Dance Like a Man

I see a fair number of Bollywood movies (and this is not one, it is a dramatic story set in India, not a musical-format movie). In the Bollywood entertainment I love the singing and dancing, but also am aware that the dancing is at least in part derived from more exciting and powerful Indian dance forms. As much as I enjoy things as they are, I also often wish for the stronger medicine of the undiluted form as for me (non-Indian) the Indian-ness of Indian entertainment is part of what I am after.

Well -- here it is -- the real thing. In the course of telling a good story about a family where the parents are traditional dancers (the husband, who is less good, in defiance of his rich father's disapproval of this profession for a man), the movie allows us to witness well-filmed mind-blowingly fantastic performances by Shobana, who plays the mother and who is a stunningly talented dancer.

The kind of traditional dancing we see is called Bharata Natyam, and I easily found good information about it from a Google search, which you are better off doing yourself than having me try to summarize it.

The story, in brief: the fiancé of a modern Indian girl comes to visit her and her parents. The parents live in the museum-like house of the grandfather, who is now deceased (father's father).

During the visit a few things are going on: the girl is preparing, or being prepared by her mother, to give a big-deal dance performance, and we learn about her conflict about fulfilling her mother's dreams; and questions about the parents' history, and the reasons they stopped dancing, are bubbling to the surface. Artistic climaxes occur in grand performances by both the mother (in one of the flashbacks through which we gradually learn more of the family story) and the daughter. Dramatic climaxes I will leave to the viewer to experience when s/he sees this exceptional movie.

When the movie started I thought to myself -- oh! this is going to be another cliché on Indian society through the eyes of a foreigner. Well!! I was so wrong. Is it a cliché? Yes!! But a cliché only in the select traditional dance circles. For the rest of the audience the movie opens up the whole unseen world of the practitioners of Indian classical art-forms living in today's world.

The story, at a high level, is about a less popular bharatanatyam dancer couple and their daughter who is just about to have her arangetram (first public performance, after she is considered ready to perform by the guru). But the storyline that gradually unfolds touches on a multitude of issues in the area. At one level there are more standard themes like traditional minded father, wife more talented than the husband. With these the movie also brings forth themes more unique to this area -- the devadasi tradition, what does it mean for a man to be in a field often inhabited by women, politics of classical arts, conflicts between raising kids and pursuing dance, dreaming big for one's children especially by less successful parents, etc.

Besides the novelty of themes the other highlight of the movie is its screenplay. After a long time we are reminded of the parallel cinema-ish screenplay of the 80s where the characters are real and their conversations are real. The interpersonal relationships between father and son, father in law and daughter in law, daughter and her parents, would be husband and wife, etc. are all touched on with sensitivity and form an integral part of the story. Also, the brutal honesty of some of the statements stay. Comments like 'A woman in a man's field is progressive, a man in a woman's field is pathetic' or 'You are even jealous of your daughter', etc. leave a mark and give you food for thought till long after the movie is finished.

Shobhana has acted and danced brilliantly. Arif has acted well. The daughter and to-be-groom, Anoushka Shankar and Samir Soni, have played their roles well. They look like a very cute couple too :). Anoushka's American accent, however, did not seem apt in the context of the movie.

The direction and cinematography were average. But the movie carries and carries powerfully on the shoulders of the theme and screenplay and is a must-see for all people who are looking either for realistic movies or for people who are interested in getting an appreciation of the classical Indian arts (particularly dance) in the modern setup.

DANCE LIKE A MAN is a good off beat movie yet again based on a play by Mahesh Dattani and directed by Pamela Brooks who is foreigner who has empathy with Indian artistic traditions. This is the story of a dancing inter-caste married couple. The story winds around the daughter's debut (arengetram).. Shobana the talented Bharatanatyam dancer who acts as the mother, excels in the dance pieces and also in acting. Anouska Shankar (daughter of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar) was good foil with very natural uninhibited acting and good dance pieces. Mohan Agashe the veteran theater actor gives a cameo performance as the conventional father-in-law. The BN pieces are delightful to watch and the music by the talented Ganesh Kumersh the young violin duo was excellent. But the story is rather weak and the reason for the parents stopping their dance career due the traumatic death of their child (son) while the mother was performing in a dance concert is not much convincing. Many dance performers have children and they mange to combine art and family successfully.

All in all a good film and my vote of 7 out of 10 is mainly for the wonderful dance pieces both by Shobana and Anouska. This is not as powerful as MORNING RAGA , a film on Carnatic music, by Mahesh Dattani which had a stronger story.