All those who have watched Sahityakalpa’s first production मम MĀRGAM, should be excited to watch the second production, इती Kalyānī, which will be premiered on 28 July 2024 at Rangbhoomi, Supreme Sports Studio, Serilingampalle, at 6pm. Speaking exclusively to Natyahasini, Bharatanatyam dancer and founder of Sahityakalpa, Sahitya Ramkumar says: “The new production ‘इती Kalyānī’, is based on Kalyani, the queen of all Rāgas and her daughter Rāgas, which are coming to tell the tales of falling and revelling in love.”
According to Sahitya, Kalyani Raga, often celebrated as the raga of romance, is the resplendent queen of all ragas. “Her Janya ragas not only share the regal name of their mother raga but also echo her essence while blossoming with their own unique melodies. This 65th mela Karta raga in the series of 72 has been an undisputed favourite muse for many music composers across centuries,” she says.
The dancer confesses that they were inspired to personify the delicate beauty of these ragas — Mohana Kalyani, Hamir Kalyani and Yaman Kalyani— weaving them together with the emotion that is undeniably the most enchanting—shringara, or love. “On that evening, you will be experiencing four exquisite compositions, each a brilliant representation of one of the Kalyani ragas,” she states and adds that her inspiration for this production for the exploration of a single mother raga and her daughter ragas, was from the Nirupana system from Sarfoji Maharaja’s court, where 18 compositions formed a repertoire in the same raga.
The Sahityakalpa founder says that it took a laborious nine months to create इती Kalyānī. “Every single composition of this production was made from absolute scratch. While the idea was lingering for a long time this being my first time, I found it very difficult to find start points. But it was one of the best learning experiences and definitely a brain racking one,” she says. The dancer recalls her Guru’s words in class – “Dancers should put in effort to understand thalam, music, poetry and costuming along with movement in order to make something from scratch.” She further admits that she has finally begun her practical learning sessions of theory she has been learning over years through this work.
Comparing इती Kalyānī and मम MĀRGAM, the dancer says: “The fundamental and most interesting difference between the two is definitely the development from using a pre-existing audio to building everything from scratch to a live music ensemble. The second large difference was to have a definite thematic course to the entire work.” Sahitya goes on to mention that there has been lot of imaginative work to figure out the structure of each composition, the sound scape followed by a thought process to convert metaphors and images into physical movement. “It was further more interesting as the musicians apart from the Nattuvanar do not belong to the dance field. There was plenty of cross learning to do in each other’s arenas in order to be able to work together,” she says.
Sahitya says: “While मम MĀRGAM had its challenges as it was my first, इती Kalyānī opened several more firsts and possibilities which I am sure will take several more years to understand. It has been a year and half to मम MĀRGAM my first work and I am extremely grateful for इती Kalyānī that is happening this year.”
An anxious Sahitya shares that this is the first time she is performing to a music ensemble that she has pieced together herself. “It has been a long-time dream to have a young team of like-minded musicians who are happy to experiment and the dream has come true with this team. We are all aspiring passionate artistes in our 20s,” she says. The dancer states that the ensemble comprises of Sai Venkata Gangadhar on Nattuvangam, Divyasri Pisupati on Vocal, Veeramraju Lakshmi Ajay on Mridangam, and Koundinya Pannala on Violin.
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