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It was the becoming that mattered
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Gender lost its significance when the performer donned the mantle, as LEELA VENKATARAMAN found at Samavesham.
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Srikanth... moving portrait as Chandramathi.
IF ONE accepts that gender roles are tailored by social performative discourse, then performance space becomes the site for designing and reinforcing gender patterns. If one were to start with the premise of gender itself as being performative as maintained by Judith Butler, where does one locate `gender transformation in South Indian Performing Arts' — a theme round which was built an efficiently curated day-long discourse/performance event, mounted by Prakriti Foundation at Sundar Mahal on Padmavathy road.
The title `Samavesham' was obviously prompted by ideas of parity of male as female and vice versa, though the presentation in the traditional part weighed heavily in favour of male as female — examples pertaining to the female as male seen in contemporary versions, drawing their vocabulary from tradition.
As a curtain-raiser to the day's events, Dr. Dennis Hudson, Professor, World Religions, Department of Religion, Smith College, in his discourse traced the significance of man impersonating woman to the Bhagavata religion with reference to written texts and temple representation from the Vaikuntha Perumal Temple with special attention to Pancharatra Agama "as its most ancient and persuasive liturgical dimension."
Citing an example of sculptured representation, which he defined as Divinity portraying sovereignty, both King and Queen mysteriously occupying the same body, he delved into Krishna Katha and the Krishna/ Pradhyumna/ Aniruddha lineage with Krishna as the complete embodiment of Narayana, quoting several instances of male disguised as female — one of them being Pradhyumna as woman entering the bloodied city of Bana, to rescue son Aniruddha.
Narayana as female, while representing passion and desire (which imprison ignorant man in their coils) does not get entangled in the fruits of this action. Embodying gender disorder, the male as female protects the King and has the ability to consume the other's disorder. Above all the male as female represents a model of consciousness going beyond the egocentric mind. The very involved theory did not take into consideration the main Vaishnavite motif of the Lord as the sole Purusha to whom all devotees as female aspire.
As an example of Stree Vesham in Kathakali, Kalamandalam Rajasekharan, Vice Principal of Kerala Kalamandalam, enacted three scenes, beginning with the female character being established through a grace-abounding entrance dance.
The next sequence from Kremeera Vadham, had the avenging demoness, wife of Sardula, disguised as the beautiful Lalita, trying to entice Arjuna. A contrast from all this sringar emphasis was the scene from Duryodhana Vadham, wherein Panchali implores Krishna on bended knees not to let the diplomatic encounter with Duryodhana, lead to forsaking war — a must for her to fulfil her vow to avenge her humiliation, by anointing her open tresses with the blood of slain Dusshasana.
The abject surrender in "Paripahi Hare" triggered strong responses in sections of the audience whether such "falling at the feet" of Krishna in a performance situation was not subordinating the position of woman in relation to the male — particularly given the advantage of the situation in the plot where Krishna is a friend. Should he be deified? Rajasekharan's contention that even males prostrated before one who was God, and that he was only doing what was traditionally taught (almost implying that individual deviance had no place) evoked the response that art could not be devoid of responsibility. Should performance encourage core orthodoxies of caste and gender?
Jayalatha's impersonation of Arjuna was from Isai Natakam, a genre, which came into vogue with the proscenium stage during colonial rule, pioneered by Sankara Das Swamigal. Deterred by her superior intellect and knowledge, males had refused to partner her, and in protest she began to enact male roles herself. What began with some trepidation had, over the years, earned the acceptance of audiences.
The scene saw Arjuna, coming after a long time to a wife who had just given birth to their child, pleading with her to acknowledge his presence. "Taye mana taapam, dayave illaiya?" he asks, the popular Parsi theatre mode of acting, dotting the submissive tone at reconciliation with assertions of "After all, I am Arjuna, the Pandava... "
Asked if constant impersonation of male roles had affected her psyche, Jayalatha replied that barring those performance moments, domesticity with its constant demands made on her, never allowed her to confuse virtual reality with reality. Her identity as a woman was neither endangered nor in any way diluted.
Enigma of feminity
That crossing boundaries of given categories should come naturally to a performer who in the ultimate sense has no gender, was illustrated by Navtej Singh Johar in his leisurely and savoured Bharatanatyam interpretation of the Muthuswamy Dikshitar Kriti in Poorvikalyani, "Meenakshi Memudam Dehi." Here was a performer indisputably male in his heavily bearded presence, evoking the feminity of Meenakshi — not so much as a Goddess as of an enigma of feminity to be unravelled — embodying in her the bounty of Nature and of sringar.
While adhering to the strict grammar of Bharatanatyam, the totally involved and intense presentation, even in the nritta sequences, which came as punctuation points, attempted no blatant virtuosity. The silken non-intrusive singing of Hari Prasad with other competent instrumental accompanists created the perfect melodic framework for the dancer.
Maya Rao... power-packed performance.
The body as a multiple phenomena, active and reactive, moves across gender boundaries without being permanently committed to one category — representing the androgynous impulses in man.
Dr. Alka Pande, Art Adviser and Curator at the Visual Arts Gallery at the Habitat Centre, referred to the `flaneur' and the `voyeur.' While the former with the roving eye is not constant, and does not allow for detachment in its gaze, which could well be fragmentary, the voyeur looking upon performance as an object of art, shows more of the male vibes, for his is an act of dominance. Talking of the distance between the viewer (from whose angle she was seeing this subject) and the viewed, Alka referred to the primordial cosmic unity, which is not to be confused as male or female.
In Tantra Yoga though, the all inclusive Sakti of the awakened Kundalini power located in seven stages in the spinal cord, and also the Divinity to which many folk art forms offer homage, are conceived in the female aspect. Speaking of the need to study how real gender identities could be de-stabilised by constant cross gender performances, the speaker cited the instance of the Baul performer Chapal Bhaduri who had become a woman trapped in a man's body. Could there be anything like a final model of masculinity or femininity or are these largely notional?
In performance, it is not gender as much as the quality of energy evoked by the artiste that matters. Maya Krishna Rao's power-packed performance, most certainly the crowning event of the day, was contemporary dance theatre, drawing upon the energy and technique of Kathakali, in a version very much the dancer/actor's own creation.
In a Kutiyattam/ Kathakali throwback, she enacted Ravana soliloquising of the difference between his present might and greatness and his past humble childhood. Memory takes him back to the days when he lay on his mother's lap.
Distracted in her tender ministration of the baby she is so proud to be blessed with, the mother (whom one sees through Ravana's eyes) sees a pushpa vimana in the sky carrying Ravana's half-brother Vaisravana. Angry that fate should make the fortunes of two siblings so different, one so affluent and powerful, the other so humbly endowed by way of wealth, the mother is filled with jealousy and compassion in turns, as she looks at the two children.
Maya tagged on to this scene a glimpse of Lady Macbeth as she wills the thick night to purge her of all feminine softness and fill her with the steely resolve needed to accomplish the deed she plans.
For Maya, Shakespeare, in the space he allows between his lines for the actor's interpretation, is an ideal poet for Kathakali creativity. Discarding all the `pacha' and `kari' stylised makeup, the actor settled for just accentuated eyes; and, draped in a simple costume and decorated with gorgeous wooden jewellery of Kathakali, her enactment in its concentration of power and energy drew out every ounce of emotion and drama from the situation. Changing from Ravana, the mighty and the satisfied, to the tender reminiscing with the facial expressions alternating between the mother's anger and sadness, to the chill of the "Come, Black Night" as Lady Macbeth psychologically arms herself for the horrific night, it was a superb performance casting a spell over the audience.
P. Rajgopal as the Kuratti in Kattaikkuttu Kuravanji Natakam gave a lively enactment of interaction with Arjuna, With high-pitched music, the mukhaveena, mridangam and harmonium, for accompaniment, here was unabashedly extroverted theatre, casting woman in all her earthy sexuality.
And standing in for Keremane Shambhu Hegde, the well-known Yakshagana actor, was Heranjulu Venkataramana Ganiga presenting a brief pravesha daru as Maya Shoorpanakha.
In the interaction which followed this sequence, private, public and sacred space were touched upon and queries made as to why it was always man as woman and never woman as man that had the privilege of gender crossing. Answers of women carving out their own spaces in Kerala, were, in private exchanges, dismissed with asperity, as being diplomatic evasion of the truth of woman not being entitled to the same public space as man. Why should ritual space be colonised to be converted to performance space, was one of the observations.
Devesh Soneji's paper, read out, in his absence by Ranvir Shah was on the Andhra Stree Vesham tradition with special reference to the role of Satyabhama in Kuchipudi, which involved total gender mimesis involving the inner emotional landscape as well as the outer physical appearance of the performer.
Episodes related by Vedantam Satyam of how after watching his Bhama Kalapam, he had been proposed to by male suitors mistaking him for a female, were recounted.
As one representing the Jivatma yearning to unite with the cosmic identity, Satyabhama whose married signature lies in the nose ring and the famous `Jada' with hair ornaments symbolising the Sun, Moon, Nature and the nine planets, embodies the cosmos in her persona.
Kala Krishna in his rendering from Andhra Natyam of scenes from Nava Janardhana Parijatham gave a delicate insight into the feminine contradictions of Bhama, all melting love one moment for her beloved Lord Krishna and next an avenging angel brandishing her plait as a whip to beat him with.
Not a whit less in talent was Srikant in a sequence from the Bhagavatamela Natakam, as Chandramati, wife of Harishchandra shown cautioning her son lovingly about the dangers lurking in the jungles, and then as the anxious mother looking for the son who has not returned from his forest sojourn.
Finally she is the grief-stricken mother after learning about her son's death. Excellent music, and sensitive abhinaya characterised the presentation.
In the conviction of a performance, there was no gender nor did one see de-centred man or woman.
It was not the being but the becoming that had one enthralled.
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