Kalpana (1948) to be Screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival!

"WHAT?!" That's what I said when I first heard the news this morning from commenter gaddeswarup and an online contact (thank you!).  It's true: Uday Shankar's 1948 film Kalpana (Imagination) will be screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival as part of the Cannes Classics program.  The festival website has these notes about the film: "Restored by the World Cinema Foundation from a copy of the original negative preserved by the National Film Archive of India. With thanks to Shivendra Singh and family of Uday Shankar.  The print was restored by the Cinematheque of Bologna and the Immagine Ritrovata laboratory."  The Scorcese-chaired World Cinema Foundation doesn't have any information up yet about it or any other restored films for 2012.

I'm stunned by this news, frankly.  Richard at the Dances on the Footpath blog and I have both blogged about the film and the difficulty of seeing it.  When Richard first blogged about it here, he received a slew of stunning comments from people who had seen the film or even had a copy, and then he broke the exciting news that Martin Scorcese was restoring the film.  The film then made the #1 spot on my "holy grail" list post, where I discussed the feeling that something was fishy regarding Scorcese's supposed restoration of the "only copy" of the film given that so many other prints were clearly out there.  I began to doubt that the whole thing would ever materialize, especially when I talked to various online friends and read tidbits here and there that noted complicated issues within the Shankar family over ownership of the film. But given that the Cannes page notes "thanks" were given to the family of Uday Shankar, it appears that any issues within the family must have been cleared up!  I'm guessing that while there are many other prints out there floating around, they are probably either not in the best of quality or not in the complete form of the original theatrical release.  I'm hoping these are two things Scorcese resolved through his foundation's restoration of the film, because then their print will truly be the best copy out there!

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4 comments Uday Shankar

This Blog Noted in The Asian Age!

I was thrilled when Ranjana Dave, author of the Mahatandava blog, correspondent at The Asian Age newspaper, and content coordinator for the Pad.ma online archive, interviewed me for an article she was writing on how the internet has changed access to rare dance footage for the better.  The finished article, "Dance moves from reel to internet," turned out to be an excellent piece about the subject and the current state of rare and archival dance clips.  The article especially focuses on Satyajit Ray's Bala documentary that I recently uploaded, and Ranjana offers some very interesting facts and insight.  She confirmed that the narrator's voice was indeed Satyajit Ray's, an identity I had questioned despite the credits stating so!  She also notes that, technically, all films released before 1952 (which would include Uday Shankar's elusive Kalpana) are considered out of copyright in India.  I can do some dangerous things with that information! ;)

My blog gets coverage near the end of the article, and Ranjana has written in such glowing terms that I am honored!  I've never thought of myself as a "curator" before- isn't that such a great term?  But my favorite would be the adorable terming of the folks that work to keep access open as "dedicated foragers." A big "thank you" again to Ranjana for the coverage, kind words, and writing such an excellent article!  The subject of dance archival access deserves the biggest audience it can get!

And that ends Minai's tooting of her own horn. :) To my knowledge this is my first "official" media mention which is very exciting!  Here's a capture of the article from the Asian Age epaper edition on April 5:

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All About Kamala's Sister Rhadha - The Other Dancer in Bhakta Kuchela!

On a couple posts I’ve featured a lovely, rare “twin” dance from the 1961 Malayalam film Bhakta Kuchela starring Kumari Kamala and an unknown dancer.  There was a suggestion the unknown dancer might be Kuchala Kumari (of Konjum Salangai fame) who was credited in the film, but she looked different enough to still leave me curious of the Bhakta Kuchela dancer's identity.  Well my friends, I’m so excited to confirm that the unknown dancer is none other than Kamala’s younger sister, Rhadha!  Here is the dance; Rhadha is the shorter dancer on the left at the beginning, and apart from her occasional asynchrony with Kamala I think she does a great job:

I had read about this Rhadha person accompanying her famous sister Kamala (and other sister Vasanthi) in a film and on stage, but wasn’t able to find much other information. As I reread the excellent articles about Kamala from Sruti magazine, a look at some of the pictures of her sister Rhadha connected that distinctive nose to the girl in Bhakta Kuchela, but I couldn’t say for sure. When I tracked down the article about Rhadha, “The Dancing Heart,” written by Rhadha's close associate Sujatha Vijayaraghavan in issues 279 and 280 of Sruti magazine, the pictures it featured confirmed 100% that the Bhakta Kuchela dancer was indeed Rhadha! Just take a look- it’s unmistakable:

Left: Sruti magazine    Right: Bhaktakuchela

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10 comments Kamala, Research, Rhadha

A Documentary on Simkie, Uday Shankar's Dance Partner

I recently came across the documentary Simkie Paris-Delhi made in 2008 by Charlotte Arrighi de Casanova and was thrilled by what it contained!  The documentary's subject is Simkie, the French woman who was Uday Shankar's dance partner for some 20 years.  She is the woman often seen in stills dancing next to Uday, and in articles about Uday she generally gets at least a passing mention and at most  the revelation that her real name was Simone Barbier and she transitioned from being a pianist to being Uday's closest dance partner.  But I've never been able to find more about her personal life such as who she was, how she as a European became interested in Indian dance, how people reacted to her, what she herself thought of Uday's dance style, authenticity issues, etc.  This documentary, made by Simkie's niece, helps shed a bit more light on the elusive figure.  Here it is:

Update: Unfortunately the full length video has been
made private and only a brief trailer is viewable

The documentary is comprised almost entirely of interviews of Simkie's relatives and former dance associates interspersed with rare photos and shots of modern Indian street life and dance practice.  While the first half is mostly in French with no subtitles, most of the interviewees in the second half speak English.  The cinematography is lovely, the pace reflective and languid, and the mood a bit sad, almost forlorn.

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16 comments Documentary, Simkie, Uday Shankar, Zohra Segal