Maya Ravan: Shobhana and her troupe create magic on stage
Kavita Chhibber
Photo credit: Chaitan Bandela

You’ve heard the story a zillion times, seen it translated on stage and celluloid, and yet what makes Maya Ravan, the dance ballet, showcased on stage by two times National Award winner actress and Bharatnatyam exponent par excellence Shobana, is the fresh look at the epic, the outstanding English script and scintillating dance and acting by not just the star herself but every member of her troupe.

The ballet was a collage of salient events from Ramayana, beginning with the Swayamvara and ending with Ravana’s slaying. Combining video with live presentation, choreographed and directed by Shobana, Ramayana unfolds before your eyes in a kaleidoscope of crisp dialogue, tongue in cheek humor and a Ravana who appears to dominate from the moment he emerges on stage. The fact that stellar actor Naseeruddin Shah lent his voice to the character of Ravana made it even more impactful.

The swayamvar opens with Ravana competing with other princes under the name of Jai and disguising himself as a merchant. He excels in the competition, but playfully aims the bow at Sage Vishwamitra’s head after lifting it. His identity as Kings of the Asura is discovered and he walks away arrogantly but not before asserting that Sita belonged to him, and making it seem that he was just gifting her to Rama.

Rama wins Sita only to be banished to the forest because of the promise his father had given to his stepmother Kaikeyi to grant her vows for saving his life. In the ballet, Manthara is shown as a spy planted by Ravana in King Dashrath’s place. Along with her crooked body, Manthara’s crooked mind keeps Kaikeyi in an opium induced haze and influences her decision to ask for Rama’s exile and her son Bharat’s coronation. The cunning, charm, arrogance of Kaikeyi was beautifully presented by Shobana.

The character of Sita has been portrayed thankfully as a strong minded woman, who initially doesn’t believe her husband’s statement that he has to go to the forest to honor his father’s vow and retorts, “You have no obligation to respect his promise.” When Rama says in anguish that he has no choice, she decides to go with him saying forcefully, “Not 14 years, not 14 days. I’m not going to sit in this palace and wait for you.” Interestingly in this interpretation Rama even asks her to marry someone else if she so desires. Sita retorts that she would accompany him instead.
There are interpretations said Shobana where Sita even tells Rama that she knows he wants to go to the forest so he can indulge in dalliances with other women.

The trio depart from the Palace and as they live, Srupnakha earlier known as Chandranakha the one with a beautiful moon like nose watches and is bewitched by the charm of the royal Princes in exile. She follows them around to learn the ways of the mortals. Shailaja Shiv Kumar’s performance as Shrupnakha was amazing. Her facial expressions captured all that was evil, curious, impish and the amazed wonder as Shrupnakha watches three people who are alien to her race. Being a Rakshasi who could read footprints and change form, Shrupnakha decides to masquerade as Sita. When Rama discovers the hoax and tells her to leave, she shows her fury, and yet is heart wrenchingly pitiable as she cries-“You love me, turning in jealous fury to attack Sita before Lakshmana goes against the vow of not drawing first blood and cuts her nose off. When Rama admonishes him for taunting Shrupnakha and for cutting her nose off as going against the vow of not drawing first blood, Lakshman replies unrepentantly, “That is why I did not kill her.”

Revenge comes in the form of the golden deer that leads the Princes astray and Ravana in the guise of a seer lures Sita outside the Lakshman Rekha, incapacitating Jatayu and flying off to Lanka with her.

As Ravana smoothly lies his way through assuaging Mandodri’s fears at kidnapping Sita, and trying to cajole Sita into giving in to his desires, and asking that her twins be called his, Hanuman enters the kingdom, to destroy it and take Sita back with him.

The ever feisty Sita in this interpretation refuses to go with Hanuman telling him its Rama’s dharma to take her back with dignity and honor. “Let it not be said that Rama cannot take his own wife.”

Hanuman’s destruction of Lanka follows, and after Rama and his army of talking monkeys and other animals follows Hanuman into Lanka, the unrepentant Ravana loses his sons to war, and after being let off one time by Rama, who did not want to draw first blood, leaves the battle field scarred but still as arrogant and as proud. Shobana as Ravana brought the house down as she portrayed a battered Ravana stop just a moment to twirl his moustache arrogantly and then depart.
Ravana in many translations has been depicted as a sorcerer, brilliant and knowledgeable man with a wicked sense of humor. And he had to be a cut above the rest of the Asuras for the King of Dharma, Rama to even bother to get into combat with him. He had to and was portrayed as a worthy opponent.

The most poignant scene occurs when just before he is slain, his doom nearing, Ravan sits alone sipping wine and his distraught wife Mandodari comes in anguished at his obvious lack of urgency. At that moment Ravana tells her of his past lives, how he was guarding Lord Vishnu’s door when the lord was resting and denied entry to some holy sages only to be cursed and banished from the celestial portals. His death at the hand of Rama was preordained and was not to be looked on as a tragedy, but as freedom from the curse. An aghast Mandodri asks in disbelief, “You knew all this?” That Lanka would fall, Ravana would be defeated. “Tell me the truth for once. You owe it to me. I am your wife.” Ravana looks at her and says, “You are my widow,” and walks away, leaving her standing alone, to combat the King of Dharma and lose his life.

The final words that ring in the ears of the audience may have been the chanting eulogizing Sita and Ram, after Rama kills Ravana and Sita redeems and proves her chastity after the agni pariksha, baptism by fire as it were, but what the audience remembers are Mandodri’s defiant cry to Rama, as she comes to identify a dead Ravana on the battle field. “ My husband did not fight you. He permitted you to slay him. He was a great leader. There may be many others like you, but there will be only one Ravana.”

Shobana was outstanding in every one of the roles she played, be it maya shrupnakha or Ravana. Every actor in the show was an outstanding dancer. The emotions, nuances, little mannerisms, were all honed to perfection. Many stars like Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Milind Soman, Revathy, and Suhasini Maniratnam lent their voices to the ballet which was presented in English. Shobana said while Ramayana has been presented many times through the years, and everyone knows the basic story, what has always attracted her attention have been the pioneering, path breaking performances presented by people like Padma Subramaniam. “ She does not tell stories. She takes one or two characters and details them in such a way that through them we rediscover the entire story. I can see her presentations a hundred times and still discover something new.” Shobana also loves Ashok Bankers’s innovative interpretation of the epic, which is very novel. “ Who is to question mythology and what really happened so many life times ago. The fresh interpretations therefore are truly welcome.”

The ballet also presented a collage of Bharatnatyam moves encapsulating nuances of Indian life, through flamenco, A.R. Rahman’s music, as well as Anjali, a segment from Shobana’s film. The production ran into several lakhs, took many weeks to prepare, and Shobana worked with about 40 dancers to find the right fit for each character.
The tour was dedicated to Padmini Ramchandran, Shobana’s famous actor and danceuse the late Padmini Ramchandran and a lovely segment presenting clips from her films was shown during the performance.
The ballet was showcased by AID and both the shows that I saw in Atlanta and Detroit were stellar and memorable. This ballet belongs on Broadway and I hope Shobana gets the support she needs to bring it back again for mainstream America. It is a production that is a visual delight and breaks all cultural barriers.