Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar’s life and legacy comes alive onstage through Gowri Ramnarayan’s biographical play, Enchantment, which premiers on September 12 at the Museum Theatre in Chennai.
This evening of music, dance and drama presented by JustUs Repertory, will be in support of REACH, (Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health), a leading NGO based in India, working on tuberculosis(TB) care, awareness and prevention.
Spanning 26 years, REACH has led the fight against TB through numerous initiatives including the setting up of 30 Nakshatra centres in private hospitals across Chennai, which provide free TB care services and act as a bridge between the private healthcare sector and the National TB Elimination Programme.
“For years now, TB continues to remain a significant public health challenge in the country. Our aim, through these centres, is to hand-hold patients from diagnosis to cure. The centres have our social workers called TB nanbans. Working hand-in-hand with their doctors, these nanbans take care of them, counsel them, provide them with nutritional support and most importantly, constantly work on de-stigmatising their condition,” says Dr Nalini Krishnan, co-founder and executive secretary, REACH. “By promoting standardised treatment protocols, Nakshatra Centres ensures that every person with TB is aware of, and has access to quality care and treatment,” she adds.
The primary focus of this fundraiser, Dr Nalini says, will be to support these Nakshatra Centres. “Our aim has also been to periodically keep creating awareness about TB, a disease which unfortunately isn’t being talked about as much as a host of other health conditions in the country,” she says.
A TB survivor from Cuddalore, R Usha, who now works with REACH, stresses on the importance of awareness and empathy. “There is still a lot of fear and stigma attached to TB. I remember the feeling of hopelessness when I first got diagnosed and do not want anyone else to feel the same way. The support of family and friends go a long way,” she says. She meets patients regularly, and speaks to them about the importance of getting the right treatment, counselling and nutritional support.
Dancers Renjith and Vijna during the rehearsals for Enchantment
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VELANKANNI RAJ B
Starring Yohan Chacko, Aarabi Veeraraghavan, and Vidhya Subramanian (in a cameo), Enchantment features dances by Renjith and Vijna, and has music by Bombay Jayashri, with Aditya Prakash, Vignesh Ishwar, Chaitra Sairam, Sai Shravanam (tabla), and Vishnu Vijay (flute). Lighting design for the play is by Sneha Sheejith.
While Enchantment was supposed to premiere in 2020 right before the world went into a lockdown owing to the pandemic, Gowri Ramnarayan says she is glad that the play is finally premiering for REACH now.
“Art is all about learning, feeling, and understanding other human beings, the world they live in and understanding their difficulties. Art encompasses compassion and generosity, and I think Pandit Ravi Shankar would have been delighted if he knew that we were premiering a biographical play on him, for a charitable cause,” she says.
Conceiving this theatre production, Gowri says, meant looking at Ravi Shankar as a human being, and not only as a larger-than-life musical figure. “He was an extraordinary genius and was arguably the best sitarist that India produced, and was instrumental in putting Indian music on the world map. At the same time, he invited a lot of controversy in his life and music. So, how did these controversies strengthen him and how did he react to them?” she says, of the questions she delved into.
“What interests me as a playwright is his fascinating journey, from Benares to the world stage, his tryst with dance, varied styles of music and more. A tumultuous life of fame that had success, struggles and ambivalences,” Gowri adds.
Enchantment will be staged at Museum Theatre, Egmore from 6.30pm onwards on September 12. For tickets, log onto bookmyshow.com. For further details, contact 99620 63000 or log onto www.reachindia.org.in
Published – September 03, 2025 01:50 pm IST
