City gears up for a fusion Ramayana
The team performs tomorrow at Select Citywalk, Saket at 6 pm
The epic story of Ram and Sita cannot change but the way of telling their story can. Keeping this in mind, a group is bringing the epic in a new musical format, an English rock version of the epic.
The two-hour musical uses new-age mediums like videography, 3D projections, shadow puppets, modern salsa dance moves, ballet and chhau along with tunes of blues and jazz. It’s a fusion Ramayana with an added zing says Manoj Pant, who has conceptualised it.
While musicals have gained popularity in the capital in the recent time, very few have tried to experiment with the Indian epics. “Since it’s a very sensitive topic, the experiments have to be done with care. While we have changed the way of presentation, we made sure that the story remains same,” says Pant, who has taken references from the Kamauni Ramlila that is performed in Uttarakhand.
The idea was to make Ramayana appealing for the younger generation. And thus, the team has taken elements of modern dance and music that the younger generation can relate to. “We took eight months to complete the play. And while the story remains the same, there is no violence in the performance, the emphasis is more on the emotions of the actors,” says Pant.
The team consists of 10 actors and six dancers and the performance has been choreographed by Delhi-based French dancer teacher Gilles Chuyen.
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