The drama of Love

It’s a beautiful story of a warrior princess who simply falls in love. And that too with no less a person than Arjuna in exile.

The story is ageless and largely romanticised by Rabindranath Tagore into an incurably touching tale of women, their hearts, the actions and finally their sense of duty and adherence to societal norms.

So when such a story is put into the framework of dance and drama (more drama than dance), there is bound to be an attraction between the audience and the artist – with lines blurring between the classical and the popular, and influences of what an entertainer should be. That combined with cinematic bearings, made for a full house and a very appreciative audience of friends and family for ‘Chitrangada,’ at the Music Academy recently.

With music by Rajkumar Bharati, the production by Radica Giri and her U.S-based school of dance, Anjali Natya, was governed by enthusiasm and a penchant for romance, theatrical costume and narration (Krithika Shurjit).

Chitrângadâ is a memorable tale taken from the Mahabharata and tells the story about the mythical kingdom of Manipura, whose heir apparent is Chitrângadâ, the daughter of the king. She is brought up like a son to rule the kingdom one day. So she is trained in martial arts and war techniques and looks and feels like a man most of the time. Until she encounters the handsome Arjuna, who wanders into her kingdom during his years in exile. Chitrangada wants her love to be reciprocated but for that, she must be a woman and a beautiful one at that. She seeks the help of Kamadeva, who agrees to transform her into a beautiful woman with whom Arjuna cannot but fall in love with.

The falling in love is the easy part. But consequences of doing so are tough, as the princess discovers. Tagore took this instance in 1892 and turned it into a dance drama, fleshing out the characters keeping in mind the heart of a woman and desires that have their own spin offs.

Inspired by this story, Radica had this translated into Tamil by Kalpagam Srinivasamurthy for a production that used dance and drama as the glue to hold it all together. Though the dancing was light and frothy, it was consistent and suited the kind of production this was.

The idea of presenting the ‘complete woman’ is tempting as the role requires attention and adulation, and casting herself as Chitrangada, Radica got to display love, courage and some bits of substance.

Adding artists such as Rakesh Saibabu, the Mayurbhanj/Chhau artist, Shanmugam Sundaram (both of whom displayed great style and dancing) made it a happy and short production that didn’t prolong endlessly. And that actually was the best part. There were no pretentions about being intellectual or over analytical and Radica wisely chose to do everything within an hour or so. Here was a production that wanted to entertain and engage the audience and it was a good way to showcase the school’s ethos in the United States.

Incorporating Manipuri, Chhau and other styles of dance (which could be anything from Kathak to light footed film dancing) along with colourful costumes (bright pinks, shimmering greens, electric blues and golds), the support dancers moved from scene to scene in an unfussy manner doing exactly what was required to showcase the lead dancer. It was a pleasure to watch Rakesh Saibabu, who as Arjuna not only came across as a consummate artist, but also a good foil to a pretty princess.

With choreography by L. Narendra Kumar and Bragha Bessel, ‘Chitrangada’ had full throated but mellifluous vocal support from Srikanth and Keerthana Vaidyanathan. The use of orchestral support especially the veena and violin, helped to create the mood of romance and poignancy of the story.

Originally, a student of K.J. Sarasa, Radica established Anjali Natya in Saratoga, California. She incidentally was the heroine in Bharathiraja's film, ‘Nizhalgal.’ ‘Chitrangada’ is her maiden dance/ theatre production.