Jai Sri Krishna can do with a little trimming in the first half and adding more colour in the second half.   There is too much gyaan and almost no dances post interval and you miss the energy on stage. The directors need to think of a fitting finale using the combined talents of set/ Sandesh Bendre, research/ Shakti Kumar and lights/ Shital Talpade. The finale is a big letdown, too casual, the directors need to rethink of a fitting idea  inclusive of all the opportunities in sets, costumes, lights, background music and all the dancers, in fact this should be the curtain call of the entire cast and actors to bow out.

Jai Sri Krishna has great potential and I hope the producers Fulwane, Potdar and Shelke will do all within their means to promote and market this show  with the fanfare it  deserves.

@bhawanasomaaya

The narrator Krishna/Ninad Limaye definitely has the better role than the Mahabharat Krishna/ Nakul Ghanekar and delivers a confident performance. From a childhood in Gokul and Vrindavan to adolescence in Mathura and later Dwarika, Hastinapur, Indraprasth, Kurukshetra and finally Somnath where he is hit by the arrow of Zaraon his foot and it is time to say adieu,.

It is not possible to feature all the phases and all the places, all the characters and all the conflicts but writer Vivek Aapte picks the crucial moments and bypasses others. Narrator Krishna counts his merits and demerits and interprets mythology and the deity for which all credit is due to co-directors Raghu Kul and Vivek Aapte for portraying a never done before format that is both shocking and refreshing.

The ballet is eventually about the extraordinary choreography by Sonia Parchure but also about Krishna’s philosophy and how to apply it in our day to day lives and face all the ongoing struggles.

@bhawanasomaaya

The ballet borrows not just from films but also from Mahabharata, Puranas, Bhagwat, Harivijay and the Bhagwad Gita and pays tributes to popular poets and songwriters in many languages.

The dancers excel in abhinaya and also in footwork and it is apparent that the choreographer has spent long hours with them practicing every entry and exit, every expression and gesture to perfection.

The USP of the ballet is the  concept, the script and the idea of  two narrators Lord Krishna himself and another modern time Krishna, in trousers and coat who  introduces himself as the Narrator Krishna and  who skillfully and  appropriately deconstructs the  concept of the  deity that is Sri Krishna.. .

This is without exception the first time ever in any performing medium and therefore special.

It is indeed courageous of  Prashant Fulwane, owner of Vaastusankalp Group to believe and support this out of ordinary concept.

@bhawanasomaaya

The best part about the ballet are the songs and the dances,  at any given point girls in colorful costumes energetically move around on the three-layered recreating memories from old and new films. Accompanying them are boys in beige and off-white dhotis and kurtas at times doing acrobatics and at times doing maharaas.

The choreography is well co-ordinated and the stream of dancers appear and disappear from the stage displaying all the nava rasas of natyashastra.

The beauty of the ballet is the simplicity, the backdrop comprises of ornate doors that lead to Krishna’s past and in the centre is the audiovisual of  the time and era of the story – at times  lush grass, at times swaying trees , at times the angry Yamuna and at times the  images of the resources for  research material.

Like all ballets, there is a sutradhaar but more about him later…

@bhawanasomaaya

It all began with me reading an announcement of a new ballet on Lord Krishna to be performed by a group never heard of before. There are already so many ballets on the deity and they become all the more visible during Janmashtami so I was curious how different this one was going to be and put the cutting on my social media asking the producer to get in touch with me.

A few days later I got a call from Sachin from Globus who was the caretaker of this mammoth project. He spoke extensively to me on the telephone and to ensure me that his show was different from anything I had watched so far mailed me pictures of the ballet. I was attracted to the images and when I read the concept I became all the more curious to watch the concert.

Come Sunday I drove to Rang Sharda Auditorium in Bandra and came home strangely rejuvenated.

Details on the coming days…

@bhawanasomaaya