A festival that showed why Koodiyattam has captured the attention of the theatre fraternity the world over thehindu.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehindu.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Odissi dancers Kripa Iyer and Neelambaree Prasad
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Kripa Iyer and Neelambaree Prasad’s virtual festival, Aprajita, is connecting dancers across the globe and redefining what it means to be a community
Around this time last year, the entertainment world was just starting to learn to adapt to lockdowns and going digital. Fans caught Norah Jones and Aventura’s livestreams, while lounging in their beds; large-scale music festivals, including NH7 and Sunburn, went wholly online; and as the pandemic dissolved the concept of ticket kiosks, people got busy building their digital avatars for concerts such as the Zero Music Festival. The competition soon grew fierce: it wasn’t enough to cast events online, the events had to be short, impactful, and engaging.
A Kalidasa classic
Vikramorvasheeyam online with Ranga Shankara s Staged@RS programme.
Vikramorvasheeyam is a presentation of Kalidasa’s timeless Sanksrit play in Kutiyattam, one of India s oldest surviving theatrical forms. Kutiyattam blends Sanskrit classicism and the local traditions of Kerala.
Vikramorvasheeyam is directed by renowned Kutiyattam practitioner Guru G Venu and features Kapila Venu, Sooraj Nambiar, and Ammanur Rajaneesh Chakyar.
The play has a Sutradhara (narrator) telling us the powerful love story of King Pururavas and the Apsara Urvashi. It is a depiction of how Pururavas rescues Urvashi after she is kidnapped by the demon Kesi.
The performance is for audiences eight years and above.