Tiruchendur by Karuna Sagari

(the post had been lying a draft since Aug 2022) 

As a part of the annual Natyarangam festival of NGS, this year around the theme of Utsava Bharatham, each day saw the staging of a dance production based on the theme of the prominent festival in a Temple town. I got around to watching performance of the festivities in Madurai by Roja kannan and Priya Murle. and when i noticed Karuna Sagari was to perform a couple of days later, i told myself that i should not miss it. I have seen her perform and talk about dance and she showed she could be different, daring and innovative. once i saw her perform on a modest stage on a simple street, to a lay audience in the neighborhood where she probably lived. and in every piece she performed on that simple stage she was giving it her best efforts. this showed me here was someone made of steely resolve and soaring spirits.

Karuna Sagari was chosen to perform the festivals and story of Thiruchendur. The problem with performing divine stories is that most performers tend to aspire to keep their audience in a constant state of exaltation. one could achieve this by having the other dancers on stage go into an exalted frenzy whenever the divinity appeared on stage and thereby hoping to evoke the same in the audience- this would in turn constrain the scope of the choreographer and performer to produce anything new on stage. they would have to constantly fall back in to this trap loosing out on the innovative elements they could have otherwise explored.

i felt Roja Kannan and company fell into this trap. but they had elements of surprise in their performance that kept their production from falling flat into staging the divinity alone. the folk elements in their production were the most scintillating part of their performance. the production progressed by projecting the tales around the divine forms, tales of divine interventions, and the vehicles featured on each day of the festival. the role of sutradhari played by Sasirekha anchored the performance cogently and paved the way for the stories to bloom one after the other. the folk/pop tone in her delivery helped the audience lighten up and anticipate the next sequence. 

But I should confess Sasirekha’s performance was only half as good as the magic she could perform in ‘ Mylai kuravanji’ dance drama that most players of this ensemble had performed a few years ago. 

a couple of folk numbers in the sequence, namely on the festival day of Kuthirai vaganam and another a kavadi chinthu number brought a much needed difference to this performance. 

The dance sequence featured on the Bootha vahanam day featuring only the male dancers was a riveting bit of performance- some steps in the sequence reminded me of Padmasubramniam school’s signature styles, and those movements seemed to sit more adeptly on the male body. There was much to work upon in every sequence, and that some fine tuning – a little less of divine exaltation and little more of the folk elements- could have improved the overall experience of Madurai.

Moving on to Thiruchendur, Karuna Sagari lead her group of dancers with great spirit and energy. it was refreshing to see her perform as one of the Asuras and not as Muruga. And during certain group configurations on stage, she was graceful to be performing on the sides at times.

@ karunav insta page

Almost more than half of the performance was around battle scenes and it was a challenge to see how one could spice it up to make it interesting. And Karuna Sagari has cracked this puzzle and she has done it in style by bringing a difference with the choreography and a zing with some experimental music.

The battle scenes were choreographed with great rigor and energy, bringing in elements of Kalari and all the performers showed great intensity in these sequences, showing signs of some immersive training in the same. Some innovative deployment of music also helped carry the show further to greater heights.

The music was a big surprise element for the performance. The dynamic voice of Susha could be equally brilliant while bringing alive the divinity through Arunagirinathar’s lines and also when she set the stage and our hearts ablaze with a light rendition of ‘ aa aaa’ for the Krauncha giri sequence.

I was listening to her for the first time and the ease with which she rendered Arunagirnathar’s lines made me look up for the vocalist, and while at it she could shift gears with ease and change to another tempo and mood and carry on with great elan. The music of the quartet led by Priya and vocal support from helped add more punch to the performance.

It was quite revealing that KS could work on this idea for a long time, thanks to the pandemic, and she could bring in help and expertise from various corners. The use of compositions by her grandmother in the performance added so much more value to the overall experience of Tiruchendur. After all, there is nothing that can get better than a god that one can call one’s own, and a divine experience that gets more personal.

Inspired by the spectacle that KS’ show was, and the expectations of a rich Dussera celebrations at Mysore, I took my family along to see Pavitra Bhatt perform on the concluding day. We ended up  being very disappointed. The Only saving grace for me was to witness  and awe at PB’s stamina and endurance in performing long duration pieces.

PB had structured the performance around little snapshots from the dussera celebration and elaborating on them in detail. The choice of the snap shots was not eclectic and this led to show falling flat and unimpressive. The hall seemed to be filled with his fans and the big applause for small gestures from PB, making me wonder what was I missing out on.