Spiritual Sojourn Across the Ages With Shobana

It turned out to be a glitzy starry evening with a lot of colours, lights, pulsating music and elegant dance movements at the Music Academy on Sunday. Actor-danseuse Shobana presented Samadhina — Trance, a spiritual sojourn that left the audience spellbound. From Siva to the mountains, from Krishna to Brindavan, from Carnatic, Hindustani to Sufi, the performance was a kind of a holistic experience that would appeal to anybody, transcending man-made religious and social barriers. Her performance was a blend of technique and aesthetics that entailed direct connection with the supreme power.

The production focused on the devotional angle that explored some incidents in which the Lord comes to the rescue of his devotees. Tastefully done costumes and a high order music ensemble, all worked in her favour.

The presentation began with a scene showing Jesus on the cross. The next piece (written by Patanjali), was an ode to Lord Shiva, the king of yoga. The adavus and charis fell aptly in place as her feet danced to the rhythmic patterns with precision. Definitely, one of the highlights, was when the danseuse took the classic Natraja pose. The piece Varnam on Kali further explored the possibilities of abhinaya where Shobana traced the ferocity and benevolence of the goddess simultaneously. Shobana was at her best when she dealt with the vastrapaharanam of Draupadi.

There was also the story of Radha and gopikas set in Brindavan. Both stories had a certain intensity of emotion that absorbed the audience, every step of the way. 

The piece had all the artistes dance in tandem, creating visually-appealing patterns as they moved along with their styles in tow. Shobana’s portrayal of Krishna couldn’t have been done any better. Those leaps and jumps were executed with restraint and panache.

It’s no mean task to conceptualise the abstract philosophy of sufism, simplify it much less and concretise it into something as visual as the medium of dance and song. Presenting a kafi of a Punjabi Sufi saint Hazrat Shah Hussain, Shobana and team pulled it off with aplomb.

Derived from Punjabi folk music, many of Hussain’s kafi are a part of the traditional qawwali repertoire. And the concluding piece was the thillana. The orchestra lent a vibrant feel in its presentation. Revathy Kumar on vocals, Muthukumar on flute, Vijay Ghate on tabla, Karthick on ghatam, Sanjoy Das on guitar and Prithvi on keyboard embellished the melody and drama respectively.

(The piece was originally written for The New Indian Express)