Bandish’s here! And it’s not just about she-khand-he

CHENNAI: A sense of togetherness can culminate into something that is high-octane and impactful. And when it is an amalgamation of artistes performing diverse genres coming together, then they say it is binding together to create Bandish.

Bandish Arts was started in 2020 by Swati Athmanathan, and Santanu Roy, who are both established Bharatanatyam artistes.

“In the present situations, we are all chained, and this is what ‘Bandish’ means. Artistes are true warriors and they have the power to liberate themselves and others,” says Swati.

They are here with their Young Artist’s festival, which marks their seventh collaboration to bring artistes of different fields under a single umbrella to uplift their world.

Swati says, “Uttariyam series is a Young Artist’s festival for accepting the challenge to choreograph during the budding age.” Uttariyam (from the traditions of GuruSchool) means veil. It is veiling the traditions of the guru, and taking them forward, which is the real responsibility of a disciple. Interestingly, Uttariyam is the combination of ‘uttar’ + ‘Iya’, which is called ‘later’ + ‘it is’.

“Bandish depicts Uttariyam as our grooming artistes, who carry forward the gems of our veterans and blend it with their own talent of construction. It will be a scenic beauty of two young artistes Sahaana Sukumar, and Vempati Lakshmi Kameswari,” explains Swati.

Sahaana Sukumar, an aspiring Bharatanatyam artiste getting trained under the guidance of Renjith Babu and Vijna Vasudevan. She is more known for her swift dance mudras and movements, combined with speed and subtlety at the same time. Vempati Lakshmi Kameswari is a budding Kuchipudi artiste, who is the granddaughter of Padma Bhushan Vempati Chinna Satyam master. She is the disciple of Srimayi Vempati, and carries the legacy of Kuchipudi Art Academy.

“The series will also be followed by a beautiful concept based theme, Sā Dhwanii, which translates to ‘Her Voice’. It will bring out the chain of mythology to contemporaries, where two classic epics will be showcased through the genre of Bharatanatyam,” she adds. Sā Dhwanii will see Samrat Dutta and Dr Himanshu Srivastava, who are going to unite classicism and modernism on the same ground to establish a woman’s scream- shakti, but still with subtlety.

Samrat Dutta is a Bharatanatyam exponent and the senior disciple of Padma Bhushan Professor CV Chandrasekhar. He will be resenting Dasamahavidya, his own concept. Dr Himanshu Srivastava on the other hand is a Bharatanatyam exponent and senior disciple of Padma Bhushan guru Saroja Vaidyanathan. He will be performing his notion of Shikhandi (she-khand-he).

“The whole concept of the festival is to tell a riveting story of a great warrior figure that transcends body and gender. A tale of courage, hope, despair, revenge and self acceptance that forces us to introspect into the way we look at our society. The story of a man, the story of a woman and the story of the man in the woman, and the woman in the man”, Swati says.

The Dasamandala, the Dasavataram are all related closely to human life and coincidentally, we stay in the mothers womb for ten months and ten days.

“Dasamahavidya is not only the description of the dhyana mantras of the ten devis, but it is the reflection of the ultimate human life, human emotions (the nine rasas) and the stage through which man gradually goes towards the ultimate completeness,” she explains.

This beauteous of an amalgam is presented today, at 4 pm, at Medai, The Stage, Alwarpet.