Raghunath Manet
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A backgrounder
As in 2024
Asha Prakash, June 13, 2024: The Times of India
From Puducherry to Paris at the age of eight, back to Tamil Nadu to learn Indian art forms as a young adult, and back to France to eventually turn into a professional dancer and musician; Raghunath Manet’s artistic career trajectory has been all about back and forth journeys. But his tryst with Puducherry eventually culminated in his first feature film debuting this year at the Cannes Film Festival, making him the first filmmaker from the Union Territory to achieve the feat.
“Almost everyone in France knows about ‘Pondicherry’,” says Raghunath. “The French always come up to me with questions like ‘is everyone a vegetarian in India’, ‘is the caste system still prevalent’, or ‘who is Lord Siva’ and ‘why is he dancing’.”
The 54-year-old, who does solo performances in dance tours worldwide, says he started learning dance from his sisters in France, but eventually travelled to Chennai to learn dance and veena at Kalakshetra. A recipient of the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres 2005 from the French Ministry of Culture, he also received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2017.
Raghunath says he started filming whatever he found interesting, and a reason he turned to art was to answer their questions. His first film was the documentary ‘Dance of Shiva’ in 2013. Raghunath completed a PhD in the ‘Temple Dances of Puducherry’.
The Cannes film, titled ‘Return to Pondicherry’ in English, stars Thalaivasal Vijay and French actress Marianne Borgo in major roles, and it was his own experiences as a dance student and later as a teacher at Puducherry that inspired him, says Raghunath, “While I was in Puducherry, I had a dance master who also used to teach children in orphanages. On his deathbed, he asked me to continue to teach the orphans.”
For the next five years, Raghunath taught orphan students every week. “My film is about two women who adopt a 10-year-old orphan child from Puducherry and bring her to Paris. But the girl feels lost in Indian and French societies, and one of her parents brings her to Puducherry on her 20th birthday,” says Raghunath. The girl eventually finds her identity through dance and spirituality. “The film is about how dance is not just about postures for Indians, but a means to joy and worship.”
