In pursuit of divinity
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
| PROFILE M.K. Saroja recalls her early years as one of the top Bharatanatyam dancers of her time. |
FLAVOURS RECAPTURED: M.K. Saroja. The twin pictures of the artist are sourced from ‘Bharatanatyam Bhakta Guru M.K. Saroja,’ a book by son Ashish Mohan Khokar.
On an auspicious day, the grandmother spread paddy on the living room floor. Over it, mother and aunt held an ulakkai (pestle) adorned with kumkum, sandal paste and flowers. The child stood with her hands on the stone. The guru cer emonially moved her feet to the rhythm of taiya tai.
“I knew nothing about dancing, its value or divinity. My guru Vidwan Muthukumara Pillai of Kattumannar Koil, Chidambaram, found me and shaped me into an artist,” says vidushi M.K. Saroja as she remembers her initiation into Bharatanatyam. Now a veteran with an impeccable lineage, she adds, “I was so young that he’d wake me in the morning, make me brush my teeth, wash my face, and begin lessons. Once he beat me, and got more upset than me!”
Dance revivalist E. Krishna Iyer introduced Pillai to her family of silk merchants in Tiruvanmiyur and persuaded the father to allow his two girls to learn the art form. Their grandmother agreed because Pillai was a sanyasi. The guru became a houseguest. When elder sister Selvamani’s arangetram put a full stop to performance, Pillai “bribed her with halwa to make her recite jatis!” Saroja laughs. Selvamani became a proficient guru, and began conducting Saroja’s shows.
Kathak classes
When Muthukumara Pillai moved to dancer Ram Gopal’s school in Bangalore, he took Saroja with him. The nine-year old became part of the travelling troupe. She was agile, energetic and could do full justice to jatiswaram and tillana. Ram Gopal treated Saroja like a daughter. Living in his aristocratic mansion helped Saroja gain tremendous exposure to other dance genres. While Ram Gopal snoozed or played tennis, Saroja learnt Kathakali and Kathak from gurus Kunju Kurup, Sohanlal, Sundarlal and Kundanlal. She went on to give a few Kathak recitals, “Salaam, tatkar, chakradar and thumri were part of my performance. If you know Bharatanatyam, you can dance anything.” Auditioned for the film ‘Meera’ starring M.S. Subbulakshmi, Saroja was not disappointed when Baby Kamala was chosen to play Krishna, “because I got to spend a whole day with M.S.!” What distressed her was that chinnamelam artists, including her guru, were everywhere treated like second class citizens. Even her own family did not attend her shows. When she was 15, Saroja began to give solo performances and choreographed compositions from her guru’s notebooks. Music was not a strong point, but her abhinaya began to mature. Her aharya was simple, unfussy.
As a child, Saroja had met a Sikh boy in Lahore who knew Kathak and Kathakali. When he came to Madras to study Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra, Mohan Khokar persuaded Saroja’s father and a reluctant Saroja herself, to accept him as her life partner. A distinguished dance historian and photographer, Khokar headed Baroda University and served as Special Officer for Dance in the Education Ministry and the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He accumulated an exhaustive personal collection of photographs and research materials.
Khokar had his quirks. Featured in a soap advertisement, when Saroja was ready to sign a contract with film maker S.S.Vasan, he blocked her entry into the glamour world. “I don’t want you to become more famous than me,” he said. He refused to use his influence to advance her dance career. “He’d leave me to follow in a taxi while he went off in the office car,” she laughs. The only picture of Saroja that he displayed in his office showed her long plait hanging behind her.
“My four wonderful sons were the best outcome of my marriage. I told Mohanji, you will never write about me, but one day, my son will,” says Saroja, showing her pictorial biography with exquisite photographs, published by son Ashish Khokar, dance scholar and editor of Attendance.
After 27 years in Delhi, Saroja returned to hometown Chennai. She regrets that her Indian students were unable to persevere with the art. Students abroad, particularly in France, especially long-term sishya Vidya, showed commitment.
For years, Saroja taught in her dance school Mandapa in Paris. As a performer too, Saroja had a long innings in Europe. “We may not follow the context, but we understand the feeling,” audiences there said.
Her philosophy
She notes that contemporary trends emphasise razzmatazz in everything from costume to content. “This art came from the temple, from those who sang their hearts out before the deity. Don’t overload, don’t overwhelm, just melt hearts — your own and the viewers’. You can show endless nuances in a single line. Our vaggeyakaras have sung like that, felt like that. Just follow them. Explore the soul.”
Saroja believes that the highest feelings are reflected in shaping the uttama nayika. “You’ve to mature in experience, reflect and understand.” She recalls how once, when she aimed and threw a stone during abhinaya for a viruttam, a rasika in the front row flinched as if he was hit! At another time when she wept as Radha longing for Krishna, every eye in the hall became moist, and the singer’s throat was choked with emotion. “Immersed in the same feeling, all of us forgot ourselves. Then I knew I had bhavam. Our bodies are different — but the soul? When atma joins paramatma… that is art!”
At 79, does Saroja ever feel that she has not got due recognition? “Family has been more important than career. Not strong minded, let things flow, never took decisions. But is it our will that achieves anything? That I got to dance at all is thanks to guru kripai (guru’s blessing) and purvajanma punyam (good deeds in previous births). Now all I want to do is to pray undisturbed.”
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