Love can be a hard thing to explain, but art makes it easier. Painter and sand artist Kanth Risa and Kathak dancer Nishi Ratnam did just that, with their combined art forms and performed the subtle recital Love—an endless journey. The hour-long performance understood multiple layers and aspects of love at the Hyderabad Arts Festival.
“We have tried to portray love through the eyes of Yashoda and Lord Krishna, where Yashoda asks him about what love means. At this time, when so many things are happening all over the world, I thought it is really important to show what the real meaning of love is,” says Kanth Risa.
Adding, Nishi says, “Kathak is all about narrating stories, and I have tried to explore the inner curious nature of the human being through Birju Maharaj’s tarana and a bhajan by Pandit Jasraj. I am playing Yashoda’s character, where she questions love and Krishna takes her to the future giving examples of various hues of love.”
Sharing about how they got together, Kanth says, “I am learning to play violin nowadays, where I met Gopi, and Nishi and I have performed many times together.”
The team didn’t rehearse a lot but only once, when they had first conceptualised it 45 days ago. “By rehearsing too much, the performance can become mechanical and lose its flow,” he shares.
