KARUNA - Compassion (Malayalam)
A beautiful piece of Malayalam poetry by the poet laureate Kumaranasan is a Buddhist theme promulgating the idea of love and compassion to the needy.The change of season is depicted with experimental music. In this dance drama based on the Jataka tale of Vasavadatta and Upagupta, the Dhananjayans showed the passage of time by choreographing seasonal motifs in which movements of body and nature were assimilated with the score of Ravel’s Bolero played with Indian instruments.
When the Doordarshan TV channel of Thiruvananthapuram produced it, the beautiful picturisation earned them the award for best production of 1986.
"When we did Asan’s Karuna, we used classical western music to depict the seasons. Trained in music and dance, our children come up with some good suggestions. It was an inspiration by our son Sanjay who listens to all types of music. He suggested that Ravel’s Bolero was so beautiful, we should try to use the composition somewhere. It was not a usual pattern of rhythm. We can always give a common beat, but that’s not it. We should give the nuances, permutations and combinations. So, it was a challenge to teach it to our musicians, with our available musical instruments. We were happy with the outcome, because that segment is dance to just pure music, which we used for depicting the passing of time, the changes of seasons from the dry, hot season to the cool, rainy season and so on. Some of the movements that we innovated could be termed contemporary now."
