There is a particular image of Andal, one among the 12 Azhwars, that has stayed with anyone who learns of her — hair tied into a kondai (bun) on one side, an open garland left hanging from her neck, and a parrot perched on her left hand. But dancer-storyteller Anita Ratnam sees Andal beyond this popular visual imagery.
She was fascinated by the woman behind the image, the young girl Andal once was — an imagination that traversed centuries, the poetry of desire, and, eventually, an icon who loved so desperately that even gods, nature, and the world around her became part of that longing. “I don’t see a goddess [in Andal], I’ve seen a young girl, who is hopelessly in love,” says Anita.
Touched by Andal’s life and her work, Anita is on a path to understand the poet. The subsequent layer in this appreciating and decoding of Andal’s journey is Naachiyar Next.
Presented by Narthaki Global Media, and conceived and performed by Anita, the production is a retelling of her earlier work, Naachiyar, which premiered in the 2000s, and draws on the more intimate aspects of Andal’s poetry.
This weekend, Chennai will witness this ardent work staged for the 25th time, after having completed its performance at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Mumbai, for the second time.
Into Andal’s imagination
“I’ve been very fascinated with Andal ever since I did my Arangetram. I didn’t get her when I was 9 years old,” she shares. Her generation of dancers encountered Andal through one of the compulsory pieces to be performed for dancers of the time. Yet, for Anita, the questions around Andal continued to grow. Why was Andal so beloved? Why did the women in Anita’s family return to her during the month of Margazhi? What was it about this young poet that had allowed her voice to survive across centuries?
When Anita moved to America in the 90s, her engagement with Indian dance and literature took a different turn. An American scholar of Tamil literature urged her to read Nachiyar Tirumozhi (Part of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham), a text she describes as “much bolder, much less-known, and more mysterious”.
Anita, after returning to India after 15 years in America, encountered more historical and geographical material around Andal, and the questions began to take shape in her work. That is how her 2003 production, Naachiyar, was created.
Even that production made Anita feel incomplete in her perusal. “What I wanted to explore was her heartache — a heartbreak — and bring out this teenager who was scolding, threatening, and pleading to the ocean and the peacocks, describing her longing. Andal goes on to call Krishna a coward because he didn’t show his face to her,” explains Anita of Andal’s works.
Then there was the eroticism, too, of Andal’s poetry that, Anita felt, deserved to be highlighted. Through these emotions and experiences, she wishes to humanise Andal.
Hence, Anita took over six months with a group of dancers from different schools to shape Naachiyar Next. She chose eight dancers for the production and decided to fill the role of narrator herself.
The production is a combination of English and Tamil storytelling, dance, and theatre. Anita terms this amalgamation as ‘Neo Bharatanatyam’.
The girl before the goddess
Naachiyar Next premiered two years before the pandemic and was subsequently refined. By 2021, it began travelling, moving through venues and cities including Auroville, Puducherry, and Bengaluru. Each performance, Anita says, brought an intense response. The production has since travelled further, with requests pouring in from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mysuru, and other cities.
Anita believes that this response is also because she is not presenting Andal as a historical figure, but as the girl who existed before the pedestal. “What fascinated me was what kind of a young girl could have dreamt like this in an era she lived in. What a rebel she must have been,” Anita notes, adding, “Even before she became somebody (kept) on a pedestal, she was a young girl breathing, living, and laughing with her friends.” That is the lens through which Anita wants her audience to see Andal. “That’s the girl I want you to cry for, your heart to ache for,” she concludes.
‘Naachiyar Next’ will be staged at Rukmini Arangam, Kalakshetra, on October 3, 6 pm. Tickets: KYN