A glimpse of classical dancer Sonal Mansingh's professional triumphs and personal scandals in the 1970s
She remembers the tumult in her life in the mid-1970s when she had to choose from a maelstrom of competing invitations. She finally accepted a private invitation to perform at different venues in Brazil. To begin with, there were three performances lined up for her at Sao Paulo. The venue was Theatro Municipal, its ornate façade reminiscent of the Palais Garnier of Paris.
Not used to the idea of solo performances, the director of Theatro Municipal initially developed cold feet. Ignoring him, on the opening night, Sonal first danced Odissi, beginning with a mangalacharan, graduating to a pallavi composition based on three ragas — Sankarabharnam, Khamaj and Bageshree — distilling their nuances without oversimplifying them.
Following the pallavi with an abhinaya piece based on a Radha–Krishna story, Sonal ended the Odissi part of her performance with a moksha. The second part, Bharatanatyam, began with an alarippu and a varnam set to ragamalika. She went on to dance to her favourite padam, "Krishna Nee Begane Baro", and concluded with a tillana performed with an incredible surge of energy.
At the end of the recital, the audience erupted. The applause was deafening. A big basket of spring flowers from the director followed Sonal to the green room. The theatre that was only a quarter full on that momentous opening night Sonal’s audiences followed her even after performances, when she walked through the fieras or street markets, asking for her autograph.
She was frequently importuned by complete strangers who seemed fascinated by her dress, coiffure, jewellery, her gorgeous luminosity. She made even smoking look chic and sexy and was taken to be the Indian version of Audrey Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich.
Sonal’s next destination in Brazil was Salvador de Bahia, where two performances were lined up. In 1979, Sonal went on an ICCR-supported performance tour of around 70 days to countries across different continents. One of the highlights of this tour was a new choreography based on a famous Malayalam poem, "Magdalena Mariam", written by Vallathol Narayana Menon (a leading early-20th-century Malayalam poet, popularly known as Mahakavi Vallathol).
"Maria Magdalena" was part of her repertory 1975 onwards. Strung to Carnatic ragas and danced in Bharatanatyam, it was a rage in different religious and social contexts. The composition extolled the exquisite beauty of Mary, the nayika (or the female protagonist), preparing to meet her lover, her change of heart at the sight of Jesus and her absolute surrender at his feet.
Performed in Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico and Nicaragua, this composition became a rage across Central and Latin America. Performances at Berkeley, Chicago, Washington, New York, London, Paris, Geneva and Moscow were also lined up, some of them at remarkably short notice.
She remembers being invited by the Indian embassy in Washington on three days’ notice from Mexico. And once she arrived there, she was astounded by the embassy’s laid-back approach. She had to clean the performance stage along with her musicians. There was barely any publicity. Despite her maddening schedule, Sonal took time off to sink her teeth into art-house films, musical soirées and operas.
Sonal’s own life was mutating into an inflammatory drama. Always known to be sexually capricious, stories of Georg’s (her second husband) sexual liaisons were beginning to unsettle her. In her absence, his apartment in Montreal was cuckooed by young girls. The beginning of the end came when she returned to the apartment unexpectedly one afternoon to find Georg in bed with a Swedish girl with enormous breasts.
It was an era where men were often obsessed with breasts, and what she saw that afternoon could have been a scene from Fellini’s Amarcord. The girl reminded Sonal of Volpino, the nymphomaniac. Something snapped within her.
Georg tried to explain, but what her eyes saw was beyond explanation. The year was 1977. Sonal and Georg separated, but their marriage survived a few more years, bridged by a chasm of indifference.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)
(Re-printed with publisher's permission.)