Dream Girl comes to Chennai with her Indo-Georgian dance odyssey

“I started Jaya Smriti as a tribute to my mother and her love for promoting the arts among the youth. I have been holding it as an annual event, inviting at least three artists from across India to perform and facilitating the maestros, for the past 12 years. Now, it looks like my mother wants to take that work on an international stage. That must be the reason Synergy is happening,” she says smiling. 

Referring to Synergy, she adds, “Georgia, which used to be a part of the Soviet Union once, has always loved Bollywood. Raj Kapoor was a huge icon there and people still sing Mera joota hai Japani when you mention India. I too have a lot of fans there. In fact, rather than Hema Malini, it is Seetha Aur Geetha who are famous there. That movie was a huge hit. I think this is why their government decided to invite me for a Women’s Conclave. Once there, they invited me to go around the country to experience their culture and I visited their 80-year-old dance centre, Sukhshvli, the equivalent of our Kalakshetra. Georgia has a specific dance style that almost looks like a warrior dance. I asked them if they had ever performed outside Georgia and turns out they have performed in India a few times, with the support of Raj Kapoor, during Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure. So, I asked them if they are interested in performing again and they readily agreed.” 

So, will the Dream Girl herself be performing? “Everyone wants to know this. No, I’m not performing, I’m just facilitating this. Even though I still dance and will continue dancing, I think it’s time for me to step back and promote young talents now. The idea behind this performance was to introduce Georgians to traditional Indian dance forms. Even though a lot of Indians have been performing in Georgia, the NRIs there tell me they were not very good. They are all independent troupes and most of them mix the traditional dance forms with Bollywood and ruin the art. 

This will be the first time the dancers get to see the traditional art form in its pure form. So, we have chosen Bharatanatyam from the south, Kathak from the North and Pung Cholom from North East. Thirty of our Indian dancers and 40 dancers from Georgia will be a part of the performance. The Georgians will perform for around 30 minutes, followed by three 10-minute sessions of three Indian dance forms and then 10 minutes of a fusion performance,” she explains. 

The Georgian dancers will arrive in India on September 6 and the four-city tour is scheduled to start on September 8 at Mumbai. “Initially, the idea was to host this in Mumbai alone. But then I felt flowing so many dancers in from Georgia for one performance would be a terrible waste. So, we decided to expand it to Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. I have been getting request to extend the tour to other countries and even other Indian cities, like Hyderabad. But I want to see how these performances go and how well the youth in our country receive it before I commit to more. 

Recently, when I visited Russia, the Russian Ballet dancers there also wanted me to do a fusion dance odyssey with them. That could happen next year. But I’m happy we can host the show here in my hometown, Chennai. Though it considered the cultural capital of India, people are not ready to come forward and invest their money for cultural performances here. This is true even when I’m performing here,” she says. Hema Malini leads a very busy life, juggling her roles as an actor, dancer, politician, mother and grandmother. But it is her grandmother title that she is most talkative about. 

“My grandson is two now and we get to have a lot of fun dancing and learning Slokas. But his favourite activity is colouring. He colours things the entire day and even makes me draw monkeys and birds! And now I have one more grandchild on the way from Esha. 

If it is a girl, I will definitely have her learn Bharatnatyam,” she chimes. Synergy, organised with the support of Ministry of Culture of Indian government, will conclude with the Chennai leg of the performance, scheduled on September 17.