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Chandralekha - The dancer who defied tradition

January 3, 2007
Sashi Kumar, chairman, Asian College of Journalism, managed something which no one else could; make Chandralekha choreograph a dance for his debut film Kaya Tharan.

He pays tribute to the legendary dancer and recalls his experiences of making a documentary on her for Doordarshan in the ’80s.

"It was in the late ’70swhen I was in Chennai that I saw Chandralekha first. It was a seminar on women's rights. I still remember I was bowled over by her sheer power and energy. There were many men who were making male chauvinistic comments but she brushed them all aside. It was quite a performance!

Only later I was introduced to quite a few of her dance performances and I found them all different and refreshing. We were brought up on the traditional form of Bharata Natyam but she challenged all that by using Natyasastra differently. The sense of the body was very strong in her works, especially of the female form, and her entire collection represented a 'body framework'.

And, she was criticised for that which many saw as something outside the religious framework. If you put sensuousness in the religious framework, it is accepted. Because what she did was outside the religious framework, it was labelled erotic. I would call her dances sensuous. When you secularise sensuousness, it becomes erotic.

I had done documentaries on her for Doordarshan. She had made it clear at our first meeting that the camera should not be focused on the feet or faces of the dancers. She wanted the camera to respect the architecture of her dance. She had told me, just capture my architecture. It took me a while to understand what she wanted. It was the ’80s and I was a lot younger and a lot more arrogant.

Initially I thought she had no business to tell me how to shoot. But one learnt to respect her space and time. After I filmed it and started editing it, I understood how well it had turned out. It was a humbling and learning experience for me.

Also read: The movie which Chandralekha choreographed

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