Rama Vaidyanathan’s riveting solo piece, Mad and Divine, presented recently by Taal Connect at G.D. Birla Sabhagar, broke barriers and made thoughtful inquiries into the feminine quest for divinity and devotion. Using the works of two medieval female mystic poets, Janabai and Lalded, Vaidyanathan examined the spiritual awakenings of the two extraordinary women from the two different cultures and geographies of Maharashtra and Kashmir. What emerged was a sweeping celebration of passion for the divine. In Vaidyanathan’s inspired choreography, luminous dancing and richly-imagined storytelling, Bharatanatyam melded with the folksy essence of Tamasha, a theatrical form of Maharashtra, and the meditative stillness of Kashmir’s topography and austere ethos to explore the two women’s profound connection with the gods of their hearts.
In Vaidyanathan’s nuanced characterisation, Janabai and Lalded — one a feisty maid in the household of Sant Namdev and the other a woman driven out of her home due to an oppressive marriage — emerge as powerful figures in Vaishnava and Shaivite traditions. Their portrayal is cleverly woven into sections of pure dance through elaborate interpretive choreography as well as the subtle representation of emotions. Such is Vaidyanathan’s storytelling genius that the balance between dance steps and drama is always maintained.
From the opening moment, when the lively and charismatic Janabai, in a sari draped in Maharashtrian style, playfully awakens Panduranga from his sleep, Vaidyanathan has you in her thrall. As she goes about her daily household chores, her attention is focussed on her beloved with whom she is in constant, energetic communication. When she dances, it is not with the measured steps of a classical dancer but with the bubbly, flamboyant sensuality of a simple village woman intoxicated with love.
In Lalded, dressed in a white salwar kameez, Vaidyanathan explores the more remote figure of an ascetic through expansive hand movements and gestures modulated into an abstract language of silence and quiet ecstasy. The exquisite work owes much to Sudha Raghuraman’s impassioned singing of Janabai’s abhangs and Lalded’s compositions.
