India Reviews The ballet “Maha Ravana”

The Indian news paper “Indian Express” reviewed the ballet Maha Ravana On The 16th of June 2008,written by P K Balachandran

Choreographer’s take – Lankan showcases the Ravana that India ‘hides’

P K Balachandran | ENS

Colombo

A Sri Lankan choreographer has reinterpreted Ravana to make him an embodiment of nobility , compassion, religiosity, scholarship and bravery, in sharp contrast to the Ravana in Valmiki’s Ramayana, where he is an ignoble demon.

It was when he was learning Kathakali in Kerala, that choreographer Pabalu Wijegunawardene of the Sarasavi Experimental Theatre School at Piliyandala became aware of Ravana’s “awesome” personality.

“Although Kathakali portrayed Ravana as a villain, his nobler qualities, intellect and bravery were also brought out,” he told Express.

Back in Sri Lanka, he plunged headlong into the Ravana legend as handed down in Sri Lanka since time immemorial. He consulted local scholars like Arisen Ahubudhu and Jayantha Pathirarachchi and choreographed a ballet based on the Lanka Avatara Sutra.

“The ballet Maha Ravana staged in Colombo on May 30, ran to a packed house,” he claimed.

As per the Sri Lankan as well as a Bengali version of the Ramayana, Ravana did not abduct Sita but had offered her “refuge” from her “tormentors”, Rama and Lakshmana, Wijegunawardene said.

In Wijegunawardene’s ballet, Rama and Lakshmana are not shown as being brave and straightforward, but Ravana is. In the fight between Vali and Sugreeva, Rama is shown shooting from the back “against the norms of war”. The author of the ballet said that he had raised some issues which the Indian versions of the Ramayana had “hidden” from the world.

http://epaper.newindpress.com/