In many ways, Bharatanatyam dancer Alarmel Valli's mother, Uma Muthukumaraswamy, was a visionary. Not only was she central to the Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri winner's craft and a constant companion in her illustrious journey, she's the one who recognised the need to document Valli's art for posterity. "Initially, I was hesitant about the film. The performance season was coming up [in 2010], and I wanted to concentrate on that. But my mother made me realise that as a passionate performer, every performance exists in the moment; it doesn't last forever, unlike a painting. So, a film is a permanent record of who and what you are," the dancer explains about how the film Lasya Kavya (2012), directed by award-winning filmmaker Sankalp Meshram, evolved.

And now that the National Award-winning documentary is going to be released digitally by Aalaap, a Chennai-based art and talent management company, Valli is sure her mother must have seen it coming. "While I'm still grappling with the digital medium, she would have been thrilled," the choreographer exclaims.