aaja nach le

yashraj has done it again- delivered another half baked attempt at filmmaking..
AAJA NACH LE was a film i looked forward to since dance as a theme is intriguing and madhuri dixit the only one who could possibly communicate through the medium as she 'understands' it completely.
If only yashraj films could have understood a fact as simple as one that attempting to convey a medium as sensitive as dance is not everyones; cup of tea..
Jaideep sahni seems to have begun taking the acccolades coming his way pretty seriously. Its evident that he has not a clue about art-about dance and music.... its the one thing that cannot be attempted by a logical, analytical mind...

The movie doesnt touch a chord at all... the most important thing...the music...its more suited to a regular run of the mill film... the music in this case should be soulful and gut wrenching which it isnt.

Dance at a purely physical levelmay be exercise for most but at an emotional level it gives a person a reason to be... improving the self esteem and in most cases connecting one with the unknown, the divine...
group dancing helps pepole bond socially, help cope with stress, anger, loss and in motivating...heps in reaching out to the world, to life and is extremely calming...

for one to be so committed to the form and to the guru that she drops everything to rush to fulfil his dream of resurrecting the dance theater in the town is wonderful but one cant see a shred of exhilaration, joy or sensitivity.. or a oneness with the divine anywhere...
most dancers are strangely calm, peaceful and passionate...there is love and compassion flowing through their body language and expressions and thats what diferentiates madhuri from the rest of actresses...s he truly 'dance; ...her movements are enchanting and you know that the fluidity, the perfection stems from pure unadulterated love, the grace that creates poetry comes from a devotional sense as opposed to what the others do- exercise...

where in the film did we see anysuch emotion....the girl seems more like a crusader...
after having done a show and igniting the love for dance in many hearts, walks away.. why not show her as a committed woman who stays on for a while, ensuring that the passion, appreciation for art does not die with just one show...

the lady seemd too much in control, too stiff and too sharp...lacking in softness, in sensitivity and tranquility...

the songs wree out of place and forgettable..
someone who has gone though the 'guru-shishya parampara' for years as they hve shown... is more likely to sing and dance to a blend of the traditional and contemporaary...
the opening piece of the guru teaching his shishyas should have been soul searching and a raga would have been more appropriate...
the film was devoid of any warmth and there was absoutely no emphasis on the importance of dance...
the relationship the heroine had with dance might have been explored a little...
it seemed as if it was simply her commitment to the guru- a kind of payback that had to be done...
there was absolutely no need to show that she had eloped with a foreigner... what might have been more appropriate had she defied her parents and gone abroad to pursue the finer nuances of dance.... that would have established the seriousness towards her mission to restore the theater in her home town..

the relationship with the guru too was strangely not explored enough....strange as this was the crux of the whole darned exercise, wasnt it?

being a dancer myself, let me asssure you, there is a uniqueness to the art... it fills you with great love and compassion, pateience and understanding of divine love...
why else is music and dance used as therapy?.. obviuosly because it can heal and evolve in ways unimaginable....but does that sureness, that feeling comes across in the commitment that brought the lady all the way down to india?

no wonder it was such ia flop....
a suggestion- do not attempt things that you are not at one with...
no amount of research on such a subject can ever work...
its time big production houses and star writers realized it and spared us the mockery ...

charcoal sketches - my dancing shiva

Color me with love

Reds, pinks, blues, violets and yellows…. Irresistibly vibrant, colorful, bright and happy. HAPPY is what they make me feel….and happiness is what they are known to bring to our lives.
When I think of colors, I smile. I want to break into a dance , burst into a song… It makes me think of laughter, sunshine…warmth, and lots of love.
I color my life with tons of optimism, a never-say-die attitude, plenty of laughter and loads of passion. Living life passionately comes naturally to me, [thank the lord!]
Be it walking my ‘duggas’- [ that’s my lingo for my pet dogs], sketching, limping my way to shop for veggies [ I have a severe knee injury], blogging, singing, rustling up a dish, watching a play .. I do it joyously, making it the very reason for my life and quite honestly, I always end up enjoying it all. And I want to suggest it to all you guys out there- do it completely or don’t do it at all. Not only does such an attitude keep you on a constant high, it infuses life and joy into all those you come into contact with…

A half hearted approach towards things kind of dulls things around me... i can sit for hours, simply dreaming- but I assure you, its also done with great focus and loads of emotion. :)

Doing things with feeling leaves us more enriched as we are ever so ready to soak up all things new and it teaches us the one lesson we spend our entire lives trying to learn but never really do…which is to never lose hope , to shake off the dust and stand up after a fall --- even more charged and raring to go.

Colors do that to us - they help brighten up our lives –bringing cheer, sparkle, hope. Daring us to dream, and then pushing us to realize them……….
lets throw lots of colors into our lives- paint it with kind words, gentle touches, laughter, childlike innocence, understanding, ..a warm hug here n there ...and bingo! its HOLI every day!

understanding sound

I'm almost impelled to reinvent the term 'choreography'....
Apalling is the way songs are choregraphed in cinema. Barring a few dancers who have developed the rare art of understanding and mastering the slick 'shiamak davar' style of dance, the rest need to understand what choreography really is...

First, its never really about dancing. Sure, dance is one part of it but yes, certainly not the gyrating and pelvic thrusting kind of dance that is passed off as belly dancing.
These are art fors that need to be respected independently...but why must we almost always have the usual attrocious mix of acrobatics and a distorted form of Indian dance which interprets no form?

Dance is actually about being rhythmic... about truly relating to the sound and responding stylishly....its about being in sync with that sound and rhythm.... its about adding something to the song...beautifying it.. moving your body -letting it understand the sound and feel and allowing it to react.... then simply fine tuning that movement into something artistic and graceful. The body while dancing, should give the feel of a fluidity, a sense of liberation, a dignity and poise that can never be trained. When we dance, we surrender to the soul responding to the sound - a love for the sound... unspoken, untouched, raw and divine...
Which is perhaps why Hrithik is always a delight to watch... he takes you to heights unexplored with his grace. No matter how complicated the movements maybe, yet his natural ease and dignity make it graceful and lyrical.
However, choreography is not about dancing always.
Its about depicting an emotion with subtlety. Using different things to interpret the emotion, the mood, about capturing the moment using music and sometimes simply the sounds of nature like the rains, rippling of the water in the river.... the gushing and whistling of the breeze....
things need not be theatrical...they can be sensitive and quiet as well. Soetomes simply the echoing of distant birds in the silence.
Music and choreography is to be used to capture a moment- enhancing it.
'Ek ladki ko dekha to aisa laga...' from '1942, a love story' is one such piece of choreography or the recent hrithik number 'dhoom again' in Dhoom 2 that is brilliant and artistically done...
Can we have more of such kind please?