BENGALURU: Odissi exponent Sharmila Mukherjee hopes Bengalureans will be able to relate to her upcoming production Sookshma, in which she tries to give a ‘strong and powerful message’ amidst the elevated corridor controversy. Though the dance production is based on an old Kannada folklore, she believes the performance based on the relationship between a woman and nature, still holds relevance.
Conceptualised and choreographed by Mukerjee, Sookshma revolves around a woman’s selflessness and her ability to give – just like a tree. Mukherjee says, “They stand strong despite difficult times. The trees need to be taken care of the way one takes care of a woman. It talks of cutting of trees and what could happen if we start exploiting the resources.”
Mukherjee works on productions with social messages. This particular project came about when she had asked her students to find an interesting story from Karnataka. When she read the English translation of the folklore A Flowering Tree by AK Ramanujam, she was ‘fascinated by the simple story.’ “I wanted to do something related to environment, which I felt would be easier to make audience understand the importance of ecology through this story. It is aesthetically pleasing as well,” she says.
Adapting the story into a dance production wasn’t easy, she recalls. The story had to be edited to suit the art form better. “We had to think about the role of each character in the story and how much they contribute to the story. I had to look at which characters would be required for a dance drama. The story can’t be too long either to ensure the audience are engaged in the drama. Hence, we had to make some small edits. There’s a character of a mother in the original story but we changed it to three sisters,” she says. She adds since she was particular about the story and costumes to be from Karnataka, she outsourced Ilkal sari from a supplier in Ilkal, a town in Bagalkot district of Karnataka.
The one-hour production will be presented by Sharmila Mukherjee and 15 dancers from her dance ensemble Sanjali at ‘Pravaha’ Dance festival. The festival will also feature Dr Anita Ratnam’s ‘Ma3ka’ that explores the holy trinity of Hindu goddesses - Saraswati, Lakshmi and Meenakshi through the personal narratives of mortal women and ‘Rasa Vriksha’ by mother-duaghter duo Geeta Chandran and Sharanya Chandran.
The festival will be held on April 13 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Malleswaram. Tickets are available on bookmyshow.com.