The mythical cowherdess Radha and poet-saint Meera vie for the attention of their blue-skinned paramour-god Krishna. Singled out by the poet Jayadeva as Lord Krishna’s favourite inamorata in his twelfth century epic love poem Gita Govinda, Radha is often characterised by feelings of jealousy and heartbreak at Krishna’s eternal fickleness. Meera, on the other hand, was a sixteenth century poet-saint whose relationship to Krishna was one of constant devotion and unfulfilled yearning, sentiments immortalised in her poems that continue to be sung today as musical compositions.

Anirban Dutta’s highly stylised musical performance piece Anubhuti sets these mythical and historical figures together in a love triangle with Krishna, charting Meera’s mental states and fluctuating sentimental fortunes: from a pining, distant admirer who can only access her beloved vicariously through Radha, to an amorous equal who shares Krishna’s affections with simplicity.

An abstract Gesamtkunstwerk, Dutta’s film weaves together classical dance, eighteenth century miniature paintings based on the Gita Govinda and Meera’s poems rendered in a host of ragas, each exploring a certain mood of our lovestruck heroine. Instead of a linear narrative, Anubhuti unfurls as a series of theatrical tableaux featuring actors involved in studied gestural work, whose meaning may sometimes elude us, but whose sensual, singular quality is never in doubt.

– Srikanth Srinivasan