Express News Service
A instructor of mine as soon as informed me, “If you can write, you can draw; if you can speak, you can sing; if you can walk, you can dance.” Believing this to be true, I attempt a little bit of all that until date with out a lot success, however do I derive pleasure from doing all of them. Our Indian cinema is an ideal platform for all three and extra artwork varieties. I reserve a particular place for one artwork kind particularly: dance.
Beginning from classical to filmy steps, I flip for all of them. From Vyjayanthimala in Vanjikottai Valiban (though Padmini danced with extra gusto, Vyjayanthimala greater than held her personal within the final ‘dance face-off song’, Kannum Kannum Kalandhu) to Sai Pallavi in Rowdy Baby (which crossed the 1 billion view mark lately), from the group dancers who would grace each black and white excessive tempo track with their in-sync steps to the ‘Kamal Haasan era’ of dance numbers, proper as much as Vijay and Dhanush who regale with their dexterous dance strikes, track and dance has been and can be a site dominated by Indian movies.
Growing up within the Kodambakkam heartland, names like Puliyur Saroja (the go-to choreographer of the 80s), Raghuram Master, adopted by Kala and thereafter, Brinda, whose working type and talent to harness expertise stays unmatched, Brinda Master… had been all acquainted names. When the Mani Ratnam period started, in got here Sundaram Master (who labored fairly a bit with Kamal Haasan earlier) and his sons Raju Sundaram and Prabhudheva, who grew as much as be ace dancers and choreographers in their very own would possibly. Prabhudheva Master, as he’s referred to as, is a real icon of dance choreography.
His each track tells a narrative inside a narrative. Every line of the track will get a special step, one that’s not straightforward to duplicate with out rehearsal. When the track, Rowdy Baby, launched in 2019, each Yuvan Shankar Raja’s thumping rating and the colorful choreography got here in for a lot reward, together with Sai Pallavi, who really dances like nobody is watching her. Dance, in that sense, is extra about what’s inside which we need to specific. Technique and ability come later.
What am I conveying after I transfer? What’s the emotion? Can I dazzle whereas expressing myself ? What a tasty mixture that may be. Song and dance routines in South Indian cinema have come a great distance— from a template variety of six songs to now, montages (as a result of who in actual life can break into random steps in the course of Ooty or as occurred in a while, the Swiss Alps?) to reasonable conditions that make the track/dance plausible.
Like it’s in world cinema, ‘musicals’ will maybe change into a separate style right here too? From the period of MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar whose movies had 12-14 songs (if you happen to miss a dialogue, you’ll get a track as an alternative) to MGR/ Sivaji Ganesan movies (have you ever seen them dance Bharatanatyam, whereas sketching lions and elephants with their toes, in Mannadhi Mannan and Paattum Bharathamum respectively), classical dance was the ‘in thing’. But a Bharatanatyam-trained dancer-actor was unparalleled till Kamal Haasan entered the scene (his coaching in different dance varieties might be seen in Ok Vishwanath’s Salangai Oli).
Prabhudheva is maybe the one different ‘actor-hero’ to come back in with comparable coaching however who quickly shifted base camp to movie choreography to create his signature strikes. So a lot in order that even after 20 years of constructing individuals dance to his tunes, a Prabhudheva- choreographed quantity like a Rowdy Baby breaks worldwide information. This speaks of the magic a choreographer can create with an excellent hit quantity, aided by nice lead dancers. What’s life with no tune there and a step right here? Taking the freedom of including to Shakespeare, “If music (and dance) be the food of love, do play on!”
