Going Beyond Laasyam

Mohiniattam dancer Suchithra Visweswaran has made her dance form accessible to the masses with her radical choices.

The mid-1990s Malayalam film Kamaladalam has a scene in which Nanda Kumar, the character played by Mohanlal, proves his expertise in dance to his reel and real audience by interpreting the performance of the dancer. His main argument is that the dance form associated with Siva and his masculinity is Thandavam, while women are the translators of laasyam. Acclaimed Mohiniattam dancer Suchithra Visweswaran has set out to turn around this sexist view on the forms women can take in classical dancing.

Suchithra bounced back from an accident from the past which left her an invalid for more than a year. She employed the period of rest reading the Narayaneeyam, which left a profound impact upon her. That was when she decided that her first comeback performance would be on Narayaneeyam and thus started the journey that challenged many a status quo.

Early history of Mohiniattam 

Amid differing historical versions of Mohiniattam, one of the accounts traces it to the Devadasis. According to the belief, it was only through ‘Nritham, Vaadhyam, Geetham’ that the Gods could be appeased. But down the line, Mohiniattam had lost its grace during the Jenmi rule, when dancers were compelled to perform only before men, and were eventually led to perform for wages. Mohiniattam has a religious connection too, where Mohini is an avatar of Lord Vishnu as she dances to seduce the asuras.

Evolution of the art 

Later, Mohiniattam dancers took the name ‘Ashta Nayika’ or ‘Sringara Nayika’ where the female characters were restricted to only laasyam and sringaram. The idea of ‘Ashta nayika’ denotes a girl who is decked up beautifully, waiting for her hero.