Chitra's approach to the text vis-à-vis the dance drama proved her interpretive skills. The text was incorporated only at significant moments, while the rest of the story was built up on an edifice of music. This gave her the freedom of developing the atmosphere at her own pace and also provided gaps for nritta in between to facilitate a smooth flow in the narration.

As expected, the dice game dominated the storyline. A gripping account of Yudhistira's momentous acts of folly presented by a group of confident students, was supported by the responsive orchestra who excelled with their special effects and their delineation of Revathi ragam. The presence of the poet backstage penning his treatise while the action was going on was an intelligent idea, well implemented.

The opening piece set in Amritavarshini ragam was the most intriguing aspect of the presentation. The dancers had a grim, almost angry, countenance with combative stances- good versus evil or 'attack and defence,' call it as you may- a dance of strength and valour.... The strong musical notes followed the crisp execution in a well-synchronized performance.

The storyline of the one and a half hour production followed a steady pace, except for the break in tempo in the scene between Panchali and Dushasana that dragged on beyond what was necessary. Green was the primary colour of the artists, and the tasteful costumes had different combinations of the same.

R.Visveshwaran, composer and vocalist, knit together a melodious adaptation of the text. The swaras were imaginative, but the sruthi-shuddam went out of alignment occasionally. Nevertheless, it was a sincere effort backed by an inspiring orchestra with Sudhir Variyar assisting with the vocals, Jagdish Janardhan on the mridangam, Veeramani on the violin, Bhavani Prasad on the veena, Adit Narayanan with the nattuvangam, Sankaranarayanan on the flute and Parthasarathy with the special effects.

The dancers were effective as a group and some of them deserve special praise. Chitra as Panchali gave a moving performance with her clear enunciation of her position as a person in her own right who cannot be bartered, although her sari holding gesture was unnatural for someone in Panchali's situation, especially during the high-voltage 'vastra haran' scene. Anusuya Banerjee's enjoyment of her role as Shakuni was apparent, despite her rolling of the dice that was a mite too dramatic; Mridul Vivek and Sukanya Ravinder as Duryodhana and Dushasana looked suitably evil and hence convincing, both quite undaunted in their face-offs with their Guru. The others in the team were: Preetha Lakshmi, Lakshmi Athreya, Ashwini Asokan, Uma Namboodripad, Archana Srinivasan, Jayshree Karthikeyan, Jayanthi Sundar, Niranjani, Leema, Deepti, Anirudh Vasudevan and Rajiv Khan.