Sehar fearlessly looks into her father’s eyes and says, ‘I want to dance on film music.’ Pandit Harinarayan Sharma’s eyes turn red and he replies, ‘No, there is no rhythm in his music and dance.’ Sehar holds her hand and asks, ‘Tell me, how can there be any music and dance without rhythm?’ Sharma, who is a highly respected guru and a strict protector of the family dance tradition. They want to preserve their heritage with utmost devotion. He believes that everything outside the classical tradition is hollow and soulless, with no place in his home. But he doesn’t have an answer to Sahar’s question. They go away silently. Bound by strict discipline, Sahar’s life runs only on the traditional and difficult beats of her father’s drum. That’s why Sehar has to live a painful double life. She is caught between two worlds: secretly exploring the free energy of modern dance and, out of duty and fear, binding herself back to the rigid rules of classical training. One day Sharma catches Sehar performing on film music. And from here, both the actors Annette D’Souza (Sahar) and Kashvi Aggarwal (Pandit Sharma) explain their story to the audience through spectacular dance movements instead of the usual dialogues in the 90-minute dance-drama show ‘Parde Mein Rehne Do’. I saw this show on Saturday night. His act reminded me of ‘Kalpana’, the offbeat masterpiece of 1948 and truly India’s first dance film. There are many interesting similarities between the film’s hero, who was also a real-life hero, Padma Vibhushan awardee Uday Shankar and D’Souza. Apart from playing the lead role in the film, Shankar also wrote the screenplay, directed it and choreographed every dance sequence. His real life story was also reflected in his on-screen performance. The way his character in the film struggles to build an artistic academy was similar to his journey to build the Almora Center in Uttarakhand. Although this institute, started in 1938, had to be closed in 1942 due to lack of funds, he later established the Uday Shankar Center for Dance in Kolkata in 1965. This visionary dancer created this academy to promote his unique ‘creative dance’ style, which blends traditional Indian dance forms with modern European stage-craft. His institutions trained many great artists like Ravi Shankar, Guru Dutt and Zohra Sehgal. Similarly, D’Souza, who plays the show’s producer, choreographer and Sahar, reaches a point where she is unable to hide her true identity. She tries to seek her father’s blessings, but he does not accept her change and turns his back on her. Despite being sad, Sahar does not give up and steps out alone from the only world she had known till now. But isolation sometimes brings extraordinary creativity. Never letting her passion die down, Sahar skillfully combines the strong technique of her classical training with the freedom of modern dance. And thus is born a brilliant, highly individual semi-classical style. D’Souza’s dance-drama explores the struggles of today’s youth who want to choose unconventional professions. Our youth are like that single stream, which has been flowing for generations in a narrow channel of stone and suddenly breaks that old rock. Instead of tying them to a permanent job, let them flow like a stream, which becomes a wonderful waterfall by mixing its historical flow with the natural landscape. This captivating performance of ‘Parde Mein Rehne Do’ beautifully showcases the emotional journey of a young artiste who breaks the rigid walls of tradition and finds her freedom and her own sky. It’s a reminder that we should give the same freedom to the youth. The bottom line is that giving children the freedom to pursue bold dreams can lead to artistic success. Physical buildings like Uday’s Academy can be broken, but the true ‘imagination’ and the unbreakable spirit of art can never be destroyed.
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N. Raghuraman’s Column: Why can’t soft eyes dream heavy dreams?
