Bala
1976, India. 33 min, Documentary, Color
Summary
This short documentary film is portrait of a dancer of Bharata Natyam, Balasaraswati. Balasaraswati affectionately called Bala was one of the greatest exponents of Bharata Natyam. It was produced by National Centre for the Performing Arts and Government of Tamil Nadu. The film features extended dance recitals by Bala.
"The highlight of my experience was, of course, the shooting of the musical items. We had decided to include two: a padam to display her mime and her singing, and a varnam to reveal the full range of her dancing. For the first we chose the ineffable Krishnani Begane Baro which I had seen her perform forty years ago, and on every subsequent occasion that she appeared in Calcutta. I had planned to shoot it in a seaside location and had found a beautiful, secluded beach about twenty
miles from Madras on the way to Mamallapuram. I felt the open-air setting and the natural light would be a nice contrast to the varnam which I was going to shoot in artificial light in the studio against a black backdrop.
As we arrived on the beach on the day of the shooting (which happened to be our last day in Madras), I found a fairly strong breeze blowing. I asked Bala with some trepidation if this would interfere with her dancing. “Oh no,” she said, “I can manage.” And manage she did. I can think of no other dancer who can use her hand so that it serves the needs of abhinaya one moment, and comes down in a graceful arc the next to restrain a billowing sari."
As we arrived on the beach on the day of the shooting (which happened to be our last day in Madras), I found a fairly strong breeze blowing. I asked Bala with some trepidation if this would interfere with her dancing. “Oh no,” she said, “I can manage.” And manage she did. I can think of no other dancer who can use her hand so that it serves the needs of abhinaya one moment, and comes down in a graceful arc the next to restrain a billowing sari."
Satyajit Ray
Working with Bala
Credits
| Producer: | National Centre for Performing Arts, Bombay and Govt. of Tamil Nadu |
| Script, commentary and direction: | Satyajit Ray |
| Cinematography: | Soumendu Roy |
| Editing: | Dulal Dutta |
| Sound: | S. P. Ramanathan, Sujit Sarkar |
| Music: | Satyajit Ray |
