Natya Ballet Centre's video: Draupadi

Draupadi is a 40-minute Odissi production that explores the status of women in the modern Indian context against the backdrop of the life of Draupadi, the Panchali princess and her trials and tribulations. In-spite of her beauty, intelligence, physical prowess and inimitable spirit, she was betrothed to the victor of a competition, sacrificed at the altar of the male ego in a game of dice, and trivialized and humiliated by the Kauravas. Even at the end of her life, as she fell on her journey to the heavens, not one of her husbands attempted to help her, instead selfishly sought Moksha for themselves. Does the Indian woman of today continue to face Draupadi’s plight? Does she remain a commodity and does she have what it takes to rise above it all, to effect a change? A profound message lies within the folds of the drama that played out more than 5000 years ago.