Devotion in Mixed Media Motion

For Odissi virtuoso Ranjana Gauhar, multimedia is not intrusion but extension of Odissi's divinity refracted in pixels in the backdrop

- SAMIYA CHOPRA

A thunderous tabla tattoos the silence, breaking the darkness with a beat that is at once primal and refined. From the shadows, three dancers surge forward—each step a proclamation of Mayurbhanj Chhau, with its bold legwork and martial vigour. Their bodies slice through the air like warriors, yet their faces soften into fleeting expressions of longing and playfulness. The stage blooms into the royal gardens of King Nala, conjured not by painted backdrops but through the shimmer of computer-generated imagery. The audience is transported into myth.

Then, she arrives. Damayanti. Her entrance is lyrical, almost dreamlike, yet deliberate in its precision. Every tilt of her head, every arch of her brows, every delicate flick of her wrist is an ode to beauty: self-aware, radiant, and regal. Here is Odissi in its purest essence: a dance of devotion, curved and circular, where the body flows like a sculpted bronze idol come to life.