Colors: White , a short film written and directed by AK Srikanth, was released last weekend on YouTube. Second in a trilogy, the film features Srikanth’s partner Savitha Sastry, a Bharatanatya exponent, and uses dance as a form of narrative.
In September 2020, the duo released the first part, titled Colors: Green, which was dedicated to Srikanth’s mother. “ Colors: White ,” says Savita, “is more like my biography. The film is titled so, because it is based on the three colours of our National Flag — saffron white and green. It is to examine whether the ideals represented by each colour have an equal bearing on the women in India. Colors: Green talked about the prosperity of the mind or the freedom to choose.”
Savitha then explains that the Colors: White “stands for peace and truth. Here the story uses the form of dance to examine a woman who dares to stand true to her beliefs, and pursues it despite the varied reactions around her. In doing so, she finally finds her peace. In some way the film talks about my own journey and how I broke away from the confines of the traditional form of Bharatanatya, and paved my own path — of completely changing the narrative structure without compromising on the technical aspects of the form.”
Dance, she reiterates, is a traditional art form. In that system, there is an implicit understanding that you will honour what you are taught. So, this became autobiographical. “In the sense that I started off by never questioning the system at all... but when I started examining the tradition, some aspects did not sit well with me.”
She adds, “ Colors: White juxtaposes the life of a woman today, with the visions that our founding fathers had when India got its Independence. This is the second part of the trilogy. The story looks at the Colour ‘White’ from the protagonist’s view.”
The short film features dance sequences choreographed by Savitha and has bagged a few awards, besides being nominated for Best Director categories at the Paris Film Festival, France, and at the New Wave Short Film Festival, Germany.
