Continued from part 3

Part 4

What purpose does art serve or what purpose does it have to serve? Enlightenment, awakening, entertainment, stimulation are some of the answers. After these states are reached and these purposes are served, art has the ability to go one step forward and render the state of pure joy. Bliss is what is also known as. Once that state is reached, the lines between between who is driving, what is being driven ceases to exist, meaning, the question whether the art is motivating the artist or whether the artist is exhibiting his art becomes irrelevant. It is that state when one would have a tough time between differentiating between the driver and the driven. As is with anything, the state of transcendence is inexplicable - words fall short of explaining the meaning, emotions fall short of expressing the feeling. It becomes a paradoxical situation to have it to explain to someone and make them see the purpose of the art and what the end result of such a progress could be, if both words and emotions fail to come to the rescue. To embark on the journey of the pursuit for perfection, to start with the process of finding pure joy, to set forth on a mission to dig deep into oneself and come face to face with bliss, requires one to have that one essential ingredient, FAITH, without which the pursuit become purposeless, the process is devoid of the desired result, and the mission become pointless.

Viswanath's movies, apart from the drama that is built around, are about the preservation of the legacy, pertaining to the ageless and timeless art, and handing them over, in word and in faith, to the subsequent generations. Sankara Sastry, an cold person with a tough heart, eventually dies in peace, when he realizes that his art is in the safe hands of Tulasi. Balu, an aimless and rudderless burned out artist, rests in peace, after passing on whatever he had gathered over the years to Sailaja. While the rest of the movies deal with reservation, Swarna Kamalam deals with the pains and trials of realization. Meenakshi has a tough time realizing what is in her hands is much more worthy than she is running after. The eternal battle of materialism versus spirituality (in a broader sense) rages on in her mind, while she gets drawn more and more towards the glitz of the former than endure the rigors of the latter. And it is at this point that faith takes over. Faith - a trust in the institution of art, that it would certainly offer all that it has promised and much more, a belief that regardless of the hurdles, the end goal could be reached with enough perseverance, a dogmatic approach that has been handed over by the earlier generations, who have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that it works. Viswanath has made the point of Meenakishi's realization, the point of her believing in her innate art, a sudden one, that is as abrupt and as sudden as someone finding the path of faith.

Swarna Kamalam has the unique distinction among the rest of his movies, in that the movie is completely about a person finding her true inner calling. Viswanath does not deviate from this path of self-realization and makes Meenakshi go through the same path as several before have trudged, before reaching that point of eternal joy and enormous satisfaction. By pointing out the different phrases of disinterest, denial, disgust, slowly transforming into deep thought, deep churning and eventual embracement, by indicating the metamorphosis of the personality of Meenakshi, from a hot headed typical angst ridden youth to a mellowed down, level headed understanding personality (depicted in a subtle way through her early morning make-up procedures), Viswanath lays down the path that is more personal and one that is fraught with self-doubt and guilt. It would not start getting better until it turned absolutely worse, quotes a proverb. Right at the point of the lowest ebb, right at the point of total and complete darkness, right at the point of absolute doom, where the surge to the better takes place, where the pursuit of light takes shape, where the will to wrest control takes root, does every artist realize that what had been accompanying him/her all through out in all his/her travails is not what is around him/her, but what is inside of him/her.

Chandrasekhar finds himself in a thankless position. His love for Meenakshmi is consumed by his stubbornness to make her see what is right for her. His admiration for her art is usurped by his undying passion for making her realize the true purpose of her gift. Caught between his unrelentess approach, continuing the tradition of her father, and his mentoring instincts, continuing the tradition of the guru-shishya parampara, is the tender feelings that admires her, adores her, respects her and loves her. In comparison to his previous movies, Viswanath makes the mentor on the same level as the protégé thus bringing in the ego element into play. Meenakshi spites Chandram's motives and takes it out on her art during her dance performance. Meenakshi resents Chandram's intentions and takes it out on her art by completely reneging it for a professional opportunity. Viswanath does not make it clear whether Chandram's advances are guided by his feelings for her, or whether they seek an ulterior motive of her mending her ways and getting back to her roots. A glance at the three gurus in Meenakshi's life, her father who claims the role of her tutor, Chandram, who assumes the role of the mentor, and the American born Odissi dancer, who triggers the realization process, and one can safely conclude that Viswanath's idea of self-realization is not of one that occurs instantly overnight, be it through a song or be it through a few words; instead it is a path that is long drawn out beset with detours and troubles, but one that ends in answer for the purpose of art - one of pure joy, one of pure bliss.

(Cont'd in the next part, Viswanath - the wordsmith)

Tell Srinivas Kanchibhotla how you liked the article.