First Tamil Kathak Dance Drama Mesmerises Chennai

Tell My Story

Kaalam Urrutum Thaayam is touted to be the first Kathak dance drama in Tamil and the premier at the Kapaaleswarar Temple wowed the Chennai audience.

The story centres around the game of dice in Mahabharata, at the court of the Kingdom of Hastinapura where Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandava brothers was lost in gambling and humiliated. She challenges, but none would listen. When they attempt to disrobe her, there was a divine intervention by Lord Krishna.

The stunning dance drama in five scenes beautifully captures Draupathi’s humiliation, the trap through the game, the price paid and lessons to be learnt.

Another highlight of the stunning performance is that, all but one of the twenty women dancers performed the role of male characters, including warriors, bad boys, soldiers, dice and Lord Krishna. The women dancers underwent training in Kalaripattu martial art for these roles. Preethi Shrikant who did the role of a soldier told tellmystory.in “This helped us to get the movements body language and mannerism”. Priya Lakshman George who performed the role of Duhshasana added “It was an amazing journey. It tested us as dancers; it tested our abhinayas”.

Sharing about the extensive preparation for this, Swetha Sundararajan said “The main roles lingered at our homes too. My husband would pat me at the back and say please come back as Swetha”.

Originally staged in English as “Dancing Illusions in Stillness”, scripted by renowned Kathak dancer, teacher and choreographer Jigyasa Giri, acclaimed writer and orator Marabin Maindan Muthiah did the Tamil translation and narration beautifully. “I was particular the eternity of the epic is depicted in the translation” said Muthiah. “Jigyasa added “Female dancers taking on the roles of male, that too intense villainous male characters. My girls worked very hard and have learnt to imbibe the character”.

Bangalore based Celebrated classical Kathak musicians, father daughter team Ajay Singh and Shreya Singh scored the music. Shreya says “It was a complete justice done to Mahabharat. I am really overwhelmed to work with Jigyasa”.

It took a year long hard work. The Chennai audience lapped it up. Avani Maroo who had donned the role of Draupadi said “We gave feedback and helped each other giving strength and encouragement. Everyone came together to make this possible”. Avani Giri who did Lord Vishnu says “Its a great script and a great translation. We enjoyed the joy of dancing together”

Encouraged by this, Jigyasa wants to take this to Tamil audiences and others across India and around the globe.

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