She is not credited in this clip, and she looked a bit different to me at first (maybe because, there’s no bharatanatyam makeup or fancy jewelry, and she’s certainly not smiling – not when the hero here is about to be hung…and it looks as though she might be doing a sort of suicide dance as well). But I do believe the dancer is Kamala Lakshman. And this dance is OMG incredible.
By the way, if you also happen to like heroic battle scenes, you get about 45 seconds of that first. This is the story of the Maruthu Brothers, who ruled the municipality of Sivagangai in the last quarter of the 18th Century. They fought the British and were executed in 1801.
The film was directed by K. Shankar, produced and written by Kannadasan.
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Very nice dance, it seems like it’s Kali inspired. Or maybe Chinnamasta inspired? I love the dramatic lights and the rain at the end.
Hi, Anda. Thank you for the comments on this one. I was hoping that someone would say a word about this dance, I think it is quite spectacular – as is Kamala Lakshman.
Your knowledge of Hindu mythology is probably more extensive than mine. However, yes, it could be Kali-inspired, or Chinnamasta-inspired.
Kamala Lakshman was a great dancer of bharatanatyam, and I think this shows her skills that come from that, but it’s also quite wild…
I guess we might also call this a tandava?