Najar Tori Raja - Jai Gangaajal | Richa Sharma | Salim

Get, Set , Dance

Now that the promotions are ongoing for Jai Gangajal (Gangajal2), my fans often ask me how my experience was different from my stage performance. So here, I am putting my experiences before you.

Unlike my actual dance performance, on the sets the dance is broken up given the angular views, cuts and retakes that are so normal and routine to the film making process. Though I’m not much used to it – any experience that’s new is fun and I’m not the one to complain.

Another thing I liked about movie making was that when you’re in front of the camera, and nearly 20 people or more are looking at you at the same time – I found it amusing. On the stage, I’m the boss and on the sets I translate the Director’s vision into myperformance. This sets up my benchmarks on a higher level than before.

Discussing with the Director, the Choreographer and the Set Director about their expectations and their visualization of the scene is extremely important to fuse all that magic into my dance and rhythm. 

ORIGIN OF DANCE AND BOLLYWOOD UNDERTONES

“When the world was steeped in disillusion, Brahma the Creator was asked by the people to create an Art that was to entertain and enlighten, an art that was to be seen and heard by all, as the Vedic Scriptures were too grave and ambiguous to be understood and enjoyed by one and all.”      

Bharatiya Natyashastra

Therefore the creation of dance performance for the masses came into existence, which is the Bharatiya Natyashastra, a sacred treatise on dance.

Dancing is crucial to India, because dance is such an important part of the Indian psyche. The Hindu faith which is regarded as being a way of life states that the very Universe was created through the dance of Lord Shiva, and that its preservation, destruction and further creation is all part of the harmonious dance of Lord Shiva as Nataraja, the Lord of the Dance.

     

Bollywood films as a medium brought various dance forms to the masses. In a vast subcontinent like India, Bollywood at one time was the sole ambassador of all the classical forms especially to dancers who did not have access to see and learn many dance forms because of their geographic location or cultural background.       

Bollywood dance, is often set to songs which are potent with meaning. Hence the dance, while being fun and energetic and an amalgamation of various styles from all over the world, has to retain its original gestural language, in order to express the lyric content of the song, which will then bring the story or mood of the film to the desired level. In Bollywood movies, the dancer or the actor has to feel, interpret and act the storyline or the lyric content of the song to take the story forward. 

     

For my item song “Jai Gangajal” that was what was desired of me and that’s precisely what I did. I was my natural self and was seamlessly woven into the film with ease. Admittedly, cinematic dance requires lots of takes and retakes it has been a wonderful experience so far.

DANCE AGAIN !!

I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God. Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired

So dance you must and actually enjoy the whole experience. Approach dance as a way to relax yourself. You’ll get to understand the difference very soon. Also remember that, you have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive.