Dance won against music and I regret the decision.
Maya Ravan by Shobana has seen international stages - and - and - nothing to talk about it...
She has used some Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam movie songs in the ballet - nothing wrong - even Silapadhikaram verses are used in tamil movie love scenes... nothing wrong...
I was wondering whether it is her lack of knowledge of better songs with great lyrics in Telugu/Sanskrit/Malayalam/Tamil that she chose these pure movie songs for such scenes as Rama and Sita in private moments just with each other...and for Vanara sena's time with Hanuman etc.
Now first things first:
1. Naseeruddin Shah, Mohanlal, Jackie Shroff, Revathy, Suhasini etc. have lent their voices for different characters. Naseeruddin Shah as Ravana is too good... he could emote with just his voice.. I wonder whether Shobana understood the feelings that Naseeruddin brought out just with this voice.
2. Ravana is a great character - a Vedic pundit who could move Shiva with his earnest prayers and Veena. He is a scholar; musician; a good dictator who had his people ( rakshahs who are difficult to control) under his firm control; a great planner - the description of Lanka in Ramayana is something that city-planners should read and follow even today - a handsome good guy - his only mistake was Sita...
Shobana caricatured Ravana as a ridiculous joker with her walking and talking.... pathetic performance. I felt sorry for Ravana... he must be really turning in his grave...
Some scenes were so ridiculous that even the young Malayalee group sitting behind me were criticising... for example, young Sita and Rama discussing Rama's exile order... ridiculous imagination and ridiculous portrayal of the characters...
Such a famous dancer, with great looks, good dancing skills and connection in the film industry and with capacity to pull audience and advertisement and event-managers could have done a better job! I wonder whether she was so casual in all other stages while performing this or she took Hyderabad audience for granted... She was totally listless while dancing solo on stage - giving poses of a girl statue while enacting Ravana... ridiculous performance...
Some places I could see that she is simply lost and she was just managing some movements with her hips and hands as she had not come totally prepared.... I wonder, how a senior artist like her can come to Ravindra Bharati stage with such poor attitude about stage performance....
The troupe was good - everyone did their part well - except Shobana - if I have to give credit for imagination in choreography - it has to be the Vanara scenes where they all do lots of Kurangu Chettai....
Costumes for Rakshasis was good, but costume for Ravana as a Kapata Sanyasi was again ridiculous...
I felt insulted when she used Chinnamma chilakamma song for monkey-dance, that too at Hyderabad... there are such beautiful Telugu songs - even movie songs - which she had not used - even a single one at any scene - except this one Telugu song... Shobana... what do you think you were doing ??
She used a Tamil Sangam song to depict Ravana's condition while Rama is preparing for war... even that, that, was a pathetic show.........
Mandodari, Rama were another two poor performers who did not do justice to the character they were portraying.. Sita was totally ridiculous - I think the way the director has directed her had reduced her role to a listless entity... imagine, the heroine reduced to nothing..
Shobana in Pamela Rooks movie - Dance like a man - was 100 times better as a dancer, actor - as an artist. I went to this show with Shobana in my mind with that image of hers in my mind... I was disappointed!
Lesson learnt for me:
1.Never go by the names that the poster proclaims.
2.Go ready to be disappointed - donot expect great performance - keep an open mind - if you do not expect, may be disappointment will be less.
3. Trust traditional artist (Malladi brothers) rather than movie-artist ( Shobana) to entertain you. I felt very sad for my choice when I heard that Malladi performance was superb and out-of-the-world!
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