Last week I had spoken about the very personal style of dressing of artists that sets them apart and I got loads of phone calls agreeing and disagreeing and trying to identify the artists who sported
Last week I had spoken about the very personal style of dressing of artists that sets them apart and I got loads of phone calls agreeing and disagreeing and trying to identify the artists who sported specific styles. This week I had planned to do that about performing artistes without taking names, but have decided to mention them by name also because like painters, performers have a more visual presence and their aharya or dressing styles are also indicative not only of their persona but their art as well. By the way this holds good for painters as well. The flamboyance of their work show in the persona and vice versa.
The raison de etre for this piece is to not delve into mere aharya, but contextualise their outward with their art and how they have not only won followers in their students, but even people from outside. That to my mind is the real icon.
In fact when I had designed the Ehsaas works of wearable art I felt the models should be real icons for that moving art installation and not some faceless entities. These were real people who had their own fan following and were Indian and yet were able to position themselves on a global stage with finesse and pride in all things Indian.
I am beginning with the dancers for most of them are the real votaries and veritable symbols of “Indianness” wherever they go. Most of them wear saris publically and even during practice sessions wear the half saris over churidars. Since the half saris are made only for dance practice, they come in beautiful colours like deep pinks, vibrant hues of greens, striking blues and various shades of yellows. Most of the dance practice saris are very simple in design with contrasting stripes in the pallu and borders in pure cotton and look extremely elegant. In fact the iconic Chandralekha would get her dancers to perform in those practice saris — and it was quite a style statement!
Most dancers sport saris and if you look closely and it will be invariably woven for them or designed for them. The fact is that their pride in our Indian roots and the commitment to handlooms is their hallmark and renders them very visible with their vivid colour palettes. Almost all of them wear specific types of saris and I had a hard time trying to identify who all qualify to be mentioned for their unambiguous styles.
Let me begin with the most understated first. The Mudgals of the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya from the Odissi danseuse Madhvi Mudgal to her brother Hindustani vocalist Madhup Mudgal have a severe and understated style that sets them apart. For one, to the uninitiated it might seem even ordinary. But ordinary it is not. Most of it would have been created by a weaver to almost their specifications and will invariably have a charming story behind it.
I have a wonderful memory of spending an entire afternoon gorging on sabudaana vadas and looking at Madhvi’s costumes and saris from various parts of Orissa and going into their origins and specialties. Her graceful persona and dance reflect this lyricism and clarity. Her nieces’ dancer and musician Arushi and Savani respectively are chips of their aunt’s block.
On the other end of the spectrum is Bharatanatyam danseuse Prathibha Prahlad whose sensibilities are bold, supremely confident and bordering on the flamboyant in her choice of vibrant colours. She is happy to experiment with her look, mix and matches cultures by wearing a traditional sari but with a very vivid and interesting Chinese necklace and carries it off with aplomb and managing to look Indian yet very much on a global page. I am flattered that she sports my wearable art neck pieces with great enthusiasm.
Treading the middle path is my all-time favourite Odissi dancer Sharon Lowen, whose sensibilities eschew both Indian and global. Since she too is extensively travelled, her accessories have an international touch to them. She dares to contextualise wearable art from other parts of the world with her saris and retains her traditional and elegant look all the time. Her collection of saris from various parts of Orissa, painstakingly collected over the last 35 years, is a treasure trove of the various weaving techniques. The fact that she has trained in other classical Indian dance forms including Chhau and Manipuri shows up in he opting for small trinkets from those regions.
Kuchipudi dancer Radha Reddy of the redoubtable Raja-Radha Reddy duo has an unwavering style that is hers – completely traditional, saris, jewelry and despite her diminutive size can be recognised anywhere. Her husband Raja too wears crisp khadi dhotis from Andhra and Telengana and stands out for his unabashed “Indianness.”
They are style icons in their own right and have a dedicated following among their students and their parents.
Among the classical musicians, Hindustani vocalist Madhup Mudgal’s colour palette is masculine with deep greys and blacks and beige, all of them equally muted and textured, like his music. Comfort is a big factor for him and he insists on wearing loose pajamas, with his understated kurtas, winter or summer. Ditto for the Dagarvani maestro Wasifudin Dagar, who adds colour to his otherwise severe kurtas with a stole or shawl depending on the weather. Both of them wear kurta buttons of wood again sans embellishment.
I consider both of them chips of their gurus like Kumar Gandharva and the Dagar Bandhus who were repositories of a certain kind of style of music and outward appearance that their worthy shishyas are taking forward. The point I am trying to make is that the outward reflective of the inward too gets transmitted and is the true hallmark of an icon that they have followers. Guruma Manisha Mudgal is an inspiration for her gentleness as much for being a repository of culture that she generously shares with the students. She too has a very active following among her students. Mention needs to be made of the late tabla maestro Kishan Mahraj whose huge red tikka could be seen by the last person in the auditorium as much as his music reached out to the last person in audience. But then a whole lot of performers qualify and it would be impossible to enumerate them.
Hindustani vocalists Rajan and Sajan Mishra too have developed a language of the outward that matches with their music – it is an interesting entwining of the calm with the flamboyant – like their music. Santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma’s music like his style quotient is elegant and gentle but noticeable.
Among the seniors Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Birju Maharaj are not scared to experiment with bold colours like maroon, god, sunset orange and in so many ways, it keeps them from ageing and adds to their timeless persona, appeal and their art. In any case, the artists and artistes have certain timelessness to their persona and I think it is their creative impulse that keeps them ticking.
Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com
