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Bharata Natyam is India's oldest classical dance tradition. It is performed by women who reenact stories from the oldest classics like the Puranas or the Mahabharata to the accompaniment of very specialized music. The British outlawed it in the as being lewd and suggestive, but it survived and has since undergone a revival. One of the key figures of that revival was a Brahmin girl who lent the form immense respectability. In this story, Seema (Anjana Banergi) is a rich girl who has become a renowned international performer of this dance style, but supporting her as a performer has become very expensive even for her well-to-do parents, and they would like her to marry someone who can keep her in costumes. Instead, she marries a musician whose work will support her performances in a different way. They become quite a successful team. A purist, and very strong-willed, when her (blind) husband begins to branch out into more popular (and lucrative) musical forms, she leaves him.