Mythili Anoop
Project Period: Eight months
This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Explorations will attempt to reimagine Mughlai Vesham, a form of Mohiniyattam which incorporates the courtly style of Kathak including its costume, now erased from public memory. Mythili Anoop is the Coordinator for this project.
Mythili Anoop is a Mohiniyattam dancer, performing artist, and academic, living between Hyderabad and Thrissur. She is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Fine and Performing Arts at GITAM University, Hyderabad Campus. Mythili completed her PhD, from the Humanities and Social Sciences Department at IIT Bombay, on the Performative Semiotics of Mohiniyattam in 2011. She was the recipient of the Tagore Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and Tagore National Library in 2019. Mythili has published in prestigious journals such as Critical Enquiry and Theatre, Dance and Performance Training. She has also published chapters in several books, including those of Routledge publications. Presently she is co-editing an anthology on Mohiniyattam. Given her experience, she is best placed to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.
This project is titled Reimagining Mughlai Vesham. In the ethnographic research on Mohiniyattam by Betty True Jones there is the mention of a particular aspect of the dance with a costume that includes a skirt (pavada) that fanned out as the dancer turned, a long jacket (kuppayam) with puffed sleeves, a scarf over the jacket, and a black cap. Similar to the costume of Kathak, this was called Mughlai Vesham. It is suspected that it disappeared from the Mohiniyattam repertoire during the reconstruction of the dance form, in the mid-twentieth century, under the auspices of Kalamandalam and its nationalist Classical arts paradigm probably because of its Persianate costumes. Post-Independence the Mughlai Vesham dance form has not been attempted by anyone, presumably because of its ‘light’ nature, its non-serious, un-classical approach that attempts to emulate the Kathak or Mughal darbari (courtly) style of dancing. This project will explore the possibility of reimagining Mughlai Vesham as a performance, drawing on the thillana-tarana in Hindustani music and other possible genres of musical compositions such as the khayal or bhajans in Hindi composed by Swathi Thirunal. It is important to note that this project will focus only on reimagination, and not a revival of this form.
The outcome of the project will be the experimental dance piece with live music and a research paper on the artistic process. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be video recording of the dance piece and the research paper.
This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it attempts to enrich the landscape of Classical dance in Kerala, by investigating a particular aspect of the art form that was erased from the public imagination.
IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.