Latest news with #Vidhya
Time of India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Mrs & Mr Movie Review: Misguided attempt at adult comedy falls flat
The Times of India TNN, Jul 11, 2025, 1:11 PM IST 1.5 Mrs & Mr Movie Synopsis : A couple in their forties faces marital trouble when the wife wants a baby and her husband doesn't. Mrs & Mr Movie Review: Vanitha Vijayakumar wears multiple hats for her directorial debut–writer, director, producer, and lead actor–but perhaps should have delegated a few. The film centers on a middle-aged couple Vidhya (Vanitha) and Arun ( Robert ) whose marriage hits the rocks over having children. She's worried about her biological clock ticking away; he's dead set against parenthood. It's actually a relevant topic that plenty of couples face today. But here's where things go south. The adult comedy tag apparently meant throwing in crude jokes that land with a thud rather than exploring mature themes with any real insight. The characters don't feel like actual people–they're just walking, talking plot devices spouting dialogue that makes you cringe. Every interaction grates, every comedic beat falls flat, and you're left wondering how a potentially meaningful story got buried under such sloppy execution. The relationship dynamic is deeply uncomfortable–Arun displays this weird childish masochism, almost enjoying being pushed around, while Vidhya dishes out rough treatment that's supposed to pass for comedy. When jokes fall this flat, you're stuck watching characters who just There are also one too many songs that don't help. Then the second half detours to Andhra for some throwback adult comedy featuring Shakeela and an Ilaiyaraaja song? The entire thing felt spliced in from another movie altogether. You can see what Vanitha was going for–addressing late motherhood, aging anxieties, and marital conflicts. These are real issues worth exploring. But wanting to say something important doesn't make it worth watching, and Mrs & Mr proves that brave choices can't salvage sloppy filmmaking. Written By: Abhinav Subramanian
The Hindu
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
‘It's lovely to be a dancer at any time,' says Bharatanatyam artiste Vidhya Subramanian
The term 'classical' has gained a whole new meaning in today's world. Boundaries have become porous and artistes are redefining the genre in their own distinct way. While collaborations reign high in music, Bharatanatyam exponents have started showcasing the classical form's flexible core. Even its time-tested repertoire (margam) is being reinterpreted to accommodate newer perspectives. Add to this, the increased reach through social media and technological intervention. It seems like a great time to be a dancer. Ask Vidhya Subramanian, and pat comes the reply: 'It is lovely to be a dancer at any time.' Explaining her response, Vidhya, who has done her Masters in Theatre Arts, says: 'I have danced under the complete guidance of my guru S.K. Rajarathnam, when terms such as 'viral' and 'views' did not exist. Now, I dance in an AI-driven era, with the liberty to ideate and implement. A creative individual will thrive in any period, through any trend. My generation of dancers is more fortunate, though. We sit on the cusp of tradition and innovation, deriving the best from both.' Amid rehearsals, Vidhya reflects on how the dichotomies of life — progress and rootedness, silence and sound — energise her. This very thing also fuels 'Damaru', her first major production after she shifted base from the U.S. to India. 'Post pandemic, I returned to Chennai to reconnect with the culture that has defined my journey. It is then that this production began to take shape.' 'Damaru' was originally designed by Vidhya as a solo margam piece. She later decided to elaborate on the idea and turn it into an ensemble work. The piece emerged from a discussion she had many years ago with dance-scholar S. Jayachandran on balance and imbalance. It set her thinking. Finally, in Shiva's damaru, she found a connection to the conversation. 'What struck me about the instrument was not the sound, but the shape. It helped me visualise the concept of duality – the confluence of feminine and masculine energies. Also, how opposites permeate our lives in different ways, and how we try finding balance through them. Four compositions in the production bring alive these thoughts.' Today, most classical choreographies exhibit the fluid relationship between codified and experimental movement vocabularies. Most dancers work on rare, expansive sequences. 'But dance is not about constant movement. On the contrary, one should also look for moments of stillness — kaarvai — in dance. Pauses often convey more,' says Vidhya, who trained in abhinaya under the inimitable Kalanidhi Narayanan. Vidhya's aim behind establishing Sparsh Arts Foundation, under whose aegis 'Damaru is being presented, was to create a pedagogical space where diverse influences and ideas inhabit. 'Right from 1991, when I started the Lasya Dance Company in California, I wanted to play the role of a catalyst — shaping the artistic philosophies of young mentees. Amidst distractions and pressures of modern life, you have to help them hold on to the art and make them realise its beauty and power.' Vidhya, who has choreographed 12 works before she took up 'Damaru', feels the approach to choreography has 'transformed tremendously', from relying on predetermined narrative and emotional content to being informed by one's study, research and observation. 'You piece the work together like building blocks. But a production never feels fully constructed, it is always a work in progress. After every show, you are tempted to revisit and make some changes.' Apart from Vidhya, who leads the ensemble, 'Damaru' features seven dancers (Anahita Chaliha, Anisha Parameswaran, Archa Shajukumar , Manasa Vijaychander, Pranathi Ramadoria, Rutuja Kumar Marne and Subashree S), who were chosen after an audition. 'It's interesting to push yourself into doing something outside of what is comfortable or habitual. That's what it is like working with young artistes from other schools. With your students, you know what to expect but with the 'Damaru' team it felt really good to be surprised at different points of time. The bond that began with a feeling of uncertainty transformed into trust,' shares Vidhya. The starting point of any ensemble work is conversation. Martha Graham, a pioneer of modern dance, believed that it helps understand each dancer's body and spirit. 'Exchange of ideas and experiences is crucial to build a collective artistic vision. In 'Damaru', it was interesting to see the dancers surrender to the work through their many questions and my answers. One day, I sat them down and spoke about how the body can think as much as the mind. So, when the body's intelligence is trusted, the expression is organic, and the choreographer's idea is only a subtext. Then one of them asked: 'Why damaru? Why not the mridangam or tabla?' My reply, in a way, set a contemporary context to the piece. 'Because the damaru is a social leveller. Be it the street, stage or the sacred space, its sound can permeate it all with ease.'
New Indian Express
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Bharatanatyam dancer Vidhya Subramanian uses Varnam as a medium to explore dualities
Drawing inspiration from this instrument is Vidhya Subramanian, an award-winning dancer, choreographer, and teacher, who aims to interpret this philosophy to life through a Bharatanatyam ensemble. 'Several years ago, I wanted to present a work on the idea of balance. I realised I needed to philosophically delve into it. Years later, when I was thinking about the instruments of gods, I came across the damru. At one point, while doing my research, I connected the two — balance and the damru,' she shares when asked about the show's conception. Every recital would also involve the sounds of damru, though not constantly. The choreographies explore various dualities like the synergy between the earth and the sky, the tangible and the intangible, young and old, among others, all conveyed through Varnams — a traditional Bharatanatyam format that often explores elaborate storylines. 'Traditionally, in Varnams there is an obvious duality between the nayika and the other, with the nayika yearning for union with the universe or energy (often personified as a deity),' Vidhya says, adding how these traditional confines have allowed her to shift the pillars, reimagine the structure, and create meaningful interpretations within the classical framework.
Axios
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Rekha Shankar's upcoming indie flick wants to make you laugh and cry
Rekha Shankar believes there's humor in everything, so she's shooting an indie flick about a "dumb Hindu" trying to reunite with her raptured family — a buddy comedy about grief. Why it matters: You've seen Shankar on "Hacks." Or heard of her "Smartypants" streamer, the belly buster where comedians present PowerPoints on farcical topics like how vegetables aren't real. The big picture:"Vidhya's Guide to the Afterlife" is the first feature-length film for Shankar, the Philadelphia-raised comedian whom New York mag called one of the country's biggest up-and-coming comics to watch. She's crowd-sourcing it, and so far has raised more than $114,000 from about 1,400 supporters through Kickstarter — more than doubling her initial goal. The extra kitty will allow Shankar, director Sandeep Parikh and the crew to shoot scenes beyond her Los Angeles apartment. If they raise enough, she aspires to set and shoot parts of the movie in Philly. The intrigue: Her hometown's already showing up. Queen and Rook in Society Hill named a new samosa chaat vegan pizza after Shankar, plus had an employee fly to LA to hand-deliver a pie to her before a fundraising kickoff event. Zoom in: Shankar, who will star in the film, says she began working on the "Vidhya" script after the death of her grandfather, a "brilliant" guy who'd watch "Jeopardy!" with her and help with her chemistry homework. In the film, Vidhya is "such a bad Hindu" that she's left virtually alone to grapple with the loss of her family following an absurd Hindu rapture — a Christian concept that doesn't exist in Hinduism, Shankar says. She teams up with a huckster-y local priest to try to bring everyone back through a 13-day Hindu death ceremony. What they're saying: Shankar tells Axios she struggled to wrap her "Americanized brain" around the Hindu rituals at her own grandfather's ceremony. A Hindu priest told her that if she cried, she would tie her "grandfather's soul to the mortal realm" — the solemn ceremony is supposed to ensure the departed's peaceful transition. "It's so difficult when your family of origin does all these things one way, but then your Western therapist is like, 'No, no, it's totally OK to cry,'" she says. The film also pays homage to her grandfather's playfulness. He was a "prankster" who once blew a French horn to wake up Shankar's cousin at 6am. If he were alive, Shankar says, her grandfather might not appreciate the movie's humor — but he'd still support it. "What's great about him is he would have hit replay on it every single time it ended to be like, 'I'll just get you a bunch of views,'" Shankar says. What we're watching: Whether the indie flick, which could drop as soon as 2027, gets picked up by a big platform like Netflix. Parikh, the director, joked in the fundraiser announcement that the filmmakers must recruit "Monkey Man" director Dev Patel to make the movie a box-office smash.
