Kannagi's Timeless Tale Reimagined for Modern Audiences

In 2025, director Shatarupa Bhattacharya is set to stage her play "The Anklet," which reimagines the Tamil epic Silappadikaram for today's audiences. Shatarupa shares that Kannagi's courage and her story's refusal to fade feel urgent even in the present day, as her silence and the dismissal of women's anger remain familiar.

The idea for the play came from Shatarupa's personal conversations with her Tamil friends, who spoke about Kannagi with such passion, as if she were not a myth but a living presence. Shatarupa was intrigued by the radical nature of the ancient text, which allowed a woman's truth to shape the moral conscience of an entire civilization. She wanted to explore what it means for a woman to speak her truth across centuries.

The central theme of "The Anklet" is women's anger, which Shatarupa aims to present without drama or apology. She believes that women's anger is often dismissed as hysteria or overreaction, and in this play, she wants that anger to take up space, to breathe and tremble, and finally find form.

Shatarupa sees live performances as an act of healing, especially after the pandemic. She believes that theatre doesn't heal by solving anything, but by allowing the audience to feel together. In a fragmented world, this kind of collective connection feels revolutionary.