Expressions (24 June 2020)

 Gestures and Words in our daily life

Life is all about co-existing with human beings and all the things in this world. Co-existing involves interacting with both people as well as nature. Every interaction you have has an important function - It communicates what you think or would like the other person to perceive. We normally use various ways to communicate our thoughts. Words and gestures being the most spontaneous of all. A person's reaction to a situation is usually through gestures and words very specific to him/her.


An actor's perception

Gestures, words/music and costume are key for an actor depicting a character. Gestures in indian classical dance are especially helpful in conveying key aspects of a character. Like a katakamukha hand and dola hand held in each hand signifying the grace of a lady. A widened chest and a shikhara held to denote a man. These aid in giving definition to what is being depicted. Such depictions combined with body language gives a well rounded feel to the character being depicted. In order to do justice to the character representation, an actor must dig deep into the psyche of the character. Delving deep into the psyche gives an insight into the nuances one can bring in the body language and gestures to aptly depict the character's reactions to a situation. It also helps with understanding how to develop the character as the natyam progresses.




Treatment of a character

A fine example would be - a person who is belittled by another person. This situation sounds very simple. But if you think deeper it isn't as simple as that. We have to analyse the situation and the character's reaction based on several factors.

- What type of  person is our character.

  •        Is he/she an emotionally strong?  Or someone easily weakened by such attacks ?
  •        Is there any track record on how this person might handle such a scenario.
  •        How would he/she react to a situation like this based on other aspects of the situation.

- What is the relationship of the character to other characters in this situation

  •        The effect of such an incident on anyone greatly depends on the perpetrator's relationship to him/her as well.
  •        If the insult is caused by someone you love deeply, the reactions to the situation progresses very differently from if it was caused by someone not as close.


The above are just a few things to consider while trying to understand how to depict the character. Based on such an analysis we can decide how the progression happens. Say the person was belittled by someone close to him/her. That is definitely very hurtful. Naturally the first reaction could be a mix of hurt and disbelief. From disbelief it then could transition into anger that builds up and then finally ends up in the person feeling sad and hurt. This is just one of the ways to treat this situation. 


In short depicting any character takes a lot of analysis. The more in depth you as an actor analyses it, the more layers you can give to the final depiction. The deeper the analysis, the richer the presentation. 


This definitely will be an ongoing topic and we will delve more into the nuances later. 

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