Fifty years of Ram

There's music in every corner of the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra. While a stray beat of the tabla distracts me, I can hear the collective sounds of ghungroos in the vicinity.

People are walking purposefully along the corridor and the soft murmurs of students engaged in serious discussion can be heard. Stepping into director Shobha Deepak Singh's room, the picture of chaos is evident. Hectic preparations are on for the golden jubilee staging of Ram, a dance drama production that has been regularly produced since 1957.

The table in Singh's office is stacked with a melee of masks, headdresses, costumes made from feathers, and ornaments that are casually strewn around. On Sunday, the 50th show of dance drama Ram, complete with almost as many performers, will be inaugurated by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the vice president.

"We're staging a global Ramayana this year," says Singh. For the first time ever dancers from Indonesia, America, Malaysia and Bangladesh have been roped in for the show.

Our conversation is interrupted every five minutes; sometimes Singh takes calls from her mother, at other times music director Biswajeet Roy Choudhary urges her to listen to a track composed for the production, and at still other times there is the tailor "masterji" "" he has been with Singh for the past 37 years "" who is a little confused about placing bright pink-purple feathers on a dress.

"Get me a Combiflam," Singh requests. "I'm so tired, I've been sleeping at 3 am and since I can't ignore my fitness schedule (a mix of yoga and cardiovascular exercises), I have to get up early."

The petite Singh makes a pretence of collapsing in her chair, but the stress is for real. "My mum asks me why I don't come home, but I don't think I can even afford it."

For Singh, the journey with Ram has been a unique one. "I've grown up with the production and I think of myself as the running thread today. A thread that knows all the stories and secrets behind the show," she says.

Singh was 14 years old when the production was first staged in New Delhi's Railway Stadium ("I think the place no longer exists") and she remembers a stream of visitors coming to witness the production, including Pt Jawaharlal Nehru who had even given a grant of Rs 26,000 to cover the show's expenses.

She dips a tea bag carefully in her cup and I notice her fingers covered with exquisite rings (she designs her own jewellery and even runs a boutique).

Her mother, after marrying into a business family, expressed the desire to host a Ramlila by using some of the best names in the field of Indian music and dance. "She was married into a conservative family and my grandfather was very strict. She managed to convince him for the first show and since it was a big hit, there was no looking back ever."

Singh remembers visiting the basement of her home to find reams and reams of cloth, masks, shields, bows and arrows scattered all over while actors were engaged in discussing the dance drama of Ram. "I knew then that I was madly in love with this field," she says.

Her tryst with this field led her into green rooms where actors often cried at the poor quality of ornaments that hurt them while they performed on stage.

"Though we had the best production quality, the execution looked tacky because of the costumes. In 1957, we were charged Rs 300 for fresh flowers. It was expensive because we needed so many flowers for almost all the dancers. I started doing everything in-house and that, I believe, has been my biggest contribution to the show after I started looking after the institution," she says.

Since it is the golden jubilee this year, Ram will showcase a tribute to some of the greatest musicians, technicians and dancers who have worked on the dance drama at some point or other.

"We've got a special 10-minute AV show that will remember all those creative people who are no longer with us," says Choudhary. "We have nearly 229 pieces (every year we have new music pieces) and two years ago we started distributing CDs and cassettes too."

Interestingly, a lot of dancers who were involved with the production earlier will be present for the golden jubilee function. Bhushan Lakhandri, who essayed the role of Ram for many years before shifting to Mumbai as a full-time choreographer, is already in Delhi to help in the production.

Lakhandri recently choreographed songs for Omkara and has been involved in the film industry for some time now. There's also Surinder Kaur, who played the role of Sita for nearly 10 years at the Ram Lila. She too has shifted to Mumbai and worked in sitcoms including Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin (she played Jassi's mum) and films like Parineeta (as Saif Ali Khan's mother).

This year's performance has an all-new cast and Singh admits that she's come a long way from staging shows on uncomfortable wooden planks.

"We have a special plastic flooring that is smooth and doesn't hurt the performers. A lot has been spent on lights too. "No one can beat what Tapas (Sen) did in terms of light," says Singh, adding, "But we're moving ahead with the times."

State-of-the-art spotlights, lasers and special lights have been used for the first time and certain scenes like Lanka Dahan (the burning of Lanka) and Sita's Agni Pariksha (Sita's fire ordeal) will look even more spectacular.

As far as choreography is concerned, choreographer Shashidharan Nair, who has worked on Ram for the past 10 years, says he's made use of folk dances from Gujarat and even Sri Lanka besides using Kalaripayattu movements and Jatayu Moksham mudras which he has woven with contemporary dances.

Play on, Ram!

(Catch Ram in a new avatar this Sunday at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra lawns)

PANORAMA

Five years of research went into the making of Ram

There are 200 lights consuming 200 KW of electricity.

More than 2,000 metres of cloth have been used for the production with 250 costumes designed by 12 tailors who worked non-stop for 60 days

200 musicians were involved with the recording of the soundtrack, all of them raag-based melodies. It took 90 days to complete the soundtrack

The performance of the production takes place for 30 consecutive days