Rare Video Clips of Devadasis, Uday Shankar & Simkie, Ram Gopal, and More

What a stunning find!  The wonderful commenter Gaddeswarup recently sent me a video from the site BritishPathé.com, and I'm grateful he did because when I explored the site further I found it houses some priceless footage of Indian dance.

British Pathé, a former film and newsreel company that "documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world in the 20th century" (BBC), has digitised its extensive archive ("90,000 videos from 1897-1970") online with free and full-length viewing for any visitor.  Given that Britain ruled the Indian subcontinent until 1947, the archive has a substantial number of clips of Indian events and every day life from the first half of the 20th century: independence, visits from British royalty, disorder and protests, ceremonies and weddings, festivals, politicians, dances, and much more.  Much of the older footage has a strong Orientalist tone; pictured on the left is a nice dance-related example from Indian Peeps (1930).

All of the videos can be purchased and downloaded, but since the listed duration of the videos for purchase are the same as their previews, I don't see any incentive to purchase them at exorbitant prices (30 Euros for a one-minute clip!).  What's most entertaining about the site is the descriptions; the catalogers given the job of dutifully describing each scene in every video must have gotten tired at some point because some of their phrasings are hilarious!  But I'm glad they went to that trouble because it allows the video events to be text searchable.

Unfortunately, none of the videos can be embedded, so you'll have to click on the lovely preview images to link to the video. Enjoy!

Devadasi Footage from the 1930s

The most important find has been a silent clip titled "Maharanee of Baroda" circa 1930-1935.  Starting at 8:06, two devadasi dancers perform in front of their musical ensemble.  The footage is stunning - the dancers are dressed exactly like those in old archival photos from this time period and before; it's as if the old photos have come to life!  They begin by dancing what looks like the alarippu portion of a Sadir/present-day Bharatanatyam performance, then move onto a more free-flowing, folksy dance style, and then return to Sadir/Bharatanatyam around 11:30.  The musicians and their instruments are fascinating; I've read accounts of how bagpipes used to be part of Sadir performances before the dance form was recreated as Bharatanatyam- I wonder if the musician on the right is an example of what is meant by "bagpipe."  Last, we must of course remember that this was a staged performance for the camera, but its historical value is immense.

No embedding on all videos; click image to link

What's Next for Kalpana (1948)?

I decided to take a stroll at the World Cinema Foundation's website today, and look what is on their homepage front and center!

It's an imaginative image from Kalpana!  I'm almost convinced the middle and right women are Lalitha and Padmini, respectively! (Could the one on the left be Ragini?  I'm not so sure).  Lovely to see an image of Padmini in her debut film (as Richard at the Dances on the Footpath blog noted some time ago).  And even more wonderful that this image is the face of the WCF website at present...well, until the animation changes. :)  This of course means that they have updated the "Restored Films" section for 2012 with a page dedicated to Kalpana (though it's the same info and photo from the press kit material on the Cannes website). 

After the flurry of press about Uday Shankar's Kalpana playing at the Cannes Film Festival and its momentous screening on May 17, I've been eagerly awaiting more information about the film and any possible distribution.  I had this fantasy of finding a deluge of excited blog posts and articles about the film and maybe seeing a rare clip or two.  But then I remembered that Cannes is a high-falutin' event for film-world folks, not us small peons, and that interest in Kalpana is somewhat of a niche thing.  While there's been a dusting of coverage of the film screening in some major newspapers (see the end of the post) and some brief blog chatter, I was hoping for a monsoon!

On a whim I decided to contact the World Cinema Foundation regarding if Kalpana would be distributed in any way and figured I would either not get a response or receive a generic reply.  But given that 2012 has been the year of luck at this blog, I soon received a gracious response from a Foundation representative!

Regarding distribution – recently, the WCF has received a few requests for KALPANA to screen at various festivals, cinematheques and film societies. As soon as those are confirmed we will post them on our website. Due to a backlog of titles, KALPANA will probably not be released on DVD for at least another 1-2 years. We apologize for the delay but in the interim please keep checking back for other WCF DVD releases.