Enchantment
A Magical Journey with Pandit Ravi Shankar
RSVPs will open Fri, Sep 11 at 6pm.
Performers
Shaped by Pandit Ravi Shankar’s own witty and poignant words, Enchantment is a theatrical journey into the mind of the sitar maestro, weaving theatre, live dance and music into a richly immersive experience. Instead of a standard retelling of the global icon’s legendary career, this bioplay steps into the inner world of his doubts, regrets, struggles, and the fiery resolve that carried him from a boy dancer in Paris to one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Through moments of vulnerability and brilliance, the play reveals how Ravi Shankar transformed adversity into artistic triumph.
The journey passes through the four stages in his life:
- the boy in Paris, acclaimed as a dancer in his brother’s troupe
- the disciple undergoing relentless training in music in a remote Indian town
- the zealous artist struggling to establish a career
- the global icon, putting Indian music on the world map.
Written and directed by Gowri Ramnarayan, the production features Ravi Shankar’s original sitar recordings, and also some of his own compositions, rendered exclusively for Enchantment by lead vocalist Bombay Jayashri, with Aditya Prakash and Vignesh Ishwar. Premiered in Chennai in September 2025, this widely acclaimed play has just completed a coast-to-coast US Tour with 15 shows.
Director’s Note
Every play begins with a question. Enchantment asks – how do you conjure up a legendary artist of your own times on the stage, whose life has been exhaustively documented on page and screen?
Only if I relied on personal interactions over the years with the maestro, and his partner of 24 years, Kamala Chakravarti, and my interviews with him as a journalist. I had to focus on the protagonist’s doubts and regrets to transform biography into the universal human struggle to survive, to succeed. I could use dance, and the maestro’s own
music to convey what words cannot express.
Two actors. Two dancers. A lighting person. They actualise an entire life story. The stage showcases a superstar. But audiences see a human being whose vulnerabilities are their own.
Production Credits
Recorded Music: Bombay Jayashri with Aditya Prakash and Vignesh Ishwar; Sai Shravanam (tabla), Vishnu Vijay (flute)
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Resound India
Produced by: JustUs Repertory
Supported by:
Venue: Auditorium
Performers
Gowri Ramnarayan
Journalist (formerly Deputy Editor, The Hindu), vocal accompanist to Carnatic maestro MS Subbulakshmi, Dr Gowri Ramnarayan is inhouse playwright and Artistic Director, JustUs Repertory. She has evolved her own innovative stylistics to shape performances steeped in Indian culture in a global context. Her multi-genre texts combine music, dance and the visual arts as they explore historical, political and literary pasts, to represent the complexities of contemporary existence.
Recipient of the Nataka Choodamani Award (Sri Krishna Gana Sabha) and Kala Vidya Nidhi (Indian Fine Arts Association, San Diego), Ramnarayan has authored children’s books, a biography of MS Subbulakshmi, and a collection of original plays. Her translations include two plays by Vijay Tendulkar, and Kalki Krishnamurthy’s Selected Short Stories, The Sound of Waves and Ponniyin Selvan (six volumes). She is Chairperson, Rukmini Devi Arundale Trust; Senior Associate Editor, Sruti Magazine; and Adjunct Faculty, Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.
Yohan Chacko
Yohan Chacko has donned diverse roles in over 80 theatre productions, ranging from light farce to profound tragedy. Notable among them was his interpretation of Jean Valjean (Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables), Will Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Love, Marc Newman), Mohammad bin Tughlaq (Tughlaq, Girish Karnad) and Arun Kolatkar (Dark Horse, Gowri Ramnarayan). His portrayal of Pandit Ravi Shankar in JustUs Repertory’s Enchantment has been acclaimed in 15 shows across the US. Chacko has acted in three full length feature films. He also enjoys singing and playing multiple instruments in live shows. He has secured over a million views for his parody songs on YouTube.
Chacko is a committee member of The Madras Players – the oldest amateur English theatre society in India, and a Governing Council member of the theatre company Mellow Circle. He also happens to be a dentist and a professor at the Asan Memorial Dental College.
Aarabi Veeraraghavan
Aarabi has received advanced training in Bharatanatyam from the Narasimhacharis at Kalasamarpana and has participated as a soloist and ensemble member in several dance dramas and lecture demonstrations produced by her alma mater. Introduced to contemporary performance practices as an undergraduate, she secured a Master’s degree in contemporary performance studies in the UK. As a dancer in Padmini Chettur’s contemporary dance company, she has performed in several international venues in Europe. She also choreographs her own work that reflects her preoccupations as a performing artist in today’s world.
Aarabi has been part of JustUs Repertory for almost two decades as member of the stage design and tech crew and also as lead actor, winning accolades for diverse roles from a naïve ingénue to a mythic archetype. Aarabi works as a Pilates and dance technique instructor.
G Narendra
A distinguished alumnus of the Kalakshetra Foundation and founder/director, Avigna Dance Ensemble, G Narendra is known for his outstanding craft skills, charismatic stage presence and innovative choreography. Productions like Abhyasa, The Living Tree, and Silappadikaram won critical acclaim on home ground and on highly successful tours abroad. His career includes performances and collaborations with leading Indian and international institutions.
A passionate teacher and mentor, Narendra believes in simplifying the elements of Natya to make them accessible and relevant to contemporary audiences, without compromising its fundamentals, and seeks to inspire younger generations to experience Natya as a holistic and transformative art form. Honoured with the Nritya Choodamani Award (Krishna Gana Sabha), Narendra was recognised as Best & Outstanding Dancer for three consecutive years at the Madras Music Academy’s annual dance festival, and has been nominated to receive the Academy’s prestigious Nritya Kalanidhi Award in 2027.
Anjana Anand
An alumna of SIFAS, Singapore and the Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai, and founder-member of Sahrdaya Foundation, Anjana Anand is an independent solo artist, who has also danced in ensemble productions in India and abroad. She served as guest choreographer for Apsaras Arts’ productions, and as guest faculty at Dance Intensive camps (Milapfest, UK & Singapore, and Priyadarshini Govind’s Navadarshana, US). She has choreographed her own work in Chokkanathar Ula and Magdalena Mariam.
Anjana has been critically lauded for her lead roles as actor and dancer in JustUs Repertory’s theatre productions (Flame of the Forest, One Day in Ashadh, Sakhi, Subverse, and Fire and Ash). She is an empanelled artiste of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and graded artiste of Doordarshan. With a PhD in Bharatanatyam, she has authored A Grammar of Dance, based on the Tamil epic Silappathikaram.
Sneha Sheejith
As an alumnus of the Kalakshetra Foundation, Sneha Sheejith had advanced training in Bharatanatyam from the Sahrdaya Foundation. Her participation in dance as well as theatre productions makes her specially qualified to serve as the lighting artist for live performance on the stage. Her diploma in Sound Engineering from KM College of Music and Technology, Chennai, strengthens her role as a sound designer.
Sneha has been in charge of lighting design and tech requirements for JustUs Repertory’s theatre productions – Sarpa Sutra (India), Magic Bow and Enchantment (US & India). She has also worked on the lights for Bharatanatyam dancers, including Leela Samson, Priyadharshini Govind and Jayanthi Subhramaniam.
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