Dance Master Kala in Rahmania - Part II I have always found it comfortable to work with Director Balachander Sir, who is my Guru. He is my favourite and I am very comfortable working with him. He encourages women a lot and help them grow in their career. I havent received any scoldings from him till date, and on the other hand he has pointed at me thereby praising him and idolising at me.
I have worked with Suhasini Maniratnam in Indra. Acham Acham Illai song was done by me. Its a very beautfiful song, and can never be forgotten in life. The speciality with Rahman Sir is that he gives us something which we would not have thought of. There is no greatness in giving a song which everyone would have thought of. Many Music Directors compose music,and we can predict that they would follow a particular style, but with Rahman Sir, it would be entirely different between what we think and what he does. His songs become more and more likeable as we keep hearing them again and again. When I met Suhasini Maam in her office, I listened to the song there and started liking it at the first instance, as I also do have lot of patriotic feelings in me. The shooting of this song was done at a place far off from Tambaram, with a group of students whom I organised with. Each and every word of that song was enjoyable and gave a different experience and happiness. We would have given formations similar to butterfly and also similar to India Map. Ratchagan - Soniya Soniya In that film, all choreographers took more than 12 days for finishing the song. There were some Union problems during that time, and hence they decided to shoot the film in Hyderabad. They told me that they would give me just 5 days for getting the song done. I was very upset and it was Nagarjuna Sir, who gave me comfort by saying that he had faith in me and we would do it very well. Rahman Sir didnt give us the full song, but gave us an outline of the track. He gave a lot of beauty to our movements through that song. In the BGMs also, he had just given an outline without the violins etc. I observe all his violin works with proper care, before I compose my dance sequences. I can never forget the way the song came out and also the dance sequence. Vande Mataram It was an opportunity which literally came to me, but went off from me, for which I really feel bad. It was Mr. Bala from Bombay who did the shooting of the song. They came to Chennai and discussed everything with me and left to Mumbai. I think the main problem was that they felt that the song would have suited well if it would have been done by Mumbai Choreographers. Then Mrs. Bala called on me ( I have done a lot of ads for them before ) and said that they wanted some North Indian Choreographers who would be doing it to suit it better. Its the only song which I always think I have missed doing choregraphy. You take any songs till date, but a song like Vande Mataram can never be done. Similarly, for Kalaignar Karunanidhi's Function, there was a dance programme, where Rahman Sir was standing in a corner and singing. I felt that it was like a shooting experience to me. Almost many songs of his, I used to feel that I could have done the same. Even in Telugu movies, I have done some movies of His. Many Actors & Actresses used to be scary of Rahman Sir's songs, with the belief that it would be really tough to dance to his tunes. Even big and senior choreographers have opined that its very tough to understand the beats in his songs. But, I always like his songs and always select his songs when I do stage performance. I have done Margazhi Thingal from Sangamam on stage, and it was a great opportunity to me. I learnt a lot from Rahman Sir about his humility, and try to imbibe his qualities. Even now, after we met in Filmfare Awards, he greets everyone with simplicity with love and care. -- regards, Vithur
