Style came naturally to her

COME FEBRUARY, and many of us in Chennai recapitulate our impressions of a great lady, Rukmini Devi. She was a leap year child - February 29 being her birthday. Hence, I suppose, in her institutional life, she celebrated it always on February 28, with the staff and students of Kalakshetra presenting programmes to show their gratitude and affection to her.

She was a woman of style. My parents always said that "style" is something inborn. Others said one can cultivate style. I tend to think that the former is more true, because a very interesting element of real style is originality. I think Rukmini Devi was not only original but also had a keen eye for detail. One always comes across pompous word-pictures of her, extolling her greatness, that she was a visionary, a genius, a great leader, gifted artiste, and so on. Not much is said about her elegance, her simple aesthetic, her style.

She exhibited, right through her life, an exquisite taste in her clothes. As a child, I remember seeing her swathed in earth colours - golden mustards and ruby reds, with shimmering gold, specially woven for her in the Kanchipuram looms that she had set up in Kalakshetra. The traditional Brahmin women of Thanjavur and other culturally active places in Tamil Nadu, wore their saris in a particular way, with the "pallav" folded in half and tucked in at the waist, right over the pleats. This style was the semi- orthodox mode.... adopted by aristocratic women who dispensed with the more conventional nine yards sari. Rukmini Devi, who had the height to carry off this style, also had a dancer's bearing. She entered a room, and her "presence" drew everybody's attention.

When she was in her twenties, judging by some lovely photographs we can see that she was not only very photogenic but also knew how to face the camera. Every jewel she wore made a subtle statement.

In fact, at a time when the traditional jewels made with cabochon rubies had been left behind in the villages of Tamil Nadu by many young women who moved to the city, Rukmini Devi wore these jewels which came to be known as temple jewellery, with elegant confidence. Often she highlighted heavy jewellery by using them as accessories for simple but elegant cotton sarees. With non- chalance, she sported a precious Vanki (arm ornament), which many had at that time thought too traditional for city life.

That she was fond of jewellery is evident from her dance photographs. What is interesting is that she was daring in her experiments with her costumes. She once told me that she had seen dancers before her clad in sarees which were not stitched as costumes, but worn in a particular way over satin pantaloons. She decided that she must device something new and original. An Italian woman who was at that time visiting as a theosophist, looked at photographs of dance sculptures and designed her costumes. No doubt, Rukmini Devi herself selected the exotic materials out of which the costumes were hand sewn. Given that dance was not a wholly accepted art for many women to take up at that time, Rukmini Devi's costumes made a subtly sensuous statement. In particular, her choice of diaphanous Benarasi fabrics , which were draped over brocade blouses, made a perfect style statement. At a time when dancers plaited their hair in long braids and encased them in floral sheaths, she coiffered her tresses like a queen from the frescoes of Ajantha and Ellora.

There is no doubt that her travels abroad at an early age gave her remarkable access to other cultures. She wore elegant court shoes with her sarees when she had to face colder climes in the West. But the ideas which probably stayed with her were from the East. I had seen her stage decor and her use of subdued lighting for years, before I visited the charming island of Bali. Seeing their choice of spaces for performance and use of natural coconut palm leaves to decorate the stage, I realised what Rukmini Devi took from the hand crafts of Kerala was similar.

Her style extended to her writing and speaking. She always wrote from the heart, using the English language simply and effectively. In a simple paragraph she could convey such deep thoughts and high intellectual ideas that one can still read them with amazement. Whenever she was called upon to give a public speech she was not only erudite, but also displayed clear thinking and economy of words. In a clear and resonant but soft voice, she spoke with a charming accent. No hyperbole, no exaggerations, even when she was welcoming a Prime Minister or President of the country. It was always amusing to see her eagerness not to allow any of her "chief guests" to speak before a show at Kalakshetra. With poise and dignity, she used to come down from the stage and garland them as a gesture of warm welcome, and command the show to begin.

The only extravagant display in her home in Adyar was a set of big stone sculptures of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. With an extraordinary eye for beauty, she had placed them under a Nagalinga tree, with wild flowering bushes surrounding their feet.... they looked as if they were roaming the forests of Dhandakaranya enjoying the scenery.

In her work and the multitude of things she was involved in, Rukmini Devi displayed her style. One of her last public engagements was the golden jubilee celebrations. To greet Rajiv Gandhi, in an appropriate manner she asked me, a member of the committee, to select a typical angavastram with zari border, and bring it to her for approval. She chose the one which was not only long enough for the Prime Minister (he was a tall man, as we all know), but the one with the red and green " mayil kannu" border. Then Padmasini was asked to fold and iron it in the correct way(visiri madippu). Rajiv Gandhi's photograph with Rukmini Devi, looking fabulous wearing the grand angavastram was splashed in the media throughout the country. Age may have slowed her down, but till her last days she always looked elegant, and wore her precious jewellery with studied, understated poise, be it a Navarathna Malai or an enormous Australian opal crafted into a ring. To her, style came naturally.

LAKSHMI VISHWANATHAN

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Fame from many quarters
Next     : Madras miscellany