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On Rajnesh Domalpalli and Vanaja
Rajnesh Domalpalli was born in Chennai, capital of the Indian state Tamil Nadu, but eventually moved to Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh where Vanaja was filmed. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai in 1984 and went on to get an MS from SUNY, graduating in 1986. Rajnesh then headed to California to work as a computer engineer in Silicon Valley before deciding to attend Columbia University to study film in 2001. Vanaja was his thesis film at Columbia.
A particularly multi-talented and ambitious man, Rajnesh not only began writing short stories while in college but studied classical Indian music by learning the veena and later the classical vocal tradition. Vanaja, it seems, is a culmination of Rajnesh's various artistic interests. The traditional arts, narrative storytelling, painting and photography all come together to form what is a beautifully crafted story about a young girl whose only way out of her caste is through traditional Kuchipudi dance. Since the filming of Vanaja, Mamatha Bhukya, the young actress who plays Vanaja is back in school and anxious to become a proponent of Kuchipudi to the world.
While Vanaja does touch upon lingering issues of caste in India, it is also a plea to preserve traditional culture and heritage. Domalpalli's choice to use Kuchipudi dance in Vanaja is his way of bringing the folk arts to life and emphasizing not only their importance but the importance of keeping them alive.
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