Sometime in September 2005, having met India's dance diva Bharatanatyam exponent Malvika Sarukkai, for a 15 minute conversation that extended to 90 minutes, I vividly recall bowing to touch her feet, as a mark of respect for what she shared about herself and her dance with me. Her ideas on her relationship with dance were sacred and intense, as if the Moon had become crimson. Last week, as I watched her for the first time on stage, her voice ran a parallel discourse on dance in my mind. Inaugurating this year's IIC Festival of the Arts, Malvika's Adhbhuta – Vision of Wonder, sought to capture its shades, from surprise to sublime.
Naturally so, the evening had most ingredients that could have made any recital memorable. But, perhaps because of the intellectual verve Malvika brings to her performances, marked by ever so intangible subtlety, this particular performance of hers fell short before her incredible body of work ( packing three decades).
Though, Malvika's items reflected her incisive understanding and maturity in locating the varied shades of wonderment- as seen through the eyes of a mother/a devotee and a beloved, adhbhuta- especially in her interpretation of Krishna and Yashodha's relationship ( in Krishna nee begane baro in Yamunakalyani raga) and the latter's discovery of her child as a Universal lord, had an element of hyperbole, especially in Krishna's antics and during the sequence in which Yashoda is crafted into stillness on seeing the Universe when her son open's his mouth.
The same was the fate of the next item, Samarpan ( culled from the work of Tulsidas) , in Ratipatipriya raga which revolved around Hanuman's first glimpse of Rama. The element of total surrender, of having realized the Lord in flesh and blood, was diluted by the first few sequences in which Hanuman was introduced as a over enthusiastic monkey playing with his tail, like a woman holding her plait, in a rather ungainly manner.
One could blunt the above two arguments by suggesting that children usually run a riot at home and so they are bound to be excited. Similarly, a 'monkey' will be a monkey in its behaviour and demeanour. But, this entirely justifiable opinion does not take into account the interpretation that Malvika provided right at the beginning of her recital. She talked of adhbhuta at an entirely different pedestal-where wonder- of seeing the world around in all its maya- in the love of a mother , of a child and of a devotee- be it a man or a monkey, has a degree of sublimity attached to it. Malvika's items and their concept gave a full import of what she wished to share, but somewhere in their execution, the texture changed.
No doubt, Malvika's dance is controlled and extremely graceful. Her choreography, while being visually appealing and deftly using the proscenium space overawes her rasikas with carefully executed post-card images! Creative lighting is an essential element of her choreography, more so because it pushes the audiences to imagine what the dancer will do next, when tossing between intricate jatis, she suddenly becomes a sculpture.
Malvika's work has often been inspired by miniature paintings, be it in India or abroad and this element also came through in her item Mohana Krishna in raga malika, in which the beauty of the Lord was juxtaposed with the splendour of nature. From Krishna's eyes to his gamcha, the Lord's physical appearance resonated in Nature and this was lyrically brought out by Malvika. Mohana Krishna followed the opening item of the evening Mallari, in Raga Gambhirnaatai in which, again the detailing of the procession was impressive but perhaps, the sheer wonder of welcoming the deity lost stream before animated movements. The dancer was supported by Balakrishnan on nattuvangam, Murali Parthasarthy on vocal, M.S. Sukhi on mridangam and Vijay Venkateshwar on flute.
No comments:
Post a Comment