Mohiniattam, a classical
dance form from Kerala, is one of the most graceful
and lyrical of dances. Performed by women, the
gestures and expressions of the danseuse gracefully
flow into one another with great gentleness and
charm. According to dancer Sunanda Nair, "There
is a tremendous amount of force that a Mohiniattam
dancer brings out in her performance without which
the performance would be lacking in its lustre
but this tremendous energy is released in a very
controlled and graceful manner which can be achieved
only with discipline, hard work and (bhakti) or
devotion to the art form…But at the end
of it all the transformation is tremendous. The
merrily dancing eyes and the fluttering of the
eyebrows of the dancer all create a devastatingly
mischievous atmosphere .The sweet smelling of
the flowers, the gentle, swaying movement of the
torso in perfect harmony with the music and the
bewitching personality of a Mohini attam dancer
all take us to the highest aesthetic order "the
atmosphere of enchantment " .
 Capturing
the spirit and experience of one art form through
another is an aesthetic adventure or a transmigration
of sorts. It is all the more challenging to re-create
the charm and grace of such a classical art form
in a medium like film. Adoor Gopalakrishnan in
his documentary on Mohiniattam The Dance of
the Enchantress takes up this challenge with
great elegance and style. The documentary is not
only marked by the brilliant expositions of various
performers, it also brings into view the essential
character of the art form itself through the film’s
own meditative and unhurried composition and editing
patterns. The film creates an ambience and demands
from the viewer a certain reflective mindset that
will ease him or her into the very soul of the
art. For it is not meant to cater to the flippant
tastes of haste and impatience, but one that demands
refined involvement on the part of the viewer.
In the process, the film documents some of the
most impressive performances of the art by renowned
and also upcoming artists of our time like Kalamandalam
Satyabhama, Sreedevi Rajan, Kalamandalam Kshemavathy,
Kalamandalam Leelamma, Smitha Rajan, and Neena
Prasad, along with the accompaniment of singers
like Kalamandalam Jayaprakash, Kalamandalam Jagadeesh
and Madhavan Namboothiri. The film is not only
a showcasing of these great performers performances,
but also one of the spaces – palaces, houses
and training grounds - that nurtured this art
like the Thiruvattar Temple, Padmanabhapuram Palace,
Kuthiramalika, Bhajanapuram Kottaram, and Kalamandalam.
Breaking away from the conventional formats of
the documentary, the film weaves together vignettes
and moments from the everyday life of the dancers.
Interspersed with elegantly composed dance sequences,
are scenes from mundane life like the artist engaged
in daily activities like commuting in bus, purchasing
vegetables from a road side vendor, cooking etc.
These scenes apart from working as a counterpoint
to the ethereal ambience of the performances,
also brings into focus the everyday struggles
and profanities of the lived lives of the artists.
One is reminded again and again that life and
so art, is made out of such seemingly silly yet
very humane, ordinary motions of life. Running
through the film is also the narrative of a girl’s
life through its various stages. Various moments
in her life from adolescence, like the first awakenings
of romance, education and practicing of the art,
marriage and motherhood portray a full cycle in
a woman’s life that is mirrored in the kritis
performed throughout the film. Through this weaving
together of various narrative threads, profound
and profane, classical and everyday, the film
maps the ecology of the art – one that includes
not only its training and techniques, but also
the landscape, the struggles, sweat and tears
of the everyday lives of the artists.
M J Radhakrishnan’s (Cinematographer) compositions
vividly recreate the pattern of the visual impact
of watching a Mohiniattam performance live. They
strictly maintain the distance between the performer
and the viewer that allows wholesome appreciation
of the movement, gestures and expressions of the
artist along with the ambience that envelops both.
The script for the documentary was co-written
by Adoor and Brigitte Chataignier, who herself
is a Mohiniataom artiste and enthusiast for a
long time. Live recording of sound has been done
by Jerome Ayasse, a Sound Engineer from France.
As a visual experience, the film works as an
antidote to our everyday experience of the visual
– one that is characterized by frenzied
movement and transient images. Rather than inviting
us to experience them, these images work more
often upon our impatience, in the process, incessantly
fueling it. In sharp contrast, this film invites
the viewer to undertake a relaxed and meditative
journey through the various worlds of experience
that this art opens up before us – the different
worlds of lasya, sringara and karunam.
Dr C S Venkiteswaran, is a Kerala based
film critic who has won state and national awards
for film criticism. He is now Director, School
of Media Studies, Kochi, Kerala. He writes regularly
about film in various national and international
journals.
|
