Pournami 2006

In 1953, Subramanyam, Chandramohan, teaches Kuchipudi to his daughter Pournami, Trisha Krishnan, as part of a long-held family tradition. He recounts the ancient legend of a woman in 1507 who danced inside the temple for seven days and nights to beg Lord Siva for rain during a devastating drought. Her sacrifice brought rain, and since then, every twelve years, a girl from her lineage performs the ritual dance in the temple. Pournami’s mother performed this dance in 1951, and Pournami is expected to follow in her footsteps.

As the festival approaches in 1963, Pournami mysteriously disappears, and the villagers presume she eloped. Attention shifts to her younger sister Chandrakala, but their father refuses to teach her the sacred dance. Meanwhile, their stepmother rents out the penthouse and courtyard where Pournami once danced to Siva Kesava, Prabhas, a Western-style dance instructor.

Pournami has not eloped; Subramanyam sent her away to shield her from Veerabhadra, the zamindar Rahul Dev who wants to claim her as his concubine. Fearing the same fate for Chandrakala, Subramanyam keeps her from training until Kesava arrives to protect her.

With Kesava’s arrival, Chandrakala begins training. She grows closer to Kesava, who reveals his past: he had married Pournami, who sacrificed herself to save his life; before dying, she made Kesava promise that Chandrakala would carry on the temple dance. Chandrakala, moved by her sister’s fate, agrees to continue the tradition with her father’s blessing.

Chandrakala becomes a skilled dancer, and at the festival she performs the ritual dance. As the dance ends, the village is blessed with rain once again. Despite Veerabhadra’s interference and the complications with Mallika, Kesava and Chandrakala solidify their bond and become engaged.

Years later, the couple has a daughter named Pournami, who does not want to learn the family dance. The story closes with Kesava narrating the enduring tradition to their daughter in the temple, grounding a new generation in the same sacred cadence that keeps the rain coming and the temple alive.