It’s necessary to question why my role in society is defined by my roles in men’s world? The dialogue between women liberation and women abuse has never run out of context. Be it a 14th-century poet Vidyapat or epic poetry of Ramayana women have been strong protagonists in these tales! That applies as much true for even kathak dancers and their repertoire. Off late, they are coming out of their straight jacket traditional formats and exploring new idioms with their own discipline.
Moving equally with ease from the grammar of padhants and classical permutations of Taal patterns Anindita Acharjee sowed the seeds drama in dance in a solo performance at Triveni Kala Sangam. The text of traditional Meera Bhajan, modern text by Ghulab Khandelwal and Vidyapat ‘Shyama’ was read out in sync with abhinaya and episodic interludes from the life of strong women characters Meera and Ahilya.
Anindita did ascertain in the last exploratory step her own identity as no one yet her! She was firm, rooted, and cultured and embraced back beauty as her birthright. In an earlier piece, Anindita portrayed Meera as leaving behind her worldly adornments of a queen to quench her thirst for Krishna. She disrobed her royal revelry in a crescendo of beautiful tabla and pakhadwaj relas by Yogesh Gangani and Mahaveer Gangani.
In the midpiece of choreography, Dheerendra Tiwari’s cleverly changed Jhaaptaal to a ten beat narrative. Anindita weaved the complexities of mind of Ahilya in this composition who sinned without any fault of her own. The introducing flute in raag Yamaan by Kiran Kumar was very impressive. Anindita played out the characters in the Ahilya folklore and asks Ram for penance when turned into a stone. The mythological background only reaffirmed the pedestal that women hold in their own ways withstanding all levels of jealousy and exploitation.
In a pure Hindi narration and no musical accompaniment by Gauri Diwakar gave voice to the performance in a theatrical manner in the last composition “Mein”. One cannot but applaud Sammi Khan’s beautiful raagdari alap and vocal support.
