CAMPUS EVENTS CULTURE BREAKING THE GENDER BINARY
The late Veenapani Chawla’s theatre group, Adishakti, is reviving its pioneering play on Arjuna after more than a decade in the city
Arjuna is known to play the key role in the Mahabharata which depicts the conflict between the Pandavas and the Kauravas. Arjuna is the quintessential warrior who is not only a skillful archer but ultimately wins the battle of Kurukshetra. But in Brhannala, a production by Pondicherry-based Adishakti, director-actor Vinay Kumar, a student of theatre legend Veenapani Chawla, plays a lesser-known side of the Indian hero.
WOMAN’S GUISE
According to myth, during the course of an exile Arjuna goes as an ascetic to the Himalayas to prepare for the battle and he meets Lord Shiva. During a visit to heaven, he learns to dance, sing and play instruments and in the thirteenth year of his exile, Arjuna explores his feminine side and turns into Brhannala. She then teaches the ladies of the court to sing and dance; tells them stories and acts as friend and playmate to the king’s children; till the war breaks out and Arjuna goes back to his functions as a warrior. “Arjuna or Brhannala relates to Shiva as Ardhanariswara — who is half woman and half man. Both Brahnnala and Ardhnarishwara are great dancers and combine feminine and masculine elements. Both also have strong Brahmin characteristics as well are great warriors,” says Kumar about the episode from the epic.
EXPLORING POLARITIES
“Our play essentially talks about the polarities that exist within a human body, it can in form of male or female and in the larger sense it deals with polarities than exist within all of us. It tears down rigid opposite concepts of time and space, reason and emotion, self and other, among others. Certain clues from the Mahabharata such as the meanings and symbols in Arjuna’s numerous names and certain of his natural traits led us to the interpretation we have presented in the play,” says Kumar about the show which will be staged in the city after a gap of twelve years. Talking about the etymology of the name, the director-actor explains, Brhannala means Brhd-Nara or great man. In a duration of one-hour-and-five minutes, Kumar essays seven characters in the play. “It’s difficult to play so many roles of course in the sense it’s physically taxing. I play Arjuna, Shiva, Dronacharya, a feline and a tiger, among other characters one after the other,” he says.
SPECIAL ACT
The production spurred the much spoken about breath techniques in performance art, which were explored by both Chawla and Kumar. Kumar had been assisting Chawla in her effort to create a physical craft that can cater to an actor’s physical, vocal and psychological expression based on traditional Indian knowledge. Kumar explains the significance of this performance technique and says, “Every motion carries a particular way of breathing. Every performer enacts the emotions but the breathing techniques have to be externally stimulated. Once you understand the correlation between breathing and emotion, you can modify your movements accordingly. As an actor this helps to slip in and out of certain emotions that we need to project on stage. Instead of looking at it as a cerebral activity, we need to look at the anatomy of the body. It is a little strenuous but it allows actors to have a little more detailing to the character.”
EPIC WEEKEND
The play has been directed, choreographed and written by late Veenapani Chawla, who spearheaded the Aurovillebased theatre group. The troupe is set to stage two plays this weekend in the city — Brhannala and The Tenth Head. Both explore multiple versions of the Indian epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana, respectively. While Brhannala explores gender dynamics, The Tenth Head addresses the issue of individualism in a collective. “What has happened is we have misunderstood the stories in religious epics for example in Shiva, we have misunderstood the polarity as power, whereas it was Ardhanarishvara. The confusion arises because we reduce it to physical bodies and external structures. We need to look beyond it. It’s not that one converts into another gender, rather one has the freedom to find the other gender within themselves,” explains Kumar.
MORE INFO
Brhannala will be staged on April 15, at 6pm and 9pm, at Prithvi Theatre, Juhu. The Tenth Head will be staged on April 16, at 5pm and 8pm, at Prithvi Theatre, Juhu.
New York, France, Australia or Melbourne–– you’re now spoilt for choice when it comes to dining destinations. After hovering within the top 10 list of The World's 50 Best Restaurants over the past few years, New York's Eleven Madison Park finally slid into the top spot on Wednesday to claim the lofty title of best dining destination on the planet. Winners of the ranking were announced at a gala event out of Melbourne, Australia, attended by some of the most powerful and influential chefs and restaurateurs around the world. Overall, France, Spain and the US dominated the leader board, each with six addresses on the list.
France’s performance is particularly notable, as the country doubled the number of restaurants this year compared to 2016, bringing to mind the fuss kicked up in 2015 when local gastronomes loudly decried the list as silly nonsensical and opaque schmozzle that promotes chemistry-set cooking.
The outrage stemmed from the fact that the ranking was conspicuously weak in French representation, and led to the launch of the France’s answer to The World’s 50 Best, La Liste.
Meanwhile, when last year's winner, Italian chef Massimo Bottura, was announced as the recipient of the second spot for his restaurant Osteria Francescana, a murmur of understanding swept through the room. Eleven Madison Park, helmed by chef Daniel Humm (above) and partner Will Guidara, first debuted on the list at No. 50 in 2010, and rose through the ranks to hover within the top 10 list over the last four years. The triple Michelin-starred restaurant serves modern European fare in a multi-course tasting menu. Standout dishes include roasted duck glazed with honey and lavender and celery root cooked in pig's bladder.
Interestingly, the win comes ahead of a major renovation plan scheduled for the summer, when the restaurant will close for three months. In an eloquent acceptance speech, Guidara spoke of the chef and restaurateur's role as a means of escapism, in an increasingly strange world.
He says, “We get to create these magical worlds where people can escape in a world that increasingly needs a little more magic,” he told the starstudded culinary audience.
“And that’s something we choose to do because it’s something we believe in. I don’t think any of us here do what we do for the accolades, but affirmation is a beautiful thing. It fills your gas tank and it fuels you. And this, because it comes from every one of you here, this is the greatest affirmation of all.”