‘Bharatanatyam has a cult following in Kolkata’

“Coming to Chennai and performing Bharatanatyam is like reading the Quran at the Mecca. In our 50 years of existence, we have only had three opportunities to perform here and the last one was 15 years ago. So, it is a cherished and unparalleled experience. This time, we have not even charged the usual fee and have only asked for our travel expense to be paid for these performances. This is also why, despite the fact that we usually never take up performances during Durga Pujo and never leave Kolkata around this time, we made an exception to come and perform here for our Golden Jubilee,” explains Somnath Kutty. 

He adds, “What makes performing in Chennai so much more special is the warmth with which we have been received here every time. This year, one of the performances we gave in the city recently stretched on into the night longer than expected and, once we were done with the main performance, my mother went on stage to tell the audience that we were ready to end the performances if they wanted as the rest were just individual performances. The crowd responded that they would still enjoy every minute of our performance even if it stretched on for the entire night and asked us to continue. It was an exhilarating feeling.”

Somnath is also quick to point out that Bharatanatyam is now becoming a cult favourite in Bengal. “In fact, we had 2000 new Bengali students enrol for Bharatanatyam classes in our Kolkata school just this year! Bharatanatyam enjoys so much respect and love in Kolkata. We also have a lot of students of ours who perform Bharatanatyam on international stages on a regular basis and around 25 of them run very successful Bharatanatyam classes all around the world,” says Somnath. 

They will perform their own production, Rituranga, at the Department of Atomic Energy Township at Kalpakkam on September 29. “Rituranga is a very special performance of ours as it weaves the six seasons of nature with the seasons of the mind into a wonderful performance. It is conceived and directed by me and my mother, Thankamani Kutty, did the choreography. An interesting part about this show is that the narration is done by actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty, well known for his roles in Parineeta, Dil Se and Namesake,” Somnath signs off.