Sagara Sangamam - Movie

 Watched 'Sagara Sangamam' with Anjali, something I had been meaning to for a while. It was released in 1983 and I remember the  wonderful music, the subtle love story between Kamal Hasan and Jayaprada and that crazy dance number on the well. What stayed with me was that the film was about art and the struggles artists face yet continue to stay on the path. It was beautiful watching it after so many years and so much more nicer to share it with Anjali.

What also struck me was how beautifully the story was woven and told. Two struggling artists, a dancer and a poet, live in the city eking out a meagre living while trying to pursue their art. Kamal Hasan as Balakrishna, the dancer, and Sharath Babu, as Raghu the poet,are perfect. While Raghu tries to balance his art with a pragmatic outlook at earning money, Balu seeks perfection and god in his art. Perpetually seeking he learns and perfects all dance forms to the extent he can without a concern about how he will live. 

Enter a rich patron of arts, Jayaprada as Madhavi, a song writer herself, who chances upon the passionate young dancer and promotes him. She gets him a big stage to perform which is lost because his other dies before that program. She promises to promote him and stay the course with him and that gives Balu renewed hope. 

They fall in love and he proposes to her when he is told that she was married and her husband had abandoned her three days after their marriage. Despite this Balu wants to marry her and she is willing, dreaming of a life in art - she writing songs, Balu dancing, Raghu writing poems - when her penitent husband returns. Balu does the right thing by her and his love for her by telling her she should go back to her husband who can take care of her better. Balu disappears from her life and becomes an alcoholic, taken care of by Raghu and his wife.

A dance recital of a young dancer is criticised by Balu. Turns out the young miss is our lady's daughter and she wants the kid to learn from the master and keep his art alive. Master has but a few days but he resolves to teach her all he can and he does - and in doing so keeps his art alive - though he dies at the end of the performance.

I loved it. Jayaprada looks hauntingly beautiful. The relationships between Madhavi and Balu is beautifully shown, the friendship between the poet and the dancer, the relationship between a patron and an artist. Loved it.