Malavika Sarrukai last year completed 40 years in dance. This year comes out a documentary on her journey, not just as a performer of Bharanatyam, but also as someone who has brought in new ideas to this old and hallowed dance form.
Directed by Sumantra Ghosal, the documentary — The Unseen Sequence - Exploring Bharatanatyam through the art of Malavika Sarukkai — claims to explore “not just the history of the dance, but also the connections and departures that Sarukkai makes from a hallowed and, often, unforgiving tradition. Thus, through her art, we see how Bharatanatyam is being re-interpreted, renewed and invigorated.”
The internationally acclaimed dancer had started learning dance at the young age of seven. She trained under Guru Kalayanasundaram of the Thanjavur school and Guru Rajaratnam of the Vazhuvoor school. She has also studied abhinaya under Guru Kalanidhi Narayanan and Odissi under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena.
The Padmashree awardee is not new to visual documentaries on her work. The government of India had commissioned a 40-minute documentary on her life and work called Samarpanam, which was made by the Films Division. She was also filmed by BBC and WNET (USA) for their 9-hour documentary Dancing, by German TV for ARTE and by Cinematheque of Dance, Paris.
Speaking on what was different in the film with Ghosal, Sarrukai says, “He was able to get into much more than just dance. He was able to touch the deeper pulse of dance. What propels me to dance? Why I do what I do? What I really appreciated was that he was letting the dance speak. That requires respect for the other artist and standing back a bit.” However, she also adds that he was “completely immersed in it, it was a discovery for him too.”
Sarrukai has choreographed Bharatnatyam performances on diverse themes, and critics have associated the term “innovative within tradition” with her. A foreign critic had observed, “Malavika’s most remarkable achievement is her ability to obey the rules of Bharatnatyam, yet bring non-specialist viewers close to its heartbeat by making every moment seem personal, spontaneous and even contemporary.” However, on the term “contemporary” being associated with her, she asks, “What is contemporary? I may have a contemporary mind with my work grounded in the classical.” The artist may have a contemporary take on something and translate those sensibilities through the classical, she adds.
Some of her noteworthy performances include Ganga: Nitya Vahini (The Eternal River). As it ends with the pollution in the river and a call of punar pavitra karega kaun (who will make it pure again), one critic called it “her most political piece ever”. However, she says it’s a human statement, not political, and she is not looking at it in a political way. Incidentally, the words punar pavitra karega kaun have been penned by her poetess-writer sister Priya Sarrukai Chhabria.
Coming back to The Unseen Sequence, the director Ghosal has said that he didn’t want to make Sarrukai perform just for the camera, as it would look staged. So he shot only live performances and used archival footage.
While talking to this newspaper about his experience with the film, the ad and documentary filmmaker said it was “enchanting, informative and educational”. “It was the kind of journey where you don’t know where you are going,” he said, adding that he didn’t choose the subject but the subject chose him.
Ghosal has earlier also made a documentary on tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain called zakir!. On his association with these two artistes, he says that both are extraordinarily gifted and
articulate people. He added that it was because of their articulate nature that “even an ignorant person like me can learn”.
That may be one small victory, but Sarruakai is concerned about the future of dance. “Right now, the solo artist in the performing arts is fighting hard,” she concedes. She says young dancers today are under a lot of pressure and are asking themselves, “Where are we going?”
In today’s world, the importance of classical dances like Bharatnatyam may not be immediately apparent, but Sarrukai says there is a profound in the classical, a deeper core we need to learn to listen to.
“One has to listen more carefully, it is not in your face. The world today is so noisy and aggressive that we are losing the quiet and flow. There is an intangible reality that we are also a part of. We have to prepare people to be able to listen to that,” she says.
The film will be screened at the Godrej Dance Theatre at National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) on September 19
at 6:30 pm