A childhood marred by traumatic incidents forms the crux of this macabre revenge drama. What happens when parents overcompensate their affection for an adopted child? ‘Karma Nirvana’ tells the story of a cruel game, played by one woman who has been patiently planning a murder, for years.
The dance-drama-musical held at the Women’s Association Hall last weekend is at its core a tale of revenge and sibling rivalry taken over the edge.
The performance was choreographed and directed by Loco Shiva of Body Motion Earth (BME). With 20 performers, who range in age from six years to 50, all of whom were first-time dancers, BME’s word-less musical brought to life a complex setting full of characters demonstrating a physicality and lightness through narration and dance.
The amount of time and effort, they have put in during the three weeks they had to prepare for the musical is evident, in this 80-minute musical.
The central characters of the story are Jennifer, David, Megan, Kate and Ursula. Jennifer lives with her mother, father and her sister, Megan. She recently got engaged to David. But an unfortunate incident occurs at the engagement party. One part of the lake house, where the party was being held, collapses and Jennifer, being aqua phobic, almost drowns in the lake and is hospitalized. Her best friend and maid of honour, Kate, who is a celebrated mystery-thriller writer, begins an investigation. What she finds is what makes up the rest of the musical. Albeit, the thrilling and unpredictably delightful plot of the musical-drama was marred in the initial act by attempting to showcase different styles of dance rather than focusing on the storytelling. Yet, the amateurs pick up the pace in the second-act of the play, as the murderous intentions imbibed inside those with the x-chromosome unfold.
The true standout in this musical is Ruth Mary Cherian in the role of Ursula. Ruth is simply a delight to see perform, with a technique and skill that is absolutely mesmerising. The abilities of this mother of two seem to rival that of veteran dancers - with her intense expressions and vivaciousness. Kate, the crime-thriller writer who uncovers this devious plot, was played by Anjali Menon - who showcased a measured preciseness in all of her movements on stage. In the character of Megan, Anna Mathew is animated and charming with a cheeky grin and mischievous shrugs but also convincingly demonstrates her ability to portray cruel intentions in the second act of Karma Nirvana.
This comes as no surprise as Anna, a final-year Arts student from Christ College (Bengaluru), was the one who penned this play.
A true performer, Rahul Nair, who portrayed the character of David - best at both his art and in his ability to delight and entertain his audience (who cheered very enthusiastically in response). Rahul, a budding cine-artiste has already nabbed roles in popular movies including Oru Second Class Yathra and Olla-Pipi.
With the aid of simple costumes, think black and white for men and casual tee’s and long flowing flamenco skirts for the female leads (also Jute bags,in the opening scene, as a tribute to Micheal Jackson’s multi platinum record Thriller), the students of BME brought their characters to life. The music used in this dance-drama-musical featured a mixture of tastefully selected tracks like a new-age interpretation of modern-classical tracks and popular tracks including a remix of Beethoven’s Fur Elise called Thiruttu Isai Beethoven Resurrected (used in the popular Malayalam movie Neram), Seether’s Broken featuring the haunting vocals of Amy Lee and Violinist extraordinaire Lindsey Stirling’s Crystallize.
Karma Nirvana was produced by Body Motion Earth and DAVL Productions.