This story is from November 14, 2018

Kathakali and Purulia Chhau’s unique jugalbandi on stage

A first-of-its-kind performance
Kathakali and Purulia Chhau’s unique jugalbandi on stage
A first-of-its-kind performance
This weekend, city folk will get to witness something that has never been seen before. As part of the Whitefield Music Conference 2018, Kathakali exponent Prabal Gupta has conceptualised a 1.5 hour dance-drama, and a three-minute jugalbandi piece, which is a marriage of South Indian and North Indian dance styles — one that he says has never been attempted before.
Telling us more about Dakshadharadhamsanam — penned by Sri Shankar Rajaraman, a Sanskrit adaptation of Irrayimann Thampi’s Dakshayagam — Prabal says, “The conference is organised by the Ananda Dhwani Music Trust, and they came up with the idea of a North and South confluence.
It is primarily a music festival, but every year, they have a slot for dance. So, while there will be a jugalbandi between the Carnatic violin and Sarangi, there will be one between Kathakali (which will be performed by me) and Purulia Chhau (by a troupe that is led by Sri Biren Kalindi),” says Prabal.
When he was first approached to conceptualise the piece, Prabal admits that initially, he was apprehensive. “Something like this has never been attempted before. And I had not worked with folk dancers before, so I had some reservations,” he adds. But once he started working on the piece — that will be performed at the Inner Circle Grounds in Whitefield at 7.15 pm on November 17 — Prabal realised that there are several similarities between the two dance forms. “Through my research, I understood that even folk art forms have their roots in natyashastra, and found the movements of Purulia Chhau to beautifully blend with Kathakali. I didn’t expect there to be such similarities in the nuances. I choreographed the piece with Biren, so he plays Shiva in Purulia Chhau and I, Sati, in Kathakali. Similarly, there is Daksha in Kathakali (which will be performed by Kottakal CM Unni), and Veerabhadra (Nimai Mudi) and Bhadrakali (Krishna Mudi) in Purulia Chhau. All this has been done under the expert guidance of my guru, Sri Sadanam Balakrishnanji,” says Prabal, signing off.
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