Encountering Veenapani

Pondicherry, a peaceful, coastal town in the heart of South India is the home of many creative, original people who contribute significantly to the aesthetic, cultural and physical fabric of India and abroad.Veenapani Chawla born in 1947 in Bombay, India, an innovator of new forms of theatre, founder and artistic Director of Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research, Pondicherry, is one of them. A soft spoken woman with a tranquil smile, exuding quiet authority and dynamism, and Adishakti, a beautiful, green campus dedicated to the performing arts, make up a coherent and artistic whole

 Let us find out more about Veenapani and Adishakti through the author herself.

You were a history student and began your career as a teacher. What made you turn to theatre? Was there any particular play or event?

Yes, I was a history student and  taught history, literature and political science. But I have been  interested in theatre since my childhood and my interest was fuelled after I came to Pondicherry.

How did that happen?

Sri Nolini Kanta Gupta, my mentor,  who was one of the earliest disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother told me in 1978 that theatre  was the thing for me . I didn’t know how it was going to happen though. I was already in my late twenties. But when I got back to Bombay things fell into place

Indian families in the 60s, as even now, wanted safe careers or safe matrimony for their daughters and you chose neither. Was your family different, encouraging you in your choices and aspirations?

No, not to begin with. They were quite upset and outraged, especially about marriage. They wanted me to get married. It was only when I came here with the theatre work , and there were material results that they began to be encouraging.

In your previous interviews you say you trained for a long time with great gurus in remote places in India, especially in Kerela, in  classical Sanskrit theatre Koodiyattam and the martial art form Kalariayapettu. Can you tell us what drew you to exploring these forms instead of going through a regular theatre course?

There was no regular theatre course except in the NSD (National School of Drama) and I was already directing by that time. In 1978 Nolini-da  told me, and by 1981 I was already professionally directing big actors like Naseruddin Shah, so the question of doing a course at that time didn’t arise.But what I found was that while I was good with concepts, interpretation, I knew about design, I could tell a professional, trained actor what I wanted from him,  I didn't have the knowledge or the tools required to help a novice with his voice, or bearing. So to meet those needs I went to gurus. I also strongly felt the need for a more physical form of theatre.. I found the theatre that was around me too cerebral, verbal, like in Europe.  It was borrowed from Europe but in India it has always been more than just a verbal or literary piece of work. So for that reason I looked around and  learnt “Chau” from Orissa, then in various festivals I saw kalaripayettu  from Kerala and was very keen to learn it.  I also had to train the actor  to use his voice, so that’s how the decision to go to Kerela for Kudiyattam as well,  came about.

Did you envisage  fusing elements from these forms in your plays?

I had the desire to create a new aesthetic form, for our times where the aesthetics would marry historical India with what we are today, which is a result of various influences from different parts of the world. And this meant a journey into historical India. If I learnt these forms it was not to perform them but to evolve something which is representative of our time.I found that these forms had a lot of knowledge but that they were obscured by formulae, and I had to strip them of these formulae and go back to the real purpose.

And I discovered that unlike the West where they began psychologically, we began from getting into the physical structure first, getting into stances, and then accessing the psychological spaces through them. You see in tantra the centres are located in different points of the body and if you position your body in a particular way, you access one or two centres and then the emotions and then the state of mind. So from the physical we went into the psychological unlike in the West where from the psychological they went into the physical.

Koodiyattam was performed originally in  temple precincts and both men and women participated but wasn’t Kalariyapettu an exclusive male bastion?

Originally Koodiyattam was performed in the open, then it was taken into the temple but   gradually women lost all the major roles to men . Many plays got lost because women were predominant in it. Now it’s come out of the temple again and women are trying to reclaim their roles. And Kalaripayettu was originally learnt by both men and women. There are many known female warriors who did Kalaripayettu. But then it was completely shut off to women.

Did you as a woman from the other end of India have to overcome barriers before being accepted as a disciple?

Actually it was easier because I was regarded as a foreigner, so they  were lenient, thinking I was learning it as a hobby.  I was also introduced by a very well known writer and playwright called G. Shankar Pillai and because they respected him so much they accepted me. If I had gone on my own, v anonymously, they would not have accepted me. But for example if you had periods  you were not allowed to enter the “Kalari” ( the ring where kalaripayettu is practiced)  because you were considered impure, so you had to miss classes.

When and why did you start Adishakti?

I started Adishakti in 1981. It was a kind of banner under which performers would come together produce a play, break up and maybe come back again for another play . I was the only constant factor. 

Why the name Adishakti? What is the significance?

The primordial energy, the divine mother.

You said you started Adishakti as a banner but as of today what is Adishakti’s purpose?

Today Adishakti is very different. When I came to Pondicherry and  started work again, it was very different from what I used to do before. I had time, space and  the possibilities to do what I wanted. There was no intention of showing. There was just the intention of work. It was a creative process. I started writing my own script, doing research and focusing on the exploration of creating a new craft… . It led to a performance . Then we were invited to stage it because I was known outside. That’s how it got catapulted.  Later we started having performances of other groups, training workshops, seminars, discussions.

Doesn’t Adishakti also carry out, encourage and research traditional knowledges in theatre,  dance, music, movement, puppet and craft forms?

We have worked with with traditional percussions, dance, shadow puppetry. We have  also created instruments, resurrected the five faced Mizhavu (a big copper drum played as an accompanying percussion instrument in Koodiyattam), for Koodiyattam performers who have only a one faced Mizhavu.

What sources did  you look into when you started scripting your plays? 
The script is much like a film script and there is  considerable research which goes into writing  it. I can never enter a work unless I prepare.  For example for the the play ‘Brhanalla’, I  researched into new physics, the space time continuum, the ‘Ardhanarishwara’ half man-half woman concept, brain lateralization theory, the folklore of the region where they talk about the Draupadi cult and relate Shiva to Arjuna. And all this would be filtered down to just one line  which would contain these ideas and be figured through an image or music. So for each play I do a lot of reading, research and this is in the background  when a play is created. But you don’t explicate it, you layer it.

Can you give us an example.

Well, to continue with Brihanalla, you see the protagonist playing cricket in slow motion. Brihanalla in Mahabharata is Ardhanarishwara (half man, half woman) and for me cricket because of its rational rules  is male , so that is the male part. The scene between Shiva and Arjuna is a combination of flowing movements and staccato movements, the male and the female, and finally you discover when you look at the middle ground that it is one seamless loop.  I had to reflect these two categories visually through light, through music, through movement and then to show how the flowing movement acquires a rhythm and goes into  rhythmic polarity. 

Compared to the music, the drumming, mime, the script in your plays is often minimal..

Well, it is a kind of oral image which is supposed to have an impact on you. Now cinema which is the art of the times does the same thing It creates a montage, a visual and you have different signifiers like the text,  picture, sound, music. In one moment you are being fed so many types of information that  you absorb on a non- rational, non- analytical level.

I am not interested in the technology of cinema. I am interested in how by honouring the strength of theatre, which is the live performer, you can do something similar, in principle though not in effect. In cinema you get the effect of realism. In theatre you get the opposite of realism. The reality in theatre is the actor and what is it that an actor cannot do?  He can seduce you! And physically that seduction is possible only   in theatre, in that presence which is there, now.

You know what you want to say but what percent of the audience perceive that, because understanding your plays requires an intellectual sophistication and wide cultural knowledge.

There are people who do . The plays have sparked off discussions, queries. The audience makes connections. But  you can also see and enjoy the plays at face value, at the narrative level. One doesn’t have to intellectually apprehend everything. When you go to see a painting and you are moved, the significance does not strike you first. It is the visual impact and something other. We are made up of  many other elements than  the mind.

Arunima Choudhury