Simran Godhwani, a city based kathak dancer, is all set to present Amrapali, The Rise, The Fall, The Awakening. The production showcases the classic tale — the life of Amrapali, a renowned nagar-vadhu of Vaishali district (in present-day Bihar) during 600-500 BC. Before her production makes its debut in the city, Simran lets us in on why she chose to present this story, her upcoming projects and much more.
“The story traces the journey of Amrapali, who is raised as an orphan and later rises to the rank of a nagar-vadhu, which is equal to a ministerial position in the king’s court. She goes through a lot of hardships, and loses all that she had gained. So, she also goes through an internal struggle, because society doesn’t give her the respect she deserves,” the dancer begins.
There are a lot of women in the country’s history who have showcased courage and stood up for themselves, but Simran decided to portray Amrapali’s story because she has not been given her due, unlike Draupadi, Sita or Laxmi Bai, the queen of Jhansi . “I found Amrapali to be an extremely strong character,” she adds.
Giving us more details about the upcoming performance, the choreographer says, “We are adding a few interesting twists to the narrative. We don’t know if Amrapali fought a war but she had the expertise for it, so it would be something that we will be showcasing through various dance elements. We will also be drawing parallels to the position of women in modern times.”
The music for the production has been composed by Muthukumar, a city-based tabla player. Most of the compositions that have been used are from the Lucknow gharana. She also adds that Kathak can per formed with various music genres such as latin and jazz When it comes to the costume, Simran has decided to keep it as real as possible. “Since Amrapali was a nagar-vadhu, she wore a lot of jewellery. We will be adding them to the existing Kathak costume which has a lehenga, blouse and a veil,” she states.
“I plan to take this production to multiple cities within the country such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata and also to the US and Greece,” she says signing off.
₹500. January 28, 6 pm. At Bangalore International Centre, Domlur
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Twitter: @al_ben_so