Legends come alive

Three experienced dancers, Gopika Varma, Yamini Reddy and Krithika Subramaniam, and actress Suhasini Mani Ratnam with her theatre performance entertained Hyderabad with a culturally rich experience. The idea behind the show was to explore the lives of Vasavi, Kannagi and Andal – legendary women from the South of India who attained divinity. While Krithika essayed the role of Andal through Bharatanatyam, Gopika portrayed the role of Kannagi through Mohiniattam and Yamini lived the role of dancer Vasavi through Kuchipudi.
Krithika Subramaniam, who produced the show says, “Gopika Varma came up with the concept, so I thought why not explore it further?”

A chance conversation brought Suhasini into the show, “I was discussing with Krithika about how classical dance form seems to be dying and that we should do something about it, that’s when she discussed the idea of this show. I thought that she would want me to direct it, but I was shocked when she asked me to take part in it,” laughs Suhasini. Suhasini’s dance background played a huge role here. “I come from a family with many dancers, my aunts learnt dance, so did Kamal Haasan and, as a child I learnt it too. In this performance, I did a mix of everything. I acted, danced and even sang,” says Suhasini, who also performed aerial acts in the show. “I essayed many characters, one of them was the celestial dancer Rambha. I wanted to portray the essence of being Rambha and how her spirit was free, hence we incorporated aerial acts.”

Suhasini also played the role of the narrator, “The narration is through different roles that I played throughout the show,” says Suhasini. The other highlight of the show was the music. Suhasini says, “We approached A.R. Rahman, but he was busy. But he helped out by sending music we could use. I sent him a list of emotions and he sent the music based on it.”

The entire process of getting the act together would’ve taken at least nine months. Yamini, the youngest dancer in the group says, “Each of us knew our roles well, but the show was presented as one story, where we connected stories that date back to decades to the present, it took us some time to conceptualise it. We had the freedom to interpret our roles the way we wanted to. Working with stalwarts in the field was an amazing experience.”