The Kala Ghoda Art Festival 2010 kicked off to a rollicking start on Saturday. After sampling a bit of literature, visual art, music and food through the day, I finally settled on theatre for my final course in the night. The play ‘Dance Like A Man’ was being staged at Horniman Circle at 7.30 p.m.

I’ve attended music events at Horniman Circle before, most of them Kala Ghoda Art Festival events. It is an unconventional setting, a stage in the center of a park. But it works really well, more so for a play than a music concert given the intimate interaction that is possible between audience and performer.

A bench-painting event had been conducted earlier in the evening owing to which all the seating en route to the stage bore ‘Wet Paint’ signboards. It was too dark for photography and I was eager to get to the stage before the play started but I passed some interesting art on the way. (I hope one of us will be able to post photographs soon).

Just as well, I suppose, since we got there just about five minutes before the play began. All the seats were taken so we sat down on the grass and that’s how we watched the entire play. Normally, I would not consider squatting on the ground for a play but like I said, this was an unconventional setting.

The stage and seating area were edged on one side by ‘Lotuses of the Floating World’, an art installation by Sabrina Mascarehas. As I approached the area, I first thought they were diyas floating in a pool. But I soon realized that there is no water body inside the park and the temperature was the uncharacteristic cool of February rather than the heat of a hundred lamps. The installation is actually origami lotuses with metal stems planted in the ground. Fairy lights sprinkled in between them gave the diyas effect. The description of this installation reads,

In a world, eternally in flux, this serene low-tech installation invites us to take refuge, away from our frenzied wired existence. With little practice, any person can learn to fold these universally appealing lotuses. Herein also lies another aspect of the installation, to subtly nudge a little approachability back into the arts. The act of folding and opening of the petals to find a lotus in full bloom can also be a metaphor of awakening to the Buddha nature inside. The artist wishes that witnessing these flowers from the depths of human ingenuity and imagination will inspire lotus-like qualities. 

To me, that sounds like an afterthought, something that was written up because some kind of literature was expected to accompany the installation. I think the paper lotuses work just on their own, without any of that explanation. They are wonderfully simply and basic and yet recognizable and beautiful as their living counterparts would be. Planting them in the ground with diyas was a brilliant idea and considering I mistook them for a water body, they do a good job of simulating reality in art.

‘Dance Like A Man’ is a rather complex story of two couples, the younger duo serving as a catalyst to tease out the intricate knots in the older couple’s relationship. The bharatnatyam dance is the backdrop and seemingly the central conflict in the story. The title led me to believe that this would address gender stereotypes but the story had less to do with that and more to do with the clash of personalities, the hidden agendas and politicking that goes on in relationships.

Dance is more of a metaphor for the way the story progresses. The play starts with the younger couple meeting the older couple (parents of the girl). The story goes back and forth in time with references to the generation before the older couple as well other supporting characters. Only four actors actually ever enter the stage and the larger cast is managed smoothly by costume switches. Suchitra Pillai and Joy Sengupta play the younger couple but also the older couple in flashback. The parents are played by Lillette Dubey and Vijay Crishna (who also essays the role of his own father in flashback).

Lillette Dubey who actually has the shortest stage time, nevertheless packs in a powerful performance as the strong-willed, manipulative Ratna who is both a victim and a propagator of the manipulation of her father-in-law. Ratna’s younger avatar (played by Suchitra Pillai) stays consistently in character with her sardonic, focused ambition that just takes on a more polished veneer in her later years with Lillette’s turn on/turn off simpering and flattery of people in power.

While the play is called ‘Dance like a man’, the male characters actually serve more as props in the story (on account of their role, not their acting skills). Jairaj (Vijay Crishna as senior and Joy Sengupta in the younger avatar) is the hapless and somewhat wimpy victim of his father and wife’s agendas. These two characters conflict and then eventually collude in a rather diabolical plan that involves weaning Jairaj off dance and showcasing Ratna instead.

The play weaves several twists through the duration of its plot and brings out so many different shades in each character and situation that it is quite impossible to feel anything but ambivalent towards any of them. One sympathises, one condemns and finally one concludes that this is what relationships are made of. Being able to do all of that in 90 minutes is no mean feat and this play pulled it off with aplomb.

‘Dance Like A Man’ has enjoyed critical acclaim, both within the country and internationally. It is a wonderful depiction of modern India, rooted in cultural artefacts like dance, sidestepping outdated practices like devdasis and also grappling with everyday human relationship politics.