RAMLILA BALLET ENTHRALS AUDIENCE AT LU

LUCKNOW: Internationally acclaimed ‘Sampoorna Ramlila’ ballet by Sanskriti Kala Sangam group of Delhi , directed by Yash Chauhan was staged at Lucknow University during its ongoing centenary celebrations on Friday.

The retelling of the epic knitting the age-old story of the good vanquishing the evil was performed with perfection on the stage. Yash Chauhan as Ram and Sonali Barua as Sita were impressive. The role of Lakshman was essayed by Raj and that of Bharat by Sandeep, which won the hearts of the audience.

Sumit Mandal as Shatrugan was able to leave his impression. However, Ajay Kumar who played Ravan won applause a number of times with his powerful performance . Rahul Dixt in his role of Meghnad showed his versatile acting potential in the three-hour ballet, while role of Kaikeyi played by Kirti also won appreciation. Preksha Vats as Soorpnakha and Archana as Shabri also played their parts well.

Costumes by Puran Singh and Kamlesh Singh showed their deep understanding about the epic and makeup by Kajal Chauhan was perfect. The sound affects by Anubhav Gupta and lights Arvind Pandey made the performance more impressive.

Yash Chauhan who directed and choreographed the show said, “Our organisation Sanskriti Kala Sangam has been doing Ramlila for years but this year due to Covid many things have changed. We have reduced Ramlila programmes that usually spanned across days, to a mere three-hour-long dance drama. This year due to pandemic our live performances were affected.”

In between the breaks , actors were seen spraying sanitiser on their hands.

The organisers and the students were enthralled to see such a power packed performance by the group.