Recent Film Classical Dance Finds

And...I'm back! :) Some personal matters have kept me away for a long time, but a moment of inspiration and deciding that my posts don't all have to be lengthy mini-dissertations led to a new post finally, yay! I've gathered a collection of some new classical dance finds in Indian films from the past few years as well as the exciting posting of some songs from Sringaram! Enjoy...

Sringaram (2007, Tamil) - It's been ten years since the devadasi period film Sringaram released, and while there is still no DVD or online release of all the songs or the whole film, director Sharada Ramanathan gave us a yet another glimmer of hope on her Facebook page this past March and June when she said that due to continued interest in the film it would be "out in the public domain soon" and "soon be with a main global network for all to see" with directions to "watch this space" to be informed when. Back in 2015 she had announced a summer DVD release after a Doordarshan telecast brought great interest in the film, but nothing materialized. But this time around, I'm apt to believe something will happen given the appearance online in the last few months of songs and dances from the film. For a throwback to my past posts about Sringaram, I reviewed the film back in 2010 (note that I need to replace all my photobucket-hosted photos on my blog, ugh!) and also wrote about its dance sequences.

"Three Seasons" - Posted to Sharada's YouTube account in April, "Three Seasons" features Saroj Khan's unusually on-beat choreography that is characteristic throughout the film, and trained Bharatanatyam dancers Aditi Rao Hydari and Hamsa Moily perform the Bharatanatyam and Odissi sourced and inspired movements beautifully in elegantly simple practice saris. I find it mesmerizing...

The lovely group procession dance sequence made an appearance last fall on Facebook as well here:
https://www.facebook.com/padminiravidance/videos/439542313099885/

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9 comments A White Chick, Aditi Rao Hydari, Anushka, Hamsa Moily, Kamal Hassan, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Manisha Koirala, Meghana Raj, Rukmini Vijayakumar, Sandhya Raju, Trisha, Vineeth

My Latest Collection of Lesser-Known Film Classical Dances

I'm happy to present my latest collection of classical-oriented dances I've found recently (or have been holding onto for a while) that are either lesser known or have been difficult to track down. Enjoy!

"Vikraama Rajendra" - Bhakta Kuchela (Malayalam, 1961) - Attention!! New Kamala Lakshman material starting at 5:00!  I originally talked about this song on my post about my favorite twin dances and the only version online at the time was quite poor in quality and ended abruptly.  I since got a hold of the original film and also what appears to be a Kannada dub and was amazed that the Kannada version adds about two minutes of extra footage of a third Manipuri dance that's missing from the Malayalam version!  The only downside is that it cuts a little bit of footage off from the beginning, so I included the beginning from the Mallu version and the rest from the Kannada version to create a complete whole. The old uploader had split the original song into two pieces so that is all taken care of as well. I am 100% convinced the taller dancer is Kamala Lakshman, and Richard of the Dances on the Footpath blog suggested the shorter dancer might by Kuchala Kumari.  So enjoy the two minutes of Kamala Lakshman material you've probably never seen before!

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7 comments A White Chick, Anoushka Shankar, Bharatanatyam, Kamala, Kathakali, Malayalam, Mohiniattam, Odissi, Roshan Kumari, Vineeth

Film Classical Dances of Vineeth

For some time, I've been curious to find all of Vineeth's classical dance numbers in film.  From what I've seen, he seems to be the best male classical dancer in Indian films, certainly surpassing the much more well-known Kamal Hassan.  Trained in Bharatanatyam from a young age and an award winner at Kerala youth festivals, he was clearly very talented from the start!

But there didn't seem to be that many film dances available of him, and I figured there must be hidden treasures lying in the archives of Malayalam cinema featuring such a great dancer.  Online resources and interviews weren't any help and only alluded to many unnamed films that contained his dances.  Even his official website is sparse and defunct.  So, I went on one of my obsessive research journeys through Vineeth's filmography and tracked down all of the DVDs and online clips available.  Imdb.com's filmography isn't complete, but malayalasangeetham.info helped fill in the rest (and is a fantastic resource for older Malayalam films that I learned of at the Old Malayalam Cinema blog).

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14 comments Bharatanatyam, Jyothika, Kathakali, Kavya Mahadevan, Male Dance, Vidya Balan, Vineeth

Classical Dance Practice Scenes/Songs in Indian Films

There is something charming and beautiful about classical dance practice numbers in Indian films. Perhaps it's the unassuming and flattering cotton sari wrapped around the dancer's body; I've always liked plain saris a bit more than the full, complicated costume. Or maybe it's the everyday, unadorned, simple nature of the dance that adds to its beauty. Or it could be that the dances often gets closer to their classical roots in this format. Whatever it is, I'm simply a huge fan of them in films.

Below is a list of all 34 practice numbers I can think of in Indian films where the purpose of the song or scene is not "performance" but rather informal "practice" overall. It's interesting how many of them are from the 80s and 90s, the seeming "golden era" of this type of classical performance in film. The videos below are listed in rough order of awesomeness, favorites first. If you can make it all the way to the end, consider yourself a classical dance nerd like me! (Or maybe it's just list-making nerd?) Enjoy!

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27 comments Aditi Rao Hydari, Bhanupriya, EV Saroja, Girish Karnad, Jayapradha, Kamal Hassan, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Manju Bhargavi, Mohanlal, Mohiniattam, Practice Dance, Rekha, Revathy, Shobana, Sudha Chandran, Vineeth