Dear Friends,
Dancer Neha Mondal Chakravarty premiered her new solo Bharatanatyam at Amphi-Sutra, Kuala Lumpur, on 17 May, 2025 to an appreciative audience.
Her work, takes after the theme of ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ (Thou Art That), an often quoted wisdom from the Chandogya Upanishad, describing the revelation of a guru to his son that the Atman (individual soul), an integral part of the Brahman (Universal Soul), eventually yearns to be united with It.
The depth of this timeless message and wisdom (familiar to many Vedantic scholars and Indians) was explored by Neha through the many coloured hues of devotion (bhakti) found in ancient lores and cultures.
Neha chose the beloved pastoral God Krishna as the focus of bhakti of the devotee.
Neha’s approach to Tat Tvam Asi is episodic. Fragments from Andal, Radha and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu were revisited and evoked with compelling conviction through her intense abhinaya. The space of Amphi-Sutra was charged with heightened Rasa by Neha’s command of abhinaya. Totally engaged and focused in her storytelling, Neha drew the audience into her magic sphere, reliving the pain of separation and the epiphany of union with Krishna.
Neha, a product of Kalakshetra, is not the typical Bharatanatyam dancer. She has dispensed with the unnecessary embellishment and is presently on her own journey of finding her raison d’etre , her ‘Krishna’, through her art.
She is on top of her form – light and breezy and physically, emotionally and spiritually in tune with her Art. When she performs her whole being is focused so that she becomes the both the subject and object of her Art.
It was clear from the start that she is not the common ‘digital’ dancer of the mobile culture, hot outside and empty inside; Neha is the dancer for the connoisseur who is able to journey together with her, able follow the pain and joy of her heightened experiences.
Neha performs tonight at Amphi-Sutra, 18 May, 2025. Don’t miss her last appearance in ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ . (Tel: 019 333 1092)
Ramli