Actor and dancer Dr. Alekhya Punjala has chosen to bring her voice to the centre through a theatrical performance directed by Sutradhar’s Vinay Varma. Alekhya calls it “a challenge I wanted to take because dancers don’t use the voice,” and says this shift was crucial for the story she wanted to tell.
She explains that Dushala stands in the Mahabharata as the only sister of the Kauravas — a daughter who grows up unseen. “She feels neglected by her mother, whose focus is always on the sons,” Alekhya says. “Sometimes she wonders whether her mother even acknowledges her physical presence.” The memory of being married off also haunts Dushala. Alekhya recalls a line from the script: “My brothers had so many swayamvars. Why did nobody think of one for me?”
Alekhya says Dushala wants her son to understand the cost of conflict and to stay away from it. “He said he did not want to be the cause of more bloodshed,” she notes. “She brought him up like that — but what did the Mahabharata call him? They called him napunsak because he refused to fight.”
She describes Dushala as a reflection of the silence that surrounds most women in the epic and in real life. Alekhya points out that “except for Draupadi, who expressed her anguish, the other women never voiced their pain.” This silence, she says, still feels familiar. “We in the cities think things have changed, but this mindset still exists in many places.”
For Alekhya, the story also speaks to how girls are raised and how boys learn to perceive women. “If a mother begins to teach certain values early in a child’s life, we can hope for change,” she says.
Alekhya has spent most of her artistic life in dance, but she felt this story demanded a different medium. “As dancers, we are comfortable with the body and expression,” she says. “Here, we have to use the voice too. It is an experiment.”
‘Dushala: Her Untold Story’ will be staged at Ravindra Bharathi on November 19 at 7 pm. The 90-minute Hindi monologue will incorporate elements of Kuchipudi and folk movement. The production is a collaborative effort between Trishna Kuchipudi Dance Academy, Sutradhar, and the government’s department of language and culture.
