We often forget that celebrating womanhood involves understanding men to a great extent. This was one among the many themes of Chitrangada, a retelling of Rabindranath Tagore’s dance drama in ballet form presented by the Nisumbita theatre group this weekend.

This was the first time the city saw anything like Chitrangada. Tagore’s dance drama of a warrior princess falling in love with Arjuna was narrated perfectly. While the music was the soul of the production, the versatile dance forms helped paint all the emotions. Abstract themes such as love, infatuation, vanity among others were depicted brilliantly with subtle to obvious theatrical tools such as the manifestation of the soul of the characters. The genius of young director Pallavi Verma was brought to the fore with the use of the soul to depict the contrast between a character’s demeanour and the inner truth.

A scene that depicted this, along with the script’s modern take on the old narrative, was after their love making, when Arjuna turns his back to Swaroopa and sleeps while his soul sits and watches her sleeping. In another scene, the use of a red dupatta as an imagery for lust also brilliantly portrayed the real idea of beauty contrasting between Chitrangada and Swaroopa.

Although the show was a unique presentation, the city’s response was slightly on the disappointing side for the young director. “People come to shows only if someone famous is associated with it. Not many are willing to go out and give younger names a try,” complains the 27-year-old Verma, who is also a trained Kathak dancer. “Nevertheless, we are planning to stage the ballet again, only bigger and better,” she asserts, recalling, “I remember what Zakir Hussain said in his last show in Hyderabad. He thanked the people for coming to see him but said that they needed to be more open to appreciating local talent and lesser known names.”