By Kapilas Bhuyan
A jam-packed Rabindra Mandap witnessed on 20th March evening the story of a sacrificing woman under the title ‘TYAGA’, a dance drama being performed by noted Odisi danseuse Rajashri Praharaj and others. It was a presentation in collaboration with ‘Srjn’ with the support from Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. Besides the regular viewers, a large number of who’s who of the city witnessed Rajashri’s recital.
As the story was drawn from the Coastal Odisha folklore, the audiences present were more or less familiar with the thematic outline. So there was tremendous eagerness among all to see the retelling of the story through the Odisi dance repertoire by the premier dance institute of the state ‘Srjn’. When the 50 minute duration performance opened with the traditional concert music of the Gitinatya (and Gananatya or Jatra) of yore, the audiences really felt enthralled and witnessed the whole performance sitting on the edge of their seats.
The dance drama ‘TYAGA’ revolves around the choices and sacrifices of Sati Anasuya, the exquisitely beautiful princess who having nothing left excepting a garland in her basket of gifts meant for the beggars, passes it on accidentally to the neck of the last beggar, afflicted with leprosy. Having no choices left, Anasuya returns to the palace with the newlywed husband Bishnu Das. But fate plays its own trick not known beforehand to the human beings. By not being accepted by her parents a beggar as the groom of their beloved daughter, Anasuya leaves the palace to live her life with her husband. On their way, Bishnu Das gets to see his old flame Lakhyaheera, wife of one of his friends for whom there is an unquenchable desire in him. In fact, it’s the curse of Lakhyaheera for which he has been suffering from leprosy. But the desire in him for her still persists. Lakhyaheera, now a prostitute asks for ‘one lakh daimond’ for one night of comfort with her, and thus is famous in that name.
Anasuya, upon coming to know about the reason of her husband’s chagrin goes to beg before Lakhyaheera to satisfy Bishnu Das’s desire. But who after all would like to share the bed with a leper!? To avoid the discomfort of exchanging any dialogue, Lakhyaheera quotes her price which Anasuya cannot afford. In order to face this latest tribulation, Anasuya approaches the King for getting the money. But the King puts a condition – in order to provide the amount Anasuya has to sleep with him for one night. But such is the devotion of a wife towards her husband that Anasuya agrees to the condition of the King. However, the King is now a changed person to realize the devotion of a wife towards her husband, and adores her like a mother.
Now, having been paid her price Lakhyaheera accepts Bishnu Das as her guest. The man was thirsty and asks for a pot of water. Lakhyaheera brings two pots of water – normal water in an earthen-pot and scented water in a diamond-studded golden pot. Bishnu Das accepts the normal water in the earthen-pot saying that scented water does not quench the thirst. Now, Lakhyaheera puts the point before him by declaring that with the same logic Anasuya is like the pure water of the earthen-pot. Thus Bishnu Das realizes his mistake, and returns to Anasuya.
On their way back, accidentally Anasuya stumbles on the body of a Muni in meditation. In a feat of anger the Muni curses her to be a widow as soon as the day breaks. Anasuya pleads before the Muni to take back the curse as she has not done it deliberately, but the Muni remains adamant. Anasuya is now left with no choice but to counter the curse announcing that if she is a devoted wife, then the day will never break. And thus, there will be no sunrise thereafter.
Anasuya being the most devoted to her husband her curse proves to be right, and the order of the world gets disturbed, and therefore, Lord Bishnu appears before Anasuya and begs before her to take back her words. Anasuya can’t disagree, and withdraws her curse. The day breaks, sun rises again and Bishnu Das dies. The world order is restored. But Lord Bishnu now smiles and restores Bishnu Das’s life and cures him of the disease.
The story basically highlights the greatness of the devotion of a woman towards her husband. There are a lot of such stories in the coastal Odisha folklore in which there are vivid narrations of women’s suffering juxtaposed very dramatically to engage the readers. Almost through the first half of the last century women used to identify themselves with the main characters of such folktales, and apart from being entertained they used to learn a few things to believably build a strong personal character. How valid such content in today’s world is another issue which needs to be analyzed elsewhere.
Coming back to the performance of ‘Srjn’, the dance drama had seemingly impressed the audience present who gave a standing ovation at the end. Abhinaya of all the characters was excellent. Costume was specifically designed with a combination of black, red and dazzling silver for the ensemble. Lighting was well designed too. Music and singing, which was the soul of the performance was also well composed, but it was recorded not live. However, when it comes to choreography there were a few questions to be analyzed.
Basically it was kind of reinventing the dramatic folk narrative into a dance drama. That was what actually had happened. But the same impact could have drawn from a Geetinatya presentation as well. When we adopt a ‘natya’ into the body of dance, and that too into the Odisi dance repertoire, was it enough?
Having whatever little perception as a critic I hoped a little more than what this performance had given. We must remember that the Odisi dance repertoire has much more potential to supplement what was being asked here! And when the choreographer was none other than the most gifted Guru Ratikant mohapatra himself, it was the minimum to ask for.
The choreography had tightly woven only the pace of the dramatic narrative and overlooked the potential of mood flights of the main character Anasuya. Had the choreography taken the challenges of delineating the moods which Anasuya had undergone at three major junctures in the story, the narrative could have been better adopted into the Odisi dance repertoire. And then, it could have accepted as reinventing the folklore in the modern context.
Reinventing is in vogue now. The Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India has been promoting the trend. And it’s good to witness that we in Odisha are not lagging behind, courtesy Rajashree and ‘Srjn’.
(The writer is a Senior Journalist and National Award winning Filmmaker)
