Neeraj Madhav has shared a video of his mother, Latha Madhavan, dancing Bharatanatyam at the Navaratri celebrations at Thali temple in Kozhikode. In the video, she is introduced as Latha teacher, Neeraj Madhav's mother, before the announcer turns it around: today, Neeraj Madhav is Latha teacher's son.
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A love he grew up watching
In his note, Neeraj wrote that he had seen his mother as a passionate dancer since childhood. She won at state level in school youth festivals, then became a school teacher, and work and family pushed dance to the side for many years. She never gave it up fully, he wrote, and kept practising and performing whenever she could.
Now 61 and retired from teaching, she is finally giving dance the time it deserved. Neeraj wrote that she practises for hours, sometimes late into the night, with no one pushing her, and that she often tells him how happy dancing makes her. She trains under her guru, Deepthi Parol, and has already performed at several venues.
Watching her live
Since he is rarely at home, Neeraj usually watches her performances with her dance group on video. He had seen her dance before, he wrote, but did not expect watching her at Thali temple to move him so much.
Her biggest dream now is a full solo Bharatanatyam recital of her own, and Neeraj wrote that the family will be with her to make it happen.
Where Neeraj's dancing comes from
Neeraj is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer who learnt under Kalamandalam Saraswathy and her daughter Aswathy. In a 2019 post, he wrote that his mother joined those classes alongside him and performed a padam at his arangettam in Guruvayur.
He reached the final round of the first season of Amrita TV's Super Dancer. Later, after playing Monichan in Drishyam, he turned choreographer with "Enne Thallendammava" in Oru Vadakkan Selfie (2015), a song he danced with Nivin Pauly and Aju Varghese.
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