After seeing Ashok Kumar’s fabulous cinematography in the film, ‘Nenjathai Killadhae’, I thought to myself… if ever I made a film on my dance, he would be behind the camera. That day came sooner than I expected when I got a small grant from the Festival of India, Ministry of Culture.
I found Ashokji, as I later started addressing him, through friends in the film industry. I went to his house, introduced myself and explained my idea of a documentary on Bharatanatyam, featuring my dance. As luck would have it, he had a lull in his assignments and enthusiastically responded. His keen interest in an aesthetic venture impressed me a lot.
The story then went like this: I had to enlighten him about the core repertoire and content of Bharatanatyam, and he had to patiently explain to me what was considered good cinema. Those were the days (the 1980s) when he told me, if you wanted good quality, you had to shoot in 35 mm film. I told him I had to look like a beautiful dancer, not a movie star. I also wanted to perform in familiar locations without restriction in space.
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Ashokji took pains to instruct me on the make-up suitable for close-up shots. I also taught myself how to use subtle facial expressions without theatrical exaggerations for the probing eye of a movie camera. I knew that even a simple twitch could look grotesque on screen. And when I said I liked natural light, he was delighted, and asked me to buy some special filters for his camera from London.
The journey of scripting and making the documentary, ‘Poetry of Dance’, was not only hard work for both of us but also an exciting prospect, artistically for me. He would patiently explain the whole process of filming dance. Recording the music was the first big step, with my sister Charumathi Ramachandran providing her signature classic dance repertoire.
The real battle for me was doing short sequences, stopping and then doing a re-take of the same, at least four or five times. For Ashokji, five takes were minimal. For me, the idea of repeating was not so easy because I believe in the beauty of spontaneity in dance. I had to learn to do the repeats without losing sight of my idea of fluidity in presentation.
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Ashokji had to see each bit to decide lighting and angles. It is no wonder, I thought, that one song in a regular movie takes many days to be completed.
We shot indoors, in temples, by the seashore, and even captured the sacred space of the Chidambaram Nataraja temple. In a strange coincidence, when I explained the idea of the padam, ‘Krishna Née Beganae Baro,’ Ashokji, who had not seen Satyajit Ray's film on Balasaraswati, suggested we shoot outdoors in a garden in Ooty. I was sceptical because I did not like the seashore version of Ray's film.
Ashokji said: “No, don't worry. It will look like the green meadows of Brindavan and Mathura!” He loved Ooty. So did I. But to dance in the gardens... that was a daunting task. The result was, however, quite amazing as the camera had caught something quite poetic in look and texture.
After shooting each schedule, Ashokji would send me to the lab to edit. Oh dear! What a task that was! With veteran editor Vijayan to guide me, I would sit in a dark room with a rattling machine for hours... truly, it was a labour of love. I learnt a lot the hard way. But when I saw the rushes after each shooting session, I understood why Ashokji was the master craftsman he was.
Recently, I released ‘Poetry of Dance’ as a DVD. During the launch, we could not get Ashokji as he was not keeping good health. Rajiv Menon, the ace cameraman, did the honours and spoke succinctly about our film. He explained to the audience how Ashokji had toiled hard and put his heart and soul into the film and captured the essence of Bharatanatyam as no other film has done. He also pointed out how difficult it is to film dance without sacrificing its authentic nuances. It was an eye opener for all.
Well, I think in ‘Poetry of Dance’, we achieved more than we had planned to thanks to Ashokji. It is indeed an authentic record of Bharatanatyam in rich colour, a visually engaging film which does justice to the idea of good cinema.
A great artist, Ashokji will always find a special place in my life in dance.
(The writer is an eminent Bharatanatyam dancer. The DVD of the documentary, ‘Poetry of Dance,’ is marketed by Swathi Soft Solutions)