Hiding in the most unlikely of places, the West Virginia State Archives in the US, are documentary films and video footage shot/directed by the late Ellis Dungan, an American who made a number of Tamil films in South India from 1935-1950. In the collection are two incredibly-rare videos with footage I assume has not been available publicly until now. The first video is “Inside India,” a documentary on South Indian village life that has an extended stage dance sequence by "Travancore Sisters" Padmini and Lalitha. The second video is a compilation containing footage Ellis took while directing the Tamil films Sati Leelavati (1936), Seemanthani (1936), Iru Sahodarargal (Two Brothers, 1936), and Ambikapathi (1937), and it reveals rare images of film stars and technicians and gives a visual glimpse into how Tamil films were made in the 1930s. The thanks for unearthing these videos goes to a wonderfully-knowledgeable online contact, Sreenivas Paruchuri, who sent these links to me. Thank you!
Inside India - Featuring a Padmini/Lalitha Dance (at 7:39)!
This documentary at first appears to be just a montage of scenes from village life in South India with a staid, explanatory voiceover. But at 7:39, an audience and stage appear as the voiceover explains, “There are numerous dramatic troupes that travel from village to village in Southern India and evening performances are given in the streets. Here the people in the village witness one of the most popular musical dramas, Mathura Veeran, the story of Princess Bommi being wooed by Veeran, a commoner.” As the curtain withdraws, the performers are revealed to be Lalitha and then her sister Padmini! The duo doesn't perform much abstract dance and instead focuses on enacting the lyrics of the story for their first act. In their second act, the sisters appear in horse costumes in what looks like a Poikkal Kudirai Aattam “dummy horse” folk dance! Isn't Padmini absolutely luminous here? The legend the voiceover refers to is that of the folk deity Madurai Veeran, which was the subject of the 1956 Tamil film of the same name which Padmini acted and danced in (and it has a Lalitha/Ragini dance too). RajVideoVision just recently uploaded a legal copy of the whole film on YouTube!
What remains unknown is when this documentary was filmed. My guess for the dance portion, based on Padmini’s facial shape and appearance, is around 1950-1952 or so given the similarity to her early film appearances from this time. While Dungan is said to have returned to the US soon after his hit film Manthiri Kumari released in 1950, he made frequent trips back to India and made his last film there in 1962, so Inside India conceivably could have been filmed right before he left or when he returned later. I wonder why he didn’t identify the famous sisters by name in the documentary. Surely Dungan would have known who Padmini and Lalitha were given that they danced in Manthiri Kumari and he was familiar with the Tamil cinema world. I also wonder if this is really an “authentic” drama stage performance or if it’s been manufactured for the documentary. Were Padmini and Lalitha in performing drama troupes at this time?
Footage from 1930s Tamil Cinema Sets/Filmings
While the West Virginia Archives calls this video “15 minutes of Dungan’s home movie film of movie-making in India,” it is no simple home movie! It is incredibly rare, silent footage of the movie making process in South India in the 30s and features many shots of actors, technicians, musicians, and producers of the time period as well as the filming and set technology. It also shows Dungan himself and in action! It is very likely that this is the first extant video footage available for some of the lesser-known people in the shots. And to my absolute delight, there are two short dances!
Finally! A clear copy of Kamala Lakshman's dance in Sivagangai Seemai (Tamil, 1957) has been uploaded by the awesome YouTuber Kandasamy Sekkarakudi Subbiah Pillai. This is my favorite film dance of Kamala's (second place would be her dance in Paavai Vilakku). It's not classical Bharatanatyam-based at all, but her training in the form gives this brilliantly-choreographed tandava-style dance incredible energy, precision, form, and speed. The cinematography, music, and overall presentation are the icing on the cake. It is entirely and unusually creative. Kamala dances in four segments, each about a minute long and separated by scenes of the last speeches of the ruling Marudhu brothers/family before they are hanged by the British. Behold what I can only describe as FIERCE:
Sivagangai Seemai ("Land of Sivagangai") is set in Sivagangai in Tamil Nadu around the turn of the 18th century "when the East India Company was struggling to establish supremacy over South India" (Guy). It tells the story of the Marudhu brothers who ruled Sivagangai at that time and "took on the British" by issuing a proclamation in 1801 urging "the people of every community to throw out the British" from India (Kolappan). Given that this was decades before the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, some have questioned the claim that the Sepoy Mutiny was "the first war of independence" in India. After the battle in Kalayarkovil near Sivaganga, "the East India Company ultimately destroyed the brothers" by hanging them in late 1801.
(2021 Update: I am no longer updating this blog but hope you enjoy my older posts!) Bringing light to classical and traditional Indian dances in the cinema of India; unearthing rare archival clips and academic research on South Asian dance!
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