Poetry in motion

Still from the National Award-winning film Lasya Kavya

In many ways, Bharatanatyam dancer Alarmel Valli's mother, Uma Muthukumaraswamy, was a visionary. Not only was she central to the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri winner's craft and a constant companion in her illustrious journey, she's the one who recognised the need to document Valli's art for posterity. "Initially, I was hesitant about the film. The performance season was coming up [in 2010], and I wanted to concentrate on that. But my mother made me realise that as a passionate performer, every performance exists in the moment; it doesn't last forever, unlike a painting. So, a film is a permanent record of who and what you are," the dancer explains about how the film Lasya Kavya (2012), directed by award-winning filmmaker Sankalp Meshram, evolved.

And now that the National Award-winning documentary is going to be released digitally by Aalaap, a Chennai-based art and talent management company, Valli is sure her mother must have seen it coming. "While I'm still grappling with the digital medium, she would have been thrilled," the choreographer exclaims.

Still from the National Award-winning film Lasya Kavya

Valli shares that the film - which weaves together her performances, archival footage with gurus, interviews, and chats with Arun Khopkar, Zubin Mehta and Bombay Jayashri, among others - was an illuminating process for her. "I didn't know how the camera worked. But Meshram, who is deeply involved in music and poetry - two central influences in my dance - was sensitive to my process, and there was a natural flow of energy between him, me and the camera," she shares.

However, Meshram, who has won the National Award five times and has also worked with Charles Correa and Girija Devi among others, tells us that Valli is not only a performer, but also a filmmaker. "She constantly responded creatively to the nuances of filmmaking. That is how we were able to capture the dynamism of her craft."

On the eve of the digital premiere, the dancer reminisces that the film was shot amid the winter rains in and around Chennai. "It's my favourite season, and I feel that the greys of the clouds and the sea, and greens of the rice fields and casuarina groves, where we filmed, seeped into the narrative," she says, recollecting a particular scene where the rain-soaked surroundings harmonised with her thoughts.

Sankalp Meshram

It's this multi-layered nature of the film, Meshram explains, that makes it a must-watch. "It opened to a great response back in 2012, but I feel, with a digital release, it will reach many more people. It is a work that should be seen by all as it's not just about her or the context of her dance; it addresses larger questions of art, aesthetics and the exchange between tradition and modernity, which Valli ji embodies," he concludes.

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