Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Dance forms in rhythm with digital age

— Photo: R.Ragu

In harmony: Consul-General of Singapore Ajit Singh hands over the set of DVDs ‘When the Gods Dance’ to Bharatanatyam exponent Padma Subrahmanyam at a function held in Chennai on Monday. (From left) Managing director of Krishnaswamy Associates S.Krishnaswamy and one of the serial directors Gita Krishnaswamy are also in the picture.

CHENNAI: ‘When the Gods Dance,’ a set of 20 episodes of a television serial featuring South Indian classical art forms was released here on Monday amidst connoisseurs and performing artistes.

Produced by Krishnaswamy Associates, the television serial was telecast in Singapore TV-12, a unit of Mediacorp, Singapore, a decade ago in Tamil as ‘Aadalenum Jeevanadi.’ Speaking at the function, founder and managing director of Krishnaswamy Associates, S.Krishnaswamy, said that the serial won the ‘Creative Excellence Award’ of the U.S. International Film and Video Festival. This has now been brought out with audio commentary in English to reach out to the international audience. The DVDs of the serial feature the quintessence of the dance forms of South India.

The set of 10 DVDs with two episodes each was released by Consul General of Singapore Ajit Singh. Bharatanatyam exponent Padma Subrahmanyam and veteran dancer couple M.V.Narasimhachari and Vasanthalakshmi received the first few copies of the DVDs.

Commending the venture, Mr. Singh said such initiatives would facilitate strengthening of Singapore’s ties with India. A copy of the DVDs would be made available in a prominent institution in Singapore to be stored as a historical record. Appreciating the efforts of directors of ‘When the Gods Dance’ Lata Krishnaswamy and Gita Krishnaswamy, Ms. Subrahmanyam said the serial was a marvellous documentation of the dance forms, which would inspire younger generation to learn them. Besides its artistic value, the DVDs were also of historical value and need to be preserved in libraries.

One of the serial directors Lata Krishnaswamy said it depicted the grandeur of dance forms on celluloid through performance of 80 classical dancers in 20 episodes. She also shared her experience of working with ace cinematographer Madhu Ambat. Geethanjali Super Audio (Madras) will be involved in distribution of the DVDs.

Several of the artistes, who performed in the episodes, including Urmila Satyanarayana, Srikala Bharath and Mahalakshmi Narendra, also received copies of the episodes during the occasion. Mr. Narasimhachari, Ms. Vasanthalakshmi, the other director of the serial Gita Krishnaswamy and producer Mohana Krishnaswamy also spoke.

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