Yukta's on track

Yukta Mookhey is back. This time after shooting for award-winning director Sharath Kumar’s documentary on Raja Ravi Verma in Cochin.
This documentary is far from many other serious documentaries lashed with statistics and figures. The story revolves around Ravi Verma who has gone down in the history as one of the finest painters and his love for a lavni dancer in Maharashtra.
“This is no ordinary documentary. We shot the film at Cochin royal palace. I play the role of the Maharashtrian lavni danseuse who is beautiful and graceful. Raja Verma comes from Cochin to Maharashtra and falls in love with her. He starts painting her the figures of which you can see in many of his surviving paintings,� said Yukta.
The film titled Divine Love has Raja Verma’s grandson Rama Verma playing the king’s part. This 30-minute documentary which is co-sponsored by London’s Raja Ravi Verma Foundation will have its first preview in London on August 30. It is also slated to be screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival later this year and will be sent for other international film festivals too.
The interesting part, she reveals, “Since I don’t know how to tie a saree, my hairdresser draped me with the navvari (9 yards) saree.�
So, when did Yukta learn lavni dance? “I have been a kathak dancer under Pandit Tulsi Mangeshkar since the last few years. Four months before the shooting of the film I started learning lavni as it is an important facet of Maharashtrian culture. After all, I was born and brought up here despite of my Punjabi surname.�
Yukta said that it was great experience working in the project. “Raja Verma was the only painter who brought a human face to God where the common man could easily relate to Him. I feel proud to be part of this interesting history.�
Yukta has five films on hand from romantic capers, to murder mysteries to comedy films. “I will take people by surprise who are thinking that I have gone into oblivion after the Pyaasa fiasco once all my film released at one go. Just wait and watch,� Yukta quipped before signing off.