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Bound by the letter
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`Chakori,' a ballet by the Anubhav Centre for Music, Dance and Literature in association with Little Theatre, was a literal rendering of the novel it was based on, thereby losing out on the multi-layered texture of the original.
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LAYERS OF LOVE: The sets could have used some subtlety.
THERE IS almost always a problem when a novel is rendered into a visual or performative medium - and the problem lies in the interpretation of the reader, or in the medium itself. If it is a film, some "cinematic license" is considered necessary, and if it is dance, or theatre, again, there is the context of the performative space that defines the limits.
Both ways, it is a challenge to take up the modern genre of novel as a central theme for dance; and that is what the Anubhav Centre for Music, Dance and Literature in association with Little Theatre attempted in the adaptation of Chakori, written by the eminent Kannada novelist, playwright, folklorist, Chandrasekhar Kambar.
This dance ballet/narration was staged at Ravindra Bharati. Choreographed by Anupama Kylash (the co-founder of Anubhav) with music composed by Anasuya Murthy (another founder member), the ballet could have been made more interesting had there been a deeper interpretation of the many layers of Chakori.
Anupama said she chose Chakori for its obvious meaning - of an artiste's ultimate quest for perfection and the sacrifices that go into it. As an artiste, she saw Chakori close to her immediate world of dancers and musicians. She retained the Kannada songs composed by Kambar and had Little Theatre do the English narration (from the English translation by O.L. Nagabhushana Swamy and Pranava Manjari).
Chandrashekhar Kambar, poet, playwright folklorist and novelist, was recipient of the Sahitya Akademi award, the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi award, among others. His works include the plays, Sirisampige and Jokumaraswamy, the poems, Takarainavaru and Savirada Neralu; besides many books and essays on folklore.
The novel Chakori is Kambar's adaptation of an old Kannada folk tale. It is a tale of many layers. On the face of it, it is a simple love story of Chandamutta - a cowherd-musician and the stone idol (of a Yakshi) he falls in love with and brings to life with his music.
Their ideal union turns sour when the Yakshi is cursed. It is up to Chandamutta to play the Moonlight raga and revive the Yakshi and send her as a celestial bird, Chakori, to the land of lord Shiva. But by doing so, Chandamutta himself must turn to stone.
The novel is also about possession and liberation; about innocence; about a selfless all consuming love for music and several other meanings depending on the context, true to the genre of folk tales.
Anupama took the novel too literally, including sets with the result that one ended watching a full- length novel in a performative idiom, reducing the novel to an experiment in fantasia.
Kambar used dreams as a metaphor as well as the sutradhar, to narrate the tale.
NAÏVE INTERPRETATION: A deeper reading would have helped the ballet.
They are as much part of the story as the main characters. Anupama's dreams (Sanjay Joshi and Abhinandana), however, were intrusive with stiff self-conscious body movements, and not well integrated into the ballet.
The sets could have used some subtlety, instead of the outdated screens and trees that were (and still are) in use in small-time popular theatre. These included a lit-up cardboard moon, as a permanent fixture almost throughout the performance, even oblivious to the narration in the background that spoke of the "first light of dawn!"
Bizarre stage settings, including the hill, which made the dancers miss their step and become conscious each time they climbed it (the dreams suffered the most). Too many external embellishments, including make-up (over done, almost to the point of distraction), the costumes, smoke and bubbles on the stage made it seem like children's theatre rather than a seasoned, interpretative performance.
Vedantam Raghava as Chandamutta was also rather stiff - with not too many Kuchipudi movements, not even abhinaya, coming his way. The only two dancers who were graceful were Rama Devi (who played Chandamutta's mother, Abbe, with near-perfect abhinaya), and Anupama herself as the Yakshi, although her costume and make-up could have been simpler and more subdued.
Little Theatre was relegated to the background, and one wondered if the entire group of Little Theatre veterans was needed for a narration as a mere accompaniment to the dance-drama. There could have been a more creative way of blending the fine art of narration with dance. Mere narration could have been done by just anybody.
If the novel was, in essence, about as Anupama understood and introduced it, of an artiste seeking perfection and the sacrifices inherent, it did not come out in the presentation. The performance remained a word for word enactment of the novel in its superficial form; explicit in moments/movements that required an alternative understanding.
There were some high points, nonetheless - the lullaby (in Kannada, composed by Kambar) sung by Anasuya (Abbe singing to her son) excellently rendered - both by the singer and the dancer.
One of the aspects/themes of Chakori, rather than the entire story (which made the ballet stretch far too long) could have been dealt with at length to make it a truly interesting ballet.
R. UMA MAHESHWARI
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