In shades of blue, actor-dancer Rima Kallingal and half a dozen women move around a quaint dance floor, to a song called ‘Yamuna’. The dark stage slowly lights up as the women sway gracefully and cover Rima, presumably the Yamuna in the story. Men in dhoti join, some performing Kalaripayattu movements. It is a dance musical composed and conceived by Sreevalsan J Menon, as a 'wake up call to nurture our rivers, the life force that sustains us'.
The eight-and-a-half-minute video was choreographed by Rima Kallingal and Santosh Madhav of Mamangam Dance Company. The song, written by Advaita Das, was composed and sung by Sreevalsan.
The song, beginning with the line 'Neela nayane yamune nava mohane’ (dear blue-eyed Yamuna, you look young and beautiful), comes in the context of industrialisation and other modern methods that are leading to the destruction of nature. How can one preserve the world for future generations and become more responsible towards the planet – these were the first thoughts that Sreevalsan had that prompted him to write the krithi.
He chose to address the topic of river pollution, to spread a message of protecting these water resources. He chose to tell the story through river Yamuna.
Sreevalsan felt that the story of Yamuna had to be narrated by Lord Krishna, who had, in the myths, killed the snake Kaliya that had poisoned the river. The krithi therefore unfolds as a conversation between Yamuna and Krishna, but with one silent and the other reminiscing about the old friendship. Krishna wants Yamuna to smile again but understands she is not in a state anymore, and at the end of a long comforting talk, he says nothing can destroy her. There will be someone to take care of her, he says, meaning that humans can save the rivers of India – if only they want to.
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