On song, for Amma

Leena Viswambharan was going through a rough patch after her father had succumbed to a terminal illness. While sifting through her father’s belongings, she chanced upon a handwritten copy of a poem penned by her mother, Sushma Viswambharan. The verses, titled Ente Amma, turned out to be a reminiscence of Leena’s grandmother through her mother’s eyes. Knowing that Leena’s mother was fighting her own battles health-wise, the daughter wanted to turn the poem into something more artistic.

“The initial idea was to simply get the poem rendered by an artiste but the project took on a larger dimension after a background score was added. Soon, some of my friends and family members started pitching in to help me make it a full-fledged music video as a daughter’s tribute to her mother,” says Leena, creative director of Leeway Dance Academy, Kakkanad. The six-minute song, Ente Amma, will be released on YouTube on Mother’s Day.

Leena Viswambharan during the shooting of the song video   | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

With no formal training in direction or video-making, Leena says it was the entrepreneur in her that gave her the confidence to attempt a music video. “I did a lot of research on the Internet to understand the process of movie-making and later reached out to technicians who could help make my dream come true,” she says. Leena then joined hands with her friend and music composer Saumya Sanathanan to set Ente Amma to tune and State film award-winner Sithara Balakrishnan was roped in to croon the number. Leena, who is trained in Bharatanatyam, says her experience in mixing her own music for dance compositions helped her with Ente Amma’s music.

Three stages

The 39-year-old says, however, casting proved to be a big task, especially the title role of the mother in the video that depicts three stages in the life of a mother-daughter duo. “I was looking for a fresh face who possessed screen presence and had an endearing, motherly appearance. Another challenge was to ensure that the artiste looked convincing both as the mother of a five-year-old and a 15-year-old, as conceptualised for the video,” says the mother of two girls. Leena finally brought on-board poet and dancer Meera Nair for the role, while child artiste Thraya of Alorukkam fame joined the cast to play the five-year-old girl.

Leena herself donned the greasepaint to play a phase of the mother, while her daughter, Nakshathra L. Viswam, took up the role of the daughter as a 15-year-old. One of Leena’s students, Kathryn Biji, played the third phase of the daughter.

Leena says the poem was set to three different ragas for the song. “The biggest challenge was to narrate a story that would convey a feeling of loss, emotions left unsaid and heartfelt pain one feels on losing one’s mother,” she says, adding that her experience as a choreographer helped her in “visualising an emotion.” The video was shot at Padathol Mana in Piravom.