The story takes us 2,500 years ago to the ancient city of Magadha, during the reign of King Ajatshatru. Though his father was a devotee of Lord Buddha, Ajatshatru turned against the religion and stopped its spread with all his might. But when has rebellion failed to change the predictable course of history? Thus enter Srimati, a court dancer, whose unwavering devotion to Lord Buddha will make non-believers realise how one can find more joy in renunciation than possession.
This was the story of Notir Puja, the 1926 dance drama by Rabindranath Tagore that is better known in its film avatar, the only directorial by the Nobel laureate. Based on the play, Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance is set to debut their production The Dancer’s Worship in the city soon. While the script and music direction is helmed by Srijan Chatterjee and the rhythm composition by Dhaneswar Swain, Odissi exponent Sharmila Mukherjee is putting together the choreography and also plays the protagonist, Srimati.
In doing so, she discovered similarities between her character and Srimati. “Dance is second nature to me. Since Srimati’s character is also a dancer, I was able to identify with her. A lot of bhakti associated with classical dance was portrayed in the play and I could relate to those emotions,” she says, further noting, “There is a thin line between spirituality and dance. There are many dancers in mythology who have used dance to attain moksha and for many it was a medium of prayer. That’s something I found interesting.”
And these — spirituality and devotion — is what becomes one of the main themes of the production. Sharmila describes the production as a, “tribute to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of genuine devotion.” The primary dance form used to depict this is odissi but the company has also used martial arts like karate to portray movements for fighting sequences.
However, since Notir Puja is a play — and hence verbose — the real challenge was to find ways to emote so many dialogues through dance. This is where the light and sound design of the production becomes significant. Sharmila tells us, “The lighting setup is much more elaborate than any of my previous productions. There are six scenes in the ballet and each of them is very different from the other. We are using lighting to differentiate between the scenes. Imageries like early morning scenes in the town of Magadh or fight sequences have been portrayed through changes in the lighting.”
During the music and sound recording in Bhubaneswar and Kolkata, Srijan Chatterjee and team spent a lot of time with the tabla and pakhawaj players. They made sure to work with musicians who knew the text of the play well and hence, understood the role music would play in this. “I am presenting this for a non-bengali crowd. So, I wanted to ensure that the music resonates with everyone while retaining the core essence of the play. The narration is in English and there’s one Bengali song towards the end.”
All this make us wonder, how long must it have taken to put together the entire production? “The last one year,” the danseuse tells us, “Once in 2-3 years, I work on a big production. I have previously done an Odissi adaptation of Swan Lake (called Hansika) and an Odissi ballet inspired by AK Ramanujan’s Sookshma. This time, I wanted to explore a Bengali story and specifically a work of Tagore. I have not explored his work before and I thought it might be interesting for the audience in Bengaluru.”
One such aspect that might interest the contemporary audience is this. Notir Puja is perhaps one of the few texts that criticise aspects of Buddhism from a feminist perspective. Such as through the character of queen Lokeshwari who is dismissive of the religion after her son denounces domestic life to become a monk. Sharmila notes, “The play showcases the disbalance that exists in society. Though it’s difficult to make every character in the play a part of the dance production, I’ve used some of them to bring out this imbalance.”
Before drawing curtains on the conversation, Sharmila adds in conclusion, “After this production, I will be working on a few Kannada pieces. I plan to revive my earlier productions Sookshma and Hansika sometime early next year. We also have the annual Pravaha Dance Festival coming up in April 2024 and we plan to have some new choreographies for it.”
Email: prattusa@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @MallikPrattusa