Described as dancer, actor, writer, activist Mallika Sarabhai, 62, draws crowds wherever she appears and performs. Daughter of illustrious parents, space scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and legendary dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, Mallika has carved her own identity outgrowing the shadow of her parents by her hard work and independent thinking. She has used dance as a tool for social change. She continues to fight against issues like social injustice against women. She firmly believes in empowerment of women, fights against gender bias, concentrating on development of performance as language of change. Recently she was in New Delhi on World Dance Day, to pay tribute to her mother Mrinalini Sarabhai, who passed away recently, with her brother Kartikeya Sarabhai and son Revanta Sarabhai.
Excerpts from an interview:
Having known you working with your mother, you must be feeling a sense of great loss.
You know, Amma gave us a longish period to get used to her final absence. It was as though, over a five year period, she removed herself gently from one active involvement after another, so that we found the time and space, while she could guide us, to be able to step in and take up those responsibilities. And then again she is everywhere, in every thought, in every conversation, in every brick. For the first month, I woke up every morning conversing with her, reminding myself to tell her something. But now it is as if I am suffused by her. She is in every gene.
How do you propose to carry forward the legacy?
Her legacy is hers. I am not really concerned about personal legacies. So that is just not the way I think. She has pushed all of us to become creators, to stay true to the spirit of ethics and aesthetics, fairness and justice, and then to beat our own paths. And that is what we are doing.
The bond between you and Amma was so strong – like two friends. What have been the most memorable works with Mrinalini that you would like to share with us?
The first piece she created for us to dance together was Mira, in late 1976. She saw a struggle in Mira’s life, between her inward journey towards mingling with Krishna, and her outward reality as a princess and a young girl. She made two Miras, she as the inner one and I the young princess. It is only when the two are reconciled that she becomes the Mirabai that we know – or think we know. The first time we performed it was at the Tagore Hall for the Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival. And I had my first and only astral experience. Sometime into the performance, I felt I was looking at two bodies from above, that I could see two bodies but one aatma. It remains a very special experience. When we did “Chitrangada”, for the Tagore Festival in Japan, she played the manly Chitra and I the feminine one, in what I thought was an ironic twist. Recreating her pieces, doing what she had choreographed for herself, in “Memory” and “Manushya”, and other pieces were also special.
Much senior and of a different era, how did you negotiate with Amma with her views and beliefs?
We used to argue and discuss a lot. It was harder when I was 17 and rebellious, but much simpler later. She used to say she wasn’t a feminist till I made her one. But her constant search for justice and fight against injustice of any kind and her abiding love for nature are few things that I share absolutely. She felt that I took after my fiery aunts Mridula and Lakshmi, in being much more direct in my battles, that hers was a different route. But she didn’t mind that. And we were happy to disagree as well.
As a versatile dancer both in classical and contemporary dance genres, what are your recent choreographic works?
Over the last 15 months I have taken a sabbatical from choreographing new work. We, my colleague Yadavan Chandran and I, created a Happening called “Kadak Badshahi”, on the 603-year history of the city of Ahmedabad that became a super hit, running for 35 packed nights in a row. And it was delightful to see the corporate honchos, with students, vegetable vendors and intellectuals all sitting cheek by jowl and loving the same show. Well, now we are making it into a feature film that Yadavan will direct. All my energies are diverted there and will continue to, till the end of the year.
You have come a long way from Peter Brook’s Mahabharata and your work “Shakti: The power of women”. What are recent works you are working on?
Indeed I have moved on, and will be creating more works, but at present I am single-mindedly working on the film “Kadak Badshahi”.
In the TED Talk you have spoken about issues of health, educational programmes, apathy of governmental agencies to evolve strategies which can resolve many problems.
In the arts, we have a language to persuade, to change attitudes, to influence behaviour. We have worked in these fields for 40 years and proved their efficacy.
But funders and policymakers still see us as agencies of song and dance. There is a lack of vision; if the usual forms of poster campaigns and radio campaigns haven’t yielded the desired results in the fields of healthy behaviour or choices of the sex of the child, we need courageous policy makers to say, ok let us try something dramatically ( pun intended!) different. Even big corporations are so cautious in their CSR spending decisions.
What we are offering is a way to change mind-sets, without which nothing changes.
A perfect example is the laudable Swachh Bharat Mission. You can build toilets. You can’t make people use them unless you change their attitude. What we offer is the latter.
Remembering Amma
On World Dance Day, the India Habitat Centre paid homage to Mrinalini Sarabhai by inviting Kartikeya Sarabhai, Mallika and her son Revanta Sarabhai. The programme highlighted the multifaceted personality not just as a legendary Bharatanatyam and Kathakali dancer, but also as an enlightened human being, concerned about social injustice, women’s position in society, environment, innovator and using classical dance to reflect contemporary issues.
Revanta conducted the programme by introducing himself as a grandson of Mrinalini Sarabhai. There were screenings of select excerpts of Mrinalini’s early dancing showing her innovative approach to dance using the classical technique for abstract themes like Rigveda, Maya and her personal journey.
Performing during the Golden Jubilee of Sangeet Natak Akademi, under title Golden Greats, excerpts showed her arrival in Ahmedabad and after traditional performance, she took off to what was happening in Gujarat, with political unrest and while dancing asked Krishna, with other name as Mohan, when would he come to save Gujarat? Mohan was suggestive of Mahatma Gandhi. It was also 30th January and with artistic insight she made the presentation timely and contemporary.
Her articulation, performances with Chatunni Panicker and her solo when she was 84, and dancing with Mallika, and grandchildren Revanta and Anahita during the opening of Natararani theatre at Darpana won instant applause form audience.
Mallika and Revanta performed a duet in Bharatanatyam, emphasising the strong movements of Pandanallur school, which Mrinalini had mastered. Both performed with speed and vigour. The straight lines, diagonal movements and solid foot work stood out in their spirited execution. Taking a composition in Telugu, “Natti yinchu ni padam nammiti”, set to Raga raga Kamboji and Adi tala, it dealt with competition between Parvati and Shiva, each one challenging the other.
