Her story is where strength meets vulnerability, and sensitivity navigates the uncharted terrain of stoic expression. In the Mahabharata, Draupadi’s silences often spoke louder than her words.
Her life was steeped in drama. Even her birth from fire was extraordinary. Yet her demeanour was one of fiery restraint, her anger focused and forceful. She was at the heart of the epic, instrumental in driving its plot towards its eventual denouement.
These qualities have made Draupadi a muse for generations of artists.
The latest to revisit her story is eminent Odissi exponent Madhulita Mohapatra whose choreography titled Draupadi’s Mahabharata — The epic that began with her, was presented by the Nrityantar Dance Ensemble at the Soorya Festival in Thiruvananthapuram last weekend.
With the poise of a queen intact, Draupadi emerges through Madhulita’s choreography as a woman negotiating the vulnerabilities of a life that would alter the course of an epic.
Her journey culminates in the great war fought in the name of dharma, in which she loses her sons and brothers even as the Pandavas reclaim their kingdom in the name of righteousness.
“Rather than recount the Mahabharata as a sweeping tale of dynastic rivalry and war, I sought to place Draupadi at its centre, allowing the epic to unfold through the eyes of the woman whose life was irrevocably shaped by its events,” Madhulita says.
“Her story is not just about humiliation or revenge. It is also about dignity, resilience and the consequences of injustice.”
The result is an elegant, layered narrative that draws its dramatic force from the interplay of movement, expression, music and silence.
The production, which has been staged in Bengaluru, Delhi and Chennai, is not merely a portrait of its protagonist. The story unfolds through a gallery of characters, brought to life by dancers from Madhulita’s Nrityantar Academy of Performing Arts in Bengaluru.
Draupadi remains the unseen witness through whom familiar episodes acquire a different emotional resonance. Punctuating the narrative are poignant pauses that lend weight to the storytelling. The music, enriched by Sanskrit poetry by Ashtavadhani Balachandra Bhat and Odia poetry by Kedar Mishra, adds another layer to the production.
The opening and closing narratives, delivered in English, blend surprisingly well with the sound effects before yielding to the dancers’ movements. Words recede, and the body takes over.
One of the choreography’s chief strengths is its balance between nritta (the pure dance element) and natya (dramatic expression). The dancers’ assured footwork carries the narrative from one episode to the next, while their expressive range lends emotional depth to the larger-than-life characters they portray.
“The challenge is to maintain the discipline of the dance while exploring the emotional intensity of the story through expressions,” Madhulita explains.
There is a sense of the art and the artists merging as the narrative progresses. “Movement becomes storytelling, technique serves emotion.
The result is a fluidity that makes even the Mahabharata’s sprawling plot accessible without reducing it to a simplistic account of good versus evil,” she adds.
That accessibility is central to the production’s appeal. Even audiences unfamiliar with Odissi can follow the story, while those more attuned to the classical form can appreciate the technical demands of the choreography.
“Viewers seeking a pure Odissi may find some sections less satisfying, given the emphasis on narrative and theatrical effect,” says Madhulita. “But as an interpretative retelling of the epic, the production communicates its central conflicts with clarity and feeling.”
As a choreographer, Madhulita demonstrates a mature understanding of both her subject and her art form. The presentation feels less like a scene-by-scene dramatisation and more like a carefully distilled account of the epic.
Only familiar episodes — the ‘swayamvara’, the game of dice, Draupadi’s humiliation, and the war — are translated into dance. The choice of these scenes, however, gives the narrative its essential contours, with continuity emerging through subtle movements and nuanced expressions.
“The transitions are important in carrying the story forward. The idea is to present the familiar episodes in a way that brings out the continuity of Draupadi’s journey,” she says.
At Ganesham on October 17, Madhulita and her ensemble made restraint their greatest dramatic asset. To hold the body within the discipline of a classical form while conveying the high emotional stakes of the Mahabharata is no easy task.
The team accomplished this with considerable elan, allowing the drama to rise from within the dance rather than overwhelm it.
Sahana Maiya as Arjuna, Reshmi Divakaran as Yudhishthira, Hansini K as Bhima, Harshika as Karna, Anupama Kumar as Shakuni, Lakshaa M G as Subhadra, Saanvi Sahoo as Abhimanyu, Mini Somakumar as Bhishma and Srudhi KV as Dushasana contributed to the production’s cohesive narrative.
Reshmi Divakaran’s Krishna and Prasun Mondal’s Duryodhana were particularly striking in their command of both dance and dramatic expression. Young Mohika Mahnoor, as baby Abhimanyu, won the audience over with a series of nimble somersaults.
In the end, Draupadi emerges as a woman who fought without wielding a weapon, her fierce conviction carrying the weight of a war on her shoulders. “Her strength lies not in the absence of vulnerability, but in her ability to confront injustice without surrendering her sense of self,” says Madhulita.
The performance also served as a reminder of the artistic space created by Soorya’s founder, Soorya Krishnamoorthy, who passed away on September 22. ‘Ganesham’, the venue he set for the arts, continues to host experiments that bring classical traditions into conversation with new interpretations. Madhulita’s production was a fitting example.