July 25th 2015
ACT Theatre,
Seattle
Prologue to the Play
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Bharatanatyam
Origin
The Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, as we know it today, has its origins in a dance form called Sadir Natyam, dating back nearly 2000 years. ‘Bharata’ is the ancient name for India as well as the name of the sage (Bharata Muni) who codified the performing arts in a scripture, written in Sanskrit, around 200 B.C., called ‘Bharata’s Natyashastra’ and Natyam refers to the art of dance-drama. Sadir Natyam was danced in the temples of South India by the Devadasis (meaning servants of God, they were women devotees dedicated to the temples). Bharata declared that this dance “Shall be the happy adoration of the world.”
Sadir or Bharatanatyam evolved through the centuries. An important milestone happened in the late 18th century, led by four brothers known as the Thanjavur quartet. They were the four sons of the nattuvanar Subbarayan: Chinnayya, Ponnayya, Vadivelu, and Sivanandam. They also refined the music of Bharatanatyam, influenced no doubt by their musical mentor, the great composer Muthuswamy Dikshitar.
Decline
Under British rule, propaganda prevailed against certain Indian art forms, misrepresenting it as crude, immoral, demeaning to women, and inferior to the concepts of Western civilization. This influence alienated educated Indians from Bharatanatyam. The devadasi system declined. Even the terms by which the dance was known – Sadir, Nautch, Dasi Attam, and so on – took on derogatory connotations. By the first quarter of the 20th century Bharatanatyam was dead to the world.
Revival
Despite all odds, Bharatanatyam persevered within a few families in Tamil Nadu. Its revival involved individuals from disparate backgrounds: Indian freedom fighters, Westerners interested in Indian arts, people outside the devadasi class who learned Bharatanatyam, and devadasis themselves. E. Krishna Iyer was a freedom fighter and lawyer, who had learned Sadir Natyam. He campaigned to raise public interest in the dance, and sought to give the dance form a measure of respect by proposing a resolution at a 1932 meeting of the Madras Music Academy to rename it as "Bharatanatyam" (or the Indian Classical Dance). With the involvement of foremost dancers such as Kalanidhi Narayanan of Mylapore, Rukmini Devi of Adyar, and Anna Pavlova and leading Theosophosists such as Dr. George Arundale and Dr. Annie Besant, Bharatanatyam received a spiritual and disciplinary overhaul. Slowly the dance form started attracting young artists from respectable families. Initially met with shock, their participation ultimately helped to shift public opinion in favor of reviving the art.
Rukmini Devi’s reforms of costume, stage setting, repertoire, musical accompaniment, and thematic content, overcame the objections of conservatives that Bharatanatyam was vulgar. She went on to found the Kalakshetra institute, to which she attracted many great artists and musicians, with whom she trained generations of dancers.
Bharatanatyam soon became one of the most widespread and popular Indian classical dance forms. It wasn’t long before it achieved international recognition as one of India’s treasures.
Devadasi Pratha
“Devadasi Pratha” (or cult of the female servants of God) was a religious practice in parts of Southern and Eastern India, whereby a daughter from a family was married to a deity in a temple. The girl remained dedicated to the temple for the rest of her life. Originally, in addition to taking care of the temple and performing rituals, Devadasis learned and practiced Sadir (Bharatanatyam), Odissi, and other classical Indian artistic traditions and enjoyed a high social status. Scholars date the origin of the system to as far back as 6th century B.C.
Devadasis enjoyed the patronage of the royal houses throughout centuries. The Chola Empire (1010-1200) brought the system to its glory. Inscriptions reveal that the 400 dancers, their gurus and orchestras, were maintained by the Brihadeesvarar temple, Thanjavur under the patronage of the Chola kings. As the Chola Empire expanded in wealth and size, they built more temples throughout their rule. Soon other emperors started imitating the Chola Empire and contributed to the system. Indian classical dances (Bharatanatyam and Odissi) owe their early development and discipline to these temple Devadasis who danced for the deity every day. Devadasis were believed to be bearers of good fortune and enjoyed immense power and social standing.
With the decline of India Royal houses (as British rule prevailed), royal patronage of Devadasis dwindled. Many Devadasis are believed to have taken to prostitution to make ends meet. During the first half of the 20th century, reformists worked towards outlawing the Devadasi tradition on grounds that it supported prostitution. Colonial views on Devadasis are hotly disputed by several groups and organizations in India and by western academics as the inability of the British to distinguish them from the girls who danced in the streets for reasons other than spiritual devotion to the deity Social reformers such as Ram Mohan Roy and Muthulakshmi Reddy questioned the practice of Devadasi system and pleaded for its abolition. The first legal initiative to outlaw the devadasi system dates back to the 1934 Bombay Devadasi Protection Act. The Devadasi system was completely outlawed in India in 1988. What remained with a few surviving Devadasis was an expansive vocabulary of the classical dance.
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Outside the entrance of where this beautiful play takes place, are two huge boards, with the above words printed on them. If you read them before the play began, you would know whats going on. Otherwise its actually impossible to make a connection on why one of the best directors of our times would put in so much effort in #DanceLikeAMan. Sadly these two boards were too long to be read at either of the two times - One, when you are running inside at the beginning to get the best seats available; or two - while coming out during the interval for needed breaks.
Unlike modern day Bollywood shake-body-parts-in-myraid-and-weird-ways, aiming to show-just-enough-skin-as-to-not-come-under-nude-category; Indian classical dances are complex and take years of dedication before they are mastered. There are 7 major forms of these complex Indian dances, Bharatnatyam being one of them. To give some context, each eyebrow movement in Bharatnatyam implies a unique gesture, in the story it is telling, as does each unique movement of the fingers, palm and wrist as so on.
Having given a longer than needed introduction, the point here is - that with so much effort put into it, how many of us really knew the why behind the play?
The Play itself
- The story line was pretty intense. The audience from Indian origins felt like an actual living and breathing drama happening right before their eyes.
- There with moments which were not served like a grab-and-go meal, but where one had to join the pieces together to figure out the rationality behind some of actor's intense emotions. One of the places, where the audience had to connect dots, was when Ratna having sacrificed her career for her second child, could not differentiate her daughters success from her own, and so she was adamant on sticking those news articles full of accolades in her own album.
- All over the world wonder women (Actually, the fact is the word 'wonder' is implied and not needed and women are being discussed). be it in art such as dance or any other professions have successfully managed both - running their family succesfully while keeping their passion alive within them. The fact that Ratna was forced to choose one over the other was rather dogmatic.
- Was Jairaj really a mediocre at dancing was never clear? If yes, why did he fuss over the decision to not have him perform be the lead dancer. If not, how could his skills fade in an year and he turn towards alcoholism and not rebound in his passion? Those specific dialogues between Ratna and Jairaj were not very clear.
- There were scenes, which slowed down the pace. One was when the gurus were annoyed or seemingly annoyed. That entire never ending discussion on how they felt or did not feel - rather left a bad taste in the mouth, on how impatient or demanding Indian Dance Gurus could be. Multiple those 5 minutes of a unnecessary negative portrayal before 150 people times 11 shows.
- The ending was too abrupt. The sudden death of Jairaj and Ratna felt as if the audience mistakenly felt asleep and missed something crucial in between.
Acting
- Not once did the actors fail during their super long intensely emotional dialogues.
- Multiple transitions from present to past and back were crisp and clear. Without changing a thing on the set, without any background music, without any graphical effects otherwise possible on a TV show or in a movie - the seamless transitions were nothing short of a miracle!
- In my personal opinion, Amritlal's role was the best of all. That hunch in the back, those voice modulations with elongated words joining each other were awesomely captivating. With each stage presence, the audience was being transported to the mid 1900's.
- Ironically the old Jairaj could have done far better. For one of the many instances, it was hard to say, what was old Jairaj thinking as he stared at his future son-in-law in his first scene.
- During one of the flash backs, in her first few interactions with her FIL, young Ratna looked annoyed instead of serious at the beginning. The real needed annoyance came out really well towards the end though.
The Set
- Stage usage with its two additional rooms was extremely well thought of.
- In what seemed a small stage setting, back stage voices from kitchen and upstairs were distinct and coming from different corners of the stage. You could actually see an invisible second story in that home above that kitchen!
- At the change of scene, the two doors closing smoothly together were a sweet surprise.
Additional Classical Dance
A big thanks to Joyce, to have explained a bit of her performance in the beginning. A dumb like me could comprehend only those portions of her beautiful performance that were initially explained? :) Wish her daughters performances were given a brief introduction too.
Last Note
All in all, its easy to sit down on a laptop and write. But coming up on the stage are wearing someone else's hat who does not even exist in today's times - is not at all easy. Though I wont get a chance, yet if I did, I would see the play all over again.
