Of war, love and suffering

The couple treated Bangaloreans to a one-off dance performance. They chose to explore and expound on the epic Mahabharata. “I have always been fascinated by Mahabharata since my childhood. I read from the small to big versions and the original many a time. Mahabharata is a part of my life,” Sridhar said. He is one among those who believes that an epic contains everything about life, both physical and metaphysical, and “there is nothing in the world that is not found in this voluminous epic,” avers Sridhar.

The couple set out to tackle that challenge that Mahabharata poses. “I always felt the epic is a great challenge because there are umpteen number of characters with amazing clarity and distinction — some divine, some heroic and some evil. So we decided to take this up and present it in Ekaharya (where the dancers wear one single costume throughout the performance),” explains Sridhar. The couple enacted all the characters with clear body language and emotion so that the audience would identify every character and wouldn’t feel left out. The idea was to make the show as interactive as possible.

Sridhar and his wife selected a few parts that they could narrate in a chronological order and those that they could dramatise in sequences. Each character was depicted with a great deal of emotion. It was a powerful and poignant portrayal of war, love and suffering. “Though we used the grammar of Bharatanatyam as the medium, we also had to create new movements, which would suit the wars and the body language of warriors,” observes  Sridhar.

Through their performance, the couple intended to portray the epic, highlighting and blending human emotions with the spiritual aspect.The performance was conceived and scripted by Sridhar and lyrics were by Shatavadhani R Ganesh.