Kintsugi with Mahabharata
In connection with this show, I learnt that Kintsugi ("golden joinery") is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. This makes the repair itself a beautiful, visible part of the object's history, rather than something to hide. My curiosity got the better of me as I wanted to know how it intersected with the Mahabharata . It then peeled like an onion to learn that the "rupture" is caused by the incidents in the epic, which were showcased like a tapestry on the stage. Four scenes were re-imagined to create a 60-minute, once-in-a-lifetime experience. The Performance A screen in the background embellished every scene, starting with Ekalavya and Dronacharya discussing the gurudakshina , followed by the Game of Dice . The third scene captured the mother’s dilemma of Kunti’s first-born son and Arjuna torn between duty and love. The last scene was Gandhari lamenting about the 100 sons she couldn’t se...
