artist names printed on the glass doors make for a very fine sense of the space.

Just as you climb the stairs and reach a wall, mid way up, you encounter the title of the show stylistically portrayed on the wall and as you turn and reach the first flower level you encounter the curatorial text, both in English and Tamil ( the Tamil texts are such a joy to see), and then as you turn to enter the gallery the the glass doors offer you a room's view of the art works with the names of the artists stamped on the doors in bold letters. That's a fraction of an idea of the amount of aesthetic sense and ergonomics that goes into making of the experience of the show.

The show features works of eight artists, each of them pursuing a distinct style and practice and venturing in this show to experiment with new material and ideas while holding on to a certain string of continuum in the character of their practice. If there is one character that binds them all, it is a certain conscious moving away from a 'prettiness' and questioning the character of material involved. 

Gurunathan's works have a fuzzy, woollyness about them. He has put up a collage of ink smeared fabric, the shapes and roughness of the fabric, with lingering estampages of being rationed are pointers to certain memories and economics and politics. He has also put up a ceramic installation, with coins embedded in them. The coins, i gather are a memorablia od his recent visit to france.

Kumaresan Selvaraj's works combine wood, fibre and resin in a compression technique. His works evoke an acute sense of modernity in experimenting with material and form. One of his works we encounter early in the show reminds me of a 'tower of hides' evoking attendant feelings of political dimensions. The other works in the same technique convey different imagery, that are quite absorbing. These works are very engaging for the different imagery they evoke from the manifestation of striations in our daily visual realm from a floor mat to layers of the soil, etc

If Kumaresan's works captivate us with striations, Saravanan Parasuraman's works play around with the circular form. His bigger work with an arrangement of smaller circular discs radiating out of a central core to form a million petalled flower like arrangement is a very engaging work. he chosen unromantic colours like ash, grey, brown, blue and white to create a dynamism and add energy to the work. 

His other work with mounted wooden stubs with a hollow core painted red in the centre and black in the inner surface. The hollow in the stub is edged out along the patterns of cambrian circles in the wood an allusion probably to the wound of years of life lost to tougher times.

Yuvaraj Arul's works are the only ones in the show that have a semblance of 'prettiness' about them. His installations in metal sculpture evoke a fantasy world imagery. A beautiful face amidst flowers, a face with key holes on it and surrounded by keys are the stuff of this fantasy world.

Yuvan Bothisathuvar's works play around with linear element and how it interacts in creating illusion of surface. The rusted piece of corrugated metal sheet looks like a perfect find that fits in so well with his practice of creating illusions on surface. 

Sunil's works play around with the texture of metal and wood. He has created illusions on the texture of the material creating what looks like a soft toy image of Garuda from wood and an amoebic piece of fabric from metal sheets. His video installation is a meditation on shapes forging out of a process of destruction.

Aneesh's video installation was the show stealer for me. The blurred images of street scenes of a river side locality captured with all its bustle, culture and social activity, brings to life in all its mood and aura, a certain fragment of our bioethnocultural sphere. The photos the accompany the show add value to the video. 

The overlapping of frames and the tardiness of the motion combine to produce different visual effects. The sparkling life in the image of a bird captured randomly in the blurry frame of the the sky are remniscent of the ripples set off by a stone on a serene pond. The haziness and the slowness  of the video adds to its magical appeal. 

The show Sensation is a package that offers one a taste of modern and incrementally experimental art. Kinetics is a group to look up to and the sense of completion they make as individuals and as a group, and manage to keep repeating it, is amazing. Congratulations to the team and the curator Ganesh.

Random Thoughts at Nartaka dance festival

I was glad I had an opportunity to immerse in some wonderful dance experience at the Natyanjali Trust’s recent Nartaka festival at BVB , Mylapore. It was quite a stellar line up of upcoming talents that  drew me to the festival. I had missed the performances of couple of these dancers at the bygone December season and that made me even more eagerly look up to this festival.

I have been following the BN dance scene in Chennai  for a couple of seasons now, interacting  with dancers, attended workshops  and have had the opportunity to attend guided readings of Dance texts  and have taken deep interest in the deliberations on dance at different Natya Conference, Darshan, Disha, Seminars etc. While dancers might have prejudices about attending these events, I have had the privilege of listening to voices young and old deliberating about dance.

The ideas and the knowledge gained there in , combined with the performances at this festival offered me an ideal platform to critically analyze the dance experience. I venture to share some of the thoughts in this post.

Sooraj Subramnyam:

The festival opened with Sooraj’s  performance. I have eagerly awaited an opportunity to catch Sooraj perform ever since I read this article in the Open magazine. And when I found him participating in this festival , it made the festival all the more special to me. 

Anyone watching Sooraj is bound to be overwhelmed by his perfectly sculpted body. His ground movements and throwing of hands border on a very contemporary and modern realm. His agility and flexibility belie his age.

 I got to see two pieces performed by Sooraj. One was around the Gopis missing Krishna, and another on the Navarasas. I personally felt a deep pain at seeing  such a wonderfully sculpted body and gifted dynamics going wasted on feminine posturing in these pieces. It was difficult for me to bear to see feminine emotions sit on top of such a gifted masculine body. I am sure the Navarasas could be given a masculine treatment by a male dancer.

 I am going to have to wait to watch Sooraj  do a contemporary performance to have my fill of his talents.

Narendra:

Narendra was given the Nartaka award at this festival. I have seen him earlier perform once at Meera’s terrace. He is a dancer blessed with abundant charm. I was very impressed by the way he carried himself and talked about his dance. He was eager to share stories and experiences that made him even more interesting as an artist. 

The spunky tuft of salt pepperish hair naturally caressed to form a funk at the back and the prominent yagnopavithram embellish the spright in his dance.

I understand Narendra has a very spiritual connect to dance, that makes his dance border on a bhajan/ Kalakshepam experience. He enjoys doing it that way.

Sridhar Vasudevan

Vasu’s performance was easily the winner for me on the first day.  The prominent pauch, carefully concealed in a vest made me a bit apprehensive in the beginning, more so coming on the heels of watching two performers in great shape. 

Vasu simply won me over when he made efforts to sing while performing. This is a simple way of making a big difference to BN dancing. Young dancers who look to make a difference could take inspiration from Vasu and try and instill what was once a norm In the Sadhir form and add more value to their dancing and greater connect to the heritage.

Vasu gave a very expansive and novel treatment to the Varnam ‘Mohamana’, another inspiring instance of how one can make a big difference while still performing a very traditional varnam. His interpretation of Vishnu as the Nayika pining for Aroora was a very novel one and made perfect sense and offered scope for so much improvisation.

Meera Sreenarayan

I had missed Meera’s prize winning performance at the Music academy last season and I was eager to catch up with her performance. Her performance was clearly a class apart. The effort she puts into every small adavu and make it look very rounded was very evident throughout her performance. The perfect synchronism she managed to strike between the singing and her movements was another aspect that made her performance special. 

Her unhurried, refined execution of nrittas combined with a good video capturing technique would make for an interesting study of the geometric aspects of BN.

Right from the word go when she started by making floral offerings and invoking blessings she was very convincing and very immersed in the role play of the chosen theme. In the Narasimma Kavuthuvam, at one point she seemed to have grown several feet tall in enacting the drama, that is elucidative of the power she packs into her Nritya.

 In the swara jathi varnam Meera had chosen, there was a point when she serves the nayaka something to drink and sits on the ground beside him looking at him, at this point her gaze seemed to be at something distant rather  than on a the face of the nayaka close by. This was a a very minuscule fraction of a perturbing moment in the performance, I happened to notice it and mention it only because the rest of the performance was so thorough and flawless.

The vocal artist Bijeesh accompanying Meera made interesting improvisations that added to the fun and drama of the performance.

Lakshmi  P Athreya

Lakshmi looked gloriously tall and beautiful during this performance. While first half the varnam went by looking pretty and well, a moment when the dancer looks at the lotus and the sun with its lighting and the dancer’s posturing made for a very surreal experience, making me wonder why could not a whole nayaka- nayika piece be danced around with the imagery of say the sun and the lotus, rather than the usual nara- naari modeling.

The tempo of the performance in the Varnam picked up with the lines ‘ Kaaman enai..’. The performance had scaled up to a different level thereafter. The Meera Bhajan and the ashtakam were a visual and aural delight.

Shrutipriya

While SP was introduced as the runner up in the Music acdemy peroformances in the last season, my expectations naturally grew higher. SP had a easy grace and style about her dancing. I wish she invested a little more in the ideas that go into the Choreographing of her dance.

For instance, in the Nandanaar charithram piece, when Nandanaar is trying to get the bull to get out the way in Thirupangur, she starts off with showing a nataraja inside the shrine, which I thought was a quite a slip. She was not convincing as Nandanaar either. 

And while trying different means to get the bull to move she brings a tuft of grass to lure the bull away. I could imagine Bragha doing it if she were performing, but you have a young girl performing Nandanaar, u could attempt things like pelting a stone ( say at near the bull) to try and get the bull to move. I mean such things could make it more convincing.

Acharyas could make a big difference by choreographing with the dancer in mind rather than themselves.

Shwetha Prachande

I had missed watching Shwetha in the last season too. It was a couple of very close misses. She comes with a wide range of trainings in foreign shores to Kalari, rising expectations in her performance.

I was disappointed when she started without an invocatory piece. The invocatory piece helps the dancer to settle down to performing a dramatic piece. One cannot walk straight on to the stage and start emoting.

Shwetha started straight with the varnam, which should have caused difficulty in bringing emotions. The Varnam also happened to be one that the previous performer had performed to, something the convenor could have averted, making it a double disappointment. Moreover, Shwetha’s emoting to the lines of the varnam was almost zilch making it a difficult experience.

Meenakshi Sreenivasan

MS was quite a treat to watch. She stood out in here ease of performing to Padams. More special because these were the only padams I got to see in this festival.  Her grace added lilt to the performance. A mudra MS made for the 'chakora' bird, bringing both her hands together appeared different and ingenious. 

MS could bring a world of difference to her performance by being more convincing in the dramatics. The ‘koozhi’ piece was such a different and interesting piece, it offered a lot of scope for dramatics. She was very unconvincing while portraying the disappointment when the hero leaves all of a sudden or in her loosing cool with the rooster that spoilt all the fun. One could introduce folk elements like chasing the rooster to add value to the performance.

In concluding, i feel that while the Nritta part is something one cannot tamper much with, dancers could make a world of difference  and elevate their performance by adding more theatric and ingenious elements to the Nritya part of their performance. These are some thoughts that young dancers could deliberate upon.