arts

Review: A manifestation of rich cultural legacy

Shri Ram - A dance drama (Ramayana-the ancient Indian epic) :

by Indeewara Thilakarathne and Ranga Chandrarathne

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Shri Ram, a dance drama presented by Aru Sri Art Theatre, produced and directed by Kalauri Arunthathy Sri Ranganathan was recently held at the Ananda College Hall to mark the 61st Independence Anniversary of India.

Shri Ram was based on the epic Ramayana, a tale depicting the eternal battle between good and the evil and winning of good over the evil. Though there are different versions of Ramayana, the core of the tale remains unchanged.

The most famous version in Tamil Nadu is Ramavataram or Kamba Ramayana which is named after its author, the 12th century Tamil poet Kamban.

For Sri Ram, dramatic situations in the epic Ramayana have been taken so as to represent the entire story. Sri Ram was broken into twelve scenes and each character of the dance drama was introduced using diverse techniques of choreography.

This approach added colour to the drama which was enacted by well-trained dancers from Aru Sri Art Theatre as well as from Chandana Wickramasinghe’s Dancers Guild.

It should be mentioned here that Chandana himself portrayed the characters Ravana and Dasaratha in a convincing manner. He had also excelled, to a certain extent, in manipulating facial expressions to suit the changing emotions and according to different situations. For instance the fall of Ravana at the hand of Rama was enacted so realistic, making the role one of the memorable roles that contemporary Sri Lankan theatre witnessed.

The expression of emotions would have been very difficult given the traditional constrains in a dance drama or in a ballet. Chandana also showed considerable agility in portraying the character of Dasaratha, though the role had a limited space in the drama. However, Chandana Wickramasinghe’s best performance can be seen at the hand of the dexterous director.

Character Rama brilliantly portrayed by Saravanapava Guhendran had, in fact, strikingly resembled the description of Rama in the epic Ramayana. His demeanour and the fitting costumes were by and largely contributed to infuse authentic Indian flavour to Shri Ram. To say the least, the acting of Guhendran was brilliant and added much needed character to the ballet.

Perhaps, Rama was best played during the war in Lankapura with the army of Rakshas. The scene where Rama defeated Ravana was also excellently brought to life by Guhendran and Chandana Wickramasinghe.

Subodini Adaman as Sita created a role model for the character. Her facial expression according to different situations and depiction of complex emotions through series of gesticulations was appropriate.

The role of Sita which is a pivotal character in Ramayana and is a composite character which demanded a lot of discipline and training. Here director Arunthathy Sri Ranganathan should be commended not only for training her students for the play but also for the outstanding choreography which had derived the best performance out of the cast.

In terms of performance, Shri Ram will second to none even if it was compared with an Indian production.

Music for the dance drama was composed in the Karnatic tradition. However, flavours of Hindustani as well as Sri Lankan folk music were used on some instances. For instance, in introducing Sita, Hindustani flavour has been used.

Apart from the artistic excellence and originality of Shri Ram, it marked as one of the rare productions in the contemporary art scene that Sri Lanka can be proud of. It excelled in terms of costume design and innovate fusion of diverse traditions of music. The fusion was remarkable in the sense that no tradition of music has sacrificed for the sake of another.

Instead, each has added its own shade and colour to the performance. The innovative approach taken in introducing characters to the audience such as using a peacock to introduce Sita makes Shri Ram stands out among different versions of the Ramayana.

The production among other things showed abounding talents on the part of performers and musicians in Sri Lanka and the production was authentic to the core. Different tempos were brought in by music scores and it should be mentioned here that beautiful and innovative ideas of Kalasuri Arunthathy Sri Ranganathan found expression in the dance drama as in her many previous productions.

Though we had witnessed them in previous productions, it was Shri Ram which gave an opportunity to review a creation by her. Most of the costumes were designed in line with the description in Ramayana and specially designed costumes for peacock dance and some other group dances as well as their combination of colours well integrated into the dance drama.

In order to depict different characteristics of Ravana; Ravana was a Shiva devotee, a great musician, Dravida and ruled Lankapura (Sri Lanka), Kandyan dancers and Sinhala instruments were used. Kathak dancer has also been used in the piece.

Hanuman’s character (played by Madushanka Priyadesh) was one of the memorable characters in Shri Ram. Choreography was done in such as way to depict monkey-like behaviour.

Shri Ram excelled in many aspects including choreography, music and casting. Music score for Shri Ram was primarily composed in the Karnatic style and in order to bring special effort, traditional Sinhalese percussion instruments have been used along with instruments like Mridangam.

The mixture of oriental South Indian drums in harmony with Sri Lankan drums would have added allure to the memorable evening. Though Sri Lankan drums supposed to be of no pitch, they mixed well with oriental South Indian drums.

Though Bharata Natyam style was used basically throughout the drama, Kath kali dace style was used for male characters like Rama, Ravana and Hanuman to depict masculinity. Chandana and his troupe combined the Kath Kali with Kandyan dancing. The cast include Rama (Saravanapava Guhendran), Ravana and Dasaratha (Chandana Wickramasinghe), Sita (Subodini Adaman) and Satrugnan and Hanuman (Madushanka Priyadesh). Some of the lyrics were taken from original text of Kamba Ramayana and Arunachala Kavirayar’s Rama Nadagam while others were composed for Shri Ram. Choreography for Shri Ram was by Saravanapava Guhendran, Chadana Wickramasinghe, Abiramy Kandeepan and Luxmi Sarma.

Pix: C. B. V. Raj

Sihina Rangahala

The series of stage dramas Sihina Rangahala (Theatre Dreams) by Dananjaya Karunaratne will go onboard on August 30 at Elphinstone theatre at 3.30 pm and 6.30pm. The dramas in the series were written and directed by Danajaya Karunaratne and include “Valentine Enakan”, “Last bus Eke Kathawa”, “Chandrawathie Samage Rathriyak “, “ Duwana un Dennek” and “ Oba Sapekshai”.

Jagan Ma at Elphinstone

K.B. Herath’s latest stage play “Jagan Ma” (Mother Universe) will go onboard at Elphinstone theatre on August 29, 2008 at 3.30 pm and 6.45 p.m.