INDICA was privileged to sponsor dancer Srividya Angara's production and debut shows of Manomanthana - a Kuchipudi thematic solo dance production based on the kritis of Carnatic Vaggeyakara Thyagaraja Swamy and interspersed through English prose and poetry, a couple of years ago. Manomanthana is coming to Bangalore on April 15.
What was your vision behind Manomanthana and your tribute to Thyagaraja Swami through this?
Thyagaraja Swami’s kritis continue to play a very important role in my journey as a person. He was single-minded in his devotion to his Istha Lord Sri Ramachandra. Through verse and melody, Thyagaraja poured out his love, devotion, anger and angst and dedicated it to Rama. I can identify with that mind-set – to turn to a larger, ubiquitous Creative Consciousness for questions and answers, to ask with abandon for anything and everything. Growing up listening to Thyagayya’s kritis, there was always that thought “Someday I’d like to dance to this.”
A lot of the kritis used in Manomanthana are these old friendships that made themselves available when this production was in the works. My tribute to Thyagayya lies not only in using his kritis as a scaffolding for my own emotions, but also in endeavouring to summon the kind of searing intensity he had when he sang back then.
What information do we have about the influence of Thyagaraja Swami's krithis on dance?
I don’t think there’s a single South-Indian classical dance recital these days which does not incorporate a Thyagaraja kriti in its repertoire. His Kritis, Divyanaama Sankeertanas, Utsava Sampradaya kritis, Pancharatnas, and musical operas like Nauka Charitam and Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam are all suitable for dance presentations. His influence therefore is immense and immeasurable. The lyrics of Thyagaraja are steeped in profound bhakti with language that is sweet and uncomplicated. This makes it accessible for dancers to create and weave their choreography around it.
They say that Thyagaraja was the first one to introduce the concept of Sangatis in kritis giving the modern singer the bandwidth to elaborate on the beauty of the raagam and to emphasise on certain sections of the lyrics. Some also say that his inspiration for sangatis lies in the multiple iterations needed to do abhinaya in dance. Kuchipudi yakshaganas have been documented to inspire his musical operas – Nauka Charitam and Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam.
Either way, the dance forms of South-India are certainly indebted to his virtuosity.
Where was your first performance of Manomanthana and what was special about it?
Oh, this answer could go on for a while! But I’ll try and keep it brief. When Manomanthana was produced and choreographed, and basically ready to go, I had this inspiration of wanting to premiere it at the Thyagaraja Samaadhi at Thiruvayyaru as an offering. I spoke to a few friends about this, the word spread, and the next thing I know is that I had the singular opportunity of presenting it in front of the very vigrahams that Sri Thyagaraja himself used to worship.
Words cannot describe the tidal wave of emotions that engulfed me. All that work - I had lost count of the number of times I went to the recording studio because some nuance somewhere was not to my satisfaction. It had to be perfect in my mind – because it was an offering of everything I had to Thyagaraja’s Istha, my Istha – Srirama. Along the way there were multiple indications of this Boundless Grace but this! This one was the culmination of it all – to premiere this production Manomanthana in front of the Srirama panchayatana that was worshipped so ardently by the saint-poet himself! Ahobhagya!
Oh, how the tears came that day, a downpour! Uninhibited, unhindered, unbridled. There was the Rama Parivaara, and not more than ten people in my audience. That presentation can never be repeated. The limbs were doing their job, the steps and mudras were happening on beat, but there was a negligible sense of audience, and all the time a rising feeling in my chest that kept breaking the bunds through copious tears of joy and incredulity that such Grace has made itself known to me.
And then this - never before in history has dance ever been presented in front of Thyagaraja’s Rama! That it should happen through Manomanthana, through me, was and still is overwhelming, emptying, and fulfilling all at once!
When we talk about aesthetics, how does it differ in our classical dance and music?
I think irrespective of the art form – be it dance or music, we are looking at an upsurge of energy as a takeaway. So logically, I would think that the pieces that the artist chooses are designed to take you on a journey. Start with something that helps you get into the architecture of the repertoire, help you settle down for the show ahead, start carrying you upward and forward, and then come to a graceful slide, allowing you to take home that energy created. This would be the plan always – and therefore whether its dance or music, the selection of raagas, taalas, and technical prowess displayed, and the ability to transcend using all of these aspects, taking the audience with you by dint of your own intensity would be the game plan.
What are the newer compositions that dancers today prefer? And do composers today stick to the earlier genres? What has changed?
I think there is more freedom to create, produce and present out-of-the-box ideas through dance these days with a greater surety of acceptance. So we do have say a Surdas, Meerabai or Kabir composition coming together with a south-Indian classical form like Kuchipudi or Bharatanatyam. I’m not sure of newer compositions in dance, it really is each dancer’s perspective and sensitivity with respect to the subject at hand. But the way of presenting these compositions has changed. Productions are necessarily more theatrical in terms of light and sound. It is a social-media driven world, and in the struggle to be seen and to be considered relevant, one does have to bring in a sense of newness in terms of composer, composition and choreography with a sharp eye for time, or lack thereof! How long is new considered new remains a question.
What is involved in conceptualizing a production like MM?
Long hours, brutal honesty. Pain and clarity.
Could you tell us about the way tradition and shastras are preserved and transmitted through our performing arts?
The performing arts are vivid storytelling canvases, devices. In our land, we’ve always spoken about an Absolute Truth. There are scriptures that talk about this phenomenon in the most esoteric of terms, and then there are scriptures, itihasas, puranas that layer this very profundity in engaging storylines with fantastic character arcs, plots and sub-plots.
When traditional performing arts like dance, puppetry and theatre take these stories, it makes for an engaging telling of a tale with the artiste’s own take on it, and also imprints better in public memory because of the various other aspects it utilizes, like movement, music and dialogue. One takes away what one can and therefore, in its own way, the art form is a keeper of tradition.
