Curated By Geeta Chandran
Andal’s is a remarkable life, saturated with emotion, passion, and poetry, lived over 1000 years ago, when women were forbidden the landscapes of devotion and personal worship. The Bhakti saint’s life was then an affront and a challenge, and representations of her legacy have been seen, heard, and experienced by generations of artists and philosophers. Andal remains an enigma and a beloved icon in the Tamil imagination. In ‘Naachiyar Next’, globally acclaimed choreographer Dr Anita Ratnam revisits her 2013 classic production ‘Naachiyar’ with an ensemble of 18 artists. She returns to Andal’s allure with this Bharatnatyam performance, celebrating Andal, who is a continuing flashpoint for female desire, personal bhakti, and a daring figure of transgression across borders of conformity and decorum.