Loka Shakuntala
Since this production was part of the students' training programme, I had to make use of the elements of Yakshagana. But if I had used the elements of Yakshagana for that reason alone I could not have claimed that I was trying to create a work of art.
Well, it needs a bit of explanation.
Yakshagana has survived the last four or five centuries and is very much alive even today as a part of the life of the people around me. I was greatly attracted to this art form for several reasons!
1. For the advocates of the proscenium stage, drama meant creation of illusion. But many eminent western-play directors experimenting in defiance of this impression found the concept of theatre prevalent in India and the East very meaningful. A well defined concept of the state that is being developed in India since the Naatyashastra could in its entirety be seen in Yakshagana. The technique of Yakshagana wherein the bhagawata, the prime-architect, freshly creates a work of art, before the spectators, there and then, with his team of actors, using extempore speech and dance movements within the framework of a story written in the verse form providing the base is really unique.
2. The craze for creating illusion and then sustaining it and for this reason alone employing different tools and tricks is very common in theatre. Yakshagana standing on the firm foundation of a very well-defined theatre-concept offers scope for such extravagance. Laying emphasis only on what is most essential it has achieved maximum simplicity in terms of scenic designs, stage equipment and lighting, without in anyway diminishing the effect.
3. Here, as independent media of expression, constituents like song, dance and so on do not, standing as individual disciplines, challenge each other mutually; instead, they subserve to create a language of theatre that is different from their individual disciplines. And that is why, in the dance movements of Yakshagana, we do not have specific mudras (postures) of hands and feet and so on; in its music, we cannot see the gamakas (modes of transition from note to note) of classical music. And for this reason alone, the songs and dances here appear to be desi (of the folk) and not marga (classical). (Considered in its entirety alone, Yakshagana as a form shows its classical character). Take for example Kathakkali which is very obviously classical in appearance. It looks more like nritya (dance) than naatya (drama).
4. The colours and costumes of Yakshagana look wonderful. But these special colours and costumes are meant only for superhuman and royal characters. For the ordinary human beings, only natural-looking simple dresses and ornaments are used. The colours and costumes of Yakshagana range from the very highly stylized and complex to the very ordinary, natural looking, and simple. Generally, this aspect is never considered.
5. We have only extempore speeches and dialogues in Yakshagana. In its style, it very much resembles Harikatha. Like the latter, it also can accommodate anything from the supremely intellectual and poetic to the very silly and pedestrian.
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