Dancers Pradeep Prakash and RLV Raghu Narayanan are quite excited. Their first dance drama production Makal, which is based on the popular poem Kollendathengane written by Sugathakumari, has opened to rave reviews. Their first performance was at Changampuzha Park, Edappally.
The Dubai-based dancers who flew to Kochi for the performance say that they chose the poem as it is still relevant. “Though Sugathakumari teacher wrote it a few years ago, it is still significant,” says Raghu. “The poem narrates the state of mind of an aged mother who is worried about her mentally-challenged child. As the mother gets older, she is afraid of dying and the hands that would attack her child when she is gone. How should I kill my child, she asks. Though she tries, she is unable to do that. Finally, she poisons her child. And, the mother wraps her child in her arms as it dies,” says Pradeep.
That was the spark and they juxtaposed current day affairs with it to make the narrative timely. “We always wanted to speak against such wrongdoings. And, we found the poem quite apt.”
The two-hour-long dance drama begins with a monologue by the child from Thodupuzha who was murdered by his stepfather. “It starts with him reaching heaven and meeting his father. He is happy to be there. He calls onto stage the woman who yearned to become a lawyer, but was brutally murdered, anotherwoman who was pushed from the train by a crippled man and other victims,” says Pradeep. “We have not mentioned anyone’s name. But, the production is choreographed such that the audience understand the incidents. We could feel that during the performance. Towards the middle, people started crying,” he adds. Both Pradeep and Ram appear as different characters on stage. They don simple costume with minimal or no makeup.
The dance drama, which is a mix of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattom, contemporary dance and dialogues, is extempore. “Every stage will be different as it is not scripted. We render dialogues that come to our mind during the situation,” they say. But, they say that they never had to fumble for words. “As I am a father in real life I could relate to it. There have never been times where I had to struggle with dialogues,” says Pradeep.
Not just dialogues, music too is spontaneous. “Music is scored by Brijeesh Krishna. It was the chemistry between us that worked on stage,” says Pradeep.
The duo wants to perform in dance festivals, but feel sad that Kerala does not have many dance festivals. “We still prefer celebrity dancers. That has to change,” they opine. And, they hope that they will get to perform Makal in numerous stages in future.
