For Brinda Master, film choreography begins with the story—not with a display of difficult steps. Movement must suit the performer, the music and the camera, too. Her interviews offer a close look at how that approach shaped her collaborations with director Mani Ratnam, from the unusual spacing of “Azhagiye” to the victory dance of “Chola Chola.”
How Brinda Master found her way into film choreography
Brinda says she entered film work as a background dancer at 13 and later assisted her brother-in-law, choreographer Raghuram Master. She branched out independently in the mid-1990s. In a 2018 interview, she described her work on Mani Ratnam’s Iruvar (1997) as her break. At that time, she estimated that she had worked on around nine films with Ratnam—a figure specific to her account in 2018, not a current career total. Read her interview with Scroll.in, published February 18, 2018.
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Why the story comes before the steps
Brinda describes choreography as a response to a film’s narrative, rather than an opportunity to show off technical skill. “I try to choreograph only the movements that the story needs,” she told Scroll.in. That means understanding what a song is doing in the film before deciding how its performers should move.
She also treats film technique as part of choreography. “As a choreographer, you need to know the technicalities of film as well; just dancing is not enough,” she said. A movement has to work in the frame and from the camera angle chosen to capture it. The finished sequence is therefore shaped not just by what a dancer does, but by how the camera sees it.
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Making movement suit the performer
Brinda says choreography has to account for an actor’s body and abilities. She gives Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan as contrasting examples: hand movements can suit Rajinikanth, while she might combine hands, legs and facial expression for Kamal Haasan. Her point is not that one approach is better, but that the movement should fit the performer.
For an actor who finds a movement difficult, she says, the choreography and the edit can work together. She describes using a close-up when a performer struggles with a step, allowing the sequence to foreground what they can do comfortably. As she puts it, “Choreographing what suits them is choreography.”
Three Mani Ratnam songs, three different designs
Brinda’s examples show how a song’s mood and spatial design can lead to distinct movement choices. She has called Ratnam’s openness to trying ideas a treat for a choreographer, while describing the work as collaborative: sometimes she proposed an approach, and sometimes he did.
| Song and film | Movement or spatial idea | What Brinda says shaped it |
|---|---|---|
| “Adiye,” Kadal (2013) | Fusion with a classical touch | Brinda asked to use fusion, and Ratnam agreed. |
| “Kodu Poatta,” Raavanan | A more tribal style | Brinda described the style in her 2018 interview; she did not attach a separate story rationale to it there. |
| “Azhagiye,” Kaatru Veliyidai | Dancers move in different directions rather than following conventional straight-line formations. | Brinda credits Ratnam with suggesting that the sequence break from the usual formation format. |
These are specific examples, not a claim that every Ratnam song uses experimental choreography. They illustrate how movement vocabulary and the arrangement of dancers can change from one sequence to another.
How Ponniyin Selvan used dance to tell its story
In an interview during the film’s 2022 release period, Brinda described “Chola Chola” as a royal-feeling victory dance featuring soldiers. She said about 150 dancers took part—a production-specific figure she gave in a Tamil-language interview, not a general measure of film choreography. See the 2022 interview in Hindu Tamil Thisai.
She described “Ponni Nadhi” differently: it needed to convey travel and a festive mood, with Karthi performing. Brinda said the film drew more on older classical-folk styles and postures than some of her earlier, more cinematic collaborations. Her account makes the contrast practical: the choreography responds to what each sequence needs to communicate.
In a separate 2022 conversation, she praised Ratnam’s knowledge of dance forms. “Mani sir has so much knowledge about different dance forms,” she said. Read her interview with The Times of India, published August 31, 2022.
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