Shankaraabharanam –

Shankarabharanam – is one of the best films I have ever seen and also one of the beautiful raagas in Karnatik music I have tasted so far.

The raaga goes like this – S R2 G2 M1 P D2 N2, forgive me for English representation of the notes, but I eased it out for non-karnatik readers.  They actually stand for Shadjamam, Chatusruthi Rishabham, Anthara Gandharam, Suddha Madhyamam, Panchamam, Chatushruthi Daivatham, Kakali Nishadam.  This is a Janya raaga and hence has the same reverse trail and the note positions when it is traversing down the octave.

Its really great to see that K Vishwanath could have imagined the name of the movie to be ‘Shankaraabharanam’.  It has got all the characteristics of a wonderful movie, the plot, the technical details, the screenplay, the music which is omnipresent in Indian movies, interesting characters and wonderful histrionics by the actors, and what not – you name it! you will see in the splendid rainbow that was weaved on the celluloid

Shankaraabharanam means actually the ornament of lord shiva.  It is so obvious that given the Hindu mythology we have Lord Shiva wearing a Snake around his neck.  It symbolises evil and at the same time its an ornament to the God.  This reasons out to be the sole reason behind the movie in my perspective.  I understood it that way and actually quite frankly convinced few people as well to my reasoning. I can do that actually! quite easily

The story is set up on the sacred banks of Godavari, and is about scholar who has seen the utmost glory as a Musician par excellence when there was patronage for the traditional south indian karnatik music.  Later, that has fallen down and reached a new nadir when people mistook Indian classical music for something bad and of no value.  I would oppose that any time. 

Shankarasaastry the protagonist, the scholar whose glory years are effectively captured in this cinema, also show him struggling to make his ends meet but still sticking to his values and ethics and blindfold approach towards respecting the Godess of Learning and Music.  

Now, the analogy could be seen between the name and the movie and let me begin convincing you .  The story starts with a kid being shown travelling in a boat alongside his mother and reaching the place considered as a heaven by the kid’s mother.  It would be revealed later as the place where she met Shankarasaastry and enjoyed the bliss of listening to his renditions of raagas and feel that taala and achieve the ‘tanmayatvam’.  The mother of the child, expects rightfully to have her kid also have the same bliss and achieve new heights under the tutelage of the guru.  Certain scenes stand out in depicting the importance of a teacher and hence the knowledge flow between the guru and the sishya – so much an embodiment of Indian culture and ethos.  

The kid is born out of a struggle that haunts this mother in the film and is considered to be of lower value as she was born to a prostitute and hence had her life sealed to her fate – clinging on precarious decisions and whims of her care takers and the landlords.  She opposes that and feels the dance form of art is a way to have pleasure rather than the worldly pleasures.  She is so amazed by the learned scholar in Shankarasaastry and thinks to attain that bliss by listening to his music and dancing to his tunes in her fantasies.  This was a true mélange of Dance and Music, two of the best things India has got to offer for you.  The kid is born out of one of the struggles the life of a woman who could not fight for herself.  This is where Vishy had an amazing scene depicting the importance of progeny and mutate the child’s unwanted genes and what a wonderful mother could do – gift the world to her child and enjoy seeing him play with the world.

There is a wonderful display of emotions and an amazing sense of artisan in delivering the background music and the scores for the film.  They both gel so well you wont stop listening to the music even after the film has ended. Many of my generation movie watchers havent seen this movie and I feel maybe we were born a little late.  My mother used to tell me of stories how parents were motivated to send their children to learn the knowledge of music and imbibe that bit of peacefulness in their daily routene.  

There is another interesting scene which is for all the music lovers, ‘Music is divine, whether its western or classical…Everybody and anybody can take a sip of the divine water and have bliss’.  Any aesthetic and art loving mind would appreciate the beauty in which the scenes are depicted, the meaning it carries and above all the divinity of music being shown in each frame.

I was amazed and mouth left agape looking at this movie and still feel something is fresh and rejuvenating after a time.  I would see this movie in the coming years as well and I seriously can say it will definetely not bore me.

Such is the beauty of a nice movie, and why not a blog about it was the thought I had when I started to write this thing.