Recently, in one of the abhinaya class, we were all trying to be yashoda who wants to see her son's beautiful face(krishna) and so is trying to lure him to come to her (krishna nee begane baro).. and trust me, its not an easy job. While we were struggling, one of the student, who obviously was also finding it difficult to do, raised an interesting question in class - why do we have to do abhinaya? who in today's world will call her son like this? It looks so fake...
Fake is a very strong word in my opinion but lets stick to that word for now. Yes, if you switch off your imagination for a moment, it is fake because in reality you are no yashoda, and krishna is nowhere to be seen.
Now, lets take an example of a recent movie, Haider. I'm choosing a movie because that is most accepted in today's world. So, in the movie, the hero realizes that his uncle got his father killed and his mother is now married to him. Guess what happens in the immediate next scene.. you see shahid kapoor dancing with a bunch of other dancers in perfect synch trying to express his anger -
In the name of god, which human being would do that in reality? I mean when you realize that your father was killed by your uncle, would you gang up with a group of dancers, choreograph a dance(or maybe first learn dance), work on the synchronization, work on the lyrics, music and then perform in front of people? why do we not call it fake then? Infact when i watched that movie, the song seemed so apt for the situation, why? why such an unrealistic action seems so perfect?
Because, the song invokes necessary emotion, although the expression is through dance, the anger is brought out elegantly and ofcourse shahid has done a great job. In the same way, whether its yashoda or any other mother, love towards her child is same, may be the story is old, may be the way of expression is different. But isn't that what makes the dance beautiful, the imagination of how yashoda would call her son. How would she lure him to come near her so that she could see his beautiful face and hug him.
I distinctly remember a performance by Dr. Padma Subramanyam in one of the dance festivals. Shiva in disguise as a mendicant comes to his devotee's house to test him and asks for his son's brain curry. It was a solo performance and she brought out the emotions of the three characters, (father, mother and son) so beautifully that one could easily make out which role was she playing at any point. When the father finally cut his own son's head, i was literally in tears and not just me, I could see so many people in tears(for those who debates that i cry for almost everything), such was the influence of her abhinaya.
Now considering that in reality, no father would be so idiotic that he would kill his own son just because some beggar asked for his brain soup, how could it move so many people?
Abhinaya, in its enormity, has the capability of transforming the audience to a surreal world and if the dancer could connect to them and ignite the emotion with her story telling, the story becomes real. However, the challenge is how well you connect with the audience with your story telling and ofcourse how much are you convinced with your story.
In an attempt to prove that the story is old, irrelevant and stupid in today's world should we lose out on the imagination it kindles in people's mind? Or should we retain the emotion it brings out and put our creative mind to work to see how we can change the expression to make it accessible in today's world?
Fake is a very strong word in my opinion but lets stick to that word for now. Yes, if you switch off your imagination for a moment, it is fake because in reality you are no yashoda, and krishna is nowhere to be seen.
Now, lets take an example of a recent movie, Haider. I'm choosing a movie because that is most accepted in today's world. So, in the movie, the hero realizes that his uncle got his father killed and his mother is now married to him. Guess what happens in the immediate next scene.. you see shahid kapoor dancing with a bunch of other dancers in perfect synch trying to express his anger -
In the name of god, which human being would do that in reality? I mean when you realize that your father was killed by your uncle, would you gang up with a group of dancers, choreograph a dance(or maybe first learn dance), work on the synchronization, work on the lyrics, music and then perform in front of people? why do we not call it fake then? Infact when i watched that movie, the song seemed so apt for the situation, why? why such an unrealistic action seems so perfect?
Because, the song invokes necessary emotion, although the expression is through dance, the anger is brought out elegantly and ofcourse shahid has done a great job. In the same way, whether its yashoda or any other mother, love towards her child is same, may be the story is old, may be the way of expression is different. But isn't that what makes the dance beautiful, the imagination of how yashoda would call her son. How would she lure him to come near her so that she could see his beautiful face and hug him.
I distinctly remember a performance by Dr. Padma Subramanyam in one of the dance festivals. Shiva in disguise as a mendicant comes to his devotee's house to test him and asks for his son's brain curry. It was a solo performance and she brought out the emotions of the three characters, (father, mother and son) so beautifully that one could easily make out which role was she playing at any point. When the father finally cut his own son's head, i was literally in tears and not just me, I could see so many people in tears(for those who debates that i cry for almost everything), such was the influence of her abhinaya.
Now considering that in reality, no father would be so idiotic that he would kill his own son just because some beggar asked for his brain soup, how could it move so many people?
Abhinaya, in its enormity, has the capability of transforming the audience to a surreal world and if the dancer could connect to them and ignite the emotion with her story telling, the story becomes real. However, the challenge is how well you connect with the audience with your story telling and ofcourse how much are you convinced with your story.
In an attempt to prove that the story is old, irrelevant and stupid in today's world should we lose out on the imagination it kindles in people's mind? Or should we retain the emotion it brings out and put our creative mind to work to see how we can change the expression to make it accessible in today's world?
2 comments:
Good one..
Haider is right in his own way by dancing being angry. Who has defined the way to express feelings for it be fake? each individuals has his way of expressing I think. Some do it in ways which looks weird to others may be. Even the dad who was trying to cook the brain curry might be right, and so is Yashoda calling his son. You talented beautiful performers put it across to audience so well make the story meaningful no matter what emotions it's filled with. Good job.
After all, a little exaggeration on stage always good for people to feel good.
Proud of you, for you could write about dance now.��
true, without that little extra it would look normal, then why watch a dance performance when all they show is day to day activities?
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