tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68120534598545507772024-03-13T13:10:22.818-06:00Cinema NrityaBringing light to classical and traditional Indian dances in the cinema of India; unearthing rare archival clips and academic research on South Asian dance! MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.comBlogger152125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-1674859286268477962020-02-03T18:46:00.000-07:002020-03-08T10:28:58.327-06:00The Golden Age of Scholarship on Dance in South Indian Cinema is HereBack in August of last year, as I emerged from a period of gripping ennui that had largely led to my <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2019/02/blog-hiatus-rare-simkie-photo-and.html">blog hiatus</a>, I eagerly went on an internet search jaunt to see what new finds might be out there, and I happened onto Hari Krishnan's just-published book, <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=jrixDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Celluloid Classicism: Early Tamil Cinema and the Making of Modern Bharatanatyam</a></i>. Within the blink of an eye I had ordered it, and I have slowly been reading it in earnest.<br />
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Reading through this masterful contribution has been riveting. Every chapter is filled with one exciting piece of information after the other, populated with the names of people and films I've encountered over my years of trying to quench my thirst for knowledge of a topic that is little-researched, reclusive, and under-appreciated.<br />
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But the book is not simply a descriptive work that reveals anecdotes and tales from the past. Having dug deep into archives, film print culture, personal collections, and a few candid interviews, Hari is out to explain the significance of the information, make connections, and contribute meaningful and new ideas to the world of scholarship on Indian dance and cinema and the real people and communities involved— the book is based on his doctoral dissertation, after all!<br />
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The central arguments of his book are something I've never heard anyone even hint before about Bharatanatyam. As the back cover describes, "This book unsettles received histories of modern Bharatanatyam by arguing that cinema [...] bears heavily and irrevocably upon iterations of this 'classical' dance" and that there was a "reciprocal exchange of knowledge between screen and stage versions of Bharatanatyam in the early decades of the twentieth century." That's quite tame frankly, given that by the time one has made it to the end of the book, the "exchange" and "heavy bearing" are clearly even more significant.<br />
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Hari covers much ground in the book—devadasis and courtesans in South Indian cinema and recovering information about their professional and personal lives, the different professional and political trajectories men in their communities made as nattuvanars in cinema, the "so-called revival or reinvention of Bharatanatyam" in the 1930s and the elites involved, cinema's importance to popularizing and shaping Bharatanatyam in a multitude of ways, print culture of film magazines and songbooks, the influence of South Indian drama traditions, politics, religion, middle-class and popular culture, and more.<br />
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I am still working on a someday-post about my thoughts on the book and some great video finds either referenced in or related to the book's contents, but I must say that one of the most exciting finds for me was the revelation of the impact and central importance to modern Bharatanatyam of <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Vazhuvoor%20Ramaiah%20Pillai">Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai</a> and his star student <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamala">Kamala</a>. Never has this been more strikingly elaborated and sourced than in this book.<br />
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My favorite chapters of the book, and the ones I actually recommend those interested in the topics of my blog read first, are chapters 4 and 5 focused on nattuvanars and choreography in cinema and a detailed analysis of how Bharatnatyam's "aesthetics, technique, and repertoire [were] irrevocably transformed through its encounter with cinema" [Krishnan]. The second half of the book of which they are a part has the least dissertationish "academese," and chapters 4 and 5 had the most exciting contributions to discover in my opinion. Other highlights for me were Hari's sleuthing to ferret out the truth behind the first Indian dance film <i>Jalaja </i>(1938) and legends of Rukmini Devi supposedly dancing in popular South Indian cinema.<br />
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What I'm calling the "Golden Age of Scholarship on Dance in South Indian Cinema" seems to have began with the Kuchipudi dance form first. Rumya Sree Putcha's 2011 doctoral dissertation <i>Revisiting the Classical: A Critical History of Kuchipudi Dance</i> and Katyayani Thota and Anuradha Tadakamalla's article "<a href="http://www.phalanx.in/pages/article_i0011_the_Kuchipudi.html">Marking the Telugu Cultural Identity: Kuchipudi and its role in cinema</a>" both delved into truth-finding missions to view Kuchipudi's past with a critical lens. The great Davesh Soneji has also touched on the subject, most notably his 2012 book <i><a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/08/kalavantuludevadasi-dances-in-films.html">Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India</a></i>.<br />
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After Kuchipudi's spotlight, Bharatanatyam and Tamil Cinema followed suit in scholarship, first with just a taste in Sundar Kaali's 2013 brief article "Disciplining the Dasi: Cintamani and the Politics of a New Sexual Economy" focusing on depiction of dasis in 1930s-50s Tamil cinema, and then finally to the subject of this post, Hari's 2019 masterpiece.<br />
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My opinion of this "Golden Age" was cemented when I read of a number of recent and upcoming projects in Hari's book. His bibliography reveals that a forthcoming compilation <i>Dance and the Early South Indian Cinema </i>is in the works, edited by the great Davesh Soneji, Tiziana Leucci, and Hari himself. It's slated to include an article "Patronage of Hereditary Performing Artists in Tamil Cinema: The Case of V.S. Muthuswamy Pillai" by Tiziana Leucci as well as, according to her <a href="https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/app/uploads/sites/4/2018/04/Putcha-_CV_2018.pdf">CV</a>, Rumya Sree Putcha's article "Cinematic Archives: History, Historiography, and Dance in the South Indian Film Industry." I also learned of Katyayani Thota's unpublished 2016 dissertation, "Stage to Screen, and Back: A Study of the Dialogue between Kuchipudi and Telugu Cinema." I am looking forward to getting my hands on any and all of these!<br />
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Such joy I feel that the writings on dance in South Indian cinema are moving beyond simple descriptive stories of the past through a nostalgic lens to a full-fledged topic of study and critical analysis. These recent scholarly contributions are delving into and situating the importance of cinema dance to the history of these dance forms— and oh how important it has been!<br />
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Last, I found it incredibly humbling and affirming to discover, without any prior knowledge, that me and my blog and a few of my blog posts were referenced in Hari's book. I can't quite describe how it felt as I cracked open my newly-arrived paperback and soon saw my name and "Cinema Nritya" mentioned in a few places, starting in the introduction. I'm one of many sources in the bibliography, specifically my posts on <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/09/remembering-late-tara-chaudhri.html">Tara Chaudhri</a>, <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/10/sayee-and-subbulakshmis-film-industry.html">Sayee and Subbulakshmi's Film-Industry Relatives</a>, and <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2015/11/muthukumara-pillai-on-screen-in-kannika.html">Muthukumara Pillai on screen in <i>Kannika</i></a>. All smiles here!<br />
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May the Golden Age be long lasting and fruitful!MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-20799334598527080202019-11-16T16:30:00.001-07:002019-11-16T20:39:37.267-07:00Rare Madame Menaka Find: The Menaka ArchiveA few days ago, <a href="https://asianage.com/life/more-features/111119/the-magnetic-madame-menaka-and-the-tiger-of-hastinapur.html">an article on Madame Menaka</a> by the great Indian dance historian Sunil Kothari was published in <i>The Asian Age</i>, and I was heartened<i> </i>to see that the title of his article is about his viewing a clip from "The Tiger of Hastinapur," which by his description of the brief tiger and king visuals and reference to my blog, is clearly the <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xswspq">video clip</a> I posted online years ago from the 1938 German feature film <i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur</i> (see <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/01/film-dances-of-madame-menaka-and-menaka.html">here</a> and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/11/indian-dances-in-western-films-about_20.html">here</a>) which, due to the editing program I used, included brief glimpses of the scenes before and after the dance sequence. I love knowing that rare video clips I have posted or sourced are being seen by such knowledgeable people as Kothari who lived through so much of India's dance history! There is some confusion and perhaps typos in Kothari's article, given that the photo and descriptions he references from Damayanti Joshi's book on Madame Menaka, which I own, actually refer to the film and the photo still as "Die Tiger von Eschnapur," not "The Tiger of Hastinapur," and he also amusingly refers to me as "Milai Milan." :)<br />
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Anyway, Kothari's article prompted me to see if any new Madame Menaka finds had surfaced online in recent years, and through a quick search I discovered something EXTRAORDINARY: some <b>Indian dance and music history enthusiasts/scholars in Germany have created an online archive, "The Menaka Archive," dedicated entirely to Madame Menaka (aka Leila Roy-Sokhey, 1899-1947) and her Indian ballet group's European performance tour from 1936-1938 at <a href="http://menaka-archive.org/en/">http://menaka-archive.org</a>! </b> Note that the archive is in the German language, and while it does have an English option, the English translations seem to be automatically generated so are not fully accurate; I have linked to those pages or linked to/used automatic Google Translate translations throughout this post where possible (but for those that appear in German, you'll need to use the translation features of a browser like Google Chrome).<br />
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The archive looks to be the brainchild of two Germans, Markus Schlaffke, a documentary filmmaker and doctoral student at the Bauhaus University Weimar researching the Menaka Ballet in Europe, and Isabella Schwaderer, a research associate at the University of Erfurt who is also working on a project about the European reception of the 1936-1938 Menaka ballet tour. The efforts looks to have sprung from the artistic research project/collective of which Schlaffke and Schwaderer seem to be a part, <i>Zinda Naach</i>, that <a href="https://vimeo.com/178823917">has aimed to</a> hold Indian dance performances in recent years along the original route of the Menaka tour. In such coincidental timing related to Kothari's November 11 article this month, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ZindaNaach/">Zinda Naach Facebook page</a> (which writes in English) shared that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ZindaNaach/photos/a.232612137189504/781364462314266/?type=3&theater">The Menaka Archive went live a few days earlier on November 6</a>, proclaiming:<br />
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... We are now able to trace Madame Menakas performances in Europe from an overall perspective for the first time. Over the last years we have researched documents of Menakas performances in Europe in hundreds of Archives and private collections. We have ordered these finds and assigned them to a digital database that is now available to the public as 'The Menaka Archive' (www.menaka-archive.org). We understand The Menaka Archive as a collaborative platform for further research and reconstruction of a specific history of artistic modernity, written jointly by dancers and musicians in India as well as in Germany ... The Zinda Naach performances will from now on continue as a series of events under the umbrella of The Menaka Archive in order to activate and decipher its archival findings. We kindly invite you to explore The Menaka Archive holdings and to contribute to its research program.</blockquote>
The first thing visitors to the Menaka Archive see is—guess what!—<a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xswsop">the other</a> Menaka troupe dance from the 1938 film <i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur</i>! I think the archive's version, given the sharper appearance and some scratch lines, may come from a copy of the film in Germany, rather than the <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xswsop">lesser-quality but longer one</a> I had found and posted. Here's a screencap of the archive's homepage:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WAA0XXMjGoQ/XdA6UNXcpFI/AAAAAAAAKCY/GDmSJm9zkUM3UNEnjvVCmh3x3OVwxQapACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/menaka-archive.org_screencap1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="713" data-original-width="1263" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WAA0XXMjGoQ/XdA6UNXcpFI/AAAAAAAAKCY/GDmSJm9zkUM3UNEnjvVCmh3x3OVwxQapACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/menaka-archive.org_screencap1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screencap from www.menaka-archive.org</td></tr>
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Looking at the rest of the archive website, I quickly realized the incredibly-rare finds finds in it. On the left-hand navigation, the "All" section under "Archive" brings up 539 thumbnails of many wonders: rare photos of Menaka's troupe, press and newspaper clippings, correspondence, notebooks, and a few AUDIO recordings from the troupe's musical ensemble! It seems the other sections under "Archive" present some of the 539 archival documents in different ways—there is a map documenting the troupe's 1936-38 European tour performance locations, a chronological list of performances, repertoire list, and troupe identifications, all with many links that connect the viewer to an applicable archive document or holding if available! The separate Journal section features a few articles that offer insightful scholarship and analysis related to Menaka's troupe, musicians, legacy, and broader perspectives on perceptions of dance, religion, and art in Europe at that time—though I found the automatically-generated English translation hard to understand in many places.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Screencap from www.menaka-archive.org</span></td></tr>
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The archive's holdings are listed as coming from various sources mostly in Germany and The Netherlands, but one notable and significant source and partnership is from India: Sarod-maestro Irfan Muhammad Khan of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur-Gharana, whose grandfather Ustad Sakhawat Hussain Khan was also a Sarod maestro and at one point the music director of the musicians accompanying the 1936 Menaka Hindu Ballet Tour (and can be seen in one of the <i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur</i> clips). Schlaffke featured Irfan and a <a href="https://vimeo.com/113805297">documentary trailer about him</a> (also embedded below) in his article at the Menaka archive, "<a href="http://menaka-archive.org/en/forschung/gegenerzaehlungen-zum-nationalen-kulturerbe/">Counter-tales to the National Cultural Heritage: The Role of Muslim Musicians in the Invention of National Tradition in India at the Menaka Archive</a>," and from videos on <a href="https://vimeo.com/user20128595">Schlaffke's Vimeo page</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ZindaNaach/">Zinda Naach's Facebook page</a>, it appears Irfan was able to fulfill <a href="https://vimeo.com/178823917">his dream</a> and visit and perform in Germany with Zinda Naach and hear and see important archival finds related to his grandfather. How wonderful for him, but certainly tempered by the sadness he feels at the loss of so much of his family's tradition and need to preserve and pass it on. [Note: To learn more about the history of Irfan's family tradition and decline, I recommend an article unrelated to the archive at <i>Scroll.in</i>, "<a href="https://scroll.in/magazine/914063/in-kolkata-the-inheritor-of-the-lucknow-shahjahanpur-gharana-is-trying-to-keep-its-legacy-alive">In Kolkata, the inheritor of the Lucknow-Shahjahanpur gharana is trying to keep its legacy alive.</a>"]<br />
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In Markus Schlaffke's article "<a href="http://menaka-archive.org/en/forschung/historische-perspektiven-der-indischen-tanz-moderne/">Historical Perspectives of Indian Dance Modernism: Field Research in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai</a>" at the Menaka Archive, he describes how he visited India in 2018 on a research effort "to resume some of the connections between Germany and India that were made in 1936-38 and later lost." He shared some of the archive's rare European-sourced materials with people in India and "documented their reactions and reflections" including some <a href="https://vimeo.com/344751707">video footage</a> of Ashish Mohan Khokar's dance archives and <a href="https://vimeo.com/350954061">Khokar's thoughts</a> on dance in India in the early-to-mid twentieth century.<br />
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In a longer version of Isabella Schwaderer's archive article "Oriental Spectacle on German Stages Until 1937" <a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fdecolonizeerfurt.wordpress.com%2Fstadtgarten-erfurt%2F">found at the "Decolonize Erfurt" blog</a>, she embeds one of the dances from the <i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur</i> film and describes it as "the only film footage yet of the dances of the [Menaka] Indian ballet" that "fit[s] seamlessly into the orientalist spectacle." Further acknowledgement of the rarity and importance of those dance clips from <i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur</i>! But also, unfortunately, dashing any hopes of seeing more video recordings of Menaka or her troupe in the archive at present. At least any rare finds in the coming years will have a perfect home in this archive!<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SOoByeQH7TE/UQDAwoa5SII/AAAAAAAADM0/j7xy83c41PI/s1600/madame_menaka_biography+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="403" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SOoByeQH7TE/UQDAwoa5SII/AAAAAAAADM0/j7xy83c41PI/s320/madame_menaka_biography+book.jpg" width="234" /></a>Schlaffke and Schwaderer also just this month published an article in the online publication<i> wissenderkuenste.de</i>, "<a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwissenderkuenste.de%2Ftexte%2Fausgabe8%2Fre-connecting-embodied-archives-kuenstlerische-forschung-im-zinda-naach-kollektiv%2F">(Re-)connecting embodied archives: Artistic research in the Zinda Naach collective</a>," which expands upon some of their articles at the archive. It also answered my question if they were aware of the most detailed publication of Menaka's life, <a href="http://www.sangeetnatak.gov.in/images/publication/madame%20menaka.htm">Damayanti Joshi's 1989 biography of her</a>—they are but write that "the documents that were available to [Menaka's] student Damayanti Joshi for the only publication to date on Menaka's biography are currently not available" which must have been frustrating for them. There have been a few other full articles or chapters written about Menaka in Indian publications over the years. I've come across Shirin Vajifdar's "Menaka: Pioneer of Kathak" in the September 1959 issue of <i>Marg</i>, her husband Sahib Singh Sokhey's "Menaka Gave Ballet to the Indian Stage" in the December 1963 issue of <i>Natya,</i> Projesh Banerji's "Menaka's New Dimension to Kathak" in his 1982 book <i>Kathak Dance Through Ages, </i>Susheela Mishra's "Madam Menaka (Leila Sokhey) Who Ushered In the New Era of Kathak" in her 1992 unimaginatively-named book <i>Some Dancers of India</i>, and Menaka gets a few solid paragraphs in Sunil Kothari's 1989 book <i>Kathak Indian Classical Dance Art</i>, plus at least a mention in many more<i>.</i> In EuroAmerican publications, Menaka's obituary was published under "Lady Sokhey" in the May 31, 1947 issue of <i>The New York Times</i>, and I also located an early article "Menaka and Indian Dancing" written by Tyra de Kleen of Stockholm, Sweden, from a 1937 issue of <i>Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology. </i>But Joshi's book seems to be the only full-length work dedicated to Menaka.<br />
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Something else is tantalizing: on Schwaderer's institutional profile <a href="https://www.uni-erfurt.de/religionswissenschaft/allgemeine-religionswissenschaft/team/dr-isabella-schwaderer/">page</a>, her current research project is given the more detailed title, "Dance and Religion in the Nazi era: Press reviews for the tour of the Indian Ballet Menaka 1936-38." I'm sure I'm not the only one that was surprised to discover when reading about Menaka that the <a href="https://time.com/4432857/hitler-hosted-olympics-1936/">1936 summer Olympics</a> were held in Berlin during the Nazi regime in Germany, just a few years before WWII and the Nazi's worst atrocities. That's a research subject all on its own, but then to learn that Menaka's troupe not only performed and won awards at that Olympics but also performed all over Germany and Europe during this time begged the question of how Menaka and her group experienced and reacted to this tumultuous period in Europe. Some of the articles at the archive touch on this subject and wider discourse about modernism and intercultural crossings, but I look forward to seeing Schwaderer's coming scholarship!<br />
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The discovery of The Menaka Archive and scholarship is gripping stuff! I eagerly await news of new finds being located for the archive in the coming years, and I will soon be reaching out to Schlaffke and Schwaderer and also spreading the word elsewhere about this archive! This endeavor is such an important contribution to the world's knowledge and understanding of Menaka and her troupe, adding a sharp focus on a certain period of Menaka's output and a fresh perspective from Europe and insights into the "dance-like modernity that was interwoven between Asia and Europe" at that time.<br />
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My past two posts on Madame Menaka:<br />
<a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/01/film-dances-of-madame-menaka-and-menaka.html">Film Dances of Madame Menaka and the Menaka Indian Ballet</a> (January 2013)<br />
<a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/11/indian-dances-in-western-films-about_20.html">Indian Dances in Western Films About India: Part 2 (The Rare)</a> (November 2011)<br />
<br />MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-19550992125887562022019-11-02T20:04:00.000-06:002019-11-09T13:36:48.547-07:00Guru Gopinath Dancing in Mahatma Udhangar (1947, Tamil) and BFI Footage, Plus Thoughts on His LegacyHow excited I am to recently find two more visual records of Guru Gopinath dancing in the mid-1940s, one in the commercial Tamil film <i>Mahatma Udhangar</i><i> </i>and one archival find at the British Film Institute (BFI)! Back in the dance revival decades of pre and post-independence India, Guru Gopinath was among the trained native Kathakali dancers who brought that dance form and its movement vocabulary to other parts of India and the world. Gopinath did this first through a touring partnership with the American-born dancer known as "Ragini Devi," and later by creating a Kathakali-derived accessible dance form that seems to be known today as "Kerala Natanam." Gopinath has been featured on the blog twice before in dance footage from the 1950s. First was his portly and entertaining dance with Guru Gopalakrishnan/the mohini in the mythological "Mohini Bhasmasur" sequence in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/03/gurus-gopinath-gopalakrishnan-dancing.html">the 1957 Telugu/Tamil film <i>Mayabazar</i></a>, and second was the rare archival find of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/rare-video-of-dancers-tara-chowdhary.html">brief clips from his stage performance in the U.S.S.R. in 1954</a> as part of the Indian Cultural Delegation. But these new finds are special because they are from a decade earlier, and feature Gopinath looking noticeably younger and thinner!<br />
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<b>Gopinath's Dance in <i>Mahatma Udhangar</i> (1947, Tamil)</b></div>
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<i>Mahatma Udhangar </i>(also transliterated Mahathma, Udangar, Udankar) was an unsuccessful release directed by G. Pattu Iyer that "sank without a trace and is barely remembered today" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[6]</span>, which must explain why there's so little information readily available on the film. I shared more information about <i>Mahatma Udhangar </i>in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2019/10/new-kamala-dance-finds-in-tamil-films.html">my last post</a> rejoicing about finding Kumari Kamala's dance in the film.<br />
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Gopinath performs a 2-minute dance as Shiva to instrumental music, and I am in awe of the first half in particular! In those introductory movements, he moves around an imaginary axis in such a controlled way, and those half-hop transitions (especially at 1:09) between each side are masterful! Much of it looks derived from or inspired by pure dance movements in Kathakali, and I wonder if this is similar to the type of dancing he did when touring with Ragini Devi in the 1930s or if he intentionally spiced this up for the film.<br />
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Naturally the great <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/04/uday-shankars-kathakali-inspirations-in.html">Uday Shankar's Kathakali-inspired modern dance in the film </a><i><a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/04/uday-shankars-kathakali-inspirations-in.html">Kalpana</a> </i>(released the following year in 1948) comes to my mind when watching Gopinath's dance here, but there's a clear contrast in that Gopinath's movements seem much more controlled and grounded, and I strongly sense his extensive dance training. It's interesting to note that Gopinath was among the earliest local trainees of Kerala's landmark performing arts training institution Kerala Kalamandalam, and like him, it seems many of his Kalamandalam peers followed a similar path after first leaving the institution by partnering with non-Malayali people who were interested in India's dance reclamation and the revival fervor of the time and creating new works and ideas in dance. After training in his childhood and then at Kalamandalam, Gopinath partnered with the American dancer Ragini Devi, and likewise I have read of his peers joining such high-profile places as Tagore's Santiniketan institution, Uday Shankar's company, and one dancer Ananda Shivaram ventured to Australia with Louise Lightfoot. The Kathakali movement vocabulary seems to have made an impression on so many during those formative dance revival decades in India, and it's clear that it left an indelible mark on the way group "ballet" style dances are performed and choreographed. Gopinath's dance in <i>Mahatama Udhangar</i> fits right in with the time period but his talent sparkles especially brightly!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts :25</i></span></div>
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What's also so interesting about this footage is it is an early example of Gopinath's work in the Madras film industry, given that he and his wife Thankamani are said to have moved to Madras sometime in the early-to-mid 1940s where they started the dance school "Natana Nikethan" which drew dance lovers from afar <span style="font-size: x-small;">[3,4,19</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">]</span>, and they also worked on a number of films, many at Gemini Studios. This part of Gopinath and Thankamani's life resulted in some fruitful and important connections. The iconic drum dance in <i>Chandralekha</i> was supposedly in large part the effort of Guru Gopalakrishnan<span style="font-size: x-small;"> [7]</span>, one of the star students of the Natana Nikethan dance school who became sought after by the film studios <span style="font-size: x-small;">[13]</span>, and Gopinath is said to have introduced the famous Travancore Sisters Lalitha, Padmini, and Ragini to Uday Shankar for his film <i>Kalpana </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span><i>. </i><br />
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Gopinath and Thankamani actually had worked at Gemini Studios a few years before for the 1941 Malayalam film <i>Prahlada</i> directed by K. Subrahmaniam in his debut, in which they both acted and performed dances. It was their first film participation and would be thrilling to see now, but according to <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zCKjUWAHWcgJ:https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/Prahlada-1941/article14678552.ece+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">this article</a> at <i>The Hindu </i>the film was not successful and "no print, or a single film frame or a photograph of the film is available now." However, in <i>The Hindu's</i> "<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5al9Ugm_M4EJ:https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/life-and-times-of-danseuse-thankamani-gopinath/article23309184.ece+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">Trailblazer on the dance stage</a>" article from last year about Thankamani, there is a photo whose caption and appearance looks to be a still of Gopinath and Thankamani in <i>Prahlada! </i><br />
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A couple random online sources claim Gopinath also appeared as the Jesus Christ figure in the 1951 Malayalam film <i>Jeevitha Nauka</i>, but it doesn't look like him to me as evidenced by <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q6_Ba2LnIAU/XbUDp01vy7I/AAAAAAAAJ_4/am9SL056kdc0WwsUVf4NnFEsfnoCXexOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/JeevithaNoukaMalayalam.jpg">this screencap from the film</a> that I took.<br />
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<b>Archival Footage of Gopinath's Travancore Palace Dance Company</b></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gOx8cDnDf3s/Xb4OBmnpHaI/AAAAAAAAKBo/bWgauS_bXJwVC6-homoICY2ahQPNLuzsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/GuruGopinath_Travancore_BFI2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1431" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gOx8cDnDf3s/Xb4OBmnpHaI/AAAAAAAAKBo/bWgauS_bXJwVC6-homoICY2ahQPNLuzsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/GuruGopinath_Travancore_BFI2.jpg" width="200" /></a>Another fascinating find is a silent archival clip from the BFI's newly-digitized "<a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/collection/india-on-film-1899-1947">India on Film: 1899-1947" collection</a>. An excerpt from a video the BFI titles "Dancers at Trivandrum Gopinath" dated 1946, it is credited as a "Kathakali dance performance by the palace troupe at Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) featur[ing] the great Indian dancer Guru Gopinath (1908-87)" that was filmed by Clarmont Skrine. It's only 36 seconds, but you can watch <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-dancers-at-trivandrum-gopinath-1946-online">the full 7-minute video at the BFI</a> with the restriction that you must be in the UK (or your connection must look like it's in the UK...). The preview clip is embedded below, and then underneath I've added some screencaps I took from the 7-minute version.<br />
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I thought the young woman dancing with Gopinath in the blue blouse below might be Thankamani, <strike>but it doesn't quite look like known photos of her and the dancer looks too young</strike> <b>Update</b>: Through conversation with Gopinath's daughter Vinodini <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CinemaNrityaGharana/posts/2492487544201961?comment_id=2493759824074733&reply_comment_id=2494875167296532">on Facebook</a>, I learned that this indeed is Thankamani! There are a number of other dancers and musicians seen whose identities I do not know but surely have a rare capture on film.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Left: Thankamani! Right: Gopinath</span></div>
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This and the <i>Mahatma Udhangar </i>dance are both from the period of Gopinath's life <i>after</i> he partnered with Ragini Devi in presenting Kathakali inspirations and other whimsical stage compositions in India and abroad in the early-to-mid 1930s. While many sources of information I've found on Gopinath do not always corroborate the same dates, it seems that Gopinath ended his association with Ragini Devi and returned to what is today Kerala sometime in the mid-to-late 1930s, and in the ensuing years he married Thankamani, the first student of the revived and reconstructed female dance form Mohiniyattam also being taught at Kerala Kalamandalam, and inspired by his work with Ragini Devi, Gopinath continued to refine and perform in partnership with Thankamani the style of dance now known as "Kerala Natanam."<br />
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At some point during these same years post his return to Kerala, Gopinath was also appointed by the maharaja/royal family of Travancore as a palace dancer and ran the "Shree Chitrodaya Narthakalaya" dance institution and company there <span style="font-size: x-small;">[3,4,19,20]</span>, and it is this palace troupe that must be the group seen it the BFI video above!<br />
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I found more details about the Narthakalaya in a <a href="https://archive.org/details/pli.kerala.rare.74843/page/n203">scan at archive.org of "The Travancore Directory for 1941 Part 1" document</a> published in 1940 (isn't the internet wonderful in bringing to the public these rare finds!) which reads:<br />
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The Sri Chitrodaya Narthakalayam was started on the 6th February 1937, with the permission of the Government, for imparting instruction in the Indian Classical Dance based on Natya Sastra as practised in Kerala. The Narthakalayam is run as a grant-in-aid institution under the management of Mr. Gopinath, the Palace Dancer, and under the general supervision and guidance of the Palace Sarvadhikariakar ... Instruction is imparted by Mr. Gopinath and Sry. Thankamani (Mrs. Gopinath) supported by a select group of musicians who form the background orchestra. The course of the instruction to regular pupils extends over a period of four years, at the completion of which certificates will be issued ... The institution is open to all who desire to receive a course of instruction in Indian Classical Dance ... Attached to the Narthakalayam, is a Dancing Troupe which is available for public and private performances in and outside the state. Arrangements for such performances can be made by correspondence with Mr. Gopinath, Palace Dancer, Trivandrum.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-card-1941-Guru-Gopinath-of-Kerala-Natanam-2-other-items-/233365265693">Currently available on ebay</a> is another incredibly rare find, an original invitation from the Government of Travancore for the opening of the Sri Chitrodaya Narthakalayam in 1941 and a signed note from Gopinath himself (pictured below), as well as the event program and a handwritten note. Maybe the school had its start in 1937 but wasn't fully operational or didn't have it's formal opening until 1941?<br />
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<b>More on Guru Gopinath and Kerala Natanam</b></div>
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When I posted about Guru Gopinath before on the blog, I had figured the dance style known today as "Kerala Natanam" that he is attributed to creating was one of the many alternative dance creations and newly-named styles that have regularly appeared in India in the decades following the dance revival as performing artists contest existing "classical" dance categories (or contest a previous contestation!), advocated for overlooked dance styles and communities, and created new dances of their own drawn from the many inspirations of the dance revival. I assumed Kerala Natanam had never been considered a legitimate dance form given the stronghold of Kathakali and Mohiniattam from Kerala, and I figured it sort of died out or was hardly known. An article last year reinforced this view, describing it as a style that is "at best a museum piece with few proponents" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span>.<br />
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But in researching for this post, I discovered that after Gopinath died in the late-1980s, since then there has been a resurgence of interest and practitioners of Kerala Natanam (also transliterated Kerala Nadanam) in Kerala. There are multiple media articles in recent years reporting on the form appearing in dance competitions in Kerala, many performance videos of it on YouTube, and it has recognition now by the Kerala government. It seems the revival all started in the 90s. There was a 1993 "global conference on Guru Gopinath and Kerala Nadanam" held in Kerala at which students of Gopinath recognized his "traditional creative dance style originating from Kerala" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[21]</span>, and soon after in 1994, the Kerala government established the Guru Gopinath Natana Gramam (Guru Gopinath Dance Village)<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span>on land given by Gopinath's 1960s-founded dance institution Viswa Kalakendra <span style="font-size: x-small;">[4,23,24] </span>(Viswa Kalakendra is still around but focuses on music now rather than dance <span style="font-size: x-small;">[22])</span>. As stated on <a href="http://gurugopinathnatanagramam.org/">its website</a>, the Guru Gopinath Dance Village now functions as a "centre for learning, training and research in various Indian dance forms, particularly Keralanatanam, the dance form composed by the maestro Guru Gopinath," and in 2015 a very nice <i><a href="http://ggndm.org/">Guru Gopinath National Dance Museum</a></i> was opened on site <span style="font-size: x-small;">[18]</span>.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c6UWtyg3lnU/XbUC9VbUpWI/AAAAAAAAJ_w/3hBAiYs7IToS8XmSSyFQ8wuB5K_zJg8zgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/NavaRasas_GuruGopinath_ArtofKathakali_Pandeya_1961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="788" height="435" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c6UWtyg3lnU/XbUC9VbUpWI/AAAAAAAAJ_w/3hBAiYs7IToS8XmSSyFQ8wuB5K_zJg8zgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/NavaRasas_GuruGopinath_ArtofKathakali_Pandeya_1961.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gopinath portraying Navarasa [image source: 12]</td></tr>
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Gopinath seems to have performed both creative Kathakali derivatives/inspirations but also traditional Kathakali dance throughout his lifetime. In Douglas M. Knight's book <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3EsA2NooW4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=gopinath&f=false">Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life</a>, he differentiates that at the All India Dance Festival in Bombay in 1945, there were traditional dancers but also "innovators of modern Indian dance, including Ram Gopal, who mixed several styles into one program, and Gopinath, who presented programs entitled 'Palace Dancer.'" Yet Gopinath was also listed as performing "Kathakali" in the daytime program for the momentous All India Dance Seminar in New Delhi in 1958, along with the eminent Kathakali Guru Kunchu Kurup, and there were also nighttime Kathakali performances in the program credited to Kerala Kalamandalam and "Guru Kunchu Kurup and Party" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[14]</span>.<br />
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It's hard to get a grasp on what exactly Kerala Natanam "is." Summarizing most accounts I've read, it can be described as combining the less complex pure dance of Kathakali with the graceful Mohiniyattam dance style. Watching online clips of "Kerala Natanam" dance from recent years, it looks like what you would imagine the Kerala equivalent of solo dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kuchipudi to be, drawing its movement vocabulary and some music stylings from that southwest corner of India which makes it distinct. Mohiniattam has always struck me as being exquisitely beautiful but with limited boundaries that constrain its breadth of movement, and Kathakali seems to be a very stylized and complex dance drama theater tradition. Given what I've read of Gopinath's intentional efforts to connect his dance style to classical sources like other recognized "classical" dance forms did, it seems like "Kerala Natanam" would have been a better candidate for a reconstructed and robust "classical" solo dance form of Kerala than Mohiniattam was, but Mohiniattam had been established much earlier as a dance form and it claimed connection to female traditions of the past (as with all "classical" dances in India, this history is complex and contested and much beyond the scope of this post!).<br />
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I would love to know more about Gopinath's legacy and what really happened, and I wonder how Kerala Natanam is really viewed in Kerala today as a "relative" newcomer given the many dance and performing arts traditions found in that state. I'm intrigued that Kerala Natanam is not offered at the Kerala Kalamandalam, but it is of course offered at the Guru Gopinath Natanagramam and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS1Prohvss8">this promotional group instruction video</a> from the school looks to align it with other formal and respected dance institutions like the Kalamandalam.<br />
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There are a few sources I've not been able to find but that surely would be helpful to more fully understand Gopinath's legacy and his dance style. The most accessible would be the one written in English, Gayathri Subramaniam's 2016 book <i>Kerala Natanam,</i> that aims to document the past and present of the dance form <span style="font-size: x-small;">[17]</span>. The others are all in Malayalam, so those of us that don't understand that language would need a translation. Two are written by Gopinath himself, his 1985 autobiography in Malayalam <i><a href="https://find.uoc.ac.in/Record/305810">Ente Jeevitha Smaranaka</a>l </i>and his 1970 book <i><a href="http://103.251.43.202:8080/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=16649">Natana Kairali</a></i>, and another that sounds helpful is Annie Johnson's book <i>Guru Gopinath</i> published in 2013 in Malayalam. Maybe someday I'll locate these!<br />
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<b>Sources and Further Reading:</b><br />
<ol>
<li>Cheerath, Bhawani. "<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:5al9Ugm_M4EJ:https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/life-and-times-of-danseuse-thankamani-gopinath/article23309184.ece+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">Trailblazer on the Dance Stage</a>" [about Thankamani Gopinath]. <i>The Hindu. </i>March 22, 2018.</li>
<li>Cheerath, Bhawani. "<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:a-NsCnGXf-gJ:https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/guru-gopinath-national-dance-museum-celebrates-indian-dance-forms-and-its-history/article20685416.ece+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">Guru Gopinath National Dance Museum celebrates Indian dance forms and its tradition</a>." <i>The Hindu. </i>November 24, 2017.</li>
<li>Chowdhurie, Tapati. "<a href="https://www.thestatesman.com/supplements/marquee/an-ode-to-perfection-1502643373.html">An Ode to Perfection.</a>" [about Thankamani Gopinath]. <i>The Statesman.</i> June 2018.</li>
<li>Chowdurie, Tapati. "<a href="https://www.thestatesman.com/features/epitome-creative-dynamism-1502522331.html">Epitome of Creative Dynamism</a>." [about Guru Gopinath]. <i>The Statesman.</i> November 2017.</li>
<li>Devi, Ragini. <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KRz5ykKRVAEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Dance Dialects of India</a>. </i>1972/1990.</li>
<li>Guy, Randor. "<a href="https://issuu.com/shakthi/docs/september_2009/32">Remembering D.K. Pattammal</a>," <i>Galatta Cinema</i>, September 2009.</li>
<li>Khokar, Ashish Mohan. "<a href="http://www.narthaki.com/info/profiles/profl145.html">Obit/Tribute: Guru Gopalakrishnan No More</a>." <i>Narthaki.com. </i>2012.</li>
<li>Khokar, Ashish Mohan. "<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KTjvUOR1vuEJ:https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/remembering-kalamandalam-thankamani-and-kelubabu/article23443784.ece+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">Remembering Kalamandalam Thankamani and Kelubabu</a>." <i>The Hindu. </i>April 5, 2018.</li>
<li>Krishna K.R., Kavya. <i><a href="https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/210222">Dance and 'Gender Performativity': Mohiniyattam and the Making of Malayalee Femininity</a></i>. Dissertation. 2014.</li>
<li>Mattson, Rachel Lindsay. <i>The seductions of dissonance: Ragini Devi and the idea of India in the United States, 1893–1965</i>. Dissertation. (Note: This work documents scathing perspectives on Devi's faults and life in a counterbalance to much of the pleasantries written about her.)</li>
<li>Mohan, T Sasi. "<a href="http://www.narthaki.com/info/profiles/profil13.html">Profile: Guru Gopinath and Kerala Natanam</a>." <i>Narthaki.com. </i>2002.</li>
<li>Pandeya, Gayanacharya Avinash C. <i>The Art of Kathakali.</i> 1961.</li>
<li>Paul, G.S. "<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ObCMUe1RbSoJ:https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/colossus-of-his-times/article3892458.ece+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">Colossus of his times</a>." [About Guru Gopalakrishnan]. <i>The Hindu</i>. September 13, 2012.</li>
<li>Putcha, Rumya Sree. "Revisiting the Classical: A Critical History of Kuchipudi Dance." Dissertation. 2011. [Note: Has a very detailed description and reproduces some information from primary sources about the 1958 All-India Dance Seminar in New Delhi.] </li>
<li>Rahman, Sukanya. <i>Dancing in the Family: An Unconventional Memoir of Three Women</i>. 2001.</li>
<li>Ramnath, Ambili. "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120518081114/http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/06/19/stories/2009061951250300.htm">A 'real artiste'.</a>" [About Guru Gopinath]. <i>The Hindu</i>. June 19, 2009. </li>
<li>Sreenivasan, Deepthi. "<a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/books-and-art/081216/documenting-kerala-natanam.html">Documenting Kerala Natanam.</a>" <i>Deccan Chronicle.</i> December 8, 2016.</li>
<li>Sudhkaran, Abjijeet. "<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2puwrGSKvtYJ:https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/museum-awaiting-greater-patronage/article20461807.ece+&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us">Museum awaiting greater patronage</a>." <i>The Hindu. </i>November 16, 2017.</li>
<li>Vinodini, G. "<a href="http://www.narthaki.com/info/articles/article77.html">Seventy Years of Kerala Natanam</a>." <i>Narthaki.com</i>. 2002. [Written by Gopinath's daughter]</li>
<li>Zarrilly, Philip. <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=CjwYysH2ZQIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Kathakali Complex: Actor, Performance and Structure</a>.</i> 1984.</li>
<li>"<a href="http://www.bharathakshetra.com/art-forms/">Art Forms</a>." <i>Bharatha Kshetra.</i></li>
<li>"<a href="https://www.keralatourism.org/trainingcentres/centre_details.php?id=97">Viswa Kala Kendra</a>." <i>Keralatourism.org. </i></li>
<li>"<a href="http://www.keralaculture.org/guru-gopinath-nadanagramam/373">Guru Gopinath Natanagramam</a>." <i>Keralaculture.org.</i></li>
<li>"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Gopinath_Natana_Gramam">Guru Gopinath Natana Gramam</a>. Wikipedia. [Note: Not well sourced.]</li>
</ol>
MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-11348097963510679222019-10-27T19:02:00.001-06:002020-01-12T18:55:36.441-07:00New Kamala Dance Finds in the Tamil Films Mahatma Udhangar (1947) and Illarame Nallaram (1958), and Better Versions of Two Kamala Classics!I'm back to immersing myself in searching and research, and what do I find this month but two film dances of <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamala">Kamala</a> that I've never seen before in the 1947 Tamil film <i>Mahatma Udhangar </i>and the 1958 Tamil film <i>Illarame Nallaram</i>! Then I also discovered that the Films Division <i>Bharata Natyam </i>documentary she was in is now viewable in a higher resolution, and her Bharatanatyam dance in the 1956 Hindi film <i>Chori Chori</i> has been colorised! Let's take a look at all these finds, one by one.<br />
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The path to discovering the two new film dances started with a new-to-me <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari_Kamala#/media/File:Kumari_Kamala.jpg">photo of Kamala</a> that popped up in a Google Images search, which led me to her updated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari_Kamala">Wikipedia entry</a> that I noticed now has a longer "Partial Filmography" section, which reminded me of the film dances of hers I'm still looking for, which then led to some searching that revealed these new finds! There's also a great dance of Guru Gopinath in <i>Mahatma Udhangar</i>, but I'll save that for a separate upcoming post.<br />
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<b><i>Mahatma Udhangar</i> (1947, Tamil)</b></div>
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According to the ever reliable font of Indian film history and dance <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randor_Guy">Randor Guy</a>, <i>Mahatma Udhangar</i> (also transliterated Mahathma, Udangar, Udankar) was an unsuccessful release directed by G. Pattu Iyer that "sank without a trace and is barely remembered today" ("<a href="https://issuu.com/shakthi/docs/september_2009/32">Remembering D.K. Pattammal</a>," <i>Galatta Cinema</i>, September 2009), which must explain why there's so little information readily available on the film.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KSPO5Io5-ds/XakVIlLrMaI/AAAAAAAAJ-Q/LDN7C2luN4svJ5b1Z9stYP4wGEnOuCphQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/MahatmaUdhangar1947%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KSPO5Io5-ds/XakVIlLrMaI/AAAAAAAAJ-Q/LDN7C2luN4svJ5b1Z9stYP4wGEnOuCphQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/MahatmaUdhangar1947%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a>The YouTube account "UK Golden Movies 2009" posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL_Ndfkgek0">first version</a> of the film in December 2018 with a letter outline watermark visible in the bottom quarter of the video, and then in July of this year they posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJwoFJIzV8">second version</a> that seems to be slightly less pixelated and with better contrast but offsets those positives with an ugly logo and subscription overlay icon intruding onto the footage. The second version is more complete and has this delightful note you see to the left acknowledging the rough shape of the film due to its being the "only copy of this movie in existence." In existence! Youtuber uksharma3 extracted some songs and dances from the first version and reuploaded them with the dancer's name in the titles, and that's the version I've embedded below.<br />
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The film's intro credits are a mix of Tamil and English, and "Dance Direction" is credited in English to Vedantham Raghaviah and Kaminikumar Sinha while in Tamil the "Nagaloka dance" ("realm of snakes dance") is credited to Baby Kamala as she was known in her early films (thanks to <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a> for the translation!). While it looks pretty clear that Kamala and Guru Gopinath created their own dances, I think Raghaviah and Sinha were responsible for two other dances in the film featuring Anjali Devi and an unknown actress, which are interesting choreographies to be saved for another post (I am still working on my post on Kuchipudi dances in films, and Raghaviah is an important part of that history!).<br />
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Onto Kamala's dance, which I was thrilled to see is another example to add to the collection of her famous snake dances! A cobra statue forms an imposing backdrop and also confirms <i>Mahatma Udhangar</i> as the source of <a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/img/Thumbnail/24%282%29.jpg">the mystery snake dance photo seen in</a> V.A.K. Ranga Rao's article on Kamala's film dances in <i>Sruti </i>magazine (<a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/img/Thumbnail/23%282%29.jpg">Page 1</a>, <a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/img/Thumbnail/24%282%29.jpg">Page 2</a>). The camera focuses only on Kamala at first as she rises like a snake and forms statuesque poses. Soon she's framed by a group of dancers as she descends the stairs and then performs those classic undulating arm and hand waves. I love those hand movements at 4:15 that look like the snake version of Kathak hand circles. So delighted to see another film dance of Kamala's from her younger years!<br />
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Comparing <i>Mahatma Udhangar</i> to Kamala's other extant film snake dances I've posted about in the past, it is by far the least technical and has very few Bharatanatyam-inspired movements and aligns more closely to the general graceful film dance style of that time period. Kamala's most astounding film snake dance must be her <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/01/even-more-rare-dances-of-kamala.html">early performance in the 1944 Tamil film <i>Jagathala Pratapan</i></a> in which she shows off such complex dance movements for being so young. A few years later, she performed another technical and Bharatanatyam-oriented <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-kamala-and-padminilalitha-dance.html">dance as an adolescent to the "Maadar Mudimel" song</a> in the 1950 Tamil film <i>Digambara Samiyar </i>which is described in the <i>Sruti</i> magazine article "Kamala: On the Silver Screen" (pages <a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/img/Thumbnail/19%282%29.jpg">one</a>, <a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/img/Thumbnail/20%282%29.jpg">two</a>, and <a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/img/Thumbnail/21%282%29.jpg">three</a>) as having "hardly any difference" between what she performed on stage at that time. A few more years after that, she vaguely evoked a snake as a young woman in the <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-favorite-black-and-white-spectacle.html">delightful instrumental dance number in the 1956 Tamil film <i>Devta</i></a>. Here are all three dances embedded in a YouTube playlist:<br />
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<b><i>Illarame Nallaram</i> (1958, Tamil)</b></div>
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The video quality here is quite bad so it was hard to tell it was Kamala at first, but her closeups and then some of her signature way of moving confirmed that it was her! A lot of her dance here is the classic film style of that time, but there are plenty of Kamala flourishes and difficult choreography thrown in here and there, particularly in the Kerala-inspired bits, like those arm movements at 1:25:36 and kicks at 1:26:14. Kamala's dance is so joyous, and the finishing on-beat movements that recur are interesting touches. The entire song in the film is presented as a stage dance before an audience, and Kamala appears only mid-way through the song, brought in as a guest dancer like the true star she is. Another great edition to the Kamala film dance collection!<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 1:23:34</span></div>
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<b>A Better Version of the Films Division Documentary <i>Bharata Natyam</i> (1954)</b></div>
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Back in 2012, I <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/03/kumari-kamala-dancing-in-documentary.html">excitedly discovered</a> that a very low-resolution video of the 1954 India Films Division documentary <i>Bharata Natyam</i> viewable online was centered on Kamala and her guru Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai. The Films Division has been slowly posting more and more of its catalog on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/FilmsDivision">its YouTube channel</a> in the years since then, and while it hasn't posted <i>Bharata Natyam</i> there yet, a kind <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/03/kumari-kamala-dancing-in-documentary.html?showComment=1558280224579#c4133025830683754008">commenter</a> on my 2012 post recently alerted me that India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has a <a href="https://www.mib.gov.in/media/films-division-vod">Films Division "Video on Demand" web page</a> where anyone can watch <i>Bharata Natyam</i> for free in much better quality! I soon realized that page looks to have the entire Films Division catalog viewable by scrolling through the list and clicking on the desired title! Unfortunately the page appears to be finicky and often shows a server error for me or plays but frequently pauses and buffers. Looking for other sources, the Video on Demand page on the actual <a href="https://filmsdivision.org/video-on-demand.html">filmsdivision.org domain</a> does not have <i>Bharata Natyam</i> available for viewing, but someone has uploaded it this past summer <a href="https://archive.org/details/dli.MoI.BharatNatyam_Eng">at archive.org</a> and that's the source I've embedded below.<br />
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Look at how much sharper quality this version is! There's lots of dust and scratches, but the quality of the image is fantastic! I've included a few screencaps below to show off the high-res greatness, click on them for larger versions.<br />
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As I was searching for alternate sources of the video, I spotted that the Films Division's<a href="https://filmsdivision.org/film-catalogue.html"> Film Catalogue</a> lists another instance of Kamala dance footage I've never heard of before. It's in the news reel NR0237 dated 1953, which includes in the description that the reel has footage of the "Music Festival in New Delhi" including "The South India Club presented Kumari Kamala, a Bharatanatyam danseuse." Would love to see that!<br />
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The Films Division catalog (and VOD page) also list the <i>Bharata Natyam</i> release date as 1956 which contradicts the <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6c05205c">BFI source</a> I had used before to determine the date 1954, but the catalog also says the director was Madhu Bose which is incorrect since the title credits of the video itself list Jagat Murari as the director, matching the BFI's information. So, I'm not sure whom to believe.<br />
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<b><i>Chori Chori </i>(1956, Hindi) Has Been Colorised!</b></div>
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Back in 2010, I had <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/09/my-favorite-black-and-white-classical.html">posted about</a> Kamala's splendid <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWLB_45_gz4">Bharatanatyam dance in the 1956 Hindi film </a><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWLB_45_gz4">Chori Chori</a>, </i>which was not only one of the few good Bharatanatyam dances in Hindi cinema but also had great black-and-white contrast. In the past few years, more and more classic Indian films are being digitally colorised with improved quality, and Ultra Studio has done so for <i>Chori Chori</i>! Watching Kamala's dance in color feels so different, almost like it's an entirely different dance. What determines the color Ultra chose to use for various aspects of the visuals, I wonder? I can't embed the video, but click on the picture collage below (<a href="https://youtu.be/VEaxyo4u0KY?t=2213">or click here</a>) to link to her dance!<br />
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And yes, that also means that <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Sai-Subbulakshmi">Sai and Subbulakshmi's</a> separate dance in the film <a href="https://youtu.be/k45__ChW6ok?t=1223">was also colorised</a>!<br />
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<b>Films I'm Still Looking For, a Scare, and a Photo</b></div>
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Long-time readers of the blog are familiar with my and my friends-of-the-blog championing Kamala's remembrance as such a talented and important piece of Bharatanatyam and film dance history in India, and I've been <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamala?&max-results=10">quite successful in tracking down</a> so many of her film dances. After looking at the updated partial filmography for Kamala at her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari_Kamala">Wikipedia entry</a>, I checked my list and see that I am still looking for her dances/appearances in the following films: Valibar Sangam (1938), Sevasadanam (1938), Ramanama Mahimai (1939), Kanchan (1941), Shaadi (1941), Chandni (1942), Vishkanya (1943), En Magan (1945), Ekambavananvishkanya (1943 or 1947), Katagam/Katakam (1947), Vijayakumari (1950), Lavanya (1951), Devaki (1951), Manithan (1953), Vilayattu Bommai (1954), Thirumanam (1958), Chandan (1958), Naach Ghar (1959), Naya Sansar (1959), and Sivagamiyin Sabatham (unknown date). If anyone finds those, please let me know!<br />
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I almost had a mini heart-attack when I read news that "Kamala Laxman" passed away in 2015 before realizing it was not the Kamala Laxman of this post, but rather the children's book author that married the Kamala of this post's former husband, R.K. Laxman. So yes, in the strangest of coincidences, after R.K. Laxman and the Kamala of this post divorced, he later married another woman also named Kamala, who then went by the name Kamala Laxman! Sadly, R.K. Laxman also passed away in 2015. The Kamala of this post was known by many names throughout her lifetime and two marriages: Baby Kamala, Kumari Kamala ("young woman" Kamala), Kamala Laxman/Lakshman (first husband), Kamala Lakshminarayan (second husband), Kamala Narayan, Kamala Narayanan, or simply...Kamala!<br />
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To close, I noticed that a couple years back, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) shared a <a href="https://twitter.com/nfaiofficial/status/875552422478872576">brief tweet about Kumari Kamala</a> on her birthday, which included this photo (painting?) I've never seen before of Kamala:<br />
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Born <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OnThisDay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OnThisDay</a></div>
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Actress and dancer who made a mark right from her childhood: KUMARI KAMALA<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jailor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jailor</a> 1938 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NamIruvar?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NamIruvar</a> 1947 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Yahudi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Yahudi</a> 1958 <a href="https://t.co/JCt17AfLMS">pic.twitter.com/JCt17AfLMS</a></div>
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-40321009846509504132019-10-05T22:48:00.001-06:002019-10-06T18:22:00.758-06:00Film Kathak Choreographies of Birju Maharaj<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2019/09/birju-maharaj-dancing-kathak-in-khayal.html">last post</a> about the discovery of Birju Maharaj dancing Kathak on screen in the art film<i> Khayal Gatha </i>inspired me to go watch all of his film choreographies that I've heard bits and pieces about over the years.<br />
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I haven't featured much Kathak (or Hindi film dances) on this blog to date because, from what I've seen, the way it is presented and drawn from in Indian cinema rarely excites or engages me. Kathak is by far the most dominant dance inspiration in Hindi cinema when something a bit "classical" is desired, whether in standard song-and-dance numbers or the ever popular courtesan mujras and court dances. Pallabi Chakravorty in her excellent book <i>Bells of Change: Kathak Dance, Women and Modernity in India </i>contextualizes further, noting that "Kathak is so deeply enmeshed in the cultural ethos of North India that its motifs subtly encapsulate the amorphous notion of ‘Indian-ness’ within the dominant forces of Westernization in commercial cinema."<br />
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I love explosive nritta (pure dance) and rhythmic wizardry when done well, so my favorite instances of Kathak in Indian cinema are Kathak danseuse Roshan Kumari's spellbinding nritta in <i>Jalsaghar</i> (1958, Bengali) and fast-paced spins in <i>Mirza Ghalib</i> (1954, Hindi) that I featured in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/12/film-classical-dances-of-roshan-kumari.html">my post about her</a>, but I also appreciate slower emotive dance when it connects with me, most notably the second dancer in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/08/gorgeous-kathak-dance-in-khudito-pashan.html">the Kathak sequence in <i>Khudito Pashan</i></a> (1960, Bengali) which to this day holds my gaze in rapture. But most other "Kathak" that I've seen in Indian films, Hindi or other languages, feel like pretty posturing with lots of what I like to call "generalized waving and flailing ones arms about" that looks vaguely like Kathak. Easy it would be to up the showmanship and show off some impressive foot slapping and ghungroo bell patterns, or even throw in a stylized hand gesture, but film Kathak usually seems to go for messy spins and wavey arm movements as its main focus. Edit: And even when film Kathak borrows traditional movements and hand gestures (most often seen in mujras and court dances), it's just not my cup of tea in ways I can't quite articulate.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOqTWir1psU">Source</a>]</span></td></tr>
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As I described in my <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2019/09/birju-maharaj-dancing-kathak-in-khayal.html">last pos</a>t, Pandit Birju Maharaj, for those who aren't aware of his stature, is probably the name most synonymous with Kathak dance in recent decades, a 1930s-born acclaimed carrier of his family's now-predominant Lucknow gharana of Kathak, a critical part of the standardization and institutionalization of Kathak in the Indian post-independence dance revival and reckoning that took place in his most formative years, a beloved and very charismatic and likable performer, and an innovator within traditional boundaries. He was instrumental in popularizing the dance form in India and the world, and is still doing so today, traveling around the globe in his 80s.<br />
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With Birju (I will leave out honorifics and refer to him simply as "Birju" from now on for brevity and clarity) being such a respected figure of Kathak dance, I had hoped his participation in film choreography would mean I'd finally get to see some more traditional and difficult Kathak movements and emoting being reflected on screen. In interviews Birju has said that he sees directing dance in films as a fun diversion but that he is selective with his film choreographies, getting many requests but declining most of them <span style="font-size: x-small;">[11, 12]</span>. He claims his film choreography is "pure to the core without any dilution [and] highly refined," and that he endeavors to get the actress he trains up to a level to show off the dance form <span style="font-size: x-small;">[15]</span>.<br />
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For me, none of his serious film dances really engage or connect, and I don't find myself wanting to go back and rewatch and savor them. Many of them are presented as overwhelming spectacles, with the Kathak almost being a gimmick, something to give the number more gravitas and traditional culture, but without lending it the same respect back. Birju's participation in choreographing (usually) only one dance is highly publicized in the Indian media, reflecting the film variation of Pallabi Chakravorty's observation that Birju Maharaj's "name and gharana are used for marketing one's saleability and authenticity as a Kathak exponent in the contemporary world" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span>.<br />
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With the exception of his first dance direction in <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari, </i>all the other films he's choreographed for are big budget commercial films featuring big stars. These aren't art films that might have space for a serious depiction of dance—rather, these are popular films that have A-list cast members who are briefly trained to perform his choreography. In <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari</i> he was able to choreograph for an actual real-life Kathak trainee who had no acting role in the film and appeared only for the dance sequence, but for most of his film choreographies, the focal points are actresses/actors with varying real-life dance training to choreograph and direct in a very short time frame. The purpose is not to showcase the dance form at its best but to showcase<i> the actress or actor</i> performing the dance form. With such short dance training time, the dances never reach the heights that they could have if extensively trained Kathak dancers from real life had been brought in, who could focus on the actual overall choreography rather than spending so much time learning basics of the dance form. Or, Birju himself could have appeared on screen! And let's not forget that cinematic dance is an visual art form of its own, shaped not only by the on-site choreographer and dancers but perhaps almost as equally by the technicians and post-production staff that morph the recorded footage into its final cinematic output that we see.<br />
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While these dances do disappoint me overall, likely due to the sky-high expectations of having someone of Birju's stature and background involved, there are some clear positives and details that Birju's involvement brings to the film dances he's associated with.<br />
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Though the main dancer is usually an actress who can only be trained by him for a short time, where Birju gets to draw from real-life dancers is in the signature aspect of all his film choreographies after the year 2000: a group of young women in Kathak costume dancing in sync in the background together with very crisp "pure dance" movements that look to be from traditional Kathak or very close to it. While the main dancer may not be up to par, Birju can showcase great Kathak in the group dancers, most of whom I've read come from his dance school or are his students, which is a nice touch.<br />
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Another unique feature of his film dances is that they are often based on actual compositions from his hereditary lineage and on his performances from real life. The songs are often drawn from the real-life thumris of his granduncle Bindadin Maharaj and sometimes feature Birju's actual recorded voice on the vocals or bols/rhythmic syllables. His work is visually differentiated from your average "pseudo-kathak" in Hindi films most notably by the inclusion of plenty of stylized and complex hand gestures (well, as much as the actress or actor can handle!), but also movements that go beyond the "generalized waving and flailing ones arms about" to an adherence to specific shapes and formations of the arms and body. There aren't any hip and shoulder shimmies as seen in so much "Bollywood dance" inspired by Kathak, and it's clear that the goal is depicting something close to traditional Kathak movement.<br />
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Let's take a look shall we at all of his film dance direction in chronological order.<br />
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<b>The First: Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977)</b></div>
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Birju's first foray into the cinema world was choreographing the courtly thumri "Kanha Main Tose Haari" for <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari</i><i> </i>(1977, Urdu/Hindi). It's no surprise that he was asked to choreograph the dances given the film's subject of Wajid Ali Shah, ruler of mid-1800s Awadh and lover of the arts whose court and patronage nourished the flowering of Birju Maharaj's own real-life family tradition, the Lucknow gharana of Kathak.<br />
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What is so unique about this film dance, compared to all the others he choreographed for, is that it features an actual student of Kathak, Saswati Sen, brought to the film only to perform the dance. Saswati Sen is now known for her long-time close association with Birju as a top disciple, following him from the prestigious Kathak Kendra to her current administrative work at his own school Kalashram, performing and organizing his tours around the world, contributing to the art of Kathak, and from what I can tell, being by his side as a support a good deal of the time. But <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari</i> was before all of that. At that time (apparently she was 20 at the point of filming <span style="font-size: x-small;">[14]</span>) she wasn't a professional Kathak dancer and was taking Birju Maharaj's evening dance classes, but as fate would have it, Satyajit Ray saw her perform somewhere and then went on a mission to seek her out to convince her to dance in his film <span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span>.<br />
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Satyajit Ray directed Birju to create not a "filmy classical" dance piece but a "pure classical Kathak" one that inspires peace and serenity in the onlooking Nawab <span style="font-size: x-small;">[11]</span>. Birju got to work at "meticulously rehearsing [Saswati Sen] on body angles, eye glances, head turns, for no movement, however slight could be indulged in without considering the camera angle" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[7]</span>. Apparently the man portraying the singer for the dance is Pradeep Shankar, one of Birju's real-life students <span style="font-size: x-small;">[5</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">]</span>, but the vocals we hear are actually sung by Birju himself (either offscreen or recorded separately), the lyrics "Kanha Main Tose Hari, Chhoro Sari" ("Krishna I've lost to you, leave my sari") taken from the large thumri compositional output of Birju's granduncle Bindadin Maharaj <span style="font-size: x-small;">[5]</span>.<br />
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For me, it's a slow burn that is, as I called it in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/08/shatranj-ke-khilari-1977-hindi-satyajit.html">my review</a> of the film nearly 10 years ago, underwhelming. It seems like in Saswati's efforts to dance in the way requested, one that inspires tranquility, she has nearly tranquilized her face! This was filmed before she was seriously training in Kathak, but I have noticed that quite a lot of online videos of her Kathak from years later feel similarly facially restrained to the point of near-blankness, but some from her younger years show a range of natural facial expressions like <a href="https://youtu.be/sk2RBqla7hs?t=167">this one at Wild Films India's YouTube channel</a>. In the <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari </i>dance, her parted lips are a bit distracting, but I found it amusingly cute how we can see the effort behind her dance and pursed lips in the spins at 3:16. Right after that point is where her dance best shines—in her pure dance, with her quick spins performed in a delicate yet masterful and quick way that works so well given the mood of the song and setting. It's curious to me that she never looks at the Nawab, or the other spectators in the room, but seems to focus her gaze either towards the floor or up at the top of the wall. As much as I like her pure dance, overall this dance is not one of my favorites.<br />
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I was intrigued by <a href="https://humidfruit.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/everything-and-nothing/">a blogger</a> who similarly felt bored by the dance and surmised that maybe the "cute but rather weak" dancing was an intentional choice by director Satyajit Ray "to portray the King as an ineffectual voluptuary," which fits with the theme of the film in depicting the king/nawab as pursuing arts at the expense of his ruling responsibilities. Maybe this is also why Birju Maharaj isn't the one dancing on screen himself, which would have made perfect sense given how much I've read about men in his family's tradition being the court dancers, but his commanding and detailed style wouldn't have quite matched with the lazy, easy artistic pleasures sought by the Nawab. I was not surprised that the aforementioned blogger felt bored about most Kathak until viewing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfWRYonOwzc">Roshan Kumari's powerful dance in <i>Jalsaghar</i></a> which brought about their first "kathak rapture" (Yes! That dance should be required viewing when talking about Kathak in films).<br />
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<i>Shantranj Ke Khilari</i>'s introductory credits also list "Gitanjali and Kathak Kalakendra Ballet Troupe New Delhi," and they are seen in a brief group dance scene with slow spins around Wajid Ali Shah in <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4fzqwi?start=343">this video</a> that starts at 5:43.<br />
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<b>Birju's Other Film Choreographies</b></div>
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Looking at the rest of Birju's body of work in directing dance in Hindi cinema, after <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari</i> in 1977 and his <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2019/09/birju-maharaj-dancing-kathak-in-khayal.html">on-screen performance in <i>Khayal Gatha</i></a> in 1988, he continued the once-every-decade tradition by not choreographing for cinema again until <i>Dil to Pagal Hai</i> in 1997. After that, he had a break for a few years before returning for <i>Gadar: Ek Prem Katha</i> in 2001 and <i>Devdas</i> in 2002. Wedged between <i>Devdas</i> and his most recent works was <i>Pranali: The Tradition</i> in 2008, which then brings us to the last few years in which he has been the most active, nearly averaging one film a year: <i>Vishwaroop</i> (2013), <i>Dedh Ishqiya</i> (2014), <i>Bajirao Mastani</i> (2015), <i>Jaanisaar (2015), </i><i>Vishwaroop 2</i> (2018), and <i>Kalank</i> (2019). This assumes I'm not missing any other films he was involved in, but it's unlikely given how publicized his participation is.<br />
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<b><i>Dil to Pagal Hai</i> </b>(1997, Hindi)</div>
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First up is the fun and absolute guilty pleasure of Madhuri's Kathak-inspired dance duel with the rhythms of Shah Rukh Kahn's drums in <b><i>Dil to Pagal Hai</i></b><i>, </i>which I was surprised to see is proudly listed in the "Contributions to the Film Industry" section of Birju's <a href="http://www.birjumaharaj-kalashram.com/the-choreographer.html">dance school website</a><i>. </i>According to Birju himself, he first noticed Madhuri's dance abilities when she attended a dance workshop he was holding in California, and that led to his choreographing a brief dance for her in <i>Dil to Pagal Hai</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">[10]</span>, but apparently he wasn't actually on set, instead sending his son<span style="font-size: x-small;"> [13]</span>. This is one of those overlooked facets of film dances, that there are usually assistants helping choreograph them who rarely get credited. <i>Dil to Pagal Hai's</i> dance is nothing like his film dances after this point, but it's a prime example of Madhuri's joyous abandon and dance training, and I'm glad it happened because it connected Birju and Madhuri for a number of film dance projects to follow. The choreography here is focused on short spurts of poses and flourishes inspired by Kathak but with joyful film flair. Deliciously 90s, just like the contemporary "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV9mK4igJng">Dance of Envy</a>" from the same film (you <i>know </i>you want to watch it).<br />
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<i><b>Gadar: Ek Prem Katha</b></i> (2001, Hindi)</div>
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"Aan Milo Sajana" in <i><b>Gadar: Ek Prem Katha</b></i> is the first appearance of what has become standard in Birju's film dances to this day: a group of young women in Kathak costume dancing in sync together with very crisp "pure dance" movements that look to be from traditional Kathak or very close to it. To be effective, all the dancers in the group have to be in perfect sync, but in this first attempt, some of the dancers are comically off pace with the others. Birju's dance school site says the choreography was composed to be "forming a backdrop to show Ameesha Patel’s turmoil," but in an interview <span style="font-size: x-small;">[13]</span> he expresses clear dissatisfaction with the final result, with words as scathing as he can muster, "they did not show it with honesty so the enjoyment was missing." I'm guessing he composed a lot more that was cut out, or it was meant to be viewed in longer segments to understand the meaning.<br />
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Given the film's partition setting of a well-to-do Muslim young woman being separated from her family whom she believes to have died, falling in love and starting a new life with a Sikh man, then reuniting with the family she thought was killed who then try to force her to marry a more suitable guy, the dancers seem to be not only serving as a pleasant performance in the family hall but also expressing Ameesha's character's love for the Sikh man that now cannot be. Unlike Birju's later film choreographies, the dancers form only a pleasant backdrop and are interrupted so often by intercut shots and the bustling happenings in the family hall that the dance has no cohesive identity. The official clip below cuts off almost 2 minutes of the sequence ending with Amisha storming out of the hall past an elevated shot of a formation of the spinning dancers who drop to the seated position right as she falls into bed sobbing. You can see the rest of the clip in <a href="https://youtu.be/7MZKB-_R7Go?t=222">this video</a> that has mismatched music dubbed in. Apparently the film was gargantuan grosser at the time, so it garnered a lot of eyeballs on an example of more traditional Kathak in Hindi cinema.<br />
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<b><i>Devdas</i> </b>(2002, Hindi)</div>
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"<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfAFHZ2usIo&feature=youtu.be&t=18">Kahe Chhed Mohe</a>" in <b><i>Devdas </i></b>continues the "group of women dancing in sync" motif but ups the technicality and speed and adds a frontline dancer as the focal point: Madhuri Dixit, in her first full-length film dance choreographed by Birju. Madhuri had some Kathak training earlier in her life, and her unparalleled general dancing talent and charms make her the actress that best performs Birju's film choreographies. A hallmark of Birju's touch, in "Kahe Chhed Mohe" Madhuri easily handles the most complex hand gestures of all of Birju's film choreographies, elevating her mystique in depicting a skilled courtesan charming her patrons. While Madhuri's facial expressions depict many different moods, they are a bit exaggerated and reminiscent of her style seen in other popular film dances. <i>Devdas </i>was a blockbuster, lavishly expensive for its time, and this song is well-remembered in accounts of Kathak in Hindi cinema. <i>Devdas</i> was also the <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-south-indian-films-stole-my-heart.html">formative film</a> for my interest in classical dance in Indian movies, so has a dearly special place in my heart! Birju also is credited at the end of the film as the "guest music composer" for the song and is listed as a playback singer, apparently singing the male vocal line and reciting the bols/rhythmic syllables. The end credits also list "Shashwati" as the choreography assistant for Pandit Birju Maharaj, surely a reference to his long-time associate Saswati Sen.<br />
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Unlike the slow pace and lingering camera work of <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari,</i> Birju's film dances in the last 20 years are all greatly altered and transformed by the camera techniques capturing them and the post-production edits that alter the resulting version we as an audience see. One of my favorite academics with a critical lens on the history of Kathak dance, Pallabi Chakravorty, helped me connect how these shifts affect a film dance. Comparing the "Kahe Chhed Mohe" mujra in <i>Devdas </i>to Rekha's celebrated mujras in the 1981 film <i>Umrao Jaan </i>(choreographed by another Kathak great, Kumudini Lakhia), Pallabi perceptively observes:<br />
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"Despite the fact that the legendary Kathak maestro Birju Maharaj choreographed [the] dance sequence [in <i>Devdas</i>], the rapid editing technique (reminiscent of contemporary music videos) creates a strong aesthetic shift from the slow languorous (vilambit) pace of <i>Umrao Jaan</i> [1981]. Rather than holding the gaze of the camera in the reciprocal exchange of darshan, the dancing is pursued by the camera, splicing and fragmenting it. The constantly jerking camera movements reflect and refract the glittering candlelight in the background and allow no room for building an emotional connection between the audience and the dancing imagery; the emotion remains purely on the surface. The aesthetics of excess and conspicuous consumption reduce Chankramukhi's dancing to nothing more than a visual orgy—a spectacle. The visual density of images provides very little sensuous experience that can evoke the pleasure of rasa. Rather, it evokes the erotic desire associated with commodity aesthetics...<span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span>"</blockquote>
In line with Pallabi's observations, the absolutely enormous interior in <i>Devdas</i> swamps the dancers and makes the camera shift around, zoom, and constantly stray from how the courtesan appears from the view of Devdas himself. The music is also restless and in the style of popular films, and would lend the sequence a very different feel if it was more slow-paced and traditional.<br />
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Compare the feature film spectacle above with Saswati Sen below in a classic Doordarshan-style 90s studio setting, performing the Lucknow gharana thumri "Mohe Chedo Na Nand Ke," the original version composed by Birju's granduncle Bindadin Maharaj that part of the Devdas song was drawn from (and that Birju himself emoted to in <i>Khayal Gatha</i> per <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2019/09/birju-maharaj-dancing-kathak-in-khayal.html">my last post</a>). Here, you can focus and linger, though the cuts are still intrusive.<br />
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<i><b>Pranali: The Tradition</b></i> (2008, Hindi)</div>
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Before we get to Birju's most recent work, we have to make a brief pit stop at what has to be Birju's worst film involvement, the "tandava dance" in <i><b>Pranali: The Tradition</b></i>, a b-grade looking, poorly-made and edited film about the plight of devadasis. The dancer, actress Nargis, is said to have received training from a student of Birju Maharaj flown in to train her, followed by Birju "who personally taught the nuances of Kathak" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[9]</span>. It was completely unnecessary since the result is cringeworthy in every aspect...camera techniques, editing, dramatic music, execution of the choreography, the amateur feel...so bad! Surely that's why Birju is only listed as a distanced "creative guide" in the opening credits.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Video starts 1:23:01</i></span></div>
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<i><b>Vishwaroop </b></i>(2013, Hindi version of <i>Vishwaroopam </i>in Tamil)<i> </i></div>
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Moving along to Birju's most recent stuff, Kamal Hassan secured him for "Main Radha Tu Shaam" in <i><b>Vishwaroop</b></i><i> </i>which features a much smaller set of the standard group of dancers, this time in an instructional practice-style session in front of their guru. I'll spare you my opinion of Kamal Hassan's emoting (let's just say I wish Birju himself would have been the guru on screen, glimpses that we can see in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CEDYtJNCbI">this "making of" clip</a>), but at least Kamal is attempting to use many stylized hand gestures, which are different from those seen in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7GmO8ewjmw">Tamil version</a>.<br />
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<b><br />Dedh Ishquiya</b> (2014, Hindi)</div>
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2014's <i>Dedh Ishquiya</i> was another film with a connection to Birju's real-life past, set in the Lucknow area like <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari</i> but trading that film's serious political satire bent for a sharp comedic treatment about thieving crooks in an unclear time period simultaneously old and modern. The Madhuri-Birju partnership is seen again here, with Madhuri playing the role of a widowed wife of the Nawab and Birju choreographing her dance to the song "Jagaave Saari Raina." Madhuri's character Begum Para is given a vaguely and unlikely courtesan-like past and explained in the film to have trained under Birju Maharaj" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[6]</span>.<br />
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"Jagaave Saari Raina" is supposed to be a "dancing at home for yourself and no one else" style number at the beginning, but Madhuri's character breaks the fourth walls and looks out at us the viewer occasionally, plus she is being watched by others through the window. Her character is thinking about the past, so the song opens on her younger self played by Bhakti Deshpande (who has said she trained under Birju in real life, in some fashion). The movements here are more freeform and casual, though the camera zooms in at 2:30 for an extreme closeup on a single stylized hand gesture that looks like a straightened version of one of the most basic in Kathak (Utpatti?). You can see Birju Maharaj (and Saswati Sen is there too!) working with Madhuri in <a href="https://youtu.be/Z7S9I07GzWk?t=1814">this making of clip</a>. Compare "Jagaave Saari Raina" with another dance song in the film, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BOWrHtthyc">Hamari Atariya</a>," choreographed by Remo D'Souza and also attempting to evoke Kathak but has a different feel, and awful electric guitar. <br />
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<i><b>Bajirao Mastani </b></i>(2015, Hindi)</div>
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"Mohe Rang Do Laal" from the opulent period film <i><b>Bajirao Mastani </b></i>feels very reminiscent of <i>Devdas</i> but with a vastly expanded scale and technicality, fitting right in with the trend of the last decade of Hindi cinema for epic and ornate historical dramas (such as <i>Jodhaa Akbar</i>, <i>Padmaavat, Ram-Leela, Mohenjo Daro</i>, and more in the works) featuring ample green screen-powered grandeur. And where there is a historical setting, there is usually some traditional dance! Just like Birju's past film choreographies, the group Kathak dancers moving in sync are here in the background, but this time the camera exploration is more three-dimensional and less restless than in <i>Devdas </i>and lingers longer with more continuity.<br />
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Like "Kaahe Chhed Chhed Mohe" in <i>Devdas,</i> "Mohe Rang Do Laal" is drawn from the extensive thumri output of Birju's granduncle Bindadin Maharaj. Birju describes the sequence as "a more contemporary adaptation of one of my own performances set on an Avadhi-Brijwasi thumri, Balma re chunaria maiko lal" (also sometimes spelled with 'maika' or 'laal rang de') which he is said to have performed in real life by imaginatively iterating on descriptions of "lal rang" (red color) and meanings of red in that one line of the verse <span style="font-size: x-small;">[17,16]</span>. The color red is a subtle accent in the number. Blogger <a href="http://shubhendu2011.blogspot.com/2016/01/mohe-rang-do-laal-bajirao-mastani.html?m=1">Shubhendu2011</a> points out that unlike Madhuri Dixit in <i>Devdas </i>who sports traditional alta red dye applied to her hands and feet, Deepika in "Mohe Rang Do Laal" has only light red powder smears, and the subtlety extends to her abhinaya where she only hints at touching her lips. The background dancers ingeniously throw puffs of red powder into the air at well-timed moments of the music.<br />
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For me, this number drowns in its ornate "prettiness" and Deepika doesn't internalize what she's expressing, hyper-aware of the external gaze on her and relying on the subtlety theme to cover her limited emotive scope. Her arched back and low-slung skirt also irritate me (anyone else?). It's interesting how while Deepika does use some stylized hand gestures, a hallmark of Birju's film choreographies, they are not as varied or complex as Madhuri's were in <i>Devdas </i>who used them even in the fast-paced pure dance movements. Deepika's eyes are certainly large and piercing, about to shed a tear of joy and love, and while I feel calmly soothed by the song and her mannerisms, the whole thing feels a bit empty and soulless. Apparently Ranveer Singh's character feels the same way as I do, looking unmoved throughout.<br />
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<b style="font-style: italic;">Jaanisaar </b>(2015, Hindi)</div>
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You would think <b style="font-style: italic;">Jaanisaar</b> would have been a hit, made by the same director as the iconic <i>Umrao Jaan </i>(1981), but apparently it was a critically-derided flop, and if the dances and lead actress are anything to go by, I can see why. Director Muzaffar Ali brought back the great Kathak dancer and occasional film choreographer Kumudini Lakhia who composed most of <i>Umrao Jaan's</i> dances, and given that <i>Jaanisaar</i> takes place in mid-1800s Awadh just like <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari </i>did, it's no surprise Birju Maharaj was asked to join too. Since the dance "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_P1I-FRMaY">Hamein Bhi Pyar Kar Le</a>" is confirmed to be Lakhia's work (who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EazpFLTvzYo">says</a> she "used movements from the old traditional Kathak"), the other dance "Achchi Surat Pe" must be Birju's work, an attribution further bolstered by the surprise fact that Birju's granddaughter Shinjini Kulkarni (more on her in my next post) is the background dancer on the left!<br />
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In "Achchi Surat Pe," the standard "group of dancers in sync" is seen here in its smallest quantity yet, and they play second fiddle to film debutante Pernia Qureshi in the lead role of a courtesan and who annoys me to no end. I featured the other <i>Jaanisaar </i>dance on the blog in 2017, calling Pernia's dance "clinical and lifeless [with] only a thin veneer of surface prettiness," but I like the way <a href="https://www.spotboye.com/bollywood/reviews/tedious-and-traumatic-jaanisaar-is-an-epic-disaster/567c061817b6144b64adb8cf">this reviewer</a> articulates it best: "Pernia keeps twirling and you sadistically wish that she tripped on her own dress." Achchi Surat Pe is exquisitely shot with darkened lighting highlighted by candlelight flickers, but Pernia just doesn't connect.<br />
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<i><b>Vishwaroop 2</b> </i>(2018, Hindi; <i>Vishwaroopam 2 </i>in Tamil)</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62wTu9LKWck/XX7s8DE5MJI/AAAAAAAAJtU/1wQvQIqOE4M__mHih0CtHXsNcXiLH0PbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Vishwaroop2Kathak.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="176" data-original-width="204" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62wTu9LKWck/XX7s8DE5MJI/AAAAAAAAJtU/1wQvQIqOE4M__mHih0CtHXsNcXiLH0PbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Vishwaroop2Kathak.jpg" /></a>In last year's sequel to <i>Vishwaroop</i>, unsurprisingly named <i><b>Vishwaroop 2</b> </i>(2018, Hindi), the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAVy6NtGg6s">title song</a> features a brief footwork reprise from "Main Radha Tu Shaam" before devolving into violence, but what thrilled me was discovering the song "Tu Srotu Hai" ("<a href="https://youtu.be/FVJELQX3-AQ?t=67">Naanaagiya Nadhimoolamae</a>" in Tamil) that shows a brief but pretty group stage dance at 1:06 that is then followed by a little boy practicing Kathak in a small, home class setting at 1:40, with some more practice with his mom later in the song! Yay, practice dance! For an even greater cool factor, the old woman in the song is Waheeda Rahman, the celebrated actress and dancer of decades ago, whose character appears to be reconnecting with Kamal Hassan's, pointing to a real-life photo of her younger self with a child Kamal Hassan so many years ago.<br />
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<b><i>Kalank</i> </b>(2019, Hindi) </div>
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And that brings us to the current year, 2019! "Ghar More Pardesiya" from <b><i>Kalank</i></b> released earlier this year features the biggest group yet of young women dancing in sync. It's an impressive feat to get that many dancers in near-perfect sync, though they perform movements that are more "Kathak-inspired," simple, and fun. The camera elevates, tracks, and moves through complex configurations of the dancers and their flowing skirts, showing off the strength of dance designed for the camera, something not seen in Birju's past film dances. It took me three watches of saying "wow, that woman at the beginning really looks like Madhuri" before realizing it was her, which tells me she has had some cosmetic treatments done to her face. Madhuri emotes at the beginning but never joins in the group dance, but Alia Bhatt does, performing some quick flourishes that look impressive and fun, especially with all the dancers behind her spinning along with her in perfect sync. Alia has <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/alia-bhatt-on-dancing-with-madhuri-dixit-in-kalank-s-ghar-more-pardesiya-i-was-lucky-it-wasn-t-a-dance-off/story-uLPbbj83aF64kEgrG1CS9J.html">said</a> she learned Indian classical dance for a year and worked on the emoting with Birju Maharaj a week before the song's filming commenced, but her expressions seem limited.<br />
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<b>Kathak History</b></div>
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Like all "classical" dance forms in India, what we today call Kathak has its own share of marginalized practitioners and a complex history throughout the evolution of performing arts in North India. I've listed a few great academic sources on the subject in the "Scholarly Sources" section at the bottom of this post. Many scholars in recent years have examined Kathak history with a critical lens, and they have shown that women have largely been forgotten or under-recognized in Kathak. These excerpts from Margaret Walker's article "Courtesans and Choreographers: The (Re)Placement of Women in the History of Kathak Dance" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[18]</span> summarize this perspective:<br />
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"Promotional material about Kathak commonly alludes to its blend of Hindu and Muslim traditions but unhesitatingly attributes the dance's origins to the Hindu hereditary male performers called Kathaks. These men are still considered authorities on Kathak's authentic style and continue in many ways to dominate the dance world. Although one cannot deny the involvement of these male musicians and dancers in north Indian dance, their largely unchallenged hegemony through the twentieth century belies the influence of women, hereditary and non-hereditary, on the development of Kathak dance..." </blockquote>
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"The first few generations of women dancers of the twentieth century...are a documented group of individuals, many of whom are still actively involved in the performing arts. Yet, although their names and faces are well-known and some books on Kathak dance include their biographies (Kothari 1989), many of their contributions are not recognized or have been absorbed into the legends and legacies of the hereditary male dancers..." </blockquote>
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"Ownership and stylistic authority still rest officially with the male Kathaks, and one can observe a type of cultural magnetic field which causes the efforts and creations of others to be credited to them. Yet the answer is clearly not to disenfranchise the Kathaks in turn; they are and were, by and large, excellent teachers and creative artists who, having grown up in musical families, present an internalized form of artistic knowledge inimitable by those who have trained outside their homes. The contributions of these men to the Kathak of today are undeniable, but the contributions of women, both hereditary and non-hereditary need to be equally recognized."</blockquote>
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I was struck by seeing Saswati Sen in the "making of" clips for some of Birju's film dances (<i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmPZIzynesw">Bajirao Masatani</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7S9I07GzWk&feature=youtu.be&t=1814">Dedh Ishqiya</a></i>) where she is sometimes beside or behind Birju but other times trains the lead dancer directly, yet she usually isn't credited for them, <i>Devdas</i> being the exception. There was one media article I read (that I can't locate now) that implied Saswati assisted Birju for all of his film dances, and I would not be surprised if that were the case given how closely she has worked with and been seen with him in recent years. I wonder to what extent she impacted the direction of the dances and what her contributions were! Similar to some of the prominent women associated with Birju's dance trajectory (Kumudini Lakhia, Reba Vidyarti, and many others), she seems to not be given her due.<br />
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Coming up soon, a post on film Kathak choreographed by Birju Maharaj's relatives!<br />
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<b>Scholarly Sources and Further Reading</b><br />
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1.<b> </b>Chakravorty, Pallabi. <i>Bells of Change: Kathak Dance, Women and Modernity in India.</i> 2008.<br />
2. Chakravorty, Pallabi. "Dancing into Modernity: Multiple Narratives of India's Kathak Dance." <i>Dance Research Journal.</i> Vol 38, No 1/2, 2006.<br />
3. Kothari, Sunil. <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZAbMS6ynGJ8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=birju+maharaj&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi44_zon7PkAhWRjp4KHR5TCwgQ6AEITDAG#v=onepage&q=birju%20maharaj&f=false">Kathak: Indian Classical Dance Art</a>. </i>1989.<br />
4. Lalli, Gina. "A North Indian Classical Dance Form: Lucknow Kathak." <i>Visual Anthropology</i>. 17, 19-43, 2004.<br />
5. Muni, Anisha. <i><a href="https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1354&context=hc_sas_etds">American Kathaks: Embodying Memory and Tradition in New Contexts</a>. </i>May 2018. <i> CUNY Academic Works</i>.<br />
6. Vanita, Ruth. <i>Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema.</i> 2018.<br />
18. Walker, Margaret. "<a href="https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/fwa_mediawiki/images/e/e0/Walker_Reading.pdf">Courtesans and Choreographers: The (Re)Placement of Women in the History of Kathak Dance</a>." <i>Dance Matters: Performing India</i>. Eds. Chakravorty and Gupta. 2010.<br />
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<b>Media Sources</b></div>
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7. "<a href="https://www.asianage.com/entertainment/in-other-news/040619/manodharma-evocative-abhinaya-of-the-inner-dancer-a-world-beyond-teaching.html">Manodharma: Evocative abhinaya of the inner dancer… a world beyond teaching.</a>"<i>The Asian Age.</i> June 4, 2019.<br />
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8. "<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/music/news/Saswati-Sen-credits-her-success-to-art-maestros/articleshow/12057146.cms">Saswati Sen credits her success to art maestros</a>." <i>Times of India.</i> February 27, 2012.</div>
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9. "<a href="https://www.indiaglitz.com/pt-birju-maharaj-guides-nargis-in-tandav-dance-tamil-news-36704">Pt Birju Maharaj guides Nargis in Tandav dance</a>." <i>Indiaglitz.</i> February 20, 2008.</div>
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10. "<a href="https://www.asianage.com/entertainment/music/131117/pandit-birju-maharaj-remembers-girija-devi.html">Pandit Birju Maharaj remembers Girija Devi</a>." <i>The Asian Age.</i> November 13, 2017.</div>
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11. "<a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-240138">In Conversation: Pandit Birju Maharaj Young at 74</a>." <i>The Daily Star.</i> June 29, 2012. </div>
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12. "<a href="https://www.khaleejtimes.com/20190429/I-miss-the-golden-days-of-Hindi-cinema:-Pandit-Birju-Maharaj">I miss the golden days of Hindi cinema: Pandit Birju Maharaj</a>." <i>Khaleej Times</i>. April 29, 2019. </div>
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13. "A Legend Unfolds." <a href="https://issuu.com/democraticworld/docs/democratic-world-magazine-may-2012"><i>Democratic World</i></a>. May 2012. Magazine.</div>
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14. "<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/dance/traversing-the-meandering-lanes-of-emotions/article27761842.ece">Why 'abhinaya' is importance in Kathak</a>." <i>The Hindu.</i> June 14, 2019</div>
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15. "<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/The-colour-of-Kathak/article13992110.ece">The Colour of Kathak</a>." <i>The Hindu.</i> September 22, 2016.</div>
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16. "<a href="https://www.dailypioneer.com/2013/vivacity/genius-footnote.html">Genius' Footnote</a>" <i>The Pioneer.</i> September 10, 2013.</div>
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17. "<a href="https://www.boloji.com/articles/864/reuniting-katha-vaachan-with-kathak">Reuniting Katha-Vaachan with Kathak</a>." <i>Boloji.com.</i> March 25, 2001.</div>
MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-2052093154938497862019-09-15T21:44:00.000-06:002019-09-21T15:44:14.619-06:00Birju Maharaj Dancing Kathak in Khayal Gatha (1988, Hindi)...Yes, I'm Back, Hiatus Ended!I'm back, my excitement has spontaneously returned, and the blog has had a facelift that's still under some construction. More on all that soon, but for now, on to the content!<br />
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Every once in a while I search the interwebs to see if any cinematic/archival dances from my wishlist have surfaced. On a recent search jaunt, I was delighted to find that footage has been posted online of the great Kathak doyen, Pandit Birju Maharaj, dancing in the 1988 Hindi film <i>Khayal Gatha</i> ("The Khayal Saga," sometimes listed as being released in 1989). I knew Birju Maharaj had choreographed for some Kathak dances in films, but <i>Khayal Gatha</i> was the only instance I'd read of where he was <i>in front</i> of the camera, rather than behind it. Kathak hasn't made that many appearances on this blog in the past, but like those <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/08/gorgeous-kathak-dance-in-khudito-pashan.html">few</a> <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/12/film-classical-dances-of-roshan-kumari.html">times</a>, this is a real treat.<br />
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Pandit Birju Maharaj, for those who aren't aware of his stature, is probably the name most synonymous with Kathak dance in the last half-century, a 1930s-born acclaimed carrier of his family's now-predominant Lucknow gharana of Kathak, a critical part of the standardization and institutionalization of Kathak in the Indian post-independence dance revival and reckoning that took place in his most formative years, a beloved and very charismatic and likable performer, and an innovator within traditional boundaries. He was instrumental in popularizing the dance form in India and the world, and is still doing so today, traveling around the globe in his 80s.<br />
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It quickly became apparent in watching <i>Khayal Gatha</i> that Birju chose an "art film" far from the world of commercial cinema for his cinematic dance debut. (Note, I will leave out honorifics and refer to him simply as "Birju" for brevity and clarity.) Kumar Shahani, a significant name in Indian parallel/new wave cinema, was by all accounts a radical, experimental, and avant-garde filmmaker. <i>Khayal Gatha</i> is no exception—when I first browsed through the film I could not make any sense of it, so I found what some wiser people than I had written about the film and Shahani which helped quite a bit, but much interpretation is left for the educated viewer to decide.<br />
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Writings on the film <span style="font-size: x-small;">[1,2,3,4]</span> describe <i>Khayal Gatha</i> as an experimental and sensory exploration of real and invented Indian legends, traditions, and performing arts from the past five centuries to the contemporary period, many related to the vocal tradition of Khayal, a genre of North Indian/Hindustani classical/semi-classical music that is heard throughout the film and as a style features improvisation, microtones and gliding between notes, and a varied range of classical, folk, and popular sources that the film is greatly inspired by. The lead character, portrayed by actor Rajat Kapoor in his debut (whom I can never unsee as anything but the creepy pedophile in <i>Monsoon Wedding</i>!), is a wanderer and seeker who is at times an observer and other times takes on the personas of the various legendary figures being depicted. Plenty of allegory, abstraction, metaphor, repeated scenes, and a lack of chronological storytelling tick the experimental boxes, and the dialogues are often philosophical and meant to inspire thought. Ultimately, the film can be interpreted in very complex ways in relation to the wounds of historical loss, the human sensory experience, cyclical movements and the nature of time, and much more that's beyond the scope of this post...and beyond my comprehension.<br />
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Director Kumar Shahani used dance and music in many of his films. His work has been featured on the blog before when I posted about excitedly finding dances from Shahani’s later films <i><a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/06/full-length-bhavantarana-is-now-up.html">Bhavantarana</a></i> (1991), featuring the late Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and other famous Odissi dancers, and <i><a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/06/better-quality-bala-and-sanchari-bamboo.html">Bamboo Flute</a></i> (2000), featuring dances by Mohapatra as well as Alarmel Valli.<br />
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I was heartened to read that <i>Khayal Gatha </i>features key musical contributions (and I assume on-screen appearances) "by some of the foremost musicians from the Gwalior gharana" of Indian classical music <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[5</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">]</span><span style="background-color: white;">. </span>But of course, of most interest to this blog is that the great Birju Maharaj dances in a feature film! We get to see him three times totaling about seven minutes of footage spread out over two primarily pure dance pieces and one expressive piece. There's also a Kathak dance practice scene by two women, and you know how <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/10/classical-dance-practice-scenessongs-in.html">I love</a> a good practice dance!<br />
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Watching other performance and demonstration footage of Birju dancing online, he is among the great performers who have so imbibed and internalized a dance form and all its associated complexities that his performances look effortless and a part of his very being. For those who don't know who he is, Birju at first glance isn't the most handsome male dancer, doesn't have that "ideal" body shape, and wears simple clothing, but on watching him perform, these things quickly become irrelevant.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Dances in <i>Khayal Gatha</i></span></b></div>
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<b>Introductory Dance </b>- Birju Maharaj's first dance in the film, and the film itself, are said to be visually inspired by Mughal miniature paintings, which often feature the "framing of a figure against a window" or vacant space<span style="background-color: white;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>. </span> From behind an empty door frame, rhythmic sounds precede Birju's movements into view. He depicts a horse and horse riding, a common sight and method of transport throughout the film as the wanderer makes his journey, and soon "gallops" off screen to a cut of his truncated dancing body framed by a window, the lighting inverted.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p-jZ76CkcUE/XX6zjtG5zGI/AAAAAAAAJso/1aiJkvVcbPI-OSwrN08oyAKdrXS8Xc7_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/BirjuMaharajDanceinKhayalGathaFilm%25288%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p-jZ76CkcUE/XX6zjtG5zGI/AAAAAAAAJso/1aiJkvVcbPI-OSwrN08oyAKdrXS8Xc7_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/BirjuMaharajDanceinKhayalGathaFilm%25288%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a>Birju's assuredness and style of movement is commanding! Regrettably, his dance lasts less than a minute, soon interrupted by the wandering protagonist (Rajat Kapoor) slowly walking by and gazing at the dancer in the window. The wanderer knocks on the door, and a woman answers—she (actress Alaknanda Samarth) is an oracle-type seen throughout the film in different avatars, provoking philosophical/critical thought and learning in the wanderer. The oracle leads the wanderer to her guru, and unties cloth that had been wrapped around his feet. What does that mean, I wonder? When the wanderer responds to the oracle's question "to what are you bound," her reply is, intriguingly, interpreted by cinema studies scholar <span style="background-color: white;">Laleen </span><span style="background-color: white;">Jayamanne <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span> </span><span style="background-color: white;">to refer to the notion of </span>"the mere exact repetition of the form without an internalization of its spirit [being] rejected as unworthy of the tradition," a sentiment applicable to the dance tradition shown the film as well as the film's philosophical yearnings.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Video starts 56:08</i></span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><b>"Mohe Chedo Na Nand Ke" Scene </b>- Near the beginning of the film when the wanderer as a child first sets off on his journey, the Sufi's sole advice to him is to "stay close to the river to quench your thirst," which according to <span style="background-color: white;">Ja</span><span style="background-color: white;">yamanne </span><span style="background-color: white;">is the "river of knowledge." The river motif is seen repeatedly in the film as a "vital energy, a goddess, a primordial mother without whom life is unlivable spiritually or erotically" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>. </span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xAyPg4arKWQ/XX6zpbCAbOI/AAAAAAAAJss/CVPOAI5XGAIFapTDXHS_ckhL-GntKBm3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/BirjuMaharajDanceinKhayalGathaFilm%2B%252816%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xAyPg4arKWQ/XX6zpbCAbOI/AAAAAAAAJss/CVPOAI5XGAIFapTDXHS_ckhL-GntKBm3QCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/BirjuMaharajDanceinKhayalGathaFilm%2B%252816%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
In the scene below, Birju's only seated dance in the film, he demonstrates expressive abhinaya with only the upper body in multiple interpretations of the same phrase from the thumri "Mohe Chedo Na Nand Ke," a well known piece from the Lucknow gharana detailing a nayika begging Lord Krisha to stop bothering her as she tries to make her way down to the <i>river</i>. The <i>river</i> motif! Birju is as splendid as expected. A grander meaning is implied when the nayika asks for her senses to be appeased and see only the divine. The wanderer accompanies the dance guru on the Tanpura drone, presumably as his student. All the audio sounds dubbed in the film, and in this scene in particular it seems out of sync which detracts from the overall affect. The English subtitles are spotty, and greatly needed for us non-Hindi speakers!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Video starts 1:06:45</span></i></div>
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There are obvious similarities between the above thumri and the seated portion of Madhuri Dixit's "Kahe Chhed Mohe" dance in <i>Devdas</i> (2002, Hindi) that Birju Maharaj choreographed 14 years later, not only in the similar raga and lyrics but also the movement parallels. Comparing the two side-by-side below, I can't think of a better example of how authentic Kathak becomes altered and edited on screen in commercial film dances, and how different the environs and pace of music and overall effect is. The lyrics sung at the start of the <i>Devdas</i> song below, which is deri<span style="background-color: white;">ved from a thumri composed by Birju's <strike>grandfather </strike>granduncle Bindadin Maharaj, mean "why do you tease me, and then embrace me?" ("kaahe chhed chhed mohe, garva lagai") <span style="font-size: x-small;">[6]</span>. </span>To be fair, "Kahe Chhed Mohe" is still in a different league from the other mujra in the film, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX1ro0AJk_I&feature=youtu.be&t=18">Maar Dala</a>," which was <i>not </i>choreographed by Birju and replaces the exacting expressions and movements in its seated portion with generalizations far from Kathak and very Bollywood-dance-esque. A better version of "Kahe Chhed Mohe" is at <a href="https://youtu.be/QfAFHZ2usIo?t=18">the Eros YouTube channel</a> (but no embeds allowed). More on the dances in <i>Devdas</i> later on the blog soon...<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Left: Khayal Gatha, starts 1:07 Right: Devdas, starts 1:57</span></i></div>
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<b>Pavilion Dance Scene</b> - After a tragic sequence depicting the Heer-Ranja legend set across desolate sand dunes and Khayal vocals, the oracle woman appears again, sweeping thick sand and dirt from a walkway as she recites poetic dialogue. Her words of surrender finish while Birju's fastest footwork and movement in the film is seen amidst pavilion columns, the oracle now watching him transported into the new space. Isn't he wonderful! We see some chakkar spins and those tihai endings repeating in triplicate that are so satisfying to anticipate. While the slaps of his feet are audible, the ghungroo bells are not dubbed in and are strangely silent.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-boeBtdva5pw/XX60OfK36HI/AAAAAAAAJs4/TyphLH0eqi8NeJSqumx01P1TlrZNjfFawCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/BirjuMaharajDanceinKhayalGathaFilm%2B%252826%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-boeBtdva5pw/XX60OfK36HI/AAAAAAAAJs4/TyphLH0eqi8NeJSqumx01P1TlrZNjfFawCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/BirjuMaharajDanceinKhayalGathaFilm%2B%252826%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a>His dance then transitions to the slow, delicate movements Kathak is known for. Suddenly, a quick edit focuses us on the only experimental dance in the film, the oracle gesturing between two pillars as if pressing against a window. According to <span style="background-color: white;">Ashish </span><span style="background-color: white;">Rajadhyaksha, </span>this scene depicts "the only myth that the film formally constructs, between a dance teacher (played by Birju Maharaj) and the woman who cared for him - trapped as he took over her femininity"<span style="font-size: x-small;"> [4]</span>. Birju closes his performance with some brief, slow-paced grace, now lit against a backdrop of the darkness of night.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Video starts 1:22:26 with the poetic intro (dance at 1:22:59)</span></i></div>
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This is the last we see of him in the film. Looking at all of his dances together, what an impact, and what a rare record of Birju in cinema! According to Kumar Shahani, Bi<span style="background-color: white;">rju only had a few hours to shoot his scenes (which according to the looks of the film were shot starting in an afternoon and stretched into the evening darkness), but it posed no problem since Shahani could "realise within hours with [Birju] what would normally take a few days to condense into significance" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[4]</span>. </span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XpKgkbzLEcc/XX60lMvnhdI/AAAAAAAAJtA/Fyfv9fwNRxUV-Hf8OwcaFUTPt1TjsVHFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/KhayalGatha_SuchitraHarmalkarandVijayaSharma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XpKgkbzLEcc/XX60lMvnhdI/AAAAAAAAJtA/Fyfv9fwNRxUV-Hf8OwcaFUTPt1TjsVHFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/KhayalGatha_SuchitraHarmalkarandVijayaSharma.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>Practice Dance Scene</b> - Birju Maharj is not the only dancer seen in the film. Kathak dancers Suchitra Harmalkar and Vijaya Sharma perform some short dance practice scenes, my favorite! I discovered their identities from a <a href="https://www.indiamart.com/kartik-kala-academy/aboutus.html">couple</a> <a href="http://www.prayagsangeetsamiti.co.in/Page-Detail-mod-Dr-Vijaya-Sharma-id.html">webpages</a> about them from dance/music schools they are associated with. The young women dance as an older woman recites the rhythmic bols/spoken syllables. In the second half at 39:45 that starts after a short scene of a woman walking, a bird can be heard loudly in a rhythm at odds with the dance—avian calls and sounds are frequent in the film, surely an intentional inclusion by Shahani, maybe to throw some dissonant sensory input in the mix, but I'm unsure what the intended purpose is. At 42:33, one of the dancers is seen in a solo, final practice dance.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Video starts 38:41</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Coming Up Next</span></b></div>
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Hindi films have been a minority on this blog in the past because the way Kathak is represented in their dances, courtesan mujras, and court performances rarely excites or engages me. Inspired by the discovery of Birju Maharaj's dance in <i>Khayal Gatha,</i> I am working on two follow up posts to be published soon. One will look at all of Birju's dance direction and choreographic work in cinema, from his best (and first) in <i>Shatranj Ke Khilari </i>to the current year, and the other will pull together the film dance choreographies of Birju's family, namely uncle Lacchu Maharaj, plus a surprise discovery. I've never sat down and watched all of their creations in cinema, so it's been fun to finally get around to it!<br />
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I also have some exciting news to share, after discovering completely by chance that my blog has been cited in an excellent book about Bharatanatyam and dance in early Tamil cinema that was published last month. More and more research and information related to the topics of this blog is slowly coming to light. It's an exciting time folks. See you soon...<br />
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<b>Cited Sources:</b><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Ghosh, Sankhayan. "</span><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/kumar-shahani-the-filmmaker-who-refused-to-fit-in/article7965297.ece">The filmmaker who refused to fit in</a><span style="background-color: white;">." </span><i>The Hindu.</i><span style="background-color: white;"> March 24, 2016.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Jayamanne, Laleen. <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ONsMBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Epic Cinema of Kumar Shahani</a></i>. 2014.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Pinto, Elroy. "</span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/34175531/Towards_a_micro-tonal_aesthetic_of_sound_and_colour_in_Kumar_Shahanis_Khayal_Gatha">Towards a micro-tonal aesthetic of sound and colour in Kumar Shahani's Khayal Gatha</a><span style="background-color: white;">."</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Rajadhyaksha, Ashish. "Kumar Shahani Now." In Rajadhyaksha, Ashish (Editor), <i>Kumar Shahani: The Shock of Desire and Other Essays</i>. 2015.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Willeman, Paul. <i>Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema</i>. 1999.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">Muni, Anisha. <i><a href="https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1354&context=hc_sas_etds">American Kathaks: Embodying Memory and Tradition in New Contexts</a>. </i>May 2018. <i> CUNY Academic Works</i>. Master's thesis.</span></li>
</ol>
MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-43313717092521896472019-02-08T21:45:00.001-07:002019-09-03T19:26:54.915-06:00Blog Hiatus, a Rare Simkie Photo, and Distinguishing KuchipudiHello dear readers and friends! Well...it has been some time since I have posted or updated this blog. My how time flies! Long overdue is a post letting folks know that this blog is on an indefinite hiatus.<br />
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My posts on this blog have always been fueled and energized by elation, joy, and excitement in the subject matter--purely felt and honestly channeled into writings in a medium that allowed me to share whatever bliss I was experiencing with likeminded people around the globe. And I have never posted unless I felt that enthusiasm. For various reasons, some known and others unknown to me, my engagement and enthusiasm have waned, and in that mindset I simply can't post in the same way as I have in the past, at least in good conscience.<br />
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The blog is on an indefinite hiatus, and who knows what the future will bring. I don't want to make any promises that I can't keep, a defect of which I have been guilty of in the past, though I've always had the best, though misguided, intentions! Should the passion of my past return, I will certainly resume the little mini-research projects I call posts. :D<br />
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This blog really blossomed in late 2010, continued the exuberance through 2016, and had a last hurrah in 2017. I am extremely proud of the work that I did, archived here, hopefully forever, for anyone to see, cherish, and enjoy. I have had the great fortune of having certain posts graced with comments by famous dancers, academics, and family members of post subjects. I have met, virtually and in real life, amazing people who have enriched my knowledge, shared my passions, and became my friends. I have disappointed a few, and perhaps treaded not very lightly into contentious and problematic topics and subjects in the history of dance, class, and politics in India. But, I hope that my genuine interest and sympathy for the "underdog" and marginalized has come through.<br />
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I realize that as time passes that more broken links, outdated videos, and web maintenance tasks left undone will cause the blog to become harder to use, and as I'm able I will try to keep things up to date. The fonts aren't always easy to read, and the formatting is goofed up in places. But, please have patience in the meantime. And feel free to drop me a line with any requests to fix things!<br />
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So in the low pressure environment of this hiatus post, where I don't have to spend weeks gathering information, making connections, and extensively citing my sources, I thought it would be fun to browse through my draft posts that have never been published and pull out a couple bits of material to finally give it the light of day.<br />
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<b>A Rare Photo of Simkie</b></div>
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<a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Simkie">Simkie</a>, that elusive and mysterious French dance partner of Uday Shanker, most prolifically in the late 1920s and 1930s. I tried for some time to try to figure out a timeline of her later years and what happened to her.<br /><a name='more'></a>
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My most cherished find was this little photo and snippet that I found in the January 1949 issue of <i>Dance Magazine. </i>LOOK AT THIS:<br />
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It's very hard to find pictures of Simkie in her post-Uday Shankar period, and here she is just shy of 40! A rare find indeed. I had been waiting to post it until I could come up with a thorough history of her life.<br />
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Though it's not thorough, I tried my best, and from all the research I've done on Simkie, including the sources I've read (Projesh Banerji and Ruth Abrahams' dissertation mostly), email conversations with academics, and a translation of the <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/04/documentary-on-simkie-uday-shankars.html">French documentary</a> on her, here's what I think happened to her, in very dry and simple terms. She had a "falling out" with Uday Shankar at some point, and married Prabhat Ganguli when she was at Shankar's Almora Centre, hence the "Madame Ganguli" name in the above photo. She returned to France and was there in 1949, before returning again to India in the early 1950s, where she choreographed for the films <i>Awaara </i>(1951) and <i>Jhansi ki Rani</i> (1953). At some point after this she worked at All India Radio in Delhi, never talking about her past dance life. Then she met an Englishman, Mr. Hannon, in Bombay, married him, and returned to England where she lived until her death in 1998. Given everything I've read on her, her life seems like it was not the happiest one, especially her years and fascination with India that turned sour. How I wish more information was known about her!<br />
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<b>The Clearest Difference Between Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam</b></div>
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One post I cooked up but never fully coalesced into a cohesive thesis is about the history of Kuchipudi dance in South Indian Cinema, which has grown up under the shadow of Bharatanatyam and has a unique and fascinating history. There is some enlightening authorship out there in recent years, such as <span style="background-color: white;">Rumya Sree Putcha's dissertation </span><i style="background-color: white;">Revisiting the Classical: A Critical History of Kuchipudi Dance </i><span style="background-color: white;">(some of her research is found in her separate article "</span>Between History and Historiography: The Origins of Classical Kuchipudi Dance<span style="background-color: white;">")</span>, <span style="background-color: white;">Katyayani Thota and Anuradha (Jonnalagadda) Tadakamalla's article </span><a href="http://www.phalanx.in/pages/article_i0011_the_Kuchipudi.html" style="background-color: white;">Marking the Telugu Cultural Identity: Kuchipudi and its Role in Cinema</a><span style="background-color: white;">, and </span><span style="background-color: white;">Amrita Lahiri's piece at Narthaki, "</span><a href="http://www.narthaki.com/info/articles/art403.html" style="background-color: white;">Kuchipudi: Resurgence or Funeral</a>?<span style="background-color: white;">" I learned that I was not imaging things when seeing Bharatanatyam choreography in old Telugu films--it was intentionally done so in certain settings and to imply certain things, in contrast to Kuchipudi!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">While trying to publish a post about all this unique dance history ultimately exhausted me, one treasure I came away with was finally having a good understanding of the difference between Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi dance!</span><br />
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So how can the average person easily tell the difference between Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi movement vocabulary? Putcha says that the "clearest differentiation between the two styles" is an adavu (basic dance movement/steps) called "Muktaimpu Adavu" or referred to by its solkattu (spoken rhythmic syllables) name "Di-Di-Thai." From my research, this adavu seems to be more popularly known as "Theermanam Adavu"and also by two other solkattu variations: "Gi-Na-Tom," or "Kittatakka-Dhari-Kitta-Thome." It appears to be used at the ending of a pure dance sequence and is repeated three times in triplicate--a feature that makes it easy to recognize for those not intimately familiar with the forms.<br />
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The trouble with adavus of course is that there is not one set way to do an adavu in a dance form because there are usually multiple variations that can look quite different. <b>Below is an excellent comparison of three variations of the Theermanam Adavu in Kuchipudi (pink costume) and Bharatanatyam (green costume).</b> Each time you hear the solkattu syllabus "Gi Na Tom," that's when the Tirmanam Adavu movement happens in triplicate. Don't look at the names underneath, which are confusingly listed in the wrong order for this part of the video! <b>Kuchipudi is on the left, and Bharatanatyam is on the right!</b><br />
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<i>Start 3:54 </i><br />
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The movement in the third repetition (at 4:09) seem to be the most commonly used in the dance forms in my viewing experience.<br />
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Great videos clearly detailing this specific variation can be seen <a href="https://youtu.be/1JZqHTDyigM?t=7m51s">here for Bharatanatyam</a> (solkattu <span style="text-align: center;">"Kittatakka Dhari Kitta Thome") </span>and <a href="https://youtu.be/0s_k42BJv48?t=44s">here for Kuchipudi</a> (solkattu "Gi Na Thom")--see how in Bharatanatyam the arm sweeps over the head from back to front, and in Kuchipudi it stays out to each side?<br />
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This side to side sweeping movement in Kuchipudi is the same one Kamal Hassan's character chooses to <a href="https://youtu.be/hGlosrLH1lw?t=51s">demonstrate in <i>Sagara Sangamam/Salangai Oli</i></a> when he's trying to nonverbally show the dance forms he knows.<br />
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<i>Start :56</i></div>
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Here's another great video comparing the two forms, from the documentary <i>Kuchipudi Revisited, </i>that I touched upon in a past post<i>:</i><br />
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<i>Start: 26:06</i><br />
Left: Bharatanatyam Right: Kuchipudi</div>
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Here's yet <a href="https://youtu.be/LryQEb8T4KQ?t=15s">another variation of the adavu in Kuchipudi</a>, not seen in any of these videos. Got it? :)<br />
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<b>I Bid Adieu for now!</b></div>
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-78802782455133900912017-11-05T18:40:00.001-07:002020-01-11T01:11:26.190-07:00Recent Film Classical Dance Finds<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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And...I'm back! :) Some personal matters have kept me away for a long time, but a moment of inspiration and deciding that my posts don't all have to be lengthy mini-dissertations led to a new post finally, yay! I've gathered a collection of some new classical dance finds in Indian films from the past few years as well as the exciting posting of some songs from <i>Sringaram! </i>Enjoy...<br />
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<b>Sringaram (</b><b>2007, </b><b>Tamil) </b>- It's been ten years since the devadasi period film <i>Sringaram </i>released, and while there is still no DVD or online release of all the songs or the whole film, director Sharada Ramanathan gave us a yet another glimmer of hope on her Facebook page this past <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharada.ramanathan/posts/10154638574088860">March</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharada.ramanathan/posts/10154933396923860">June</a> when she said that due to continued interest in the film it would be "out in the public domain soon" and "soon be with a main global network for all to see" with directions to "watch this space" to be informed when. Back in 2015 she had announced a summer DVD release after a Doordarshan telecast brought great interest in the film, but nothing materialized. But this time around, I'm apt to believe something will happen given the appearance online in the last few months of songs and dances from the film. For a throwback to my past posts about <i>Sringaram</i>, I <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/06/film-thoughts-sringaram-2007-tamil.html">reviewed the film</a> back in 2010 (note that I need to replace all my photobucket-hosted photos on my blog, ugh!) and also wrote about <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/01/classical-dances-from-film-sringaram.html">its dance sequences</a>.<br />
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"Three Seasons"<b> </b>- Posted to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOXMqzRp90cu6VnXjeulEWw">Sharada's YouTube account</a> in April, "Three Seasons" features Saroj Khan's unusually on-beat choreography that is characteristic throughout the film, and trained Bharatanatyam dancers Aditi Rao Hydari and Hamsa Moily perform the Bharatanatyam and Odissi sourced and inspired movements beautifully in elegantly simple practice saris. I find it mesmerizing...<br />
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The lovely group procession dance sequence made an appearance last fall on Facebook as well here:<br />
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<b>Edavapathi (</b><b>2016, </b><b>aka Idavappathi, </b><b>Malayalam)</b> - A fitting film to feature after <i>Sringaram</i>, <i>Edavapathi </i>brought together some top talent—direction by Lenin Rajendran who previously directed Malayalam dance-based films like <i>Swathi Thirunal, Rathri Mazha, and Makaramanju</i>, cinematography by the award-winning Madhu Ambat who also shot <i>Sringaram</i> and <i>Makaramanju</i>, and Sharada Ramanathan's media company seems to have been involved. The film tells two tales set in two different time periods. One is a modern-day story of a Tibetan monk and his love, and the second is based on Malayali poet Kumaran Asan's poem on Vasavadatta, a great devadasi from centuries ago that longed for the love of the Buddhist monk Upagupta. The modern portions depict the real-life challenges of the Tibetan refugees who have lived in the Mysore area for the past few decades without Indian citizenship but who long for their Tibetan homeland. Rajendran says that the film is ultimately "about the search for a peaceful abode, whether it be of the mind or a physical space" (<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/lenin-rajendrans-edavapathi-narrates-the-pathos-of-the-displaced/article8503646.ece">The Hindu</a>).<br />
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For the period portions of the film about the Vasavadatta-Upagupta story, Padma Subramanyam-trained dancer Uttara Unni plays the devadasi Vasavadatta, and Manisha Koirala portrays the role of Vasavadatta's mother! It's delightful to see the Manisha I remember so vividly from 90s films like <i>Dil Se</i> and <i>Bombay </i>come back to the silver screen in a heavy dancing role. A recent ovarian cancer survivor and divorcee, she has been through a lot over the years. Apparently Uttara and Manisha also play separate mother-daughter roles in the modern-day storyline as well.<br />
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"Rathisukha Saare" - Manisha is so adorable here! While I find her movements rather clumsy, she dances like someone who is truly enjoying the moment and radiates joy and charisma, whereas Uttara's movements seem more clinical and overly concerned with aesthetics and the external gaze...maybe its that plastered toothy smile she rarely deviates from? The Tibetan monk's attempt to interact with the dancer are awkward, but the courtesan seduction choreography at 2:42 is unabashedly sexy. What gorgeous indoor set design and lighting.<br />
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"Pashyathi Dishi" - Unfortunately we don't get to see the entire video song as featured in the film, but this clip shows off the talented vocalist (who clearly isn't recording live for this particular footage) and intersperses dance clips from the film starting at :50. We first see a male-female dancing duo of unknown identity (anyone know who they are?), and initially I thought the man was surely the Kathak dancer <a href="http://anujarjunmishradancecompany.com/uploads/Kathak%20Dance-2551456145.jpg">Anuj Mishra</a>, but his facial features are different than Anuj's. Following are more clips of mother and daughter from the previous song's indoor setting. Look at Manisha's glorious smile at 1:53! THAT is how you embody joy my friends! Some Kathakali dancers are also sprinkled in around 2:40.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts at: 50</span></i></div>
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A bit more playful generic dancing can be seen in the modern-day set songs <a href="https://youtu.be/_L9_PVrwYUs">Njan Ariyum</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8_-l8cGIYs">Venalinte Chakril</a>.<br />
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<b>Kamboji (</b><b>2017, </b><b>Malayalam)</b> - <i>Kamboji</i> follows in the footsteps of a long line of Malayalam films with significant Kathakali content, but here we finally get to see Vineeth and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy (whom <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Vineeth?&max-results=10">I have praised</a> <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Lakshmi%20Gopalaswamy">many times on this blog!</a>) together in a <i>full-length</i> feature for the first time. <i>Kamboji</i> is based on a true story from the 70s about the tragic love of a Mohiniattam dancer (Lakshmi) and Kathakali artist (Vineeth). And what tragedy it is—spoiler alert—Vineeth's character is convicted of murder, and as his last wish performs a Kathakali padam in full costume that ends in his being dragged to the gallows (<a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/entertainment/mollywood/241216/vineeth-gets-a-role-with-dance-and-drama.html">Deccan Chronicle</a>). Authenticity seems to have been sought for the dances in the film. I was surprised to read that Vineeth had never formally trained in Kathakali (really?), so took on "rigorous training" by Kalamandalam Narayanan (<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/malayalam/movies/news/Vineeth-learns-Kathakali-for-Asan-role-in-Kambhoji/articleshow/52325420.cms">Times of India</a>). It's no surprise however that the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLQ86ZzlF-U">film's soundtrack</a> is full of delicate and haunting melodies so common in South Indian film songs, and <i>Kamboji's</i> seem to have a nostalgic air to them.<br />
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"Chenthar Nermukhi" - Depicting the expression of love through song, this number was choreographed entirely by Vineeth including the way the shots are composed, and he won the Kerala State Film Award for it. It's clear from Vineeth's interviews about the film that he was careful to base the Mohiniattam and Kathakali dance movements in authenticity (<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/in-a-league-of-his-own/article17471224.ece">The Hindu</a>), an effort that, when combined with the gentle vocals and soft lighting, makes for a mesmerizing viewing experience. While Vineeth seems to only be able to move one eyebrow most of the time, Lakshmi's eye movements and facial expressions at 4:04 communicate volumes and remind me a vintage Vyjayanthimala!<br />
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"Nadavathil" - A scene at 1:12 of young boys practicing Kathakali steps is the first glimpse of dance in this song, followed by the romantic daydream sequence with dance starting at 1:50 and Lakshmi's glorious crowning alapadma-of-desire that rises like peacock plumage at 2:00. Finally a novel way of using the splayed open-fingered alapadma hand gesture in a film dance!<br />
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"Anguli Sparsam" - Slow burning and sensuous slow motion movements to match the vocals by Bombay Jayashri. Starting at 3:17, Lakshmi is dressed as what looks like a female Kathakali character and uses relevant choreography inspirations rather than the same old movements seen in countless other film Kathakali dances. But my most favorite part is at 3:55 when Jayashri sings "Sparsam" ("touch" in Malayalam) and Lakshmi pulls Vineeth's alapadma hands down in a cascading descent on her body. Hot!<br />
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<b>Priyamanasam</b><span class="inline_editor_value"><b> (2015, Sanskrit) </b>- Speaking of Kerala's performing arts, the Sanskrit film <i>Priyamanasam</i> definitely belongs on the list, but it's controversy seems to have kept any full clips of it off the interwebs. Judging from the trailer below, it looks to have many pleasing dances including a rare stage Mohiniattam performance that I'd love to see.</span><br />
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<b><br />Natyam (2016, Telugu) - </b>Sandhya Raju is an excellent Kuchipudi dancer of the crisp Vempati Chinna Satyam tradition and directs the Hyderabad-based Nishrinkala Dance Academy in real life. In the indie short film <i>Natyam</i> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gtSFseugFo">released on YouTube</a>) she portrays an ideal upperclass housewife with a rekindled passion for dance from her past, and she is the film's choreographer as well. The film does end up looking like one extended Kirtilals jewelry commercial, but the cinematography and her sheer dancing talent make it a beautiful watch.<br />
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Starting from 19:38 onward, Sandhya's real-life Nishrinkala Dance Academy is a frequent location for various practice and other dance scenes interspersed with scenes from her character's life. My favorite is her practice solo at 23:04 below which showcases her lightfooted crisp Kuchipudi form.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Start 23:04</span></i></div>
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"Pranamu Pranavakaram" - Kuchipudi adavus, movements, and style abound in her big stage re-debut near the end of the film! Interesting filmwork and lighting highlight her talent. I'm not a big fan of the electric guitar fusion, but it's definitely a creative composition.<br />
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I just learned that Sandhya had previously danced throughout the beginning song of the 2012 Telugu devotional film <i>Devasthanam, </i>but she's restricted to doing the short bursts of dance postures seen in so many other classical dances in films. You can see her starting at 4:18 here (and yup, that's K. Vishwanath!) [Update: Video no longer available].<br />
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<b>Aattakkatha (</b><b>2013, </b><b>Malayalam) </b>- Another movie about a <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20White%20Chick">white chick who loves Indian dance</a>! <i>Aattakkatha</i> centers on a European woman who comes to Kerala to study Kathakali at the famous Kalamandalam institution and falls in love there with a dancer portrayed by Vineeth. It's based on the real-life story of German actress <a href="https://www.facebook.com/irina.jacobi.5">Irina Jacobi</a> who plays herself and <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spotlight/Foreigners-charmed-by-Kerala-art-forms/articleshow/21895250.cms">at the time</a> was in her fifth year of intensive training on scholarship in Kathakali at Kalamandalam.<br />
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Even though it seems like a poorly made film with old-school camera work, strange editing, a schizophrenic soundtrack and sound effects, atrocious voice dubbing, and really bad acting on the part of Irina, I think it's probably the first time a white chick learning Indian dance has been portrayed in such detail in a film. The film entirely revolves around the Kathakali performing art and its immediate environs, and it almost feels a bit documentary-like at times. But being that this is a white chick, she can't be perfect of course, so she is seen *gasp* smoking and *shock* drinking in the film which at one point is so egregious it requires antismoking and antialcohol public service warning messages to be displayed at the bottom of the screen.<br />
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Irina's Introduction Scene - Irina Jacobi is first seen in the film performing warm up face and upper body exercises under the direction of her guru's assistant. It's nice that the filmmakers let this scene linger for a while so we can get a flavor of what this art involves. This clip doesn't include the moments preceding when her guru's assistant puts oil into her eyes and she performs circular eye movements.<br />
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Dressing Scene - I don't think I've ever seen the process of putting together a Kathakali costume depicted in such detail before in a commercial film. Here we have the novelty of a white chick being the subject of awkward upper body wrapping, but luckily at 2:50 we get to see her actually perform on stage. It's only introductory facial movements (and she seems especially sweaty), but that's a big accomplish for a white chick in an Indian film!<br />
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Practice Scene - Here's the customary practice scene featuring Vineeth, and Irina's interest is so "pure" she is mesmerized by it.<br />
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"Heemambari Thoomanjalil" - Vineeth and Irina's characters fall in love and have a naughty night in the film, and its depiction in this song is simply laugh-out-loud horrid! Amidst annoying jump cuts and outdated instrumentals, Irina looks like the most uncomfortable, bored, and awkward heroine ever. They even try to pay homage to the vastly superior film <i>Vanaprastham</i> at 3:22 when Vineeth tries to literally smear his makeup on Irina's face in what was supposed to be a sensuous allusion to physical intimacy in the other film but looks here like an attack by facepaint. 100% cringeworthy start to finish!<br />
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You can watch the whole film without English subtitles <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZEu73t8kQY">here</a>—other parts of interest are the Kathakali performance at 48:46, Irina's second practice scene with her angry guru at 1:02:50, and Irina's third practice scene with yet a still angry guru at 1:35:06. I wonder if Irina Jacobi is related to <a href="http://kathakali.rupiya.de/">Isa Jacobi</a> who came to India from Germany in 1979 per the ICCR to train in Kathakali (<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/charmed-by-kathakali/article3230544.ece">The Hindu</a>)?<br />
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Foreigners (largely white westerners) have been coming to institutions and gurus in India to study directly from the source for decades, and I was surprised <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spotlight/Foreigners-charmed-by-Kerala-art-forms/articleshow/21895250.cms">to read that</a> the Kalamandalam institution in Kerala gets the most students from Germany! France has been another popular source of students seeking dance training in India. Back in the 1920s and 30s there was Simkie in Uday Shankar's troupe, later in the 70s and 80s there were Bharatanatyam students like Devayani who was <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/08/found-devayanis-classical-dance-in.html">featured in America Ammayi</a> and Laurance Pourtale who featured in the <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-latest-collection-of-lesser-known.html">original Tamil version Melnattu Marumagal</a>, and recently "Paris Laxmi" has featured in Malayalam films and actually married an Indian Kathakali dancer (post coming on her later?). And of course there is the American native Sharon Lowen who studied Odissi/Chhau/Manipuri and was featured in Swarmakamalam.<br />
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<b>Uttama Villain</b> <b>(2015, Tamil)</b> - Kamal Hassan was back at it in 2015's <i>Uttama Villain </i>which had a folklore film being shot within the film. Wanting to do something similar to the "folk art" Yakshagana that he was familiar with, Kamal chose to draw inspiration from "folk" performing art traditions of Kerala and Tamil Nadu like Theyyam/Kaliyattam and Koothu/Villu Paatu traditions as inspiration because of the "visual and colour appeal" (<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/uthama-villain-hurts-sentiments-of-no-one/article7094222.ece">The Hindu</a>). And it's definitely brashly colorful in the film with a goal of creative spectacle rather than authenticity.<br />
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<i><b>Jaanisaar</b></i><b> (2015, Hindi) </b>- The North Indian courtesan mujra dances in this period film by debutant actress and dancer Pernia Qureshi are clinical and lifeless and have only a thin veneer of surface prettiness. The film has pedigree behind it—direction by Muzaffar Ali of 1981<i> Umrao Jaan </i>fame and choreography by famous Kathak gurus Kumudini Lakhia and Birju Maharaj. But wow did it turn out terribly. And I learned long ago that having a famous guru choreograph your film does not translate into good dance on screen. I think <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/reviews/story/jaanisaar-review-its-a-tiring-watch-mazaffar-ali-imran-abbbas-pernia-qureshi-film-review-286961-2015-08-07">this <i>India Today</i> review</a> sums it up best: "<i>Jaanisaar</i>, in which even Kumudini Lakhia and Birju Maharaj cannot make the leading lady look good...<span itemprop="articleBody">it's just her inability to do abhinaya or emote well...[t]hat explains why there are hardly any close-ups of Qureshi in the film and the camera keeps tracking her." This becomes even more painfully obvious in the marketing of the film which tried to capitalize on Pernia with a hilarious <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pme_2CXetQI">Learn Indian Classical Dance with Pernia Qureshi</a> "instructional" course which has essentially zero instruction. </span><br />
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"Hamein Bhi Pyar Kar Le" - Kumudini Lakhia <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EazpFLTvzYo">choreographed</a> this mujra with "old traditional kathak" movements. Pernia <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/pernia-pops-up-in-bolly-nbsp/cid/1394906">says</a> that Birju Maharaj had to "break the Kuchipudi out of me first" to learn Kathak before she trained with Kumudini. Sigh.<br />
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Pernia has two other dances in the film you can subject yourself to: the group dance in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UvuLc1rLO4">Achchi Surat Pe</a>, and the outdoor "aren't I so pretty?" frolicking of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN3KB45S5Bg">Teri Katili Nigahon Ne Mara</a>.<br />
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<b>Some Other Finds</b></div>
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Last, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoSNBTWm11zN6EkPCABTsEKv2D225PBCK">here's a collection</a> of some other finds of mine that I didn't feel warranted a dedicated spot in the post. The playlist includes Deepika Padukone in <i>Bajirao Mastani</i> (2015 Hindi) and cartoonified weirdness in <i>Kochadaiiyaan </i>(2014 Tamil), Rukmini Vijayakumar in <i>Bajarangi</i> (2013 Kannada), Trisha in <i>Yennai Arindhaal </i>(2015 Tamil), Anushka and Ashrita Vemuganti in <i>Baahubali 2 </i>(2017, Telugu), Meghana Raj in <i>Allama</i> (2017 Kannada), Aditi Rao Hydari in <i>Wazir</i> (2016 Hindi), and other random classical bits and pieces, whether good or terrible!<br />
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Here's Rukmini Vijayakumar in <i>Bajarangi</i> (2013 Kannada):</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Pnqi5DvSyms" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-87815345933946964502016-07-17T17:46:00.000-06:002020-01-11T00:52:52.504-07:00New 1950s Footage at Net-Film: Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, E.V. Saroja, Chitrasena, Vajira, and Padma Subrahmanyam!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nI2d4pM8spY/V4wI0WaGS6I/AAAAAAAAJdg/4aAuQ8BIdYMgLkldqXpJwRcj7FYx7G_mwCLcB/s1600/Net-Film_IndiaDanceFinds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nI2d4pM8spY/V4wI0WaGS6I/AAAAAAAAJdg/4aAuQ8BIdYMgLkldqXpJwRcj7FYx7G_mwCLcB/s400/Net-Film_IndiaDanceFinds.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Today I thought, "I wonder if Net-Film has digitized any new videos featuring South Asian dance since I last visited," and they most certainly HAVE—including nattuvangam/training footage of Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, Bharatanatyam by E.V. Saroja, and Kandyan creative dance by Chitrasena and Vajira!<br />
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I had discovered the online Russian digital film/newsreel archive <a href="https://www.net-film.ru/en/">Net-Film</a> back in 2013 when <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/rare-video-of-dancers-tara-chowdhary.html">I posted about</a> discovering rare video of the dancers Tara Chaudhri, Guru Gopinath, and Indrani Rahman at the site. Net-Film seems to have since expanded its collection beyond just Russia's Central Studio of Documentary Films, the "oldest and largest film studio in the former Soviet Union," to also include many other studios equaling storage of "about 50,000 films" that are being regularly digitized. Since Net-Film is aimed at providing paid licensing for its content, all the video clips are small, full-length "previews" which have the running timestamp prominently and annoyingly displayed at the bottom to aid requests for exact footage segments. Net-Film also seems to have updated the backend technology and usability of the site and it is no longer glitchy.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4637">The Morning in India</a> (1956, Russian)</b></span></div>
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This documentary film "about the history of India, struggle for independence, and present of the country" has the rare finds in reels 6 and 7 which focus on Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>In <b>Reel 6</b>, after shots of a temple in Kanchipuram, a dance segment begins at 1:35 with a close up of <b>E.V. Saroja's</b> face followed by<span style="color: #0000ee;"> <span style="color: black;">her</span></span> Bharatanatyam performance to the song Natanam Adinar! When I first watched the video I thought she looked so familiar but couldn't figure out who she was. The video description identifies the dancer as "Kumari Sarraj" (young woman Sarraj) which I realized could be a Russian mishearing of the name "Saroja." Reading through <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150501001402/http://www.sruti.com/download/Vazhuvoor%20Final%20Small.pdf">the <i>Sruti </i>feature on Ramaiah Pillai</a> to refresh my memory of the students he trained made the connection—<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/a-star-fades-away/article3231270.ece">E.V. Saroja</a> (1936-<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/ev-saroja-dead/article3043282.ece">2006</a>), of course, it looks just like her! I had always assumed E.V. Saroja only trained from Ramaiah Pillai for films like many other actress-dancers of that time, but she was also a serious student of his and "made a mark on the stage as well as in cinema" which<i> </i>this footage provides visual evidence of. EV Saroja had entered films in the early 1950s, and the footage was filmed when she was about 19-20 years old and beginning her string of hits in Tamil and Telugu cinema that lasted through the early 1960s. <br />
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<i>Screencaps (<a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4637">link to Net-Film page here</a>; <a href="http://d1a.net-film.ru/web-tc-mp4/fs50037.mp4">direct video link here</a>):</i></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lo98h7w5Xdw/V4vnMQ21p0I/AAAAAAAAJbQ/5joRR2-5--w1DNbUK4fSkmR3GS6k8brwgCLcB/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lo98h7w5Xdw/V4vnMQ21p0I/AAAAAAAAJbQ/5joRR2-5--w1DNbUK4fSkmR3GS6k8brwgCLcB/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25283%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QZeOa4UB0rU/V4vnMS0cLJI/AAAAAAAAJbU/rx6ipZTXsmcJ3cul0iT0XCUdrxnvLLxfQCLcB/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25284%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QZeOa4UB0rU/V4vnMS0cLJI/AAAAAAAAJbU/rx6ipZTXsmcJ3cul0iT0XCUdrxnvLLxfQCLcB/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25284%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oV3_FNCbPVw/V4vnMtSfk2I/AAAAAAAAJbc/IEIG63oRp3EWNmc8rFKpiHrmSTbUoe54ACLcB/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25285%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oV3_FNCbPVw/V4vnMtSfk2I/AAAAAAAAJbc/IEIG63oRp3EWNmc8rFKpiHrmSTbUoe54ACLcB/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25285%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wO6sWZ1RHTM/V4vnMQV2XeI/AAAAAAAAJbY/bEYvZsHkx-o4yu4iqT48yrUoxxuKkGqGgCLcB/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252811%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wO6sWZ1RHTM/V4vnMQV2XeI/AAAAAAAAJbY/bEYvZsHkx-o4yu4iqT48yrUoxxuKkGqGgCLcB/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252811%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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While the footage of E.V. Saroja is wonderful, it's the <b>rare footage of Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai</b> <b>starting at 2:54 in Reel 6 </b>that is most thrilling for its rarity. We got to see a visual glimpse of him <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2015/11/muthukumara-pillai-on-screen-in-kannika.html">in the nattuvanar role</a> briefly in the 1954 Indian films division documentary "<i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/03/kumari-kamala-dancing-in-documentary.html">Bharata Natyam</a></i>," but here we see him in the role not only more extensively but also walking, smiling, reciting the rhythmic solkattu syllables, tapping the wooden tattukazhi, and demonstrating hand gestures, eye and eyebrow movements, and abhinaya for a group of young girls! It's a short but incredible glimpse of his artistic skills and brings him to life and helps us see him fully as his students once did. The scene ends much too quickly at 3:50. How I wish the filmmakers had also included footage of him physically demonstrating full-body movements!<br />
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<i>Screencaps (<a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4637">link to Net-Film page here</a>; <a href="http://d1a.net-film.ru/web-tc-mp4/fs50037.mp4">direct video link here</a>):</i> </div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YRntk2RM_W4/V4vnxRuLIgI/AAAAAAAAJbw/BlOUjF2dRys8WmLtXyuU2tY8N6kztngqwCEw/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25288%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YRntk2RM_W4/V4vnxRuLIgI/AAAAAAAAJbw/BlOUjF2dRys8WmLtXyuU2tY8N6kztngqwCEw/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25288%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UzNVPKRO378/V4vnxBTx1yI/AAAAAAAAJbk/H_i8tRnj7GwkVXbBktzk-322OLP20FqIgCEw/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252814%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UzNVPKRO378/V4vnxBTx1yI/AAAAAAAAJbk/H_i8tRnj7GwkVXbBktzk-322OLP20FqIgCEw/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252814%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fhrMHJiIsEw/V4vnxBKjW3I/AAAAAAAAJbo/ABx_-cXOu08dZTHh9pkZRHJmpGgL4paDACEw/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252817%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fhrMHJiIsEw/V4vnxBKjW3I/AAAAAAAAJbo/ABx_-cXOu08dZTHh9pkZRHJmpGgL4paDACEw/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252817%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_nnHTTL_9sQ/V4vnxDGTzSI/AAAAAAAAJbg/v0VfjBGk_DgHIx53p3cKZD7KlNkh0dWLQCEw/s1600/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252822%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_nnHTTL_9sQ/V4vnxDGTzSI/AAAAAAAAJbg/v0VfjBGk_DgHIx53p3cKZD7KlNkh0dWLQCEw/s320/TheMorninginIndia1956_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252822%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Update</b>: After I published the post I discovered that the girl smiling at 3:17 and then dancing in the back is a young <b>Padma Subrahmanyam</b>! Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai was her early guru, and the video was filmed the <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/profiles/profil10.html">same year</a> he conducted Padma's debut arangetram performance in Bharatanatyam. Based on reports that she was born in 1943, she would be about 13 years old in the Net-Film video. This must be the earliest recorded dance footage of Padma!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-1WY0t2wa0/V4103n4w0VI/AAAAAAAAJdw/76i6uJMM8M4rqVeJR79m07LPPQelqqAxwCLcB/s1600/PadmaSubrahmanyam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8-1WY0t2wa0/V4103n4w0VI/AAAAAAAAJdw/76i6uJMM8M4rqVeJR79m07LPPQelqqAxwCLcB/s400/PadmaSubrahmanyam.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: Padma (<a href="http://padmadance.com/">padmadance.com</a>), Right: <i>The Morning in India </i></td></tr>
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<i><br />The Morning in India</i> features other dance styles as well. In Reel 6 at 9:20, we see artists making Manipuri dance costumes followed by a scene of Manipuri dance, and Reel 7 begins with some simple outdoor Rabindra Nritya dance. Reel 7 also features Rabindranath Tagore himself singing "the anthem of India" on screen starting at 5:35—this is possibly quite rare footage of Tagore.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4810">The Art of Friends</a> (1957, Russian)</b> </span></div>
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Like<i> </i>the <i>Masters of the Indian Art</i> footage I <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/rare-video-of-dancers-tara-chowdhary.html">featured previously</a>, <i>The Art of Friends</i> is a collection of performances, this time from the "VI World Youth and Student Festival" held in Moscow in 1957 to showcase artistic performances from representatives of different countries. The most stunning find is the footage of the <b>Sri Lankan dancers Chitrasena and his wife Vajira</b> along with presumably the Chitrasena Dance Company—I have the impression that footage of them from this time period is quite a rare thing to behold. <b>In Reel 1 starting at 6:11</b>, we see a solo male dancer, then a group of male dancers followed by a Chitrasena-Vajira duet at 6:51. Vajira's distinctive nose shape is unmistakable. (Note: There is also 40 seconds of additional footage of the group dance starting at 8:25 in the film <a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4860"><i>At a Marvellous Feast</i></a> about the festival.)<br />
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<i>Screencaps (<a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4810">link to Net-Film page here</a>; <a href="http://d1.net-film.ru/web-tc-mp4/fs51456.mp4">direct video link here</a>):</i></div>
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I had written about the Sri Lankan dancer Chitrasena briefly in my post "<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/06/bharatanatyam-in-sri-lankan-sinhalese.html">Bharatanatyam in Sri Lankan Sinhalese Films and in Sri Lanka</a>" and more in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-nrityagram-dance-ensemble-in-utah.html">my post about seeing</a> the Nrityagram-Chitrasena Dance Company Odissi-Kandyan dance collaboration production <i>Samhara</i> in Utah in 2013. As I explained there, Kandyan dance is one of the three main dance
forms identified with the majority Sinhala ethnic community in Sri Lanka
and considered Sri Lanka's national dance. Chitrasena founded the Chitrasena School of
Dance, the first of its kind in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), in 1944, and his work shared some affinities with Uday Shankar. As described by Susan Reed in her book <i>Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics in Sri Lanka,</i> Chitrasena was a "high-caste,
English-educated dancer" who became "well known in Colombo for his
oriental ballets that combined Ceylonese, Indian, and Western
techniques." Kandyan dance
later occupied the central character of his choreography, and "Chitrasena and his
talented dancer-wife Vajira played a large part in popularizing Kandyan
dance in Sri Lanka and raising its acceptability in a time when
traditional dance in the country was held in low esteem."<br />
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The film's description identifies the performers only as "the delegations of Ceylon" which implies the Chitrasena Dance Company was sent by Ceylon to represent the performing arts of the country which bolsters Susan Reed's point that after 1956 Kandyan dance had become cemented as a symbol of Ceylon's national culture.
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In <b>Reel 2 </b>at 3:16, a group of women perform an agriculture-themed
dance carrying sickles with movements from <b>Kandyan dance </b>as drummers stand behind them. I am unsure who the woman featured in a closeup is. I wonder if she was a prominent member of the Chitrasena Dance Company?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Screencaps (<a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4810">link to Net-Film page here</a>; <a href="http://d1.net-film.ru/web-tc-mp4/fs51194.mp4">direct video link here</a>):</i></div>
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Switching back to the dances of India, in <b>Reel 3</b> a dancer (identified in the description as Shirley Kuliar) performs what looks and sounds like a<b> <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/11/rabindra-nrityatagore-dances-in-bengali.html">Rabindra Nritya</a></b> solo dance in front of accompanists starting at :57, and Reel 4 features some folk dance with beautiful costumes starting at 4:58. When the Rabindra Nritya segment first began I freaked out for a moment before I realized that the dancer was <i>not</i> Kamala! I wonder if Shirley Kuliar is another Russian mishearing of an Indian name?
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<i>Screencaps (<a href="http://www.net-film.ru/en/film-4810">link to Net-Film page here</a>; <a href="http://d1a.net-film.ru/web-tc-mp4/fs51457.mp4">direct video link here</a>):</i></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-idNvwSyYSIw/V4v36B2snEI/AAAAAAAAJdQ/r_l-T8DYltIQ40et74Dx5mfKGw5tNGU9wCLcB/s1600/TheArtofFriends1957_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-idNvwSyYSIw/V4v36B2snEI/AAAAAAAAJdQ/r_l-T8DYltIQ40et74Dx5mfKGw5tNGU9wCLcB/s320/TheArtofFriends1957_Net-Film_Russian%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uQhMkQyvl4o/V4v36A4X4eI/AAAAAAAAJdM/a1r_8cMMPGAnXNw-z6sDYXP_i33o4RcRQCLcB/s1600/TheArtofFriends1957_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252830%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uQhMkQyvl4o/V4v36A4X4eI/AAAAAAAAJdM/a1r_8cMMPGAnXNw-z6sDYXP_i33o4RcRQCLcB/s320/TheArtofFriends1957_Net-Film_Russian%2B%252830%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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What exciting finds! Net-Film has a lot of other interesting Indian-themed footage from the last century, so happy browsing! MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-52892768144695473542016-06-19T20:43:00.003-06:002020-01-11T00:48:19.104-07:00Swapna Sundari Dancing in Kissaa Kursee Kaa (Hindi, 1977) <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sCeN9UMdmHo/V2cWJM9oyKI/AAAAAAAAJX0/ZWWkaxznxeM6Y05-_kG-hAIaoZLQHeeswCK4B/s1600/SwapnaSundari_KissaaKurseeKaa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sCeN9UMdmHo/V2cWJM9oyKI/AAAAAAAAJX0/ZWWkaxznxeM6Y05-_kG-hAIaoZLQHeeswCK4B/s400/SwapnaSundari_KissaaKurseeKaa.jpg" width="400" /></a>Today I was alerted to Anuj Kumar's days-old <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/Kissaa-Kursee-Kaa-1978/article14427941.ece"><i>The Hindu</i> article</a> about the 1977 Hindi film <i>Kissaa Kursee Kaa</i><i> </i>which reveals that the director used classical dance forms "performed by Swapna Sundari to anchor the narrative." Swapna Sundari! I always enjoy finding examples of famous dancers performing in cinema, and learning that the well known Kuchipudi and Vilasini Natyam dancer Swapna Sundari danced in a film was certainly surprising! <br />
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It's a controversial film for Swapna to have involved herself in. A scathing satirical and symbolic work spoofing the Indira Gandhi government, <i>Kissaa Kursee Kaa </i>(<i>Tale of a Throne, aka Kissa Kursi Ka</i>) was made during the turbulent period known as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emergency_(India)">the Emergency</a>” when India's government declared a state of emergency ushering in a dark period in India’s modern history which saw basic freedoms and rights suspended. The print we see on
YouTube is actually a remake of the original that was banned and never released and had all its prints <a href="https://scroll.in/article/702429/banned-during-the-emergency-controversial-kissaa-kursee-kaa-movie-to-make-a-return">destroyed by the government</a>. After the Emergency was lifted, director Amrit Nahata reshot and released the film in 1977 (while <i>The Hindu</i> article and YouTube video list 1978, I've listed 1977 which is the date the <i>Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema</i> and many other articles list). The film has been <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/Kissa-Kursi-Ka-Government-mulls-returning-prints-or-compensating-filmmakers-kin/articleshow/47809037.cms">in the news recently</a> again after Nahata's son has demanded the original prints be returned or compensation be made. I would love to hear what Swapna's experience was in taking part in this film, but I've not been able to find any other mentions of it.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jVnzUyQd4Rw/V2c0AfjHdUI/AAAAAAAAJYE/jav_KncAnIgIzsvgpXLqXJ1sBoe20HeMQCK4B/s1600/vlcsnap-2016-06-19-15h09m07s829.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jVnzUyQd4Rw/V2c0AfjHdUI/AAAAAAAAJYE/jav_KncAnIgIzsvgpXLqXJ1sBoe20HeMQCK4B/s200/vlcsnap-2016-06-19-15h09m07s829.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raghavan?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While the dances are disappointingly underwhelming and brief (what a let down!), they are notable not
only for being an uncommon example of South Indian dance being
performed by trained dancers in a Hindi film but also featuring what
looks like Kuchipudi dance movements. The male dancer is another rare sight whose identity I'm not sure of—according to a friend's translation, the film credits list Sudharshan Dheer and Raghavan as possibilities, and since the male dancer looks nothing like the late famous Kathak dancer <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/profiles/profl184.html">Sudharshan Dheer</a>, my guess is he must be Raghavan. I bet Sudharshan Dheer assisted with choreography especially the Kathak parts.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>The film kicks off with a group dance starting at 1:15 led by Swapna and Raghavan, and so much about the nritta/pure dance screams "Kuchipudi" to me. The hand movements at 2:30 are unquestionably Kuchipudi, and the first leg movements by Swapna at 1:44 as well as the duo's series of movements starting at 2:50 looks very much taken from or inspired by Kuchipudi's movement vocabulary. Three other dance forms make a brief appearance in the film: at 4:32 we are treated to a unthrilling Kathak dance, at 39:31 we see a more traditional nattuvanar-dancer setup (with Hindi filmi music) featuring Swapna's bouncy Kuchipudi movements and Raghavan's declarations intercut with scenes of rats, at 1:08:22 we <span style="color: #0000ee;">have</span> another example of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/08/manipuri-dance-in-indian-cinema-and.html">Manipuri dance misrepresentation in cinema</a> intercut with scenes of Shabana Azmi's suffering, and the final dance seen at 1:27:58 is a folk number. Not having English subtitles, the way these dances "anchor the narrative" is lost on me. The film's editing is really abrupt and the technical quality quite poor, though in a couple scenes like 1:20:40 I was reminded of the far superior and somewhat similar 1977 film <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/08/shatranj-ke-khilari-1977-hindi-satyajit.html">Shatranj Ke Khilari</a>. </i><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts 1:15</i></span><br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e9y3xIDnwsE?start=75" width="560"></iframe>
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The Dravidian-style temple prominent in the background of the first dance in the film follows the same signaling of other Hindi film songs featuring a South Indian dance, like <i>Abhinetri</i> and <i>New Delhi. </i>The scene is clearly shouting "I am South Indian!" I'm sure that the fact that specifically Kuchipudi movements are being portrayed here and there was lost on most audiences.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D6_bBEtvGls/V2cVNyjC17I/AAAAAAAAJXg/BVFTDTFWm1EerbUd-m1ClpsgQ7HRo36IgCK4B/s1600/DravidianTemple_Abhinetri_NewDelhi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D6_bBEtvGls/V2cVNyjC17I/AAAAAAAAJXg/BVFTDTFWm1EerbUd-m1ClpsgQ7HRo36IgCK4B/s640/DravidianTemple_Abhinetri_NewDelhi.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><i>Abhinetri</i>, <i>New Delhi</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qYHJTgQMccg/V2cUJVTSH-I/AAAAAAAAJXU/P_W2ydLnsrMz0ZQxC1ZwwjNUYFNXOSmdwCK4B/s1600/NewDelhi.jpg" imageanchor="1"> </a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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A few other screenshots from the film:</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nelKcRr-URs/V2dUa81kxCI/AAAAAAAAJYs/xpN8jeeG9lk_9ehA4yHQo87oq-kxgjyxQCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nelKcRr-URs/V2dUa81kxCI/AAAAAAAAJYs/xpN8jeeG9lk_9ehA4yHQo87oq-kxgjyxQCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JTM8HxHPwCQ/V2dUfSoOciI/AAAAAAAAJY0/a_NaIX1QRf4hR0A892eaQiUcnb7_aXZ_QCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252810%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JTM8HxHPwCQ/V2dUfSoOciI/AAAAAAAAJY0/a_NaIX1QRf4hR0A892eaQiUcnb7_aXZ_QCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252810%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CaytDqDD8sA/V2dUmietU6I/AAAAAAAAJY8/Gf5jwM9tbzsQvtIqCo7wF4dPB6IoKWV-gCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252825%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CaytDqDD8sA/V2dUmietU6I/AAAAAAAAJY8/Gf5jwM9tbzsQvtIqCo7wF4dPB6IoKWV-gCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252825%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q-w6RhhtNSs/V2dUooMnmmI/AAAAAAAAJZE/rLwAzLMaqsIPmJxArWzGfbsVKd5kIhDsACK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252826%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"> <img border="0" height="261" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q-w6RhhtNSs/V2dUooMnmmI/AAAAAAAAJZE/rLwAzLMaqsIPmJxArWzGfbsVKd5kIhDsACK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252826%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I2YIDugzk7E/V2dVHV0lKfI/AAAAAAAAJZ4/gSwzIOiYcdc-agCnJ3LmU5fGe4Y9gxpfQCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252829%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I2YIDugzk7E/V2dVHV0lKfI/AAAAAAAAJZ4/gSwzIOiYcdc-agCnJ3LmU5fGe4Y9gxpfQCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252829%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oi3CZqzQFSY/V2dVIUb-F-I/AAAAAAAAJaA/jD3aR8fKSEcWCSBYIMyWh4jcuurrcP4BQCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252830%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"> <img border="0" height="261" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oi3CZqzQFSY/V2dVIUb-F-I/AAAAAAAAJaA/jD3aR8fKSEcWCSBYIMyWh4jcuurrcP4BQCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252830%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TQHtlhlWXNk/V2dVAJ3QzZI/AAAAAAAAJZk/EGhfdeL6_Es1C6fKb1qT1Gej_F0WSNvCQCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252835%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TQHtlhlWXNk/V2dVAJ3QzZI/AAAAAAAAJZk/EGhfdeL6_Es1C6fKb1qT1Gej_F0WSNvCQCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252835%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ykR6bJKQA_o/V2dVDbGdjSI/AAAAAAAAJZs/drwapj_asBsAZdyRrVeoRHR7dS5gZSEiwCK4B/s1600/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252841%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ykR6bJKQA_o/V2dVDbGdjSI/AAAAAAAAJZs/drwapj_asBsAZdyRrVeoRHR7dS5gZSEiwCK4B/s320/Kissaa%2BKursee%2BKaa%2B%252841%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Swapna Sundari (also spelled Swapnasundari) learned Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi in her youth and <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/swapnasundari-focuses-on-the-power-of-ten-at-this-years-natya-kala-conference/article7970423.ece">debuted</a> on the dance scene when she was 15 as a last-minute replacement for Yamini
Krishnamurthy, and
by the mid-70s she had formed her own dance troupe and was performing
solo as well. Her inclusion in <i>Kissaa Kursee Kaa</i> suggests that by the late-1970s she was a well-known dance entity in New Delhi. It's lovely to see her so young dancing on film—Swapna reminds me of the actress Bhanupriya with her enormous eyes and
beauty. These film dances while likely a one-off experience for Swapna had a bit of family precedent—her mother <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/living-out-a-dream/article28398574.ece">had been an</a> assistant music director for Gemini Studios in the 1940s.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V4Sgsq0XgAY/V2dQGnw-DeI/AAAAAAAAJYg/VyTjcqGuBGosiM5kzu1bIbJGkL3oT1eWACK4B/s1600/SwapnaSundari_IANS_Sari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V4Sgsq0XgAY/V2dQGnw-DeI/AAAAAAAAJYg/VyTjcqGuBGosiM5kzu1bIbJGkL3oT1eWACK4B/s320/SwapnaSundari_IANS_Sari.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swapna in 2012 (credit: <a href="http://www.odisha360.com/2012/11/10/wearing-art-new-metaphors-for-indian-fashion/">IANS</a>)</td></tr>
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In the 1980s, Swapna rose to fame as a Bharatanatyam but also most prominently a Kuchipudi dancer and established a Kuchipudi Dance Centre in 1982 in New Delhi, and in the past twenty years she has become synonymous with Vilasini Natyam, the name she and Dr. Arudra gave to the art of female Telugu temple and court dancers which she has made her mission to preserve and propagate. She also famously <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/reviving-the-forgotten-legacy/article7205422.ece">reinstated dance</a> at the Ranganathaswamy Temple in Hyderabad in the 90s. She was involved in two documentaries released in 1998—as the subject of the Indian Films Division <a href="https://filmsdivision.org/shop/dreamer-swapna-sundari">documentary <i>Dreamer</i></a> (which I can't find any clips of online) and as part of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5C7tGvKNq0"><i>Kuchipudi Revisited</i></a> documentary directed by Yamini Krishnamurthy that I previously <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/06/better-quality-bala-and-sanchari-bamboo.html">wrote about</a> on the blog. The prestigious Padham Bhushan award was granted to her in 2003 in recognition of her efforts toward Andhra's dance forms. Swapna's official website seems to have been down for some time, but you can see an archived half-finished <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110128165720/http://swapnasundari.com/">version from 2011</a> courtesy of the Wayback Machine.<br />
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This discovery of Swapna Sundari's film dance is timed perfectly since I have a post on Kuchipudi dance in cinema in the works. It has been for some time, so I'm glad to have this post to be able to let my readers know I am still around after a long hiatus! :) Kuchipudi and Telugu dance history has proved to be very complex, contested, and fascinating...MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-11970813186273792132015-11-28T20:38:00.001-07:002020-01-11T00:43:35.622-07:00Muthukumara Pillai On Screen in Kannika (1947), and Other Nattuvanars in Indian CinemaThanks to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/KANDASAMYSEKKARAKUDI">two</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1x0VvSDIiti1imgKzN2W8g">YouTubers</a> who have uploaded songs from the 1947 Tamil film <i>Kannika</i> in the past few months, Bharatanatyam dance history aficionados can now witness on screen the nattuvanar Kattumannar Koil Muthukumara Pillai (<i>1874-1960, also known as Muthukumaran or Muthukumarappa, of the village Kattumannarkoil aka Mannargudi or Kattumannargudi</i>) at the age of 73 playing the role of a nattuvanar in the song "Natanam Adinar":<br />
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Muthukumara Pillai can be seen at 1:14, 1:58, closeup at 2:55, and 3:51 onward<br />
(the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iurLqVu9RyQ">lower quality version</a> includes 2 more seconds where he begins to speak, but it's cut off!!)
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lLUxPvVLEzY" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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How do I know it's him? I had read a while back in the September 1993 <i>Sruti</i> magazine feature on Muthukumara Pillai (for brevity, MKP) that when he was in Coimbatore from 1944-1947 teaching exercises and dances to young boys at a drama company, he "came in contact with Pakshiraja Studios and trained the proprietor Sriramulu Naidu's wife Saroja for her lead role in the film 'Kannika' [and] Muthukumara Pillai himself too made a brief appearance in the film." When I watched the recently-uploaded songs and compared the nattuvanar's appearance with known photos of Muthukumara Pillai, it was clearly him! Compare these stills from <i>Kannika</i> with a photo of MKP that I featured in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/07/film-choreographies-of-nattuvanar-vs.html">my post</a> on Muthuswami Pillai and that must have been taken in the late 1930s which were the years the young man on the right, Muthuswami Pillai, trained with MKP.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6iHnSHPbp9I/VjA5r9q_fPI/AAAAAAAAJUI/jjsOsQ4I0BE/s1600/Muthukumara%2BPillai%252C%2BKannika.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6iHnSHPbp9I/VjA5r9q_fPI/AAAAAAAAJUI/jjsOsQ4I0BE/s640/Muthukumara%2BPillai%252C%2BKannika.jpg" width="635" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: <i>Kannika </i>Right: Muthukumara Pillai [credit: Mohan Khokar]</td></tr>
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This <i>Kannika</i> footage is incredible because Muthukumara Pillai belonged to the oldest generation of nattuvanars whose hereditary artistic practice was discovered in the twentieth century transformation of what we today call Bharatanatyam. What's more, he along with his contemporary Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai (also known as Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai, from Pandanallur village, for brevity MSP) are often remembered today as the two top-ranking gurus and nattuvanars of their generation who trained most of the first non-hereditary Bharatanatyam dancers who spread and popularized the art form far and wide. The two of them each trained such legends as Ram Gopal, Rukmini Devi Arundale, Mrinalini Sarabhai, and Kamala Lakshman.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeAldjOigfI/Vlpn3U-NORI/AAAAAAAAJWk/QL0ac830J2I/s1600/MuthukumaraPillaiMeenakshiSundaramPillai_Khokar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AeAldjOigfI/Vlpn3U-NORI/AAAAAAAAJWk/QL0ac830J2I/s200/MuthukumaraPillaiMeenakshiSundaramPillai_Khokar.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Left to Right: MKP, MSP </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[Mohan Khokar]</span></td></tr>
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Because the first generation nattuvanars (first meaning in terms of modern Bharatanatyam) born in the 1860s-70s were already in their 50s and 60s by the time they got involved in teaching during the "dance revival" of the 1930s, there are many accounts of MSP's and MKP's students getting initial instruction from them but then being referred to younger nattuvanars of the second or third generations. The second generation of nattuvanars born in the late 1880s-1900s who entered adulthood before the dance revival included Chokkalingam Pillai, Kandappa Pillai, Kittappa Pillai, K. Ponnaya Pillai, and Thiruvalaputhur Swaminath Pillai. A common transfer guru for Muthukumara Pillai was his distant relative Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, a part of the third generation of nattuvanars born in the 1910s-1920s and beyond who came of age during or after the dance revival began including K. P. Kittappa Pillai, KN Dandayudhapani Pillai, Kanchipuram Ellappa Pillai, and Muthuswami Pillai (who trained with MKP) as well as those nontraditional/nonhereditary outsiders who became well-rounded artists learning nattuvangam, Bharatanatyam, and music around the 1930s and beyond like Adyar Lakshman, Udupi Lakshminarayanan, CV Chandrasekhar, and VP Dhananjayan.<br />
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To contextualize the footage of MKP in <i>Kannika </i>in terms of time, it was filmed years after MKP entered the burgeoning dance scene and taught his most notable students in the 1930s and early 1940s. Rukmini Devi Arundale, MK Saroja, Ramgopal, and Mrinalini Sarabhai learned from him during this time, and he taught at institutions such as Ramgopal's in Bangalore and at Rukmini Devi Arundale's Kalakshetra from 1938-39 where he was "first regular Bharatanatayam guru" who did not come and go. Kamala Narayanan (aka Kamala Lakshman, Baby Kamala), <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamala">the beloved dancer of this blog</a>, learned all her Bharatanatyam basics from KMP after her family moved next door to where he was staying. Though KMP was apparently past his prime at this time, he taught Kamala a full but condensed margam and conducted her debut arangetram in 1941. When KMP was no longer able to keep up with Kamala's hectic performance schedule, he sent her in 1942 to Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai whom she became famous and blossomed under. I wish I could find a photo of Kamala learning from KMP!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ghCxj_ibeac/VlnPH_I2sXI/AAAAAAAAJVU/SPIZwjFrq4Y/s1600/JhanakKhendryMuthukumaraPillai_SrutiMagazine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ghCxj_ibeac/VlnPH_I2sXI/AAAAAAAAJVU/SPIZwjFrq4Y/s200/JhanakKhendryMuthukumaraPillai_SrutiMagazine.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jhanak Khendry with MKP (Source: [11])</td></tr>
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What had not happened yet at the time of <i>Kannika's </i>filming and release was MKP's teaching activities in the late-1940s through the mid-1950s where he taught at Mrinalini Sarabhai's school <i>Darpana </i>in Ahmedabad and soon retired to his Kattumanarkoil village where he taught the American exponent Nala Najan and later Jhanak Khendry. KMP looks aged and frail in his appearance in <i>Kannika </i>which is quite a contrast compared with <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/tdhc/tdhc12.html">photos from his earlier teaching years</a> in which he has a solid, athletic build and was known for demonstrating adavus to his students. It's also a stark contrast to a photo of him with Jhanak Khendry (left) which I assume was taken in 1955 or 1956 when Khendry learned from MKP. Considering that MKP's health and eyesight is said to have declined significantly his last years, I wonder if that photo might have been taken much earlier.<br />
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Muthukumar Pillai and his Tiruvalur/Kattumanar Koil style and contributions to the history of Bharatanatyam are often overlooked and given much less prominence compared to Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai whose Pandanallur/Thanjavur style of Bharatanatyam descended directly from the famed Thanjavur Quartet. I've read of MSP referred to as the "greatest nattuvanar," "nonpareil natyacharya and dance celebrity," and even the "father of Bharatanatyam." He was an important and early part of Rukmini Devi Arundale's training and teaching at her Kalakshetra institution (doing both before MKP) and had an impressive pedigree for those concerned with that at that time.<br />
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Various reasons are offered for why Muthukumar Pillai's contributions to Bharatanatyam are so <b>overlooked</b>--he didn't have male lineage to the tradition and was an anomaly in his family, most of his students only became famous when they later learned from other teachers, and since he was a sanyasi who had renounced materiality and attachments he moved frequently from place to place and was not interested in fame, fortune, or self-promotion. According to his student Jhanak Khendry, MKP "always said that art was like a river which did not belong to anyone and that it kept flowing and every one could drink its water. Art, he emphasised, should be shared and passed on." A critical study of any dance's history often reveals that there are numerous dancers and contributions lost to popular memory and historiography and the fragility of oral history. Gaston notes in her book that K. Lalita (1918-1992) was a Brahmin woman who studied Bharatanatyam with KMP in 1931 at age 13 in Madras and opened up her own dance school called Sarasvati Gana Nilayam. I've read a couple other instances of Brahmin women learning dance even earlier than this--anecdotes seemingly subsumed by the simplistic notion that Rukmini Devi Arundale was the first Brahmin woman to learn Bharatanatyam/classical dance.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WPpK8mVjB1E/VlniV2fHcnI/AAAAAAAAJWI/-5z09w3ggc4/s1600/Muthukumara%2BPillai%2BPicture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WPpK8mVjB1E/VlniV2fHcnI/AAAAAAAAJWI/-5z09w3ggc4/s200/Muthukumara%2BPillai%2BPicture.jpg" width="85" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">MKP Closeup</td></tr>
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What I love most of all of the <i>Kannika</i> clip is seeing MKP's <b>smile</b>. All of the extant photos of him I've seen feature him looking very austere and serious with no smile, making accounts of his great abhinaya hard to visualize. But in <i>Kannika</i>, we get to see him briefly flash a smile and tap the beat while dressed impeccably (I'm curious about the significance of what he's wearing.). <b>I have begged the uploader to please upload the scene after the song ends so that we can see the full context and hear MKP speak.</b> I will come back and update this post if and when that scene is available--keep fingers crossed!<br />
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<b>Hemamalini Arni and Other Dances in <i>Kannika</i></b></div>
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The film <i>Kannika</i> is well-known to fans of the Travancore Sisters (Padmini, Lalitha, and Ragini) because it has one of Padmini and Lalitha's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShcZnj-rIcM">earliest film dances</a> (<a href="https://roughinhere.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/padmini-and-lalitha-in-kannika-1947/">released</a> before their dances in the earlier-made-but-later-released 1948 film <i>Kalpana</i>) which has been on YouTube for a while on and off by other uploaders. Now that the other songs from the film are available, we can see that <i>Kannika </i>features a number of beautiful dances seemingly forgotten by repositories like Randor Guy <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/Kannika-1947/article14944916.ece">whose writeup up the film</a> only mentioned the Lalita-Padmini dance choreographed by Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wed9y4WPGyk/VlnaLb3E0lI/AAAAAAAAJV0/StYSorqVd-I/s1600/HemamaliniArni.com8years.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wed9y4WPGyk/VlnaLb3E0lI/AAAAAAAAJV0/StYSorqVd-I/s200/HemamaliniArni.com8years.jpg" width="167" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hemamalini Arni Age 8 (<a href="http://www.hemamaliniarni.com/">source</a>)</td></tr>
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I was delighted to discover that the girl dancing in the "Natanam Adinar" song and playing the character Kannika in her youth in the film is a 13-year old <b>Hemamalini Arni</b> (nee Vijayaraghavan) who seems to have been one of those dancers like MK Saroja who likely would have made it big in or danced in more films had marriage not ended those ambitions. According to <a href="http://www.hemamaliniarni.com/">a darling website about Arni</a> produced by her husband years ago (that features rare photos of Balasaraswati, Ram Gopal, and others!), Hemamalini Arni sung her own vocals in the "Natanam Adinar" song, something she was <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/grace-and-poise-personified/article3430366.ece">known for</a> doing for her own real-life dance performances. She was also the namesake for the famous 1960s+ actress Hema Malini whose mother admired the dances of Arni, the daughter of a family friend. While Arni studied Bharatanatyam for a long time under Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, strangely, despite MKP playing the nattuvanar on screen in <i>Kannika</i>, the title credits of the film name Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, Arni's real-life guru, as being responsible for the dances.<br />
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While MKP apparently didn't choreograph the dance song he was featured in, he is said to have trained Sriramulu Naidu's wife for her lead role in the film. <i>Sruti </i>identifies her as Saroja, but she is referred to by Randor Guy and others as <b>M. S. Sarojini</b>. Seeing the dances now online and how much M.S. Sarojini dances, I assume she had zero dance training and MKP had the job of getting her to a basic level of proficiency which was likely a difficult task. Speaking about how he handled similar situations choreographing for films, Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai said in an interview for his feature in <i>Sruti</i> that for those who had never learned dance, despite his teaching only as much as was needed and making it easy, it still "would take four to five months for a performer to learn foot movements, hand gestures, facial expressions and the mudras" before he would "add the finer touches which would render the dance more appealing." Four to five months for film songs! No wonder MKP looks a bit haggard. Here are two examples of the fruits of his labors:<br />
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<b>"Nadaraajan Un Thiru Nadam Kandu Tev" </b>- The rare male dancer on screen! He dances initially with M.S. Sarojini before sitting to watch her. He looks to be T.E. Varadan whom Randor Guy <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/Kannika-1947/article14944916.ece">identifies as</a> the hero of the film and a science graduate in real life. Look at his graceful arms and handsome face--he should have been a dancer! Did MKP train him as well, I wonder? I was struck by the very deep half-seated "araimandi" M.S. Sarojini does at 1:37 and throughout the song--something I bet KMP insisted upon and something I rarely see in films. Pity her Theermanam Adavu is quite terrible!<br />
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Dancing begins at :30</div>
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<b>"Yaaro Vanthu En Iru Kann Poththinaar"</b> - In the first half of this song, M.S. Sarojini performs gentle upper-body movements and simple abhinaya. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pA7Z55f05t4" width="560"></iframe>
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Last, not to be missed is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiMZxVIYsUQ">super-flexible snake dance by a white chick</a> (I assume) who must've been a well-known, exotic performer of that time reminiscent of the "rubber dancers" of the era.</div>
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<b>Other Nattuvanars on Screen</b></div>
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Surprising it is that in Indian film classical dances we get to see so few prominent Bharatanatyam nattuvanars on screen, though it's possible I've missed some over the years when I watched film dances before knowing what certain nattuvanars looked like or assuming the accompanists were just actors. Other than MKP's appearance, I've not read any instances of any other first or second generation nattuvanars participating in films either on screen or behind the camera, which further bolsters the rarity of seeing MKP on the silver screen let alone choreographing for films. At one time I thought I had evidence of MSP choreographing for cinema--<i>Sruti </i>magazine's feature on Muthuswami Pillai said that "the sisters Yogam and Mangalam were the famous duo taught by Meenakshisundaram Pillai at Madras...they entered film with their guru choreographing and directing their dances," but further reading revealed why it's important to get the full names of nattuvanars--the article was referring to <i>Vaitheeswarankoil </i>Meenakshisundaram Pillai, the appointed guardian of Muthuswami Pillai, not <i>Pandanallur</i> Meenakshisundaram Pillai! My hopes were dashed. :)<br />
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The third generation nattuvanars are the group which has some of their images preserved in cinema. <b>Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai</b> gets some brief screen time in the 1954 Indian Films Division documentary <i>Bharata Natyam </i>featuring his prodigy Kumari Kamala--I didn't point it out in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/03/kumari-kamala-dancing-in-documentary.html">my original post</a> on the doc, but the nattuvanar seen at 5:21 for a few seconds surely must be him. It's surprising that Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai wasn't seen in more film dances given how prolific he was, but the website of the Vazhuvoorar School of Classical Dance and Music has featured some rare photos of him on the sets of his dance choreographies that I <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.tumblr.com/post/73122622315/rare-photos-of-vazhuvoor-ramaiah-pillai-in-action">featured on my companion Tumblr </a>(not used much these days!)<br />
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VRP seen at 5:24</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" mozallowfullscreen="true" src="https://archive.org/embed/dli.MoI.BharatNatyam_Eng" webkitallowfullscreen="true" width="640"></iframe></div>
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In Jean Renoir's 1951 co-production <i>The River</i> filmed in India, <b>KN Dhandayudhapani Pillai </b>not only choreographed Radha Burnier's dance but is also seen on screen performing nattuvangam alongside his younger brother Dakshinamoorthy on the mridangam. Props to fellow dance detective <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a> of the Bharatanatyam and the Worldwide Web blog for <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/video-of-the-week-k-n-dandayudhapani-pillai/,">sourcing this information</a>. The film quality and lighting are simply delectable and let us see KNDP in much better quality than most other examples.<br />
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KNDP seen at :19</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B1t_zwvFgk8" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<b>V.P. Dhananjayan </b>danced on screen and then performed nattuvangam in <i>Kann Sivandhal Mann Sivakkum</i> (Tamil, 1983) which I <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/02/found-classical-dance-in-kann-sivandhal.html">previously posted details about</a> and which deserves to be embedded here, again, since it's been a while...
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Starts 13:24</span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WKsgkFFRgp4?start=804" width="560"></iframe></div>
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The late <b>Ad<span style="background-color: white;">yar K. Lakshman</span></b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"> composed among the best Bharatanatyam in Indian cinema in the Kannada films <i>Subba Sastri</i> (1966) and <i>Hamsa Geethe</i> (1975) which I </span><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/08/remembering-film-bharatanatyam-of-late.html" style="background-color: white;">previously posted about in detail</a><span style="background-color: white;">, though I still haven't tracked down his dance in the film </span><i style="background-color: white;">Ananda Tandavam </i><span style="background-color: white;">(Tamil, 1987). </span></span><b><span style="background-color: white;">K</span>anchipuram Ellappa</b> was said in <i>Sruti </i>magazine to have choreographed one dance in <i>Konjum Salangai </i>(Tamil, 1962), while in another interview Kamala claimed she choreographed all of that film's dances herself. <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;">The late </span><b style="background-color: white;">Udupi Laxminarayanan</b><span style="background-color: white;"> was heavily involved in film choreography (</span><a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Dancing-solo-in-a-womans-world/articleshow/6783348.cms" style="background-color: white;">becoming</a><span style="background-color: white;"> Sivaji Ganesan's favorite teacher and teaching Prabhu Deva and choreographing his dances in </span><i style="background-color: white;">Kaadhalan</i><span style="background-color: white;">!) and danced on screen in quite a few films. One example I had found before has been taken down, and I haven't found other examples of his classical-oriented dances or appearances in films, unfortunately. According</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: white;"> to </span><i style="background-color: white;">Sruti</i><span style="background-color: white;"> magazine, Udupi vocalized the jathis for Raj Kapoor's </span><span style="background-color: white;">humorous enactment of a nattuvanar</span> for Padmini's dance in <i>Mera Naam Joker </i>(Hindi, 1970).</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"> <b>VS Muthuswami Pillai </b>choreographed for many film dances as <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Muthuswami%20Pillai?&max-results=10">I've extensively covered on this blog</a> including Vyjayanthimala's best film </span>Bharatanatyam as well as the thrilling dances of Sayee-Subbulakshmi, but I never saw him on screen.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></span></span></div>
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In more recent cinema, <b>US Krishna Rao</b> played a nattuvanar in <i>Dance Like a Man </i>(2003) featuring Shobana and can be seen at 2:24 in the scene compilation below. He and his wife Chandrabhaga Devi <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/profiles/profil51.html">were</a> among the first Brahmin couples to learn Bharatanatyam in the 1940s and did much to popularize the form in Karnataka. According to <i>Sruti </i>and <i>The Hindu </i>[article no longer locatable now], US Krishna Rao choreographed for two films: Shola Aur Shabnam (Hindi, 1961), a bad experience, and Paapa Punya (Kannada, 1971) which must be this slow-paced home dance at 1:13:24 [video no longer available].</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
US Krishna Rao seen at 2:24
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hRUZ8BfCxIs" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
Thus ends another contribution to my long-suffering and long-coming <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/06/series-kick-off-remembering-film.html">Remembering Film Choreographers post series</a>! I'm excited for an in-draft post about Kuchipudi dance in Telugu cinema and the contributions of Kuchipudi gurus, hopefully coming somewhat soon...:)<br />
<br />
<b>Sources and Great Reading:</b><br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://academyofbharatanatyam.com/_about_us_">Academy of Bharatanatyam</a> [Rare photos from founder TK Narayan's dance school site, student of MKP]</li>
<li>Gaston, Anne-Marie. <i>Bharata Natyam from Temple to Theatre</i>. 1996. [Especially "Banis of Bharata Natyam" chapter].</li>
<li>Gopal, Ram. <i>Rhythm in the Heavens: An Autobiography.</i> 1957.</li>
<li>Khokar, Ashish Mohan. "<a href="https://narthaki.com/info/tdhc/tdhc12.html">Vidwan Guru Muthukumaran Pillai: Stalwart and Saint of Bharatanatyam</a>" Narthaki. 2009.</li>
<li>Khokar, Ashish Mohan. "Kattumannarkoil." S<i>hanmukha: Banis of Bharatanatyam and Recent Trends.</i> 2010.</li>
<li>Knight, Douglas. "Select Biographies." <i>Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life.</i> 2010.</li>
<li>Kothari, Sunil. "Guruparampara." <i>Bharata Natyam: Indian</i><i> Classical Dance Art. </i>2001.</li>
<li>Kumar, Ranee. "<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/grace-and-poise-personified/article3430366.ece">Grace and poise personified [Guru Hemamalini Arni]</a>." <i>The Hindu</i>. 2012.</li>
<li>Seshan, A. "<a href="https://narthaki.com/info/articles/art234.html">The Rise and Fall of the Nattuvanar</a>." <i>Narthaki</i>. 2008. </li>
<li><i>Sruti </i>Magazine. Articles on Kamala Narayanan (Kumari Kamala). Issues 45/46 and 48. 1988.</li>
<li><i>Sruti </i>Magazine. Articles on Muthukumara Pillai. Volume 108. 1993. Articles written primarily by Mohan Khokar as well as Ashish Khokar and three disciples.[Excellent read featuring the most complete details about his life and students.]</li>
<li>Sundaram, BM. "Towards a Genealogy of Some Thanjavur Natyacharyas and their Kinsfolk." <i>Sangeet Natak</i>. 1997.</li>
<li>Ramnarayan, Gowri. "<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/In-pursuit-of-divinity/article15938240.ece">In pursuit of divinity [M.K. Saroja]</a>." <i>The Hindu</i>. 2009.</li>
<li>Ramnarayan, Gowri. "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140705164741/http://www.hindu.com/folio/fo9812/98120060.htm">Where are the Master Gurus?</a> [Nattuvanars]." <i>The Hindu.</i> 1998. </li>
</ol>
<i></i>MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-14327806386781331482015-07-19T11:41:00.003-06:002020-01-11T00:27:38.787-07:00Found: Rangam (Malayalam, 1985) and Shobana/Mohanlal's Bharatanatyam and Kathakali Dances!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VjEOZLHxT_w/VavNDvLuerI/AAAAAAAAJTA/UTa7GWYLKzM/s1600/Rangam%2B1985%2BMalayalam%2BShobana%2BMohanlal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VjEOZLHxT_w/VavNDvLuerI/AAAAAAAAJTA/UTa7GWYLKzM/s640/Rangam%2B1985%2BMalayalam%2BShobana%2BMohanlal.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>Rangam</i>, one of the holdouts from my "<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/12/obscure-indian-films-about-dance-my.html">holy grail" wish list</a>, has finally been uploaded to YouTube! (Update: New source relinked in 2019). Thanks to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/cramsingapore">cram</a> for informing me of this lucky discovery! As I had hoped, classical dance (Kathakali and Bharatanatyam) serves as the backdrop to <i>Rangam</i>'s plot, and no more than 15 minutes go by before dance is seen again either in the background or as a centerpiece. Most exciting of all, there are lots of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Practice%20Dance">my beloved</a> dance practice sequences scattered throughout the film! <br />
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<i>Rangam </i>is part of the rash of classical arts films that swept South India in the late 70s to 90s starting largely with the success of <i>Sankarabharanam </i>(Telugu, 1979). <i>Rangam</i> seems to be one of the earliest Malayalam films to follow the trend, and it was followed by other similar classical dance/arts films in Malayalam like <i>Swathi Thirunal </i>(1987), <i>Kamaladalam </i>(1992), <i> Swathi Kiranam</i> (1992), <i>Rajasilpi</i> (1992), <i>Devasuram </i>(1993), <i>Manichitrathazhu </i>(1993), <i>Parinayam </i>(1994), and <i>Kaliyattam </i>(1997).<br />
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Now on to the dances! I made a comment on the video at YouTube that lists all the dances in the film by category, so if you go there you can click on any timestamp of interest and it will whisk you away to that timestamp on the player. Here are my favorite dances from the film...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Bharatanatyam/Mohiniattam Dances</b></div>
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<a name='more'></a><b>Practice Dance #1</b> - What a beautiful 4-minute-plus practice dance! This fits among my favorites of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Shobana">Shobana's film dances</a>. The "heart" of the number and the way it's choreographed and presented seems in the right place, and the dance has a much different "feel" than faux filmi classical dances (such as "Swaathi Hridaya" below). Shobana's long limbs carve beautiful spaces as she leads a group of young women before dancing solo and then shifting to a solo stage performance. Her dance talent shines through here and elevates the number. And those 80s practice sarees with the big blocks of color—love! <br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 26:21</span></i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-YHSEjIeR7g?start=1581" width="560"></iframe>
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<b>Practice Scene #2</b> - Only one minute long, this indoor practice scene features Shobana rising to give a solo demonstration for a group of young women. Those sweeping upward arm movements and the circular torso movements of the students seem to be a sped-up film version of Mohiniattam. <br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 1:00:01</span></i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-YHSEjIeR7g?start=3601" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<b>"Swaathi Hridaya" </b>- The rare male classical dancer on screen! Here it's Ravindran (aka Raveendran), the <a href="https://oldmalayalamcinema.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/our-polyester-80s-a-trip-through-malayalam-cinemas-memorable-shiny-disco-ball-halls/">popular actor/dancer</a> in 1980s Malayalam and Tamil films who did some entertaining numbers like this disco dance with Silk Smitha [video no longer available]. "Swaathi Hridaya" starts out sweetly enough with Ravindran and Shobana practice dancing on the spot and a Shobana stage dance, but it shifts into a "filmi classical" number with Shobana frolicking outdoors and showcasing what I have come to love calling "prettified-quick-choreography." Shame neither Ravindran or Mohanlal join Shobana in the fun! <br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 47:53</span></i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-YHSEjIeR7g?start=2873" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<b>Dance Competition </b>- Yay, more Ravindran practice dancing! We only get a few seconds though, and then Shobana recites some tough solkattu (syllables) and rhythms on the tattukazhi (wooden block) and Mahalakshmi tries her best to match it with her dance which doesn't seem to adhere to a particular style. I wish Shobana would've gotten up and showed her skills with that same deathly expression. This whole scene reminds me of <i>Salangai Oli/Sagara Sangamam</i> not only because of Ravindran's Kamal Hassanesque look and dance but also in the competitive practice dance setting which is reminiscent of <a href="https://youtu.be/SV-smzc09Cw?t=1m39s">the one in <i>Salangai Oli</i></a>. The homages are made explicit when we see Ravindran and Mahalakshmi watch a clip on their TV of Kamal's famous "Nada Vinodangal" dance in <i>Salangai Oli</i>, a film that obviously had a huge impact after its release in 1983.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 1:29:24</span></i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-YHSEjIeR7g?start=5364" width="560"></iframe>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Kathakali Dance-Drama</b></div>
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<i>Rangam</i> shows that Mohanlal's performance as a Kathakali artist in the coproduction <i>Vanaprastham</i>
(1999) was not his first. Why then has Mohanlal given a clear
impression to the contrary in interviews like <a href="http://www.rediff.com/entertai/1999/mar/11moh.htm">this one</a>? However, when I
watched the Kathakali performances in <i>Rangam</i> carefully (which is easy to do since there is less than 5 minutes total footage), it looked
like my assumption that he is always on stage was wrong. In the first
Kathakali performance, the dancer seen on stage has different face
makeup and adornments than Mohanlal did when shown in closeup in the
shot immediately previous (though the casual observer might think they are
the same):<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D5eK4TtJ9d8/VauwUe0WbiI/AAAAAAAAJSQ/MDkqJK6qfmQ/s1600/Rangam%2B1985_Mohanlal%252C%2BDancer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D5eK4TtJ9d8/VauwUe0WbiI/AAAAAAAAJSQ/MDkqJK6qfmQ/s320/Rangam%2B1985_Mohanlal%252C%2BDancer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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In the final performance at the end, I think I see evidence
that a double or another artist performed for Mohanlal save a couple
brief shots. Compare the details of the forehead makeup from Mohanlal's
preparatory scene compared to the two shots from the performance:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WUuP2wE_b30/Vauwhz7_OkI/AAAAAAAAJSY/sJ8brXU5Ki8/s1600/Rangam%2B1985_Mohanlal%252C%2BKathakali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WUuP2wE_b30/Vauwhz7_OkI/AAAAAAAAJSY/sJ8brXU5Ki8/s640/Rangam%2B1985_Mohanlal%252C%2BKathakali.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
But even if
Mohanlal didn't perform the difficult choreography/abhinaya on stage,
there are other scenes of him teaching rudimentary Kathakali moves
and thus "performing" Kathakali in a film.<br />
<br />
Looking at the Kathakali in the film as a whole, the footage at the very start of the film of the Kathakali artists preparing for their performance goes beyond the usual makeup and cutti (white jaw border) application shots and shows the pieces of the costume and jewelry being placed and tied on which I found very interesting. Kathakali practice scenes are scattered throughout the film, but they are brief and edited poorly so don't make much of an impact. According
to <a href="https://en.msidb.org/m.php?4008">Malayalasangeetham</a>, the Kathakali artists <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nlcJetbMas">Kalamandalam Hyderali</a>, Jagannatha Varma, Guru Chemancheri
Kunjiraman Nair, and Kalamandalam Kesavan (who was also in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanaprastham"><i>Vanaprastham</i></a>), were part of the film's cast. Jagannatha Varma (who was also in <i>Parinayam</i> and <i>Devasuram) </i>can be seen in some of the practice scenes (a screencap below) and for Mahalakshmis' Kathakali practice, and I
think the latter two can be seen in the last two screencaps below, on the right and middle respectively:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OXRXfP9Jxtw/VavswvAMYAI/AAAAAAAAJTs/JKGF4PKaPoU/s1600/Rangam%2B1985_Jagannatha%2BVarma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OXRXfP9Jxtw/VavswvAMYAI/AAAAAAAAJTs/JKGF4PKaPoU/s320/Rangam%2B1985_Jagannatha%2BVarma.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LT_d8OzA_Ao/Vau3vgOo4rI/AAAAAAAAJSs/6ExcqBLVP20/s1600/Rangam%2B1985_Chemancheri%2BKunjiraman%2BNair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LT_d8OzA_Ao/Vau3vgOo4rI/AAAAAAAAJSs/6ExcqBLVP20/s320/Rangam%2B1985_Chemancheri%2BKunjiraman%2BNair.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v8xtPM8Cz9A/Vau3vXqqkJI/AAAAAAAAJSo/4OEQmaS5OLM/s1600/Rangam%2B1985_Kalamandalam%2BKesavan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v8xtPM8Cz9A/Vau3vXqqkJI/AAAAAAAAJSo/4OEQmaS5OLM/s320/Rangam%2B1985_Kalamandalam%2BKesavan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mahalakshmi, the westernized temptress in the film, has an interesting Kathakali practice scene where she learns from Mohanlal, and later she dreams of herself in female costume.
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 1:37:20</span></i> <br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-YHSEjIeR7g?start=5840" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>The Film</b> </div>
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Judging the film purely on what I observed visually (and not understanding a whit of Malayalam), the plot seems to revolve entirely around romance and
infidelity among the four stars, the pious Mohanlal and Shobana and the
tempted Ravindran and Mahalakshmi. Two "evils" are focused on: sexual temptation/immorality and the corrupting influence of the "West" and its values. Mahalakshmi's character embodies and catalyzes both of these things in the film. In contrast to Shobana's demure sarees and demeanor, Mahalakshmi wears western clothes and hair and welcomes Ravindran's sexual advances with no shame.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-deeF8OX4aW0/VavggF7aXfI/AAAAAAAAJTQ/_BzUQPJEtAU/s1600/Rangam%2B1985_Tape%2BRecorder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-deeF8OX4aW0/VavggF7aXfI/AAAAAAAAJTQ/_BzUQPJEtAU/s320/Rangam%2B1985_Tape%2BRecorder.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Besides not being a virtuous ideal of Indian womanhood, Mahalakshmi also introduces technology into the film when she arrives and videotapes and photographs the Kathakali artists who are seen preening and posing for her (similar to Bhanupriya's camera posing faux pas mid-performance <a href="https://youtu.be/M46844R6TR8?t=1m5s">in <i>Swarna Kamalam</i></a>). Whereas a tape recorder can be seen in the background unused while Shobana is teaching with live musicians, the director often makes sure the tape recorder is clearly visible and in use when Ravindran and Mahalakshmi perform their dances because, you know, they're corrupted and degrading the purity of the art.<br />
<br />
Comparing <i>Rangam</i> to later Malayalam films that focused on classical dance, it seems more focused on the romantic quandrangle and coming up with yet another way to fade discretely to presumed lovemaking, and the dance content feels more like a background item that happens to be there rather than something that is artistically and lovingly captured by the camera. Strange and abrupt editing feels jarring, and the locations in the film seem unidentifiable. <i>Kamaladalam, </i>the Malayalam film perhaps closest to <i>Rangam</i>, is a superior production. But, perhaps I missed something not understanding the dialogues—if anyone would like to translate the gist of the film I'd be grateful! Apparently <i>Rangam </i>was a commercial flop, so maybe my impression is spot on. Anywho, what a glorious day that this film is finally available for all to see!MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-57816589968153733572015-07-04T20:14:00.003-06:002020-01-11T00:18:37.703-07:00Video of Jack Cole Performing "Hindu Swing" in Hollywood Palace (1965)<div style="text-align: left;">
In my 2011 <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/choreographerdancer-jack-cole-and-hindu.html">post on the "Father of Modern Jazz Dance" Jack Cole</a>, I had included a production <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5pDCETiv4sc/Tu5wCegPjRI/AAAAAAAAA_k/koQLic2nYzs/s1600/Jack+Cole+Dancers+TV+Show+Hollywood+Palace.jpg">still</a> of Cole dancing on the American TV show <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0603008/?ref_=nm_flmg_slf_1"><i>Hollywood Palace </i>(1965)</a>. The image captured an important performance for Cole fans and historians because unlike the tight Bharatanatyam inspirations in <i>Kismet</i> (1955) for which Cole was behind the camera choreographing, the <i>Hollywood Palace</i> image captured a performance featuring Cole himself on screen dancing and, given the choice of costuming, likely featured choreography even closer to the Bharatanatyam source than usual.</div>
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hV_dAYZCrcI/VZiLqgumllI/AAAAAAAAJLE/q5usx41dtsY/s1600/Jack%2BCole_Hollywood%2BPalace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hV_dAYZCrcI/VZiLqgumllI/AAAAAAAAJLE/q5usx41dtsY/s320/Jack%2BCole_Hollywood%2BPalace.jpg" width="320" /></a>I assumed the <i>Hollywood Palace</i> footage was lost or locked away in some LA archive somewhere which would be a shame since the extant visual footage of Cole himself dancing in frame is limited and mostly shows him outfitted in American-style clothing with the exception of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd_tuhzvsD8&feature=youtu.be&t=58s">a brief and tantalizing clip of him in Indian-inspired dress</a>. But my pessimism was misplaced. Thanks to YouTuber <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-7GjXBu-8voW0DMO7l9vgQ">Alfred MrDance</a>, we finally get to see the <i>Hollywood Palace</i> footage! I first discovered the clip in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JackCole6/videos/916619048379820/?permPage=1">its posting at</a> the "Jack Cole, one of the greatest choreographers and dancers ever" <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JackCole6">Facebook page</a> with different music overlaid. Inquiring by comment referred me to the original video on YouTube. Here it is in all its rare glory:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Video no longer available at YouTube, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
but can be <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=916619048379820">watched on Facebook</a></div>
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<a name='more'></a>What soon becomes apparent is that much of the choreography here is the same as or similar to that seen a decade earlier in "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPnWE4mb5zk&feature=youtu.be">Not Since Nineveh</a>" and "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngC_5lOb9_E&feature=youtu.be">Diwan Dances, Pt 1</a>" from <i>Kismet </i>(1955). The Indian-inspired costuming had raised my hopes for something a bit closer to its Indian roots than Cole's standard "Hindu Swing" style. However, the choreography does offer us a few new and tantalizing segments to see Cole perform most notably in those undulating hips at 2:34! <br />
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But overall, what I noticed most in this performance of Cole is his aloofness and fatigue. Writings about Cole are open about his tendency to look at the floor and reflect his intense concentration in his face when he danced, and he had a problem with one eye that crossed towards his nose and seemed to cause him to be self-conscious. Unlike the "cool and detached" feel the floor-gazing aloofness lent some of his earlier dance footage (like <a href="https://youtu.be/C6Cb7YYJDxw?t=33s">this "Sing, Sing, Sing" TV performance</a> where it is ideal), in the <i>Hollywood Palace </i>footage it just looks like he is disinterested and would rather be somewhere else. For someone who choreographed and danced so crisply in available footage from earlier years (and was known for tight precision and isolation in movement), his tired bodily stance and the lack of completion in his movements here is surprising. Maybe it was an off day for him? Granted, he was in his fifties here (and sadly died almost a decade later).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aujxapBhSA0/VZiMaP_NLuI/AAAAAAAAJLM/OodAJdfzRW0/s1600/vlcsnap-2015-07-04-19h33m45s58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aujxapBhSA0/VZiMaP_NLuI/AAAAAAAAJLM/OodAJdfzRW0/s200/vlcsnap-2015-07-04-19h33m45s58.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I am always amused by the "east Indian jive ballet" juxtaposition of the 1960s spy film jazz music with the Indian-inspired choreography and costume. And those costumes! The thick Bharatanatyam-style head jewelery that wraps around the crown of the head, the ghungroos tied to the toes anklet-style...evocative of the "ethnic" without being authentic.<br />
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I <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CinemaNrityaGharana/posts/600430540074347">had commented last July</a> on my blog's Facebook page about the increased interest I had noticed in Jack Cole's dance and legacy in the media and in the "<a href="https://www.hinduswing.com/">Hindu Swing</a>" production of the dancer Namita Kapoor. The <i>Hollywood Palace</i> video is a welcome addition to the collective remembrance of Cole on the interwebs and beyond...MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-13691361971206369072015-05-03T13:24:00.000-06:002020-01-11T00:14:20.390-07:00Film Classical Dances of Manju Warrier (She's Back!)<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YMTgoZ-iakU/VUZdhDoVFDI/AAAAAAAAJKk/fpmyeuXVv-o/s1600/manjuwarrier.com_Kuchipudi.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YMTgoZ-iakU/VUZdhDoVFDI/AAAAAAAAJKk/fpmyeuXVv-o/s1600/manjuwarrier.com_Kuchipudi.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Manju Warrier (official website)</span></td></tr>
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Manju Warrier is back and dancing in films again with a fantastic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZD06_HSe0">Kuchipudi-based dance</a> in the Malayalam film <i>Ennum Eppozhum</i> released in March! I am beyond delighted. Some time ago I had <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/06/film-classical-dances-of-lakshmi.html">remarked</a> that Manju Warrier and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/06/film-classical-dances-of-lakshmi.html">Lakshmi Gopalaswamy</a> were the only two impressive female classical dancers in recent Indian cinema. But Manju's problem was that she only danced in a few Malayalam films in the short years she was in the film industry and then abruptly left in 2000 when she married the actor Dileep. Difficulty awaited anyone who attempted to track down her film dances online which made Manju a neglected subject on this blog.<br />
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When Ragothaman of the <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Bharathanatyam and the Worldwide Web blog</a> notified me of his discovery of Manju's performance in <i>Ennum Eppozhum</i>, I thought it would be the perfect time to dust off my long-coming post and take advantage of the increase in Malayalam films available online.<br />
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Manju's film classical dances are always a large notch above the rest because her training clearly shows through no matter how "filmi" and hybridized the
choreography, presentation, or editing style. Her body geometry and precise movements are a pleasure to watch. Comparing her to the mature Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Manju's only problem is that in
her early film dances as a teenager she showed a lack of polish particularly in her abhinaya which consisted almost entirely of a plastered and unwavering smile and also in some of her lines which occasionally weren't quite perfect.<br />
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<a href="https://manjuwarrier.tumblr.com/post/72744317836/kuchipudi-my-passion">Trained</a> in her youth in the Kalakshetra style of Bharatanatyam (<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/chat-corner-imparting-a-great-tradition/article3404161.ece">studying</a> at the same institution as fellow film dancer <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/11/film-classical-dances-of-vineeth.html">Vineeth</a>) as well as in Kuchipudi and Mohiniattam, Manju studied Kuchipudi more seriously in recent years under <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/dance/for-the-joy-of-dance/article5609057.ece">Geetha Padmakumar</a> (Vempati Chinna Satyam's style) and performed her debut arangetram in 2012 after <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/manju-warrier-back-on-stage-after-14-years/article4029827.ece">not having danced</a> in public for 14 years. She's back!<br />
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<b>Manju's Classical Film Dances</b></div>
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<b>Ennum Eppozhum (2015, Malayalam) - </b>"Dhithiki Dhithiki Thai"<b> </b>- After featuring Manju in a dance competition in his 1996 film <i>Thooval Kottaram, </i>director Sathyan Anthikad brings her back for her film dance comeback—a solo Kuchipudi stage number in his film <i>Ennum Eppozhum</i>. While it leans much more classical than most Indian cinema dances, it still has that filmi touch with the copious editing cuts, out-of-place isolated hand gesture closeups, and bits of prettified quick-choreography. But the number makes up for its shortcomings with lovely lighting/backlighting and Manju's seemingly clean and self-assured lines in some of the adagulu inspirations. Compared to her earlier films, Manju seems to be an entirely different dancer here. She actually has more than one facial expression, and her movements are much more relaxed and graceful. Some media articles and reviews misidentify the dance form as
Bharatanatyam, but it's definitely Kuchipudi notably in the lively
springiness, occasional mouthing of the words, and the classic Kuchipudi arm movements at :27 and :41 among others.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UTZD06_HSe0" width="560"></iframe>
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<a name='more'></a>In the song "Pularipoo Penne" from the same film, Manju leads a group Kuchipudi practice scene (yay <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Practice%20Dance">practice dances</a>!) at 2:33 for a lovely 11 seconds.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 2:33</span></i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HII6rIkBUuI?start=153" width="560"></iframe>
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<b>Thooval Kottaram (1996, Malayalam) </b>- I love watching this dance competition between a young 18-year-old Manju Warrier (pink costume) and actress/dancer Sukanya (green costume). Unquestionably "semi-classical" by incorporating pretty "classicalesque" movements with a few classical ones, the choreography is so fun to watch I don't mind. The moves were designed <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/classical-is-the-mother-of-styles/article2250326.ece">by Kala master </a>(aka G Kala) and have a lot of similarities to her other "classicalesque" film choreographies in <i>Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal, Azhagan, </i>and the dreadful Jyothika-led "Ra Ra" in <i>Chandramukhi. </i> It's also a perfect example of the stark contrast between a dancer attentive to lines and form (Manju) and a dancer that attempts grace but achieves sloppiness (Sukanya). The part at 4:57 is just sad! After watching Sukanya flail herself around, I was surprised <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/classical-is-the-mother-of-styles/article2250326.ece">to read</a> that she "studied at Kalakshetra" and was "part of the legendary Chandralekha's troupe." Apparently the director could see the obvious difference in abilities <a href="https://www.filmibeat.com/malayalam/news/2015/manju-warrier-is-the-best-sathyan-anthikad-178054.html">and asked</a> Manju to "underperform" since "Sukanya couldn't match her level." <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts 2:50</i></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/A5EgyDTG_88?start=170" width="560"></iframe>
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<b>Innalekal Illaathe/ Innalekalillathe (1997, Malayalam)</b> - Barely four minutes into this film, Manju performs a semi-classical dance first on stage and then outdoors that seems to be loosely inspired by Kuchipudi in most of the movements and hair ornaments but has some Bharatanatyam inspiration thrown in. That unwavering smile on her face dominates this dance! At 6:49 I had some serious flashbacks to Bhanupriya's <a href="https://youtu.be/fckaYK0kwD4?t=2m8s">dance-at-dawn</a> in <i>Swarnakamalam</i>. Overall, the choreography here is very "faux-classical" and more interested in quick bursts of prettiness than connected dance movements.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts 3:42</i></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z3m1CBhv-pI?start=222" width="560"></iframe>
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<b>Sallapam</b> <b>(1996, Malayalam) </b>- Featuring the "imagining one's self dancing in one's mind" trope, this song features Manju dancing in three short segments, each with different costumes, with choreography taken from Bharatanatyam it seems. Her dance training is obvious...though her smiling facial expression hardly changes until she's seen in the costume that looks inspired by Koodiyattam.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts1:17:25</i></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nW6m__xNfao?start=4636" width="560"></iframe>
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Manju also performs some brief classical dancing in <a href="https://youtu.be/GVcBrgVgkAQ?t=11m25s"><i>Saakshyam</i> (1995)</a>, her very first film,<b> </b>some light "classical" moves in <i>Kudamattam</i> (1997) and <i>Aaram Thamburan</i> (1997), and some folk/popular dancing in <a href="https://youtu.be/9_qHMg58TvA?t=40m20s"><i>Ee Puzhayum Kadannu</i> (1996)</a>, <a href="https://youtu.be/_bNBH70ZBKY?t=1h1m16s"><i>Krishnagudiyil Oru Pranayakalathu</i> (1997)</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JDVz9U3Xc0&list=PLoSNBTWm11zOIpX1oqeLuMinE61SMpYdp&index=12"><i>Daya</i> (1998)</a>, <i>Pranayavarnangal </i>(1998), and <i>Summer in Bethlehem</i> (1998). Surprisingly, while she had a big role in the film <i>Kaliyattam</i> (1997) about a Theyyam dancer, she did not dance at all. And just like her predecessor Shobana, Manju now gets featured in commercials as a dance teacher. <br />
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Pleased would I be to see Manju be given some sensitive film choreography worthy of her talents. I can only imagine the film dances we would have been treated to if she would have never left the industry. Here's hoping she can make up for lost time!<br />
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<b>More about Manju Warrier</b><br />
<ul>
<li>"<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/queen-of-hearts/article4319964.ece">Queen of Hearts</a>."<i>The Hindu. </i>January 18, 2013. </li>
<li>"<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/manju-warrier-back-on-stage-after-14-years/article4029827.ece">Manju Warrier Back on Stage After 14 Years</a>."<i>The Hindu. </i>October 25, 2012. </li>
<li>Manju's official website (no longer available, <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20150128121810/http://www.manjuwarrier.com/">access through Wayback Machine</a>) </li>
<li>Manju Warrier's <a href="https://manjuwarrier.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> (no longer updated). </li>
<li>Manju's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theManjuWarrier">Facebook</a>.</li>
</ul>
MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-54256102752475803252015-02-21T11:38:00.000-07:002020-01-11T00:05:26.537-07:00Mystery Indian Dancers in Seven Wonders of the World (1956, US)When fellow Indian dance sleuth <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a> translated sections of Shankar Venkatraman's Tamil book <i><a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-bookreview/musicians-im-film-world/article28466493.ece">Thiraiulagil Isai Kalaignargal</a></i> (Musicians in Cinema), I was surprised to read a number of little-known references to film and film dance appearances of Indian dancers and musicians. I previously blogged about one—Kuchipudi dancer <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/film-kuchipudi-dances-of-sobha-naidu.html">Sobha Naidu</a> dancing in <i>Abhimanavanthulu</i> (1973, Telugu)—but the few others mentions seemed to have no available footage today, like Bangalore Nagarathnammal acting in <i>Krishna Leela</i> (<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/sepia-stories-at-60/article2271837.ece">1947</a>, Kannada) and K. Bhanumathi acting (and possibly more?) in <i>Jalaja</i>/<i>Natya Magimai </i>(1938, Tamil).<br />
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Venkatraman's book also described multiple films that the now-veteran dancer <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/profiles/profil10.html">Padma Subrahmanyam</a> had danced in: the Kannada movie <i>Sri Rathna </i>(likely the 1955 Kannada/Tamil film),<i> </i>the Tamil Nadu documentary <i>Alaiyangalum Thiruvizhakkalum</i> (Temples and their Festivals) in which "she danced for the song 'Kalaiyadha Kalai Engal Kalaiye' in front of the temple deities," and the American movie <i>Seven Wonders of the World</i> in which she "danced a 'snake dance'."<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kKD5TRmm2wU/VOjPH6u9vVI/AAAAAAAAJJs/Nlw6LkyBy1M/s1600/SevenWondersoftheWorld_Cinerama1956.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="134" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kKD5TRmm2wU/VOjPH6u9vVI/AAAAAAAAJJs/Nlw6LkyBy1M/s1600/SevenWondersoftheWorld_Cinerama1956.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I felt excited by the last discovery! Surely <i>Seven Wonders of the World</i>, a 1956 American film, would be relatively easy to find, and it sounded like Padma might have done a solo dance! But a bit of research led to the discovery that the film was made using Cinerama technology, a widescreen format somewhat like today's IMAX that died out in the 1970s. Cinerama films were "impossible to see at all,
in any form, for nearly half a century" because they were never broadcast on TV or released for home viewing (<a href="https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/65507/cineramas-seven-wonders-of-the-world/">DVDTalk</a>). <br />
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<a name='more'></a>As luck would have it, many Cinerama features have been painstakingly <a href="https://in70mm.com/news/2011/cinerama/index.htm">restored and digitized in the past few years</a> including <i>Seven Wonders of the World </i>that <a href="https://www.in70mm.com/news/2014/flicker/index.htm">released on Blu-ray/DVD last year</a>. When I first learned that the digitization company Flicker Alley was taking pre-orders for the disc set, I found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JZb70hywJ8&feature=youtu.be">an "abandoned" trailer they posted of the film</a> on YouTube and became giddy when I saw two young Indian dancers performing on temple grounds at 2:04. I of course dropped everything and placed an order! Who knew what wonders would be on screen and what other shots would be included. I envisioned close-ups on the dancers faces and additional footage and settings.<br />
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When the discs came in the mail I watched them with bated breath. The DVD transfer was a bit fuzzy so I watched the Blu-ray version which was significantly crisper. I stared at the two main dancer's faces and couldn't recognize them. The one on the right looked plausibly like a young Padma, but it was too hard to tell. At first glance, the dancer on the left a looked a lot like <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/tdhc/tdhc17.html">MK Saroja</a>, but closer inspection of various face angles cast doubt on that theory. The scene focused far too much time on the cute little dancing girl and her family and much to my disappointment didn't show anything new in the dance segment that wasn't already visible in the trailer. A number of other dancers can be seen on right-hand side of the frame, but the camera never gets closer to them. I realized that the <i>Thiraiulagil Isai Kalaignargal </i>reference to Padma dancing in the film could mean she was simply among the backup dancers and not featured in the lead as was implied. If only the camera had focused closer on the background dancers!<br />
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While the scene was a disappointment based on my high expectations, I still am <b>fascinated by who the dancers could be</b>. Below is footage of the Blu-ray I captured with my smartphone (it looks oodles better than any capture I made of the DVD) that I'm posting for the purpose of analysis. How amazing that we can see this footage so clearly today!<br />
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Since the voiceover audio is very quiet, here is the text of the narration: <i>"[Opening
scene on Ganges] Benaras, religious wonder-city of India. On the
Ganges, the sacred river. A pilgrimage city from time immemorial, with
its famous ghats, the landing places along the river. For centuries, the
great and the rich, maharaja and merchant, have built shrines and
palaces here along the Ganges. Of temples alone Benaras has 1,500. A
wonder-city of strange religion. [Dance scene] A temple dance, a cobra
dance. The deadly-hooded serpent has a weird significance. Strange
mysticism in this performance of the temple dancers and the cobra."</i> <br />
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Here is <b>left half of the widescreen frame</b> that focuses on the dancer that looks at first glance like MK Saroja but soon seems to be someone else:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1CtCK456ffM" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3ZG7Xuszf5s/VOQH7rmi6CI/AAAAAAAAJJA/lx4tQpEsF34/s1600/LeftDancer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3ZG7Xuszf5s/VOQH7rmi6CI/AAAAAAAAJJA/lx4tQpEsF34/s1600/LeftDancer.jpg" border="0" height="331" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aRkbTIg89LU/VOQHzO3U0VI/AAAAAAAAJIw/E-DEWVM1PGY/s640/LeftDancersmall.jpg" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Here is the <b>right half of the widescreen frame</b> that focuses on the dancer that is conceivably Padma Subrahmanyam:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mGshDN3Tp60" width="560"></iframe>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-muX19YPs2TI/VOQH86daWHI/AAAAAAAAJJI/kBhRLTqljlk/s1600/RightDancer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-muX19YPs2TI/VOQH86daWHI/AAAAAAAAJJI/kBhRLTqljlk/s1600/RightDancer.jpg" border="0" height="276" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CnXL0bKy-4o/VOQH0KnT5SI/AAAAAAAAJI4/lWumOBazNVA/s640/RightDancersmall.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Following this dance segment, there is another short dance scene featuring two children performing what looks like Kathak or North Indian folk dance, screencapped below. Right before the children appear, the narrator proclaims, <i>"nearly all temples in India have their dancing girls trained in childhood, even here at the monkey temple."</i><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pqI5WriURrs/VOjAYhkJ93I/AAAAAAAAJJY/DpCvBYxSUZU/s1600/vlcsnap-2014-11-20-20h59m12s187.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pqI5WriURrs/VOjAYhkJ93I/AAAAAAAAJJY/DpCvBYxSUZU/s640/vlcsnap-2014-11-20-20h59m12s187.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A <a href="https://www.in70mm.com/cinerama/archive/wonders_log/log/index.htm">travel log</a> and a <a href="https://www.in70mm.com/cinerama/archive/wonders_log/letter/index.htm">supplement</a> from the making of <i>Seven Wonders of the World</i> are posted at the in70mm.com website. Written by sound engineer Richard Pietschmann, the logs reveal that the India scenes were shot starting in January 1955 in New Delhi (presumably the Taj Mahal footage) and later in February in Benaras (presumably both of the dance scenes). No mention is made of the filming of the dance segment and the focus is more on tales of strange lands filled with poverty and distasteful practices that Pietschmann described to send to his family back home in letters.<br />
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Regarding the production in Benaras, Pietschmann wrote that it was difficult "<i>because of the extreme caution and finesse that the people of Benaras have to be dealt with. These people are very conscious of their shortcomings and do not want to be photographed under such conditions. They only want the outside world to see their progression since India has become a republic, which has been for about seven years now.</i>" Reading that, I wonder how exactly the staging and depiction of the "cobra dance" scene, with its "mystical" temple setting and stereotyped snake charmers, came about and who was responsible for it. Why are the dancers dressed in a South Indian style and performing Natanam Adinar, a popular keertanam in Bharatanatyam (thanks Ragothaman for the ID!)? If the filmmakers ceded the creation of the dance scenes to local Indian contacts and crew, what was their goal and what were the scenes meant to evoke for the foreign viewer?<br />
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Perhaps someone among my readers will recognize the dancers, remember seeing this film, or recall something about its filming. Until then, the dancer identities will remain a mystery! <br />
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Links to buy the film: <a href="https://www.flickeralley.com/classic-movies-2/#!/Cineramas-Seven-Wonders-of-the-World/p/41384444">Flicker Alley</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cineramas-Seven-Wonders-World-Blu-ray/dp/B00NBIGJAS">Amazon</a>MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-29755092413922446992015-01-14T21:10:00.000-07:002020-01-11T00:00:23.955-07:00The "Indian" Dances in Kali Yug (1963, Italy/France/Germany)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Back in 2011 when I researched for my <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Western%20Films">post series</a> on Indian dances in Western films about India, I found some images from the 1963 Italian film <i>Kali Yug</i> that seemed to depict India and feature an "Indian" dance that looked like it would fit in nicely with the orientalist dances in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/indian-dances-in-western-films-about.html">part three</a> of the series. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ifGwf3euM3w/VI24cZI_UBI/AAAAAAAAJFQ/5h3toPckQcg/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2BMontage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ifGwf3euM3w/VI24cZI_UBI/AAAAAAAAJFQ/5h3toPckQcg/s400/Kali%2BYug%2BMontage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Kali Yug</i> film posters</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At that time, I wasn't able to find any clips online or copies of the
film for sale and it seemed quite rare. Fast forward three years later
and a Google search on a lark reveals the film and its sequel (the German dubs, <i>Kali Yug Die Gottin Der Rache</i> and<i> Aufruhr in Indien) </i>are
available at Dailymotion! <br />
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According to the <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=l0dUgcYI8B0C&q=kali+yug#v=snippet&q=kali%20yug&f=false">Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema</a>, Kali Yug</i> was one of "two adventure fantasies set in India" directed by Mario Camerini, "one of the foremost directors of Italian cinema in the interwar years." The full name of the film was<i> Kali Yug, La Dea Della Vendetta </i>(Vengeance of Kali), and its sequel released in the same year was <i>Mistero del Tempio Indiano </i>(Mystery of an Indian Temple). While the credits of the films describe them as Italian-French-German coproductions, the films seem to have been shot in Italian and then dubbed into German (<i>Kali Yug Die Gottin Der Rache/Aufruhr in Indien</i>)<i> </i>and French (<i>Kali-Yug Deesse de al Vengeance/Le Mystere Du Temple Hindou</i>) as well as other European languages judging by the titles found online (<i>Kali-Yug Les Revoltes de/de Opstandelingen Van, Kali-Jug Boginja Osvete, </i>etc.)<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The films are an entertaining orientalist imagining of a "strange" India and feature lots of European actors in brownface. The setting is the seemingly fictionally-located city of "Devgaon" in 1880 India. <br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rYNCGzGjC_0/VKCC9SYXVtI/AAAAAAAAJGc/TkEEgTSLBk4/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(58).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rYNCGzGjC_0/VKCC9SYXVtI/AAAAAAAAJGc/TkEEgTSLBk4/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(58).jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_M6nggLvFjQ/VKCCwz3eGMI/AAAAAAAAJGM/YCAdgFTaQYc/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(21).jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_M6nggLvFjQ/VKCCwz3eGMI/AAAAAAAAJGM/YCAdgFTaQYc/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(21).jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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The four dances in the films all center around the character Amrita, an exotic-enough sounding Indian name, played by the French actress and "Bond girl" <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudine_Auger">Claudine Auger</a>. Darkened into ridiculous-looking brownface, Amrita seems to be some sort of temple dancer or dancer maintained by the kingdom who lounges about in opulent quarters when she's not performing in a way straight out of colonial paintings.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_NRyxwhqFlI/VI3cHkgburI/AAAAAAAAJFs/kzrkuFqdWuI/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(23).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_NRyxwhqFlI/VI3cHkgburI/AAAAAAAAJFs/kzrkuFqdWuI/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(23).jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eazyZ94KSCQ/VI3cTnrSkHI/AAAAAAAAJF0/9adtdN1r67c/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(8).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eazyZ94KSCQ/VI3cTnrSkHI/AAAAAAAAJF0/9adtdN1r67c/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B(8).jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<i>Kali Yug </i>was released only four years after Fritz Lang's successful <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/indian-dances-in-western-films-about.html">2-part 1959 "Indian Epic" (<i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur </i>and </a><i><a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/indian-dances-in-western-films-about.html">Das Indische Grabmal)</a> </i>which makes me think Camerini wanted to try his hand at the "exotic India" subject matter for the Italian audience primarily but also with dubs to cash in on India-hungry audiences in France and Germany. France has a colonial history in India and Germany's love of Indian culture and films is well documented, but Italy's connections to India seem much less robust though similar in some ways to Germany particularly far back in history. Given how influenced the films seem to be by the <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/indian-dances-in-western-films-about.html">1938 and 1959 versions of </a><i><a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/indian-dances-in-western-films-about.html">Das Indische Grabmal/Der Tiger Von Eschnapur</a>, </i>I wasn't surprised to see the credits list Eichberg Film as one of the coproducers. I assume that was the production company Richard Eichberg who directed the 1938 films!<br />
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<b>The Film Dances </b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u2t6rmGKfuw/VLc6bhgyRLI/AAAAAAAAJIQ/loOjlimK3gE/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2BDance%2BMontage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u2t6rmGKfuw/VLc6bhgyRLI/AAAAAAAAJIQ/loOjlimK3gE/s640/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2BDance%2BMontage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The first "Indian" dance is a <b>practice scene</b> with Amrita teaching two "Indian" (Europeans in brownface?) women in front of the gazes of British officers. We see Amrita first in closeup as she does stereotypically-exotic "Indian" movements (including "namaste" and "eye" gestures) and then we see a bit of her teaching before the three are seen dancing again briefly at 25:15. Wish I knew what idiotic comments the British officers were making in the interim! The other two dancers while looking as over-tanned as Amrita at least have some dancing talent. I can't guarantee any of these videos will start at the right time (Dailymotion is buggy), so move to the time listed at the top of the video or use the direct link if needed.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">23:33-26:00 - <a href="http://dai.ly/x230tys">Direct Link</a></span></i> </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o_HZjLT21wM/VKCJwa2M0KI/AAAAAAAAJG0/dyG9LtFG2eQ/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963_dancer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-o_HZjLT21wM/VKCJwa2M0KI/AAAAAAAAJG0/dyG9LtFG2eQ/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963_dancer.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
After a tense dialogue scene between Amrita and a British character, we see Amrita and the other two dancers again giving a <b>formal performance</b> of the choreography they were simply practicing before. The portion at the end (after 56:10) seems loosely inspired by Kathak in the quick spins and armwork and by Uday Shankar's style in the half-seated shimmy and opposing hands. The rest of the moves are vague "Oriental"/"Indian" inspirations that remind one of a lot of Indian popular film choreography. I'm really intrigued by the dancer on the left. She's obviously a practiced and graceful dancer and I suspect she probably choreographed the film dances. Might she have been someone well known in the Indian dance community in France/Germany/Italy at that time? (<b>September 2019 Update:</b> See the comments below! This dancer has been identified as Zareen Suleman, a "Pakistani dancer [mostly Kathak and Bharatnatyam] and actress, very active in the Pakistan film industry in the 50's and 60's" who I was right, DID choreograph the film's dances!) The dancer on the right struggles with remembering the choreography, but the worst of all is Amrita and her silly attami neck-slides. <br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">54:55-56:40 - <a href="http://dai.ly/x230tys">Direct Link</a></span></i></div>
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The third dance in the film is a brief <b>solo performance</b> by Amrita for what looks like the king, and she moves her hand in one trajectory frozen in the same hand gesture...seemingly to evoke some sort of mysterious exoticism. The eclectic mix of instruments is quite humorous!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">1:20:57-1:22:11- <a href="http://dai.ly/x230tys">Direct Link</a></span></i></div>
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In the film sequel, there is only one dance--a dramatic number by Amrita in the temple in front of the Kali statue right before the structure implodes. The setting is obviously inspired by the 1938 and 1959 versions of <i>Der Tiger Von Eschnapur/Das Indische Grabmal</i>. Amrita's moves here are simplistic, rhythmic, and most importantly, "exotic"!<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">1:18:14 - 1:20:11 - <a href="http://dai.ly/x230u0z">Direct link</a></span></i></div>
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How fun to unearth yet another entertaining glimpse of how India was being misrepresented in popular European entertainment at that time!<br />
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-_M6nggLvFjQ%2FVKCCwz3eGMI%2FAAAAAAAAJGM%2FYCAdgFTaQYc%2Fs1600%2FKali%252BYug%252B1963%252B" with "https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_M6nggLvFjQ/VKCCwz3eGMI/AAAAAAAAJGM/YCAdgFTaQYc/s1600/Kali%2BYug%2B1963%2B" -->MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-21378462780490150192014-11-29T21:38:00.001-07:002020-01-10T23:56:51.469-07:00Rabindra Nritya/Tagore Dances in Bengali FilmsIn my efforts over the past year to look beyond my focus on South Indian cinema dance to see what other regional cinemas of India have to offer, my research on Odissi, Manipuri, and Sattriya film dances led me eastward to the cinemas of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/11/odissi-dance-in-odia-films-including.html">Odisha</a> in East India and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/08/manipuri-dance-in-indian-cinema-and.html">Manipur</a> and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/08/classical-dances-in-recent-indian-films.html">Assam</a> in Northeast India. But what about the cinema of Bengal situated directly in between those states and also one of India's major film-making centers since the craft began? (Note: I am focusing on Indian Bengali films produced in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and the Indian state of West
Bengal—not those produced in what was East Bengal and East Pakistan near/after
partition/independence and now is Bangladesh). <br />
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Other regional Indian classical dance forms had been depicted in a few Bengali films with an authentic earnestness and execution. For example, the best Kathak nritta in a non-Mujra setting in Indian cinema can be found in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/12/film-classical-dances-of-roshan-kumari.html"><i>Jalsaghar</i></a> (1958), <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/08/gorgeous-kathak-dance-in-khudito-pashan.html"><i>Khudito Pashan</i></a> (1960), and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/12/film-classical-dances-of-roshan-kumari.html"><i>Basanta Bahar</i></a> (1957); Odissi dance was skillfully depicted in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/11/odissi-dance-in-odia-films-including.html"><i>Nirjana Saikate</i></a> (1963) and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/12/odissi-dance-in-indian-cinema-outside.html"><i>Yugant</i></a> (1995); and the infamous Anjana Banerjee performed decent Bharatanatyam in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/08/anjana-banerjees-bharatanatyam-in.html"><i>Chhandaneer</i></a> (1989). That's not to say that examples of bad faux-classical dance are not found in Bengali cinema. There are plenty such as <a href="http://youtu.be/VW3CHK33Ihc?t=3m36s"><i>Abhiman</i></a> (1986), <a href="http://youtu.be/jTnbnaLhN3Q?t=3m29s"><i>Jamalay Jibanta Manush</i></a> (1958), and some <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/08/manipuri-dance-in-indian-cinema-and.html">faux-Manipuri dances</a>—but when good dance is showcased in Bengali films, it is <i>really</i> good. And there are certainly folk dance forms of the region most notably Chhau that have also been showcased in a few Bengali films.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W3dHB5ywtn8/VHpmcTLi3WI/AAAAAAAAJEs/7TlhoPgB7vk/s1600/Jalsaghar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W3dHB5ywtn8/VHpmcTLi3WI/AAAAAAAAJEs/7TlhoPgB7vk/s320/Jalsaghar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Jalsaghar (1958)</i></td></tr>
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The popularity of <b>Kathak and Odissi dance depictions in Bengali films </b>makes historical sense. Kathak dancer and scholar Pallabi Chakravorty <span style="font-size: x-small;">[3]</span> describes how female court dancers in north and east India during British rule became "popularly known as nautch dancers" but also "as tawaifs in the royal courts of north India and baijis or nautch dancers in nineteenth-century Bengal." As kingdoms continued to decline, in the late nineteenth-century Calcutta "became the prime destination for displaced dancers and musicians from the north, who found new sources of patronage among the Bengali elite" particularly in the "music rooms of the Bengali zamindars (landlords)." Ah, now I understand the background of Roshan Kumari's thrilling Kathak dance in <i>Jalsaghar </i>("The Music Room," 1958)!<i> </i>The appearance of Odissi dance in Bengali films is not surprising as well. Certainly Odisha is close to Bengal and shares many cultural similarities, but as scholar Nandini Sikand has shown, there is a history of women with Bengali backgrounds becoming prominent Odissi dancers such as Ritha Devi, Indrani Rahman (married into a Kolkata family), and recently Sharmila Biswas <span style="font-size: x-small;">[13]</span>. <br />
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So while the depiction of Kathak and Odissi in Bengali films had a uniquely Bengali precedent, I continued to wonder...<b>was there a uniquely-Bengali <i>dance </i>depicted in Bengali films?</b> For some time I assumed there simply was not because from my limited experience Bengali films seemed to be mostly "serious" and "artsy." This perception appears to be accurate especially for pre-1980s films. Historian Sharmistha Gooptu has shown that long before Satyajit
Ray, Calcutta productions were "distinguished through their association
with Bengali literary and avant-garde cultures" and were deliberately
made and seen as noncommercial art for the Bengali audience which had
different tastes than the all-India market and demanded films with
quality storylines and acting <span style="font-size: x-small;">[5]</span>. Cinematic dance depictions were not well received in Bengal. Silent/early Bengali films like <i>Andhare Alo</i>, <i>Pati Bhakti</i>, <i>Bilwamangal</i>, and <i>Tara the Dancer</i> which had courtesan/nautch characters were criticized for "depicting the life of prostitutes" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[5]</span>. Sharmistha reveals a fascinating nugget of information—that director Binay Bandopadhyay (Banerjee) "brought the song and dance film" to Bengali
cinema, but he lamented his receiving "only abuses and criticism" by critics
who upheld the virtues of the "refinement and decency" of Bengali films as opposed to the "cheap and commercial" focus of the Hindi
cinema of Bombay <span style="font-size: x-small;">[5]</span>. I wish I could track down the films he was associated with, but I've not had success finding information about him.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Looking beyond cinema, unlike some other Indian states/regions with film production centers, <b>Bengal does not have a "classical" dance tradition </b>of its own (though in recent
years Dr. Mahua Mukherjee has made a claim to have reconstructed a lost Bengali classical dance form called "Gaudiya Nritya," but the dance's acceptance and "classicism" is controversial and its current status confusing given that <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/rev11/rev1108.html">this Narthaki article</a> says the dance "is the most recent inclusion under the Sangeet Natak Akademi’s list of ‘classical’ dances of India" but I've not found any evidence of this and most other sources describe the form's "classicism" as disputed). <br />
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While Bengal may not have an indigenous classical dance tradition, it does have a <b>unique claim in the history of dance in India</b>—it's where modern/contemporary Indian dance began! Following the Bengal Renaissance, "Bengal provided one of the most fertile grounds in India from which a modernist movement in art and sculpture, theatre, music and dance was spawned in the twentieth century" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[10]</span>. <span style="font-size: small;">Modern/contemporary Indian danc</span>e began with two charismatic Bengalis: Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and later Uday Shankar (1900-1977). Bengal was also the site of the founding of the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) in 1942 whose influential dance squad was led by former Uday Shankar dance school-associates Shanti Bardhan, Narendra Sharma, and Sachin Shankar <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>.<br />
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But of all those artists, <b>it is Rabindranath Tagore and his everlasting popularity in Bengal that provides the key to unlocking plentiful examples of a uniquely Bengali dance in Bengali cinema.</b> I can't believe the answer was there all along in YouTube sensation Anjana Banerjee's dances to Tagore songs in the film <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/08/anjana-banerjees-bharatanatyam-in.html"><i>Chhandaneer</i>!</a><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Rabindranath Tagore</b></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HXiXBM6qS0Y/VHon0lmxedI/AAAAAAAAJEQ/BtyC2hX2mwI/s1600/Tagore3_140x190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HXiXBM6qS0Y/VHon0lmxedI/AAAAAAAAJEQ/BtyC2hX2mwI/s1600/Tagore3_140x190.jpg" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rabindranath Tagore (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tagore3_140x190.jpg">1909</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Described by Ram Gopal as "that bearded, white sage of beauty and poetry" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[6]</span>, Rabindranath Tagore seems most often remembered today for his prolific output of literature and music. While conflicting information abounds in some of the details of his life, I'll do my best to give a fair summary. Tagore was the first non-European Nobel laureate who received the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/tagore/article/">Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913</a>, and he "dominated the literary scene in India for more than half a century" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[14]</span>. Tagore also created his own style of music called "Rabindra Sangeet" penning the lyrics for his compositions which number
over 2,000 (and include both India and Bangladesh's national anthems), and he "fashioned his own genre of dance drama, a unique blend of dance, theater and songs" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>. Tagore's output and influence did not stop there. He was also "one of the most prominent intellectuals in Bengal in the first half of the twentieth century" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[11]</span> and "along with [Gandhi] was one of the most significant voices in India's journey towards post-colonial modernity" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[10]</span>. His family connections to the reformist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmo_Samaj">Brahmo Samaj</a> movement, his ideas and efforts on education, and his penchant for painting rounded out his long list of achievements and influences. In short, he was an Indian cultural icon and continues to be so particularly in West Bengal today <span style="font-size: x-small;">[9]</span>.<br />
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While he is well remembered for his songs and dance dramas/musical plays, his work and <b>philosophy of dance </b>and movement seem to be less known outside of dance circles (especially outside of India). Dance was the last artistic endeavor that Tagore embarked upon, and he "saw dance as the perfect articulation of his songs and poetry" and developed a modern/contemporary approach to dance <span style="font-size: x-small;">[1,2]</span>. Tagore wrote, "The main function of the art of dancing is expressed in the beauty and the grace generated by the movement of the body in specific ways – sometimes even without specific meanings. The joy in that is of feeling the rhythm" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span>. Unlike the "classical" dances that were being reconstructed during this time by contemporaries like Vallathol (Kathakali) and Rukmini Devi (Bharatanatyam), Tagore saw dance free of a need to associate with the rules, movement, and narrative/plot prescriptions of ancient texts and instead placed the dance in an expressive contemporary context concerned with human situations <span style="font-size: x-small;">[1,8].</span> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Aya0B7FVHnw/VHpm8hMK2zI/AAAAAAAAJE0/NbnHYf-f7t4/s1600/Tagore_Life%2Band%2BArt%2Bof%2BCN%2BVasudevan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Aya0B7FVHnw/VHpm8hMK2zI/AAAAAAAAJE0/NbnHYf-f7t4/s1600/Tagore_Life%2Band%2BArt%2Bof%2BCN%2BVasudevan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tagore with Shapmochan Troupe, likely 1930s [16]</td></tr>
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It all began at the alternative educational school <b>Shantiniketan</b> that he established in Bengal in 1901 (and known today as <a href="http://www.visvabharati.ac.in/Visva_Bharati.html">Visva-Bharati</a>). "Here, in spite of society’s serious reservations against such practices in education, he gave an important position to music, drama and the visual arts," and from the beginning "he encouraged and participated in dance-dramas where all the students and Tagore himself would use body movements in a dramatic or theatrical format along with songs" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span>. While dance was initially spontaneous and "mere embellishment to the songs" drawn from Manipuri and folk dance vocabulary, he later looked to various existing classical and traditional styles of India, Southeast Asia, and a bit of European modern dance "to find a vocabulary to shore up the metaphoric and dramatic imagery of his songs and dance dramas" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>. Between 1921-1940, his style fully flowered in development <span style="font-size: x-small;">[11]</span>, and he invited teachers from extant styles to teach at his school and developed a training method for his students. He didn't involve himself with the professional Bengali theater of the day and instead drew audiences to his Santiniketan productions <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>. Similar to the classical dance reconstructions, he made dance respectable and accessible to the middle-class woman, in his case the Bengali woman <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>.<br />
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Sounds a bit too <b>similar to Uday Shankar </b>and his Almora Center, you might ask? While Tagore and Shankar's institutions were both similar, scholar Prarthana Purkayastha points out that "Shankar went one step further and pushed the boundaries of
choreography by introducing elements of improvisation, underlining the
importance of a conscious relationship between the gestures of daily
life and dance movements" and he "established a training system in which
prominence was given to an in-depth knowledge of the body and its
various components." <span style="font-size: x-small;">[15]</span>. While Tagore is said to have joined the stage in some of his productions, he was much older and does not seem to have danced solo or focused on himself as a distinct artist. Aishika Chakraborty says it best: "If Rabindranath was the first to conceptualize Indian modern dance, Uday Shankar was the first to apply it" by bringing Indian dance to the rest of the world with his youthful physical and artistic charm <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>.<br />
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Existing at a time when there was no acceptance of dance outside of the classical/folk binary, "The works of Tagore and Shankar, in opening up dance to a process of experimentation and to the coming together of multiple forms, have generally been seen as a way to self-discovery and self-definition" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span>. Depending on your point of view, Tagore and Shankar initiated a modern dance tradition in India or at least provided the building blocks and inspiration for those who came later. Tagore is especially important because he seems to have been among the very first influential figures in India to have an interest in dance as creative expression, though many consider Uday Shankar to be the first modern Indian dancer. It has been suggested that the success of Tagore and Shankar despite enormous cultural hurdles was largely due to their personal charisma <span style="font-size: x-small;">(1,18)</span>.<br />
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The dance style that Tagore created goes by many names today: <b>Rabindra Nritya</b> (seemingly the most popular), Rabindrik Dance, Tagore Dance, and other variations. Given that it "never developed as a formally codified style with the kind of specific and methodized technique that a discipline demands," Rabindra Nritya "has existed for decades now as an undefined territory of art whose only laws are: that the dance must be set to Tagore’s songs; that it must represent the meaning of the songs through body movements; and that these movements must be fluid and rhythmic" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span>. The dance style seems to have lost steam after Tagore died, and similar to Uday Shankar's style, Tagore's students and followers seem to have preserved the Shantiniketan style in amber and rigidly adhered to the <i>form </i>of his dance instead of its revolutionary <i>philosophy </i>and <i>ideals </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[8]</span>. Ranjabati Sircar, daughter of the Bengali dancer Manjusri Chaki-Sircar whose Navanritya dance could be seen as a worthy successor to Tagore's dance philosophy legacy, has said that Rabindra Nritya became stereotyped with each lyrical word literally interpreted through gesture <span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span>, and Sunil Kothari adds criticism of the "oft-repeated movements without any regard for the lyrics" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[17].</span></div>
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<b>Rabindra Nritya in Bengali Cinema</b><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fy0T6P053Xc/VHopq5bBduI/AAAAAAAAJEc/fL961hA8roE/s1600/Natir%2BPuja.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Fy0T6P053Xc/VHopq5bBduI/AAAAAAAAJEc/fL961hA8roE/s1600/Natir%2BPuja.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Once I learned how popular Tagore continues to be in Bengal today, I was not surprised that his special brand of music and dances inspired by it are fairly plentiful in Bengali cinema. The popularity goes all the way back to the beginning. In describing the Calcutta film production powerhouse New Theatres which was founded in 1930 by B.N. Sircar, Sharmistha Gooptu notes that its prestigious reputation was gained through its connection to Tagore as well as B.N. Sircar's "reputation as a gentleman," and it was New Theatres that "popularised Rabindra Sangeet, which had hitherto been confined to the hallowed precints of Santiniketan" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[4]</span>. New Theatres even produced the 1931/2 film version of Tagore's drama <i>Natir Puja </i>("The Dancing Girls Worship") which featured not only Tagore himself on screen as well as in the director's seat but also student performers from Shantiniketan and an "interpretive dance" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[4]</span>.<br />
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The video below <a href="https://indiancine.ma/BAO/player/00:14:30.536">from the Indiancine.ma annotated online archive</a> (alternatively <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp6Js9pAOwc">on YouTube in lesser quality</a>) is according to the <a href="https://indiancine.ma/BAO/info">info notes</a> "a simple recording" of the <b>Natir Puja stage play in 1926</b>, not the actual 1931/2 film directed by Tagore. I've embedded just the dance portion. What a fascinating glimpse of Tagorean dance in the 1920s! The slow, graceful movements seem inspired by Manipuri dance; I wonder if that segment is very similar to the "interpretive dance" the film is said to contain. To honor the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore, the NFDC and Government of India released a DVD set of his stories as depicted in cinema including a "partial but restored" <i>Natir Puja</i> on the bonus disc! I've not been able to track down a copy of the DVD to see how it compares to the online footage available.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://indiancine.ma/BAO/editor/00:17:45,00:14:29.976,00:17:45#embed" width="500"></iframe></div>
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Listed below is a collection of all the examples of Rabindra Nritya I could find in Bengali cinema grouped into categories. Complicating this effort was my lack of knowledge in Bengali (and any other Indian language!) which makes it difficult to appreciate and understand a dance that is so closely connected to the lyrics. The <a href="http://geetabitan.com/">Geetabitan</a> website was incredibly helpful in finding English translations for many of the songs (which are easily identified by the first few words), but Tagore's poetry can be hard to grasp in English which according to some is due to its being simply untranslatable into other languages. At least Rabindra Sangeet is quite easy to identify after listening to enough examples of it. After going through all the songs in this post, I think those who are unfamiliar with the song genre will agree!</div>
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<b>Non-Interpretive Dance</b></div>
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While these first two dances are certainly "fluid and rhythmic" and "set to Tagore's songs," the missing piece is the representation of the lyrics through body movements. I am struck by the lifelessness of the dances. The dancer's faces have no expression, the movements are rigidly set to the simple musical rhythm, and the choreography consists almost entirely of pretty arm and torso movements that have no connection to the sung poetry. Sircar and Kothari's criticisms seem applicable here! While Tagore himself felt that joy in dance could be found in simply "feeling the rhythm," the dancers here don't seem to be feeling any joy, and neither do I as the viewer!</div>
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<b><i>Udayer Pathe</i> (1944) - "Basante Phool Ganthlo"</b> - Bimal Roy's debut film, the social <i>Udayer Pathe</i> has the earliest example of Rabindra Nritya that I was able to find in Bengali cinema beyond <i>Natir Puja</i>. The dance takes place at an opulent home birthday party and <a href="http://cinemacorridor.blogspot.com/2013/01/bimal-roys-first-film-new-theatres.html">is performed by</a> actress Smriti Biwas. I added subtitles to the video sourced from Geetabitan's <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/B/basante-phul-lyric.html">English translation</a>, and the dance movements seem wholly unconnected with the meaning of the song. Note: Yes, the audio is slightly off, and yes I hate dailymotion too...<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>English subtitles available in menu - <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/k5kFeTA6vegCWd9m0g5">Direct link</a></i></span></div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x2aarwl" width="480"></iframe><br /></div>
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<b><i>Baksa Badal</i> (1965/70)</b> <b>– "Mora Jale Sthole Kato" </b>- Mixed in with the loose Manipuri-inspired movements are a few movements inspired by Bharatanatyam as well as some tell-tale signs of Uday Shankar's style (e.g. the "limp hand") and then the dance transitions to a solo vocal number. While <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/M/mora-jole-sthole-kato-lyric.html">Geetabitan</a> doesn't have an English translation, I have a feeling the content of the lyrics would make no difference. <br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts 37:10</span></i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCglLVcLoBo?start=2230" width="560"></iframe>
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<b>Odissi Influences</b> </div>
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These next two dances while having some of the same lifelessness as the ones above are different in that their movement vocabulary is inspired largely by Odissi. I had mentioned in the introduction above Nandini Sikand's <span style="font-size: x-small;">[13]</span> point that many women with Bengali backgrounds have become prominent Odissi dancers, but what I found most fascinating is learning of the tension that exists between some Odia and Bengali Odissi dancers. Nandini describes how some "Odissi traditionalist" audience members at recent festivals and performances have booed dancers who perform Odissi to Rabindra Sangeet instead of traditional Odia music. She outlines the importance of understanding these incidents in the the context of the complex history of Odisha and Bengal—a "larger context of Oriya regionalism and a perceived
Bengali chauvanism and/or appropriation of Oriya culture" hearkening back to
when Orissa was formerly part of the Bengal Presidency under British
rule and Bengali elites dominated administrative posts and Odisha fought to maintain its own identity. None of this tension is reflected in the film dances, of course, which seem to randomly pick "pretty" Odissi-inspired movements purely for their aesthetic value.<br />
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<b><i>Bhalobasa Bhalobasa</i> (1985)</b> <b>– "Mamo Chitte Niti Nritte"</b> - The <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/M/mamo-chitte-niti-nritte-lyric.html">English translation</a> of this song reveals it centers on the concept of an eternal rhythmic dance, but like the dances above, the expressionless dancer does not interpret the lyrics...even with something as simple as "following the waves." I featured this dance <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/05/loads-of-bengali-films-with-subtitles.html">once before</a> on the blog but had no idea it was an example of Rabindra Sangeet at that time.<br />
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<i><b>Chander Bari</b></i> <b>(2007)</b> <b>–</b><b> "Chander Hasi/Hasir Bandh Bhengeche"</b> - No English translation of <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/C/chnaader-haashir-bnaadh-lyric.html">the lyrics</a> is available, but I have a feeling the meaning makes no difference to the decorative dance movements. I love pretty movements as much as the next person, but somehow in these film dances they fall flat. I suspect the feelings that the songs stir within Bengali audiences override the vapidness of the choreography...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLoSNBTWm11zOQrKFHE3ywMNoJ_VmVLQEq" width="500"></iframe>
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<b>Tagore Dance Dramas</b></div>
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<i><b>Dadar Kirti </b></i><b>(1980) – "Guru Guru Guru Guru" and "Bodhu/Bondhu Kon Aalo" </b>- The heroine of the film, played by Mahua Roychoudhury, performs the character Chitrangada in excerpts of the Tagore dance drama of the same name. At the 2:00 minute mark, Mahua dances solo to the hauntingly-beautiful "Bodhu Kon Aalo" which describes her realization that she is in love with Arjuna. Instead of Geetabitan's awkward translation, I used <a href="http://anondogaan.blogspot.com/2014/03/bodhu-kon-aalo-laglo-chokhe-lyrics.html">Deepankar Choudhury's</a> as well as <a href="http://preyrona.blogspot.com/2006/03/translation-of-chitrangada-gist-of-all.html">Anandamayee Majumdar's</a> insights to overlay English subtitles on the dance. While many of the movements are purely decorative, when she does act out some of the material aspects of the lyrics (eyes, sunshine, mango buds) and expresses some of the emotions, it all feels very restrained and cold especially the parts describing her waiting eons in misery and woe. If performed by another dancer who internalized and deeply-felt the poetics, I think it could have been much better. Sadly, Mahua died five years after this film was released.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>English subtitles available in menu - <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k7kS5LejbkOVUi9mqey">Direct link</a></i></span> </div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x2acwy6" width="480"></iframe></div>
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<i><b>Muktodhara </b></i><b>(2012)</b><i><b> </b></i>– This film was based on the <a href="http://www.theweekendleader.com/Culture/249/making-of-valmikis.html">real-life story</a> of the Bengali Odissi dancer Alokananda Ray (played by leading Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta) who in 2007 taught male convicts in a Kolkata jail how to dance and perform the Tagore dance drama Valmiki Pratibha at the jail and then around the country. It's quite an inspiring story (the "<i>Sound-of-Music</i>-in-prison" as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/11/27/163016950/from-a-calcutta-prison-to-the-classical-stage">NPR calls it</a>) and part of the state of West Bengal's <a href="https://www.academia.edu/6607454/Dance_therapy_in_correctional_homes">efforts to</a> reform prisons/correctional homes through "cultural therapy" and training in Indian performing arts. The handsome Nigel Akkara played himself in the lead male role in the film, and as in the film, the Valmiki Pratibha story of reformation and transformation led to <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/when-life-imitates-art/article4065800.ece">similar reforms</a> in Nigel and other prisoners. In the playlist below is a brief initial dance practice scene followed by the last 30 minutes of the film where the prisoners perform Valmiki Pratibha on stage. I am mesmerized by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg0SjkqYNKc&feature=youtu.be">the vocals of Sasha Goshal</a> for Nigel in the film.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLoSNBTWm11zPQmu5fzgaG8WyDu7NITpw8" width="500"></iframe>
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<b><i>Kabuliwala </i>(1956) </b>- <b>"Kharobayu Boy Bege" - </b> Based on Tagore's emotional short story, <i>Kabuliwala</i> features a cute stage performance to the Tagore song "<a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/K/kharo-bayu-boy-bege-lyric.html">Kharobayu Boy Bege</a>" by a group of children. The lead little girl, the character Mini (played by Sharmila Tagore's younger sister, Tinku Tagore) whom Kabuliwala befriends, is absolutely adorable as she tries to remember all the hand gestures (I think she's trying to do the <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2014/08/manipuri-dance-in-indian-cinema-and.html">Manipuri sandansha</a> hand gesture at 1:38). The clip below is poor quality and the audio is off, but it lets us see the dance unlike the <a href="https://indiancine.ma/HZI/player">full film upload at the Indiancine.ma</a> archive which is grayed out due to its copyright status. The 1961 Hindi remake released in the centenary year of Tagore's birth can be seen in full on YouTube [video no longer available].</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Cr1e_4Wta1s" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<b>Uday Shankar Influence</b></div>
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<b><i>Bipasha </i>(1962</b>)
-<a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/screen/the-eternal-hero/"> One of the</a> most popular films of the beloved couple of Bengali cinema, Uttam
Kumar and Suchitra Sen, <i>Bipasha</i> has one of my favorite black-and-white "spectacle" dances—a multi-part stage dance drama that is highly influenced by Uday Shankar's dance style. But it finds a place on this list because the music for the lead female's solo dance (that begins with "Tomishe...") sounds like Rabindra Sangeet, though I've been unable to confirm the name. The dance drama is called "Upanayan" in the film, and Suchitra Sen's character is invited
to watch it by a Christian missionary. Given the Sanskrit-chant style voiceovers and deliberate, energetic group choreography, the number does not seem to be imitating Tagore's brand of dance drama and instead has some strong affinities with <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/02/kalpanas-dances-annotated-at-padma.html">Uday Shankar's 1948 film <i>Kalpana.</i></a><i> </i>Many elements of the choreography are direct Kalpana inspirations such as the spread-finger hand shimmies, the lead male's extended arms shown from the back, the upper-body isolations, the Manipuri spins and sandansha hand gesture, and the Kathakali-inspired "limp hand."<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kAfhncqyF60/VHlHHsF_ESI/AAAAAAAAJEA/XC59cRjWAyg/s1600/Bipasha_Kalpana_Comparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kAfhncqyF60/VHlHHsF_ESI/AAAAAAAAJEA/XC59cRjWAyg/s400/Bipasha_Kalpana_Comparison.jpg" width="371" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: <i>Bipasha</i> Right: <i>Kalpana</i></td></tr>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DFeHEvL7C6s/VGj9Q0RCoHI/AAAAAAAAJDw/Ni-f5xT04Ms/s1600/Bipasha%2BBengali%2B1962%2BMovie%2BDance%2BDrama.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DFeHEvL7C6s/VGj9Q0RCoHI/AAAAAAAAJDw/Ni-f5xT04Ms/s1600/Bipasha%2BBengali%2B1962%2BMovie%2BDance%2BDrama.jpg" width="200" /></a>The lead male and female dancers are fantastic! I have tried my hardest to identify them but have had no luck. My guess is that they might be from the Little Ballet Troupe since they are unlikely to be either Shanti Bardhan (who died in 1954) or the IPTA Central Squad (that broke up by the time the film was made). For a moment I guessed the male might by Narendra Sharma, but judging from <a href="http://bhoomikadance.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-founder-director-narendra-sharma.html">extant pictures of him</a> that's been ruled out.
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts 16:31</i></span><br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xNidA-ePIks?start=991" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b>Abohoman (2010) – "Gahono Kusumokunjo Maajhe" </b>- Guess who the lead, older dancer is in this song? Mamata Shankar, Uday Shankar's real-life daughter! In the scene, actress and Mamata Shankar Dance School-Trained dancer Ananya Chatterjee (not to be confused with the academic and dancer <a href="https://apps.cla.umn.edu/directory/profiles/ananya">Ananya Chatterje<i>a</i></a>) is being trained for the role of Binodini, and the song is the Rabindra Sangeet "<a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/G/gahono-kusumkunjo-majhe-lyric.html">Gahan Kushum Kunjo Majhe</a>" from one of Tagore's most famous dance dramas, Bhanu Singar Padabali. The English subtitles for the dance appear once the film's dialogue voiceover stops. It's a beautifully-choreographed dance with lots of Uday Shankar influences. Apparently this is only one of two film dances Mamata has done; the other being a tribal dance in <i>Agantuk.</i></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pER8XV37EMg" width="560"></iframe>
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<b> All the Rest!</b></div>
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One set of dances I would love to find but seem to not be available are those of Valmiki Banerjee<i> </i>as a dancer in the films <i>Meghdoot</i> (1945)<i> </i>and <i>Sri</i> <i>Tulsidas</i> (1947) and as an assistant dance director in the film <i>Pandit Moshai</i> (1951). Given that <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/tdhc/tdhc32.html">he was a key exponent of Rabindra Nritya</a>, I bet the film dances contain some great examples!<br />
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Here is a playlist of all the remaining examples of Rabindra Nritya that
I found in Bengali cinema with names and descriptions following. I'm sure there are some more that I'm not aware of. Suggestions welcome! <b>Update: YouTube no longer allows specific time starts in playlists, so the videos may not start at the dance portion. Navigate through the playlist videos through the menu icon seen when hovering over the video.</b><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Starts with video 10</span></i></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/237IfxjK8Rg?list=PLoSNBTWm11zOTk7UhDFXIqZXN3KWFTG8L" width="500"></iframe><br /></div>
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<ul>
<li><b>Chhandaneer (1989)</b> - This film is based on the real life of Anjana Banerjee (<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/08/anjana-banerjees-bharatanatyam-in.html">more infamously known</a> from her hilarious YouTube video) who experimented with performing Bharatanatyam to Tagore's songs in her younger years. I included two dances set to Rabindra Sangeet in the film. In the first clip, she tells a reporter, "There are a few Tagore songs based on South Indian compositions and
tunes that can easily be blended with Bharatnatyam. For example,
Meenakshi Mamudangdehi...based on
this same raga, Tagore composed "Bashanti Hey." The second dance may not be a proper Rabindra Sangeet, but it sounds like it is composed in a similar style with the same intentions.</li>
<li><b>Chitrangada (2012) - "Bodhu Kon Alo"</b> - Set to the same haunting Rabindra Sangeet as the dance from <i>Dadar Kirti</i> above, this film dance features the late Rituparno Ghosh who learned Odissi from Sharmila Biswas for the film. Ghosh, who also directed the film, plays a choreographer who is planning a performance of Tagore's dance drama Chitrangada. In <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/entertainment/look-who-s-dancing/cid/437328">an interview</a> he described the costumes as based on Madam Menaka’s
"Oriental style" and says he chose
Odissi not Manipuri because "the Manipur that Arjun visited was a part
of Kalinga in Orissa. Chitrangada was not the princess of Manipur the
state as we usually think she is." </li>
<li><b><b>Natobor
Not Out (2010) – "Hey Nuton Dekha Dik Aar" </b>- </b>Featuring lovely production values, this <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/H/hey-nuton-dekha-dik-lyric.html">song</a> is part of the larger whimsical story of the film. Tagore's portrait features in the procession and in the man's room, and the number was likely choreographed by Bengali film choreographer Sukalyan Bhattacharya who composed another dance in the film (source article no longer locatable now). </li>
<li><b><b><b>Dekha/Dakha (1998) "Jibono Lata" </b>or "E Ki Labonye Purno Pran"</b> – </b>A brief, slow-paced solo dance set outdoors that seems to match the general spirit of the lyrics' meaning as seen in the <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/rs-e/e-ki-labonye-english-translation.html">English translation</a>.</li>
<li><b>Alo (2003) – "Amar Raat Pohalo"</b> - Actress Rituparna Sengupta dances again in this film in a song choreographed by Sukalyan
Bhattacharya. Looking at the <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/A/aamar-raat-pohalo-sharod-lyric.html">English translation</a>, it appears that Rituparna enacts some of the lyrics such as the flute gesture, but for the most part her movements are just pretty...though also performed with feeling. </li>
<li><b>Dhosomi (2012) - "Amar Sokol Roser Dara"</b> - The choreography is sort of an annoying bollywood-meets-Rabindra Nritya mashup, but the song is gorgeous. The <a href="http://www.geetabitan.com/lyrics/A/aamar-sakol-rosher-dhaara-lyric.html">English translation</a> reveals that the dancer seems to depict the flowing "stream" analogy and the eyes part amidst her living-room freestyle dance antics. </li>
<li><b>Pushpadhanu
(1959) - "Amare Rekho Dali"</b> - While the song is a Rabindra Sangeet, the stage number seems to be mimicking Bharatanatyam in the costume and musical arrangement with the rhythmic interludes and footwork. Luckily Angel added English subtitles to the upload! The choreography doesn't belong to any particular dance tradition and is dominated by circular movements and spins. And I think this might be the laziest faux-flute playing ever captured in film!</li>
</ul>
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<b><br />Sources (all excellent reads!):</b><br />
<ol>
<li>Bose, Mandakranta. "Indian Modernity and Tagore's Dance." <i>University of Toronto Quarterly</i>. Vol 77, No. 4. 2008.</li>
<li>Chakraborty, Aishika. "The Daring Within: Speaking Gender through Navanritya." <i>Dance Matters Performing India.</i> 2010.</li>
<li>Chakravorty, Pallabi. "Dancing into Modernity: Multiple Narratives of India's Kathak Dance." <i>Dance Research Journal</i>. Vol 38, No. 1/2, 2006. </li>
<li>Gooptu, Sharmistha. "The Glory that Was: An Exploration of the Iconicity of New Theatres." <i>Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East</i>. Vol 23: 1&2. 2003.</li>
<li>Gooptu, Sharmistha. <i>An Alternative Imaginary: The History of Bengali Cinema, c. 1921-1961</i>. 2009. PhD Diss. </li>
<li>Gopal, Ram. <i>Rhythm in the Heavens: An Autobiography</i>. 1957.</li>
<li>Gopal, Sangita and Sujata Moorti, Eds. <i>Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance</i>. 2008.</li>
<li>Munsi, Urmimala Sarkar. "Boundaries and Beyond: Problems of Nomenclature in Indian Dance History." <i>Dance: Transcending Borders</i>. 2008.</li>
<li>O'Connell, Joseph and Kathleen. "Introduction: Rabindranath Tagore as 'Cultural Icon'." <i>University of Toronto Quarterly</i>. Vol 77, No. 4.</li>
<li>Purkayastha, Prarthana. "Warrior, Untouchable, Courtesan: Fringe Women in Tagore's Dance Dramas." <i>South Asia Research</i>. 2009. Vol 29 (3): 255-273.</li>
<li>Roy, Haimanti. <i>Citizenship and National Identity in Post-Partition Bengal, 1947-65</i>. 2006. PhD Diss.</li>
<li>Sircar, Manjusri Chaki. "Tagore and Modernization of Dance." <i>New Directions in Indian Dance</i>. 2006. [edited version of 1995 original]</li>
<li>Sikand, Nandini. <i>Dancing with Tradition: a Global Community of Odissi Dancers</i>. 2010. PhD Diss.</li>
<li>Tagore Centenary Issue. <i>Natya Theatre Arts Journal.</i> 1962.</li>
<li>Purkayastha, Prarthana. "Dancing Otherness: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Work of Uday Shankar." <i>Dance Research Journal</i>. Vol 44. No 1. 2012.</li>
<li>Isvarmurti, V. <i>Life and Art of CN Vasudevan: Tamil Dancer and Tagore</i>. 1986. </li>
<li>Kothari, Sunil. "Rabindranath Tagore and Indian Dances: A Reassessment." <i>Nartanam</i>. Volume XII, No. 2.</li>
<li>Abrahams, Ruth. <i>The Life and Art of Uday Shankar</i>. 1985. PhD Diss.<b><br /> </b></li>
</ol>
MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-43616399478736320952014-08-20T21:31:00.002-06:002020-01-10T23:29:03.279-07:00Remembering the Film Bharatanatyam of the Late Adyar K. Lakshman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I learned the sad news yesterday that the Bharatanatyam Guru Adyar K. Lakshman <a href="http://srutimag.blogspot.com/2014/08/adyar-lakshman-is-no-more.html">has passed away</a>, my mind immediately went to his excellent choreography in Indian cinema. Since it still seems that not enough people are aware of it, I thought I would show his two film choreographies again here and honor his work which has been preserved in film for us to cherish all these years later.<br />
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I had first learned of Guru Lakshman's choreographies in cinema when I read the <i>Sruti </i>magazine profile on him in Issue 320 (excerpt <a href="https://dhvaniohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/cover-story.pdf">here</a>) that noted he "directed and choreographed dance sequences from three art films - <i>Subba Sastri</i>, <i>Hamsageethe </i>and <i>Ananda Tandavam.</i>" While I have not been able to locate <i>Ananda Tandavam</i>, I was thrilled <a href="http://www.savithasastry.com/savitha.html">to learn</a> this week that its dance starred <a href="http://www.savithasastry.com/">Savithra Sastry</a> in the lead and the film <a href="http://events.sulekha.com/savitha-sastry_tickets_artist_104#Biography">was supposedly</a> in Tamil and released in 1987! If anyone has seen this dance or knows where to find a copy, please let me know!<br />
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Guru Lakshman's choreographies in <i>Subba Sastri</i> and <i>Hamsageethe</i> are, I would argue, among the absolute best (perhaps the best!) serious Bharatanatyam captured in Indian cinema. The treatment of the dances is very different from most other film classical dances with the minimal editing, equal focus given to expressive and pure dance, crisp and authentic lines and movements, and the extended length--all signs of intentional respect and care for the dance segments by the director and editor, and I'm sure Guru Lakshman was the core reason the dances turned out so well.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b>Subba Sastri (</b>1966, Kannada, aka <i>Subba Shastry</i>) - I first blogged about this dance back in 2011 in <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/04/classical-dances-in-kannada-films-part.html">my post</a> about Kannada film dances, and it still remains among my top five classical dances ever filmed in Indian cinema. Lakshman's choreography is lit up on screen by the lead dancer whom I can't keep my eyes off of. I have long wondered who the dancers are--does anyone know? This dance conforms to a few conventions of standard film popular classical dance, but somehow it feels quite different. Unfortunately the print has some jumbled editing and portions that appear to have been lost or cut out. The entire movie was posted online in the spring [no longer available].<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8x2uSZV55XE/U_P4QTmvCxI/AAAAAAAAJDQ/gqWk1hUM2Rk/s1600/HamsaGeethe_DanceDirectors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8x2uSZV55XE/U_P4QTmvCxI/AAAAAAAAJDQ/gqWk1hUM2Rk/s1600/HamsaGeethe_DanceDirectors.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>Hamsa Geethe </b>(1975, Kannada) - I was surprised <a href="http://www.bharatakalaanjali.org/bftv.html">to learn</a> that VP and Shanta Dhananjayan were originally asked to choreograph the dances for this film, but when the shooting became delayed and the Dhananjayan's had to turn the offer down due to schedule conflicts, Adyar Lakshman was brought to Chitradurga to choreograph for the film. While I'm curious what the Dhananjayan's work would have looked like (perhaps a taste can be seen in VP's dance in <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/02/found-classical-dance-in-kann-sivandhal.html">Kann Sivandhal Mann Sivakkum</a></i>), Lakshman's work was fantastic. Filmed at the Chitradurga Fort, the dance is a competition between a Tanjore Bharatantayam dancer (played by Jayalakshmi Eswar), who makes the challenge that the kingdom has no dancers equal to her, and a local Kuchipudi dancer Chandrasaani (unknown dancer). The credits also name Radhakrishna as a dance director, and I presume she choreographed for the Kuchipudi segment. The English subtitles, provided by my late dear friend Ramesh, really enhance the viewing of the Abhinaya for those of us who do not understand the lyrics. For more information on this dance and the film, please see my <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/03/hamsa-geethes-classical-dance.html">original post</a>.<br />
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I am saddened that Guru Lakshman is no longer with us. I had hoped someday to find out more about his film choreographies and his experiences making them (and just why his film choreographies are so amazing), but it looks like those memories will now only live on in those he shared them with. <br />
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I will close with an homage video to Adyar put together by one of his students, Anandini Dasi, featuring many pictures of him that seem quite rare. The audio is of Adyar performing the nattuvangam for a Pushpanjali, and the crisp quality enhances its soul-stirring ambiance.<br />
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-64770017335358763362014-08-17T17:45:00.001-06:002020-01-10T23:26:02.168-07:00Classical Dances in Recent Indian Films - Including Sattriya and Kootiyattam!While I've been mostly looking back in history as I've blogged about Indian film dances for the past few years, a number of films have released in recent years with songs or scenes featuring classical dance forms. Having collected enough for a robust post and also making some great discoveries this weekend<i>,</i> I'm excited to take a break from research and share what the classical movie dance world has produced recently. I'm sure I've missed some—do let me know of any others!<br />
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<b><i>Vara: A Blessing</i> (2013, Coproduction)</b> - Screened at various film festivals since it's debut but apparently not commercially released in theaters or on DVD, <i>Vara: A Blessing</i> has been <a href="http://moviemezzanine.com/vara-a-blessing-is-a-beautiful-journey-through-traditional-indian-music-and-dance/">described</a> as "a visually stunning exploration of the cross between spiritual devotion and bodily temptation that incorporates hypnotic use of tradition Indian dance and music" <a href="https://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/5320897dc07f5df7d200006b-vara-a-blessing">and as</a> a work "Accented by mesmerizing bursts of classical Indian dance, haunting vocals, and vivid Hindu fantasyscapes..." With choreography by the accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer Geeta Chandran, music by Nitin Sawhney, and sumptuous visuals and effects by the crew, the dances as seen in the few clips available online make the film an absolute must watch. It's not an Indian film since it's directed by the Bhutanese lama filmmaker Khyentse Norbu with help from various countried folk, but it is set in India and was made with many Indian actors, so it is perhaps a Bhutanese/Indian/international coproduction.<br />
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This is the clip that took my breath away and has me aching to watch the film. In it, the main character Lila (Odissi dancer Shahana Goswami) dances Bharatanatyam under the nattuvangam of her mother Vinata (Geeta Chandran), the village's last devadasi. Based on <i>Variety</i>'s <a href="https://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/vara-a-blessing-review-busan-1200689422/">review</a> of the film which describes how the tribal leader tries to "pimp out Lila" while finding a match for a woman's son, the man staring at her as she dances is likely either the son or the tribal leader. Like him, I can't keep my eyes away from Shahana's face which registers constant emotion and danger that is enhanced by the lighting design and shadows. The entire clip has an ominous, creepy tension. Thanks to <a href="http://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a> for pointing out this clip from Chandran's Facebook page.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Geeta Chandran is seen leading a Bharatanatyam group on stage in this clip which is filmed far opposite to the dark intensity of the clip above. According to an <a href="https://www.rediff.com/movies/report/there-is-so-much-hierarchy-in-the-indian-film-industry/20140510.htm">interview</a> of Geeta's, the dancers are her students in Delhi.<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Video no longer available online, but here's a screencap</span></i></div>
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This "Bollywood-style" dance number seems to be portraying Lila's love for Bollywood dance moves as mentioned in a <a href="http://www.varathemovie.com/#!a-blessing-comes-home/">plot description</a>, and it gives us a glimpse of how the film traverses reality and fantasy in bursts of color and special effects. It's bizarre, and I love it! According to the director, "The sequence of Lila dancing to the Bollywood music was there only to enhance sacredness and subtilty [sic] of the classical music and dance" (<a href="http://www.asiancinevision.org/point-of-interest-interview-with-the-trio-of-vara-a-blessing/">source</a>).<br />
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Last, check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV74JBQ2egs&feature=youtu.be">the trailer</a> for a few more dance segments not seen in the above clips. This film has shot to the top of my "must see" list. Can you believe that back in April, the Tribeca Film Festival offered free limited-time online screenings of it and other films for a "web-based audience competition." It was up for two days and no one in Indian dance circles seems to have known about it! Let's hope it gets offered through another online film festival or site soon!<br />
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<b><i>Natyanubhava</i> (2013) </b>- While this film is really a documentary and not a "feature film," it is filled to the brim with classical dance footage, and the recent posting of the 6-minute excerpt clip below on India's Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT)'s YouTube channel is worthy of celebration and recognition in this post! PSBT has also uploaded some other interesting excerpts from dance-related documentaries like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFXcGiXpJBY"><i>From Sadir to Bharatanatyam</i></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eICHQPdb_Eo"><i>Mrinalini Sarabhai - The Artist and Her Art</i></a>. <i>Natyanubhava</i> is the third directorial effort by Sharada Ramanathan who debuted in 2007 with <i>Sringaram, </i>the period film about devadasis that I've <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search?q=sringaram">previously blogged about</a> and that I'm still waiting to find good clips online of beyond the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CinemaNrityaGharana/posts/10152610377714606">60 seconds of footage</a> seen at NDTV. A great review by Sunil Kothari is <a href="https://narthaki.com/info/gtsk/gtsk99.html">at Narthaki.com</a>. <b>UPDATE</b>: The entire film has been uploaded in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_rU-IN2-LuE">two</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WlgPRN2974Q">parts</a>! Thanks to Ragothaman <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/natyanubhava-on-youtube/">for the find</a>!<br />
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<b><i>Pole Pole Ure Mon</i> (2011, Assamese)</b> - A <b>Sattriya</b> dance in a film from Assam—a first on this blog! I found it by happening onto <a href="http://thiraseela.com/artist/profile.php?perfmrid=328">this profile</a> of the Sattriya dance couple Dipjyoti-Dipankar which listed the film as presumably something they were involved with, and then when I watched the song "Proti Pole..." I knew that was it! Sattriya dance can be seen at the beginning, at 1:31, and at the end at 4:06. The costumes and dance appear to be an authentic inspiration when compared to Sattriya dance clips <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaKSpWYd4cc">like this one</a> by IndiaVideo. While Assamese film choreographer Ashim Baishya is credited as having worked in the film according to this article [no longer available online], I think that he only did the more pop/Bollywood-style dances in the film.<br />
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<b>Swapaanam (2014, Malayalam) </b>- Before having seen this film's dances, I knew it was a must watch. First, the film "<i>explores the pain and pathos of a temple drummer, destined to die like the flame of an oil lamp. Unni, played by the popular Jayaram, is a victim of jealousy and ego. As his life and passion for percussion begins to ebb away, the spirited Mohiniattam dancer Nalini (Kadambari) discovers the artistic excellence in him and together they traverse life, defying society and its systems</i>" (source article at hindustantimes not locatable now). Awesome. Second, it was directed by Shaji Karun's who was responsible for the sensitive masterpiece <i>Vanaprastham </i>(1999)<i> </i>centered around Kathakali dancers. And third, "Swapaanam" translates to "The Voiding Soul" which sounds like the perfect movie to watch on a dark and gloomy night. Now having seen some clips of the film's dances, the excitement for this film remains despite the dances lacking a bit in the subtlety and serious execution of those in <i>Vanaprastham</i>. The trailer is a good watch, and here is a playlist of the two available song promo clips that show the dancing of Kadambari who <a href="https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/diff-a-malayalam-film-that-dances-with-drama-1.1264154">is a</a> trained Odissi dancer in real life (and there is a group practice clip too, yay for <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Practice%20Dance">practice dances</a>!). <b>Update: Only one video is now available.</b><br />
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<b>Nottam </b>(2005, Malayalam) - This is the first <b>Kootiyattam</b> film dance I've found for this blog! The woman dancing is Margi Sathi, "the leading female face of kootiyattam" who is also <a href="https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/diff-a-malayalam-film-that-dances-with-drama-1.1264154">responsible for</a> resuscitating Nangiarkoothu (and is featured in the Symphony Celestial <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/indiavideodotorg/search?query=nangiarkoothu+margi">Nangiarkoothu series</a>). Like <i>Vanaprastham </i>and its focus on Kathakali dancers<i>, Nottam</i> revolves around hereditary dancers of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koodiyattam">Koodiyattam</a>, a temple Sanskrit theatre dance drama form that is the oldest classical dramatic art form of Kerala. I am delighted to find that the entire film is posted on YouTube by AmritaTV! I've embedded it below, and it should begin with the first Kootiyattam performance in the film at 23:27 featuring Margi Sati and the veteran actor Nedumudi Venu. Just click on other parts of the timeline to also watch the Kootiyattam practice scene at 12:23 (yay!!), the hauntingly-beautiful, award-winning song "Melle" at 1:27:50, and the dramatic Kootiyattam performance at the end at 1:49:39 in which Nedumudi gets to shine.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts at 23:27</i></span><br />
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<b>Other Film Classical Dances</b></div>
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Keeping up with all the latest films is hard! A big thanks to <a href="http://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a> for his tips about the recent Tamil film dances which I never would have found otherwise. While I'm surely missing some, below is my playlist collection of classical dances in Indian films from the past few years in order from newest to oldest. I did sneak in some from 2004-6 which aren't really "recent," but I've never had the chance to feature them on the blog til now. Everything in this post is new to this blog, so I left out dances I've posted about previously (like Odissi dances in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/11/odissi-dance-in-odia-films-including.html">Odia</a> and <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/12/odissi-dance-in-indian-cinema-outside.html">other films</a> and the dances in <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/08/kalavantuludevadasi-dances-in-films.html"><i>Periyar</i></a>, <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/01/classical-dances-from-film-sringaram.html">Sringaram</a>, <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/02/film-thoughts-la-danse-de.html">La Danse De L'Enchanteresse</a>, <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-latest-collection-of-lesser-known.html">Mizhikal Sakshi</a>, </i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/06/film-classical-dances-of-lakshmi.html"><i>Aaptharakshaka</i></a>, <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/06/film-classical-dances-of-lakshmi.html">Black Daliya</a></i>, <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/06/film-classical-dances-of-lakshmi.html">Namyajamanru</a>, <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/11/film-classical-dances-of-vineeth.html">Uliyin Osai</a>,</i><i> <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/01/humorous-classical-indian-dances-from.html">Tamil Padam</a></i>, <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/11/film-classical-dances-of-vineeth.html"><i>Bhool Bulaiyya</i></a>, <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/11/film-classical-dances-of-vineeth.html">Chandramukhi</a>, </i>and<i> <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/11/film-classical-dances-of-vineeth.html">Banaras</a>). </i> I also included three Mujras which is a rarity on this blog since I'm not a big Mujra fan. :) And I've tried my best to distinguish Kuchipudi from Bharatanatyam which I hope I'm getting better at. Following the playlist is the list of the films in the playlist with my comments; feel free to pop out the playlist in a new window and follow along, side-by-side. <b> Update: YouTube no longer allows specifying start time in playlists, so the videos may not start at the dance portion. Use navigation menu icon when mousing over video to skip to other songs.</b><br />
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<i><b><a href="http://youtu.be/A-EURnZ57MA?list=PLoSNBTWm11zNM1DSx7TqAk-E62WcoLZy2">Playlist direct link</a></b></i></div>
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<li><b><i>Thirumanam Enum Nikkah</i></b> (2014, Tamil) - Features playful group practice dancing inspired mostly by Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi. Love the peeking hands at 2:09 and the layered music! Hat tip: <a href="http://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a>.</li>
<li><b><i>Saivam</i></b> (2014, Tamil) - Cute home dancing inspired by Bharatanatyam. Hat tip: <a href="http://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a>.</li>
<li><b><i>Dedh Ishqiya</i></b> (2014, Hindi) - Features Kathak dancers and then Madhuri Dixit in a Mujra <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/music/news/Madhuri-is-a-fantastic-dancer-Pt-Birju-Maharaj/articleshow/20122793.cms?referral=PM">choreographed</a> by Pandit Birju Maharaj. Not a fan of the electric guitar!</li>
<li><i><b>Ithu Kathirvelan Kadhal</b> </i>(2014, Tamil) - Group Bharatanatyam practice in practice saris. Hat tip: <a href="http://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a>.</li>
<li><b><i>Rama Madhav</i></b> (2014, Marathi) - Pair Saroj Khan and Aditi Rao Hydari for some Bharatanatyam in <i>Sringaram</i> and get magic, but pair the same team for a Mujra in <i>Rama Madhav</i> and you get a nightmare (ugh, that open mouth!).</li>
<li><b><i>Pullipulikalum Aattinkuttiyum</i> </b>(2013, Malayalam)<b> - </b>Namitha Pramod performs three classical dances in a tourist boat in this film, and she had, unbelievably, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/acing-the-act/article4956231.ece">never trained</a> in dance before the film! She performs beautiful Mohiniattam abhinaya in the first clip, and then in the second clip, she performs Bharatanatyam and then at 3:43 dances Kuchipudi.</li>
<li><b><i>Vishwaroopam</i></b> (2013, Hindi) - Kamal Hassan returns to dance on the silver screen with choreography by Pandit Birju Maharaj. I find myself wanting to watch his students much more than him. :)</li>
<li><b><i>Raanjhanaa</i></b> (2013, Hindi) - Kathak by Sonam Kapoor who <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Deconstructing-Sonam/articleshow/2583856.cms?">has trained</a> in the dance form for years under Uma Dogra.</li>
<li><b><i>Chennai Express</i></b> (2013, Hindi) - Deepika Padukone dancing what looks like Kuchipudi-inspirations with some backup dancers.</li>
<li><b><i>Kanna Laddu Thinna Asaiya</i></b> (2013, Tamil) - A <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/01/humorous-classical-indian-dances-from.html">humorous</a> practice scene!</li>
<li><b><i>Iddarammayilatho</i></b> (2013, Telugu) - White girls + comedy actor Brahmanandam + "classical dance" = giggles. Hat tip: <a href="https://cinemachaat.com/2013/06/03/iddarammayilatho/">Cinema Chaat</a>.</li>
<li><b><i>Rajjo</i></b> (2013, Hindi) - A Mujra with Kangana Ranaut exuding absolutely zero charisma. She says she had "rigorous training" for the dance, ha!</li>
<li><b><i>Lakshmi</i></b> (2013, Kannada) - Terrible stage "Kuchipudi" obviously performed by a nondancer.</li>
<li><b><i>Makaramanju</i></b> (2011, Malayalam) - This film about the artist Raja Ravi Varma has Kathak-inspired dancing that is greatly improved when the male dancer briefly appears. At first I thought he was the fabulous Anuj Mishra, but I think he may be one of the film's <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/dancer-duo-elated-over-award/article2041592.ece">choreographers</a>, Madhu Gopinath or Vakkom Sajeev, who had previously choreographed for the film <i>Rathrimazha</i>. There are more dances in the film, but I am unable to find clips online.</li>
<li><b><i>Mr. Perfect</i> </b>(2011, Telugu) - Kajal in a classical-inspired practice number that turns jazzy!</li>
<li><b><i>Jeevana Jokali</i> </b>(2011, Tamil) - Solo "I'm trying to evoke classicism but have no idea what I'm doing" practice number.</li>
<li><b><i>Subhapradam</i></b> (2010, Telugu) - K. Vishwanath, the director of a slew of classical arts films in the 70s and 80s like <i>Sankarabharanam </i>and <i>Saagara Sangamam</i>/<i>Salangai Oli,</i> attempted a similar formula for <i>Swarabhishekam </i>in 2004 and <i>Subhapradam </i>in 2010, but the magic seems to be long gone. <i>Subhapradam </i>begins with a nice, authentic-leaning stage Kuchipudi dance in the first clip with a male dancer performing in the second half. In the second clip of the song "Thappatlo Thalalo," Mohiniattam, Kuchipudi, Bharatantayam, and Odissi dancers all filter in and out dancing movements inspired from their respective styles. In the third clip, the heroine performs frenetic dance loosely inspired from Mohiniattam. All the dances are said to be choreographed by hereditary Kuchipudi dancer Vedantam Venkatachalapathy who has the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-fridayreview/Challenges-on-stage/article14741624.ece">same lineage</a> as Vedantam Sathyanarayana Sarma, Vempati Chinna Sathyam and film-director Vedantam Raghavaiah.</li>
<li><b><i>Punyam Aham</i></b> (2010, Malayalam) - Veteran actor Nedumudi Venu plays a Kathakali artist in this film. In the first clip he performs in closeup for a group a white tourists, and in the second clip a proper Kathakali performance can be seen. Hat tip: <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-latest-collection-of-lesser-known.html?showComment=1312137967797#c5732665788470990229">Liz</a>.</li>
<li><b><i>Nagavalli</i></b> (2010, Telugu) - In the first clip is Bharatanatyam/Kuchipudi-inspired stage dancing that can't hold a candle to Lakshmi Gopalaswami and Anuj Mishra in the Kannada version <i>Aptharakshaka </i>which I previously <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/04/classical-dances-in-kannada-films-part.html">blogged</a> about. The less said about Anoushka's dance in the second clip, the better. The film is the sequel to the remake of the incomparable <i>Manichitrathazhu.</i></li>
<li><b><i>Enthiran</i></b> (2010, Tamil) - A bit of robot classical dance choreographed <a href="http://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/interviews/article287553.ece">by</a> Prabhu Deva's assistant Vishnu master. :) I removed it from the playlist because it isn't playable outside of YouTube.</li>
<li><b><i>Ama Bhitare Kichi Achi</i></b> (2010, Odia) - Looks like I missed this Odissi stage dance in my <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/11/odissi-dance-in-odia-films-including.html">post</a> on Odissi dance in Odia films.</li>
<li><b><i>Preesthe Preesthe</i></b> (2009, Kannada)<b> - </b>A stage "Kuchipudi" dance by Prajana who has learned Bharatanatyam in real life.</li>
<li><b><i>Sri Ramadasu</i> </b>(2006, Telugu) - Some pretty Kuchipudi-inspired dancing.</li>
<li><b><i>Kalabham</i></b> - (2006, Malayalam) - More pretty, energetic Kuchipudi-inspired dancing.</li>
<li><b><i>Swarabhishekam</i></b> (2004, Telugu) - A bit too old and dated for this list because it's at the 10-year mark, but it's worth a quick look since <i>Subhapradam</i> is in the list above. The first song has what looks like some decent Kuchipudi posing at the beginning and end (oh and the guy in the grey kurta? That's <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/02/film-classical-dances-of-sridhar.html">Sridhar</a>!), but the second song has the dancers prancing about in costumes that do not match the vaguely-classical movements. The dances are choreographed by V. Seshu Parupalli (aka P.V. Seshu, Dance Master Seshu) who choreographed at least one dance each for <i>Sankarabharanam, Saptapadi, Subhalekha, Salangai Oli, Ananda Bhairavi, Sruti Layalu, Swarnakamalam, Devasuram</i>, and <i>Mayuri </i>(according to Rumya Sree Putcha's <a href="http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/ER/detail/hkul/5002079">dissertation</a>).</li>
<li><b>M Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi </b>(2004, Tamil)<b> </b>- "Chennai Senthamizh" is dated, but it's a classic!</li>
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-66052800575268118022014-08-10T20:35:00.000-06:002020-01-10T23:09:44.866-07:00Manipuri Dance in Indian Cinema and the Beautiful Dances in Sanabi (1995, Manipuri)Reading about Manipuri Dance in books about Indian dance, especially those written pre-1990s, has always been quite entertaining to me. There is a distinct exoticised "othering" seen in statements like "the Meities, a people of slight build with slanting eyes...are a deeply sensitive and artistic race..." [8] and "The country abounds in myth and legend...since earliest times, the people have shown an innate love and a gift for expressing their emotional and religious fervour through dance and music." [2]. The dances are described in glowing but simplistic descriptions laden with pleasantries.<br />
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A refreshingly-different perspective on Manipuri dance is offered by Faubion Bowers in his 1953 book <i>The Dance in India</i>. Faubion had an interest in Asian dance and drama and was one of the early and well-known Asian Studies writers starting in the 1950s (and was <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/172051">instrumental in the preservation of Japanese Kabuki</a>). In this excerpt Faubion departs from most other writers of his day and argues that "Manipuri dance" as it was known outside of Manipur at that time and as popularized relatively early <a href="https://manipuri.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/rabindranath-tagore-and-his-influence-in-bishnupriya-manipuri-society/">by renaissance man Rabindranath Tagore</a> was a complete misrepresentation, and of excited interest to this blog he also covers its popularity and misrepresentation in Indian cinema:<br />
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<i>“[Rabindranath] Tagore hoped that by transplanting the dance from Manipur to India proper he would have the secret of regenerating dance throughout all India.... Shortly after his visit, Tagore installed a dance teacher from Manipur at Shantiniketan, an all-India school of arts in Bengal. Apparently Tagore was too definite about the use he wished to make of Manipuri dancing and too opinionated as to what he thought the art of dance should be in general. He selected bits and pieces of the teacher’s instruction and molded them to fit his own romantic dance-dramas. By simplifying the dance he made it possible for his students to be dancers and brought the art well within their reach. What became known as “Manipuri Dancing” was actually this Tagorean simplification and its latitude of interpretation. During this arid period of India’s recent dance history, this Manipuri-cum-Tagore style swept the country. People responded to its soft, flowing, unintellectual, and restful style. Mathematics and perfectionism in classical dancing had until then precluded the entry of amateurs into the dance field. Tagore’s Manipuri dancing filled a vacuum and answered the cry of amateurs.</i></blockquote>
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<a name='more'></a><i>Morality also played a part in the easy acceptance of this style of dancing. The stigma on India’s classical dances was still heavy; Manipuri dancing was completely new and unknown. There were no preconceived prejudices against it, although had people understood many of the movements or known the inner nature of Manipuri dancing, they certainly would have developed a reaction against its eroticisms. Sarojini Naidu, that grand old lady of Indian politics, made dance history when, after the performance of Amubhi Singh, one of the first Manipuris to perform outside Manipur, she publicly exclaimed, “Here is a dance with no crude form of movement; a mother may see it with her son.” The amateur was now, with her blessing, safe from attack on moral grounds.</i><br />
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<i><b>Sinuous curves, flowing turns, hoop-skirt costumes, and snaky arm wriggles which passed as Manipuri dancing invaded the movies and almost dislodged Kathak from its senior position there. </b>Year after year Tagore’s school turned out graduates. Even some international artists, whose standard ought to have been higher, continued the perpetuation of this charming deceit. In that period of drowning, perhaps India’s art had to clutch at any straw. </i><i>All India became aware of Manipuri dancing. No artist or critic dared ignore it. Some dancers even specialize in its style to the exclusion of all else.</i></blockquote>
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<i>The fact is, oddly enough, that the style of dancing has no historical basis. It has only the most tenuous connection with Manipuri dancing itself, and in Manipur, when films of Indian dancing are supposed to represent Manipuri dancing, the audience rather cruelly roars with laughter. </i><i>The myth is perpetuated for two reasons. No dancer of India has ever taken the trouble to study in Manipur. Secondly, the few Manipuris who have come to India as drummers or teachers are in so precarious a financial position that they are at the mercy of their students. They themselves call the dancing the teach “Oriental”; but the public continues to regard it as “Manipuri.” </i><i>Were the dance of Manipur inferior to its paste diamond, which sells so well, such as state of affairs would be justifiable. It is, however, in every way superior to its humbug. The dance which inspired Tagore to bring Manipuri into the open world, the dance whose imitation is mimicked the length and breadth of India and even abroad, remains locked within its lush and fertile valley."</i></blockquote>
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Faubion's perspective is certainly quite negative, and his assertion that "no dancer of India has ever taken the trouble to study in Manipur" seems odd given that the well-known Jhaveri sisters of Gujarat <a href="http://darshanajhaveri.com/jhaveri-sisters/">have said</a> they studied Manipuri dance in the state of Manipur in the late 1940s. But Faubion's viewpoint offers a counterbalance to what seemed to be an incorrect assessment and misrepresentation of the dance at that time, and my guess is he was probably right!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BZZoGGf6BRw/U-fZWa_-hlI/AAAAAAAAJBM/TyziDkcbY7o/s1600/Louise+Lightfoot_Ksh.+Ibetombi_Manipuri_1957+(Dance-Rituals+of+Manipur+book,+1958).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BZZoGGf6BRw/U-fZWa_-hlI/AAAAAAAAJBM/TyziDkcbY7o/s1600/Louise+Lightfoot_Ksh.+Ibetombi_Manipuri_1957+(Dance-Rituals+of+Manipur+book,+1958).jpg" width="191" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ksh. Ibetombi and Louise, 1957 [5]</td></tr>
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Another outsider who was concerned about the misrepresentation of Manipuri dance in those days was Louise Lightfoot of Australia. In her 1958 book <i>Dance-Rituals of Manipur, India</i>, she writes, "Many fine books have been written about the Dances of India both by Indians and Westerners; but invariably the chapters or paragraphs about Manipur have been both inadequate and incorrect." Louise stayed in Manipur for two years to write more accurate information about Manipuri dancing, and while in her book she focuses mostly on descriptions of the dances' rituals and history, she writes in an earnest way that for the most part sees the Manipuri people as human beings, not strange subjects to be studied and written about from afar. Speaking about the influence of film dance, she writes, "Mixed dances, in imitation of Indian cinema dances, are common in Imphal today, and unattractive hybrid compositions are frequently announced from the stage as "Bharatha Natya" or "Kathakali" because no one in the audience has ever seen these great arts of India or can criticize the announcements."<br />
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While writings about Manipuri dance and history are much improved in recent decades, one still gets the feeling that some writers still approach Manipuri dance as an "other" that doesn't deserve the same coverage as other dance forms. In her 1993 review of the book <i>Dances of Manipur: The Tradition </i>edited by Saryu Doshi, dancer-scholar Uttara Asha Coorlawala rightly calls out E. Nilkantha Singh for his "patronizing colonial tone" in his choice of words to describe the Meitei's religious beliefs and his privileging of Hindu over Meitei practices. Uttara defty notes that the book "bears witness to the hollowness of describing deeply felt intimate relationships with movement in an alien language to an alien culture."<br />
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<b>Manipuri Dance in Indian Cinema</b></div>
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While I am just a beginner in understanding the nuances and movement vocabularies of dances as found in Manipur, it seems quite obvious that Manipuri dance as represented in Indian cinema is particularly unfaithful to the source, even more than other classical dance forms. After watching some authentic, real-life footage of Manipuri dance (such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/indiavideodotorg/search?query=bimbavati">the lovely Bimbavati Devi</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcg6gXrNxxQ">this compilation of Darshana Jhaveri's group</a>) the "Manipuri" dances found in the rest of Indian cinema seem wholly unsatisfying caricatures of the real thing.<br />
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Though a number of dance forms with varied movement vocabulary fall under the moniker "Manipuri Dance," the most developed and "classical" forms are the lasya-oriented Ras (aka Raas, Rasalila, Ras Leela) dance dramas and the Sankirtan with its energetic drum and cymbal-based choloms. For many people, Manipuri dance is synonymous with the image of a female dancer in the glittering stiffened skirt costume of the Ras and this seems to be the most popular representation of "Manipuri dance" in Indian cinema with an occasional male Krishna character thrown in for good measure. But the film dances only depict the most serene and contained movements of the gopis in the Ras and completely ignore the wider variety of movements that can get quite energetic especially in the dancer depicting Krishna.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sandansha Hasta in Manipuri</i></td></tr>
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Despite restricting the movements to such a narrow category, the film dances seem to confuse simplicity with sloppiness, and the choreographers seem to have been fooled into believing they have captured the essence of the dance. Grace and poise is abundant, but it isn't channeled into precise or codified movement and looks disorganized and amateurish compared to the real thing. In the slow movements of the female gopis of the Ras, the hands scoop and wrap in and out, the hands are often held in the Sandansha (aka Samdamsha) gesture, the legs bend gently at the knees and pivot in spins, and the hands sweep in controlled arcs and angles. [Note: Regarding the identification of the Sandansha hand gesture/khutthek, I only found two publications (Bhavnani's book and a Marg issue) that named the hasta as such, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DYIwz4FMHM">this video</a> demonstration uses a different name, so I'm still not confident regarding what the gesture is called today.] It looks deceptively simple at first glance, but all the movement is done intentionally and in constant flow. It would be quite easy to simply feign elements of these movements, but the film dances incorporate hardly any of these specifics.<br />
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The bad imitations would seem excusable if the film Manipuri dances were choreographed by dance directors unstudied in the form, but as you will see below, real-life Manipuri gurus were often associated with the dances. I think Faubion Bowers' views regarding the alterations to the form made by outsiders like Rabindranath Tagore (which I think can also be applied to Uday Shankar) and the economic needs of the gurus explains a lot of it. And certainly the goal of most popular film dances is not to present an authentic dance form but rather entertain viewers, and with Manipuri dance there seems to be the additional benefit of adding some exotic "culture" from a far-flung, "mysterious" part of India.<br />
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To illustrate how badly Manipuri dance fares in Indian cinema, watch the exquisite dances from the Manipuri film <i>Sanabi </i>below, and then compare them to everything else in Indian cinema in the playlist that follows. </div>
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<b>The Manipuri film<i> Sanabi</i></b></div>
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It is no surprise that the best representation of Manipuri dance in Indian cinema I was able to find is in a Manipuri-language film made in Manipur by and for Manipuris. <b><i>Sanabi </i>("<i>The Grey Mare</i>," 1995)</b>, which won the National Award for "Best Feature Film in Manipuri," revolves around a Manipuri classical dancer, Sakhi, and a man who pursues her affections. Sakhi's dances with her troupe in both practice (yay! Manipuri <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Practice%20Dance">practice dances</a>!) and stage performance are featured multiple times throughout the film in short sequences with minimal editing. The performances are taken straight from life and are filmed head-on which lends them a sort of sacredness and peace that I find engaging to watch. Most exciting of all is the range of dances and costumes displayed with authenticity. In addition to a Ras dance (depicting the Maha Ras subgenre with Krishna and Rhadha authentically portrayed by children), the viewer also gets to see two practice scenes, a solo lasya-style dance, and most rare of all, a Lai-Haraoba dance! Luckily, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Sanabi</i><b> can be watched for <strike>free </strike>purchase at the </b><a href="https://www.cinemasofindia.com/#product/unknown/16405/sanabi" style="font-weight: bold;">NFDC's Cinemas of India page</a><b>. </b>I'm not able to embed the film, so I've screencapped the dances below with the timestamps listed underneath. Also worth seeing is the traditional wedding at 55:16 in which the bride wears the customary Potloi dress!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.cinemasofindia.com/movie/view/1088_Sanabi"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1E3ULY8Owl8/U8XUm8hGJCI/AAAAAAAAI_0/q-L_s3MSUHo/s1600/Sanabi_Manipuri+Film_Dance+Scenes.jpg" width="500" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scenes pictured clockwise: 7:59 (Lai-Haraoba dance), 23:33 (practice scene),<br />
25:40 (solo lasya dance), 31:15 ("Maha Ras"), 38:36 (practice scene)</td></tr>
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<b><i>Manipuri Dance in Non-Manipuri Indian Cinema</i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">Here is a playlist of the other Manipuri film dances I was able to find in Indian cinema in chronological order. Two dances from <i>Kalpana </i>follow separately. I know there are more out there—feel free to send them my way and I'll add them to the playlist! <b> (Update: YouTube removed the ability to start playlist videos at specific times, so the videos may not start at the dance portion. Navigate the playlist using the menu icon visible when mousing over the playlist video.)</b></span></div>
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<i>Kalpana - <a href="https://pad.ma/CFN/player/01:34:47">Alternate link</a></i><br />
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<a href="https://pad.ma/CFN/player/01:46:35">Alternate link</a><br />
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<b>The Dancers and Gurus on Screen</b></div>
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While the Manipuri dances in the above playlist are almost all quite inauthentic, <b>they are historically important because of who was captured on screen and who was associated with the dances</b>. Eminent dancers of Indian classical dance forms were often seen on screen in the 1940-60s. While male gurus and nattuvanars were mostly involved behind the scenes in other Indian classical dance forms depicted in cinema, Manipuri dance was often depicted with real-life traditional gurus and male dancers dancing as themselves.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v9zwKHBSWUw/U-gDpEnc82I/AAAAAAAAJB8/xCcWAFz7UCs/s1600/Raj+Nartaki+1941_Sadhona+Bose_Manipuri+(12).png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v9zwKHBSWUw/U-gDpEnc82I/AAAAAAAAJB8/xCcWAFz7UCs/s1600/Raj+Nartaki+1941_Sadhona+Bose_Manipuri+(12).png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sadhona Bose in <i>Raj Nartaki</i></td></tr>
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In <i style="font-weight: bold;">Raj Nartaki (1941, aka "Court Dancer"), </i>which seems to be<i> </i>one of the earliest surviving representations of "Manipuri dance" in Indian cinema, the main dancer and central character of the film was played by <a href="https://wiki.indiancine.ma/wiki/Sadhona%20Bose"><b>Sadhona Bose</b> (1914-1973, aka "Sadhana")</a> who was among the early upperclass/caste women who took to dance in Calcutta during the "dance revival" and was an important part of Manipuri/Tagore dance circles, theater, and Bengali cinema. She learned and performed Kathak and Manipuri dance, acted in Bengali films, and choreographed ballets—some of which were supervised by Rabindranath Tagore and others were adapted into or composed by her for cinema (such as the film <i>Dahlia</i> and the dance and "Broadway/Hollywood inspired Orientalist spectaculars" like the films <i>Kumkum, Raj Nartaki, Shankar Parvati</i>, and <i>Vishkanya</i>, some of which were directed by her husband Madhu Bose [6]. She seems to have been quite the giant in the Calcutta dance world in her day. How I wish I could see the dances in <i>Kumkum, Shankar Parvati, and Vishkanya! </i>Judging from <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.tumblr.com/post/70876421854/film-stills-and-posters-reflecting-sadhana-boses">posters/images of the films from Osianama's collection</a>, only <i>Raj Nartaki</i> features Manipuri-inspired dance. <i>Raj Nartaki </i>is quite special because, as explained in the credits, it tells the “the story of the inhumanity of social barriers and of a Court Dancer in the Kingdom of Manipur in the early years of the 19th Century.” While dance direction is not mentioned in the credits, I think it's safe to assume that Sadhona choreographed or was an instrumental part of all the dance numbers. Despite the Manipur setting and Sadhona's direction, the dances seem inauthentic and fit more with general cinedance of the day. Thanks are due to Tom Daniel who has posted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g-zb8-JxeI">beautifully-cleaned up version of the film</a>.<br />
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<b><i>Kalpana (1948, Hindi)</i></b> is the most important example of Manipuri dance in film because it preserves on screen the images of real-life, male Manipuri gurus/artists on screen. The credits read "Manipuri dance by: Guru Amobi Singh" and "Assisted by: Mahabir Singh" ('assisted' was determined from a credits listing of Kalpana in Mohan Khokar's <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/His_Dance_His_Life.html?id=9NnQAAAAMAAJ">book</a>), and since both men were part of Uday Shankar's school and/or troupe it makes sense that Shankar would want to feature them on camera as well as behind the scenes choreographing. Guru <b>Amubi (aka Amobi) Singh</b> "had impressive and far-reaching consequences...among the gurus who addressed themselves to effecting a resurgence in Manipuri dance.... Emphasizing the beauty of the lasya element in Manipuri dance, he created a definitive gharana (school) noted for its languid and lyrical grace. His association with Uday Shankar and his exposure to other forms of dance proved stimulating, and inspired him to develop techniques and themes suitable for the stage. His contribution played a significant role in transporting Manipuri dance from the sacred precincts of the temple to the proscenium of the auditorium..." <span style="font-size: x-small;">(source unknown, Minai unable to locate again!)</span><br />
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Below is a screencap of the first male Manipuri dancer in <i>Kalpana </i>followed by two known photos of Amubi Singh. Despite the different nose shapes likely due to the different lighting, the similarities in the eyebrows, downturned mouth, and collarbone seem to confirm that the dancer on screen is Amubi Singh and he did not simply choreograph the number behind the scenes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9IKziGOK1Yk/U8XNkk-P2MI/AAAAAAAAI_U/Kr05ZQKZwqw/s1600/Amubi+Amobi+Singh_Comparison+Question.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9IKziGOK1Yk/U8XNkk-P2MI/AAAAAAAAI_U/Kr05ZQKZwqw/s640/Amubi+Amobi+Singh_Comparison+Question.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left: Man in <i>Kalpana </i>Middle: Amubi Singh (source: <a href="http://www.ignca.nic.in/coilnet/asp/showbig.asp?projid=us02">IGNCA</a>)<br />
Right: Amubi Singh (source: [9])<br />
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This is a screencap of the second male Manipuri dance in <i>Kalpana, </i>and I assume that he is the Mahabir Singh of the credits who, according to Ruth Abrahams [1] performed a solo "Pung Chalam" [Cholom] number as part of Uday Shankar's real-life troupe at one time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-diw8Fm_8OU0/UxO7gxlk63I/AAAAAAAAI0g/5_dXorgh1Ho/s1600/Kalpana_Manipuri+Scenes+(12).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-diw8Fm_8OU0/UxO7gxlk63I/AAAAAAAAI0g/5_dXorgh1Ho/s400/Kalpana_Manipuri+Scenes+(12).png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Might this be the Mahabir Singh of the credits?</td></tr>
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In the closing song of <b><i>Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), </i></b>Gopi Krishna is in his element as a wild drum dancer joined by Sandhya with her cymbals, and the song later transitions to the grand finale featuring women in skirts with weighted bottoms that swirl, bounce, and unfurl with the dancers' movements in a strange inspiration from the Potloi costume. Although the film credits name Gopi Krishna as responsible for all of the film's choreography, director V. Shantaram has said, "Guru Bipin Singh had associated with me during the production of my film Janak Jhanak Payal Baaje and this happy association continued for quite some time" [7].<br />
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Alongside the early, great gurus Amudon Sharma, Atomba Singh, and Amubi Singh, <b>Bipin Singh</b> was one of the instrumental figures in the history of Manipuri dance whose style came to considered as a separate gharana/school. It was while directing film dances in Mumbai that Bipin met the Jhaveri Sisters from Gujarat who would become well-known Manipuri artists under his tutelage and collaboration. The collaboration was important to Manipuri dance research and the dance's translation to the stage and the development of innovations and a solo repertoire. Though Shantaram's quote makes it sound as if Bipin choreographed for many other of Shantaram's films, I was not able to find any dances in them after <i>Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje</i> that look like something Bipin would have been remotely involved in.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rwj2uIuH_lQ/U8wawZPxH9I/AAAAAAAAJAs/MDSNfRoOO28/s1600/Suajta+Little+Ballet+Troupe+Dance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rwj2uIuH_lQ/U8wawZPxH9I/AAAAAAAAJAs/MDSNfRoOO28/s1600/Suajta+Little+Ballet+Troupe+Dance.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sujata (1959)</td></tr>
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In <b><i>Sujata </i></b>(1959, Hindi), the Sankirtan and Rasaleela dance styles are mixed together in a number performed by artists from the <b>Little Ballet Troupe</b>, the same group Simkie utilized in her <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/04/simkies-choreography-in-awara-dream.html">choreography in the <i>Awara</i> dream sequence</a>. The scene prior to the dance indicates by a wall poster that it is from Chandalika, a dance drama composed by Rabindranath Tagore. The Little Ballet Troupe has an interesting history. It was founded by choreographer <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_p-Yh2KW0XwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Shanti Bardhan</a> who had earlier learned Manipuri and Tipperah dance and had been part of Uday Shankar's school in Almora and the Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). In the film dance, at first I thought the male pung cholom dancer was Mahabir Singh as seen above in <i>Kalpana</i>, but as you can see below his face is clearly different from the man in <i>Kalpana</i>. Thanks to S. Sudha for <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/film-kuchipudi-dances-of-sobha-naidu.html?showComment=1363230422682#c7270373783038383514">the tip</a> about this film dance!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not Mahabir Singh </td></tr>
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<b>Edit: </b>After publishing this post, I found <a href="https://youtu.be/LwcBdoe3vYg">another example</a> to add to the end of the playlist from the 1990 Bengali film <b style="font-style: italic;">Rajnartaki, </b>and to my surprise the lead female dancer is Sudha Chandran! As <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2010/02/film-thoughts-nache-mayuri-1986-hindi.html">you'll recall</a>, she played herself in the films <i><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyr1zg_mayuri-telugu-1985-part-1-3-sudha-chandran_creation">Mayuri</a>/Nache Mayuri</i> depicting her courageous story as a dancer who continued to perform with a prosthetic leg after enduring a horrific accident. Every so often I find another one of her film dances--she seems to have danced in quite a few!<br />
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Some film examples I was not able to find video of. <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-cinemaplus/Udayanan-Vasavadatta-1946/article15718647.ece">Randor Guy mentions</a> a Manipuri sequence along with Kathak and Punjabi sequences in the 1946 Tamil film <i>Udayanan Vasavadatta</i>. Rabindranath Tagore acted in and directed the silent film version of his play <i>Natir Puja</i> which released in 1932, and it is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natir_Puja">said</a> to have an interpretive dance by one of the actresses. The prints were supposedly destroyed but <a href="https://moifightclub.com/2011/05/04/tagore-stories-on-film-6-dvds-5-films-2-rare-docus-to-be-out-soon/">a compilation of the surviving footage</a> is available. Another film possibility I came across while researching my recent <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CinemaNrityaGharana/posts/578626778921390">find of rare Balasaraswati photos</a> was the still to the left of a Manipuri film dance starring Waheeda Rehman (<a href="https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/578770">link to larger original here</a>)! Does anyone know what film it is from? I'm stumped...<br />
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<b>Costumes in Film Manipuri Dances</b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eG2J1MZt1wQ/UwwIqqX21PI/AAAAAAAAIyw/pufQj0jfR3U/s1600/Manipuri+Costume+Potloi+Evolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eG2J1MZt1wQ/UwwIqqX21PI/AAAAAAAAIyw/pufQj0jfR3U/s1600/Manipuri+Costume+Potloi+Evolution.jpg" /></a>The costume of Rhadha and the gopis in the Rasleela is collectively referred to as the Potloi and consists of the cylindrical Kumin or Phumila or Kumil skirt and the upper Poswan or Poswak skirt (I've read so many variations of the names!). The Poswan has apparently evolved from a draped, loose upper skirt into its present-day stiffened, ribbon-likeness—the photo to the left from the book <i>Manipuri Costumes Through Ages</i> illustrates the difference. I was surprised to find that all of the Rasleela-inspired Manipuri films dances in the playlist above feature the non-stiffened upper skirt. One would think the film dance costumers would be more interested in the spectacle of the more visually-arresting stiffened costume. Interestingly, the credits of <i>Raj Nartaki</i> name Sadhona Bose as the costume designer.<br />
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In Louise Lightfoot's 1958 book, she commented on changes that had been made to Manipuri dance at that time such as wearing the hair up instead of naturally down and the use of ankle bells which were unknown in Manipuri dance till then and are unnecessary. Speaking of the Ras, she wrote, "The choice of a heavy, stiffened skirt for Rhada and the Gopis was not a fortunate one. Though it looks most beautiful, its purpose of 'hiding the feet from Krishna', and its bell-like stiffness, effectively hide the graceful movements which the traditional Fanek revealed to perfection in the Lai Haraoba.... Never-the-less the beauty of the Ras costume for its own sake has caused it to become the most famous girls' dancing costume in India. Girls in every Indian state try their utmost to obtain a Ras costume...together with the Kathakali designs of Kerala, it is one of the most popular advertisements for catching the eye of foreign tourists..."<br />
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In the Ras, the dancer portraying Krishna wears a distinctive costume from the gopis. <b style="font-style: italic;">Pushpadhanu </b>(1959, Bengali) is the only film dance I found that depicted Krishna with the Mukut crown of peacock feathers. Many other elements of the costume are missing, though I wonder if Krishna's costume has seen evolution over the last century as well. In fact, the subject of how Manipuri dance and costumes have evolved is begging for more study!<br />
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When a cinema dance strays from the Ras Leela formula for depicting "Manipuri dance," it generally skips to the opposite visual extreme and depicts the "rustic" Sankirtan dances like the pung cholom (drums) and kartal cholom (cymbals). <br />
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<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AiQ5Nqn3jO0/UxO7g7vx10I/AAAAAAAAI0c/74q0gW1nhMs/s1600/Kalpana_Manipuri+Scenes+(4).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AiQ5Nqn3jO0/UxO7g7vx10I/AAAAAAAAI0c/74q0gW1nhMs/s400/Kalpana_Manipuri+Scenes+(4).png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Kartal Cholom in <i>Kalpana</i></span></td></tr>
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The other genres of Manipuri dance seem to be absent from non-Manipuri Indian cinema. Since the goal seems to be spectacle or excitement, the Lai Haraoba and other dances featuring the sarong-like Phanek dress have likely never been depicted in cinema outside Manipur.<br />
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There is so much more about Manipuri dance that could be said! Discussing all the great gurus and dancers, a look at the wide variety of "Manipuri dance," investigating when the dance was first presented on stage and how it evolved to be "classical," Bishnupriya vs<span style="background-color: white;">. Meitei cul</span>ture, along with exciting tidbits like Bipin Singh's tour of Europe with Madame Menaka, Louise Lightfoot's tour with Manipuri dance Priyagopal Singh and Kathakali dancer Shivaram, Tagore's style of dance and "Rabindra Nritya" and "Rabindra Sangeet"...I could go on and on, but those things will have to wait for a possible future post (a Rabindra Nritya one is in the works!).<br />
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<b>Cited Sources:</b><br />
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<ol>
<li>Abrahams, Ruth. <i>The Life and Art of Uday Shankar. </i>PhD Diss. 1985.</li>
<li>Bhavnani, Enakshi. <i>The Dance in India.</i> 1965.</li>
<li>Bowers, Faubion. <i>The Dance in India</i>. 1953.</li>
<li>Coorlawala, Uttara Asha. "Review: The Classical Traditions of Odissi and Manipuri." <i>Dance Chronicle. </i>Vol 16, No. 2. 1993.</li>
<li>Lightfoot, Louise. <i>Dance-Rituals of Manipur, India</i>. 1958.</li>
<li>Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Willemen, Paul. "Bose, Sadhona (1914-73)." <i>Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema: New Revised Edition. </i>(as <a href="https://wiki.indiancine.ma/wiki/Sadhona%20Bose">reproduced at Indiancine.ma Wiki</a>)</li>
<li>Shantaram, V. "Dr. V. Shantaram: Film Producer/Director." <i>In Appreciation of Guru Bipin Singh</i>. 1989.</li>
<li>Singha, Rina and Massey, Reginald . <i>Indian Dances: Their History and Growth</i>. 1967.</li>
<li><i>Marg A Magazine of the Arts. The Drum and the Cymbal, classical dances of Manipur. </i>Vol. 41 Iss. 2. 1988.</li>
</ol>
<b>General Sources:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Bandopadhay, Sruti. "Manipuri Dance: A Lyrical Manifestation of Devotion." <i>Dance Matters:</i><i> Performing India on Local and Global Stages. </i>2010. </li>
<li>Singh, E. Nilkantha. <i>Manipuri Dances</i>. 1997.</li>
<li>Singh, R.K. Singhajit. <i>Manipuri. </i>2004<i>.</i></li>
</ul>
<b><br />More information on Manipuri dance:</b><br />
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<li>Sangeet Natak Akademi - "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141219133747/https://sangeetnatak.gov.in/sna/jnmda-article.htm">Fifty-Two Years of Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy</a>"</li>
<li><a href="http://www.manipuridancevisions.com/">manipuridancevisions.com</a> - Website of the ensemble and school of Manipuri dance founded by scholar Dr. Sohini Ray. Has some great info about <a href="http://www.manipuridancevisions.com/html/readmore_guru.php">Guru Bipin Singh</a> and <a href="http://www.manipuridancevisions.com/html/guru%27s_school.php">his dance style</a> as well as Manipuri dance archives (books, manuscripts, dance and music recordings).</li>
<li><a href="http://manipurinartanalaya.org/manipurinartanalaya/Home.html">manipurinartanalaya.org</a>/ - Guru Bipin Singh's dance school website, also has photos and information on his wife Guru Kalavati Devi and daughter Bimbavati Devi.</li>
<li>Mukherjee, Sumit. "<a href="http://somiroy.tripod.com/id59.html">Mystery of a Manuscript</a>." <i>The Telegraph.</i> ("This curious case of a manuscript on Manipuri dance that Manipuris regard as an outright and clumsy forgery is an illuminating example of the Procustean framing of Manipuri culture for inclusion in an official modern Indian culture. It is also a throwback to the early 20th century when many of the Manipuri elite aspired to be a part of Indian culture.") </li>
<li><a href="https://manipuri.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/rabindranath-tagore-and-his-influence-in-bishnupriya-manipuri-society/">Rabindranath Tagore and His Influence in Bishnupriya Manipuri Society</a></li>
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-51844679234855743482014-06-24T22:17:00.001-06:002020-01-10T22:59:20.454-07:00Bharatanatyam in Sri Lankan Sinhalese Films and in Sri LankaWhile on a zealous search to see what kinds of dance could be found in the cinema of Sri Lanka, India's island neighbor to the south, I was completely perplexed when I stumbled onto this Bharatanatyam-based dance in the 1965 Sinhala film <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya</i>:<br />
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My cursory understanding of the history of the ethnic Sinhala-Tamil conflict and civil war in Sri Lanka made the dance unfathomable to me! The film is in Sinhala, the language of the Sinhalese Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka, and the staging of the dance is clearly referencing national pride given the image of the Sri Lankan island and national flags (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Sri_Lanka">different from today's style</a>) placed prominently in the background and acknowledged by the dancer (and very reminiscent of many Indian film dances in front of the image of India, such as <a href="http://youtu.be/2CDio_dK4Vg?t=1m32s">Vyjayanthimala in </a><i><a href="http://youtu.be/2CDio_dK4Vg?t=1m32s">Penn</a>)</i>. The audience of young, mixed-gender school children indicates a respectable, common setting, and the dancer's clothing is very Sinhalese in style (according to a Sinhalese acquaintance).<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RW01mktoNhI/U6Tj0CawLYI/AAAAAAAAI9Y/VknRcPAc-eM/s1600/Hathara+Maha+Nidhanaya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RW01mktoNhI/U6Tj0CawLYI/AAAAAAAAI9Y/VknRcPAc-eM/s1600/Hathara+Maha+Nidhanaya.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Despite all of this, the dancer is performing choreography inspired by Bharatanatyam, the dance associated with the minority Tamils, along with what appears to be some Kuchipudi influence such as the backwards anchitam movement of the feet on the heels! And to add to the confusion, the jewelry she wears with her Sinhalese dress is the traditional Hindu temple jewelry of a Bharatanatyam dancer (edit: I've since learned that the headdress is not exclusive to Tamil culture in Sri Lanka). I would have expected to see Bharatanatyam dance in the less-developed Tamil-language cinema of Sri Lanka, but I certainly would have never imagined seeing it in a Sinhala film and especially not in a scene depicting national pride which by that time was apparently well-equated with the majority Sinhalese Buddhist culture and Kandyan dance. Browsing through the rest of the film, the dancer only seemed to appear in this song and there was no indication she had any context in the film that would explain her dance and its stylistic choices.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BV3MvmefsNY/U6T8S15QavI/AAAAAAAAI-E/9JpNtz_Z5rg/s1600/DanceandtheNation_Reed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BV3MvmefsNY/U6T8S15QavI/AAAAAAAAI-E/9JpNtz_Z5rg/s1600/DanceandtheNation_Reed.jpg" /></a>My reaction to the film dance was largely informed by Susan Reed's insightful and clearly-written book on Kandyan dance history, <i><a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4559.htm">Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics</a>. </i>She provides some fascinating nuggets about the history of Bharatanatyam dance in Sri Lanka and about Sinhalese-Tamil relations. Inspired by the "revivalist" movements in India, Sri Lankan Tamils took an early interest in and propagated traditional dance and music long before the Sinhalese. A decade before Rukmini Devi's Kalakshetra came into existence, the Parameshwara Academy (now the University of Jaffna) was established in Jaffna, Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known then) in the 1920s and Bharatanatyam and Carnatic music were taught. Into the 1930s, Bharatanatyam was heavily developed by Tamils in Jaffna and Tamils "often claim[ed] cultural superiority over the more anglicized Sinhala elite." Meanwhile, Indian dance forms were very popular in the 1930s and 40s with many famous Indian dancers visiting Ceylon and many Sri Lankans traveling to Tagore's Shantiniketan, and it took some time for the Sinhalese to awaken to and fully accept their artistic traditions. The Sri Lankan dancer Chitrasena was highly-influential and reminds one of Uday Shankar in the way he synthesized elements of Sri Lankan, Indian, and Western dance styles into "oriental ballets," though he later focused primarily on the adaptation of Kandyan dance to the stage. Slowly Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka became "polarized" and soon "both communities were engaged in cultural revivals" with dance playing a key role in the construction of "traditional" culture and ethnic pride.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Ytz4pMcQOM/U6eUb-1KYlI/AAAAAAAAI_A/NuIN4bnbfSE/s1600/kandyan+dancer.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8Ytz4pMcQOM/U6eUb-1KYlI/AAAAAAAAI_A/NuIN4bnbfSE/s1600/kandyan+dancer.JPG" width="125" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Likely Nittawela Guneya <br />(source: Ebay)</span></i></td></tr>
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It wasn't until after Sri Lankan independence from the British in 1948 that the Sinhalese elite began seriously pursuing the preservation and construction of traditional Sinhalese dance as an ancient Aryan creation distinct from Tamil culture. Sinhala-Tamil tensions worsened after this time when a Prime Minister was "elected on a platform of promoting Sinhala Buddhist culture" which was upheld by successive leaders and led to discrimination against Tamils who soon protested leading to riots and an eventual long-standing civil war. Kandyan dance was heavily supported by the Sinhala Buddhist government as the country's national dance, and it played "a critical role in the construction of Sri Lanka as a nation of Sinhalas." Susan outlines the intriguing way in which Kandyan dance evolved from ritual practice, and the process in many ways echoed how Bharatanatyam was disconnected from its traditional practitioners of low social standing and classicized and institutionalized as a respectable form of "high culture." Obviously, for a much more nuanced discussion, go read Susan's book!<br />
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But Susan Reed limited her discussion of Bharatanatyam in Sri Lanka to the indigenous Tamil community of the northern Jaffna region and her descriptions led to me believe that the dance form was not practiced or patronized anywhere else. In Susan's book, Kandyan dance was constructed as <i>the</i> main dance of the Sinhalese which was heavily supported by the state, so it seemed natural that Bharatanatyam would not be something remotely practiced by the Sinhalese especially in an official capacity. So, confusion remained about the Bharatanatyam in the <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya </i>film dance above. After all, it was filmed in the mid-1960s by which time Sinhala-Tamil tensions were well-inflamed and Sinhalese communalism was running full steam ahead. What was I missing?<br />
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Hints came from a summary of Indian dance scholar Janet O'Shea's paper "From Temple to Battlefield: Bharatanatyam in Sri Lanka" (site www.tamilstudiesconference.ca no longer available). O'Shea writes, "<i>Meanwhile in Colombo, Sinhalese have adopted the form as a marker of respectable female identity. This suggests that Bharatanatyam, refigured in India in the early twentieth century as an emblem of Indian national identity, plays several, conflicting roles in the formation of Sri Lankan national identities.</i>" While I haven't been able to track down O'Shea's paper, I noticed the claim of Bharatanatyam's popularity among the Sinhalese even today was supported by a peek at the website of the pre-eminent University of Visual and Performing Arts in Columbo which offers degrees not only in Sinhalese dance forms but also Bharathanatyam and Kathak, noting "<i>Indian dances, which consist of a large number of dance forms, have become highly popular in Sri Lanka</i>." But my incredulous reaction remained, especially with no explanation for the "why" and "how" such a thing could happen amidst such tense ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.<br />
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Answers finally came from Ahalya Satkunaratnam's article "Staging War: Performing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka" and the 2009 dissertation it was derived from, <i>Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo</i>, <i>Sri Lanka.</i> Ahalya writes:<br />
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<i>"The flourishing of Bharata Natyam [in Colombo] was nurtured through the understanding that the new dance “tradition” emerging in India was a tool for demonstrating a rejection of Western influence in Sri Lanka, which was valuable as anticolonial sentiment grew in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Bharata Natyam, predominantly studied and performed by women, became a means for the preservation and promotion of culture and ethnic identity."</i> </blockquote>
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<i>"Since dance was not a means of fashioning Tamil identity, it did not initially fit within the criteria of Tamil women’s duties and expectations. However, one emerging dance style, Kalakshetra Bharata Natyam, the style taught through the Kalakshetra dance school that was founded by Indian dancer Rukmini Devi Arundale in the early twentieth century, helped to significantly shape Bharata Natyam as a reputable practice in Colombo. In brief, Rukmini Devi’s approach to women’s decorum, her stance against “vulgarity” in dance practice, and her rooting of the tradition in the ancient past all fit well with the gendered and cultural concerns of Navalar’s [Arumuga Navalar's] social reformation movements and the developing anticolonial movements. Kalakshtetra Bharata Natyam reconstituted as a timeless, untainted, and ancient practice would become a tool against the feared cultural dilution that came with British colonialism"</i> </blockquote>
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<i>"</i><i>Kalakshetra Bharata Natyam’s approach to the dance as constructed in the distant past also was </i><i>attractive to the diverse community of Colombo. It removed Bharata Natyam from being identified </i><i>as a local Tamil tradition and positioned the practice instead as a universal Indian tradition, relevant </i><i>to the subcontinent and the world through its association with Sanskrit and hence with antiquity, </i><i>which attracted students from outside the religious tradition of Hinduism and the Tamil language. This opened doors for Sri Lankan students of various backgrounds to identify with the dance practice, and even Buddhist Sinhala students took up the form quite early in Bharata Natyam’s emergence. The dance, at its adoption in Sri Lanka in the early twentieth century, was already a multicultural phenomenon."</i></blockquote>
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<i>"In Colombo, Bharata Natyam grew in popularity after the establishment of the two dance academies founded by the two premier Tamil women's cultural organizations. In 1945, Saiva Mangaiyar Kalaham established the School of Music and Dance, and in 1948, The Ceylon Tamil Women's Union established the Kalalaya School of Music and Dance. Both schools taught the Kalakshetra Bharata Natyam style of the dance form. Soon after in November 1950, Bharata Natyam, along with other dances, was presented on a national platform at the first "All-Ceylon Dance Festival." </i></blockquote>
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<i>"While Kalakshetra emerged strongly in Colombo, in other parts of the Sri Lanka, specifically Jaffna, </i><i>Vazhavoor Ramiah Pillai's style was prevalent in the early years of the island-nation's Bharata Natyam </i><i>practice. Vazhavoor style emerged in the largely Tamil community through the influx of Bharata Natyam </i><i>movies, starring the beautiful and renowned Baby Kamala and Vijayanthi Mala Bali</i><i>. The interest in Bharata Natyam through Tamil films was limited to a Tamil </i><i>community, but Kalakshetra Bharata Natyam, through its universal, Sanskritic approach appealed to a </i><i>diverse community in Colombo."</i> </blockquote>
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Ahalya goes on to explain that while Kalakshetra put forth a very specific way of understanding and contextualizing Bharatanatyam, in Sri Lanka, <i>"a range of understandings of the dance form circulated, complicating the accepted origins of the form and its cultural significance" </i>and "<i>the dance practice was assigned meanings and identities that resonated with ethnic and political significances." </i>At the 1950 All-Ceylon Dance Festival, Bharatanatyam was featured along with other Indian dance forms in the "Oriental" dance category alongside two other categories, "Western" and "Kandyan." A second way of referring to Bharatanatyam dance was "Indian." This was utilized by the press in writing about the festival but also by politicians as a way to infer "foreign" and "not Sri Lankan" amidst a movement to make "Indian Tamils" (brought to Sri Lanka as laborers during the British colonial period, distinct from "Sri Lankan Tamils" who were there before colonialism) leave the country. A third way of referring to Bharatanatyam was "Indigenous" as utilized by the Sri Lankan government when it set aside funding for the "advancement of indigenous dancing" of which Bharatanatyam was a part. This usage implied that Bharatanatyam was "part of Sri Lankan heritage accessed through Tamil traditions." It seems that the discourse about Bharatanatyam in Sri Lanka shifted after the civil war. Ahalya notes that, "<i>Tamil practitioners' experiences of the riots and in life in Colombo after the official start of the war in the early 1980s inscribed the dance form with significance as a Tamil cultural practice, reflective of the Tamil people, their contribution to the state and their survival in difficult circumstances."</i></div>
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Speaking of the difficulty in writing about Sri Lanka's history and politics, Ahalya writes,<span style="background-color: white;"> <i>"...sectarian </i></span><i>politics pervade the country's history and daily life experiences in Colombo. Similarly, the history of the island and the experiences of people on it are as contested as the warring parties that are presently fighting."</i> And I would say that, clearly,<b> the history of Bharatanatyam in Sri Lanka and its varied discourses show how it is similarly contested and complex and remains so today. </b></div>
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<b>A Search for Identity...</b></div>
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So who was the mystery woman dancing in <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya? </i>While I came up empty handed in trying to answer that question, my research provided a lot of interesting information that compliments the points in Ahalya's research.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-erJ-BE5nN1A/U6d-8CnPXHI/AAAAAAAAI-w/_aUY3zxKJ_4/s1600/Ms.+L.L.+Rangana+Ariyadasa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-erJ-BE5nN1A/U6d-8CnPXHI/AAAAAAAAI-w/_aUY3zxKJ_4/s1600/Ms.+L.L.+Rangana+Ariyadasa.jpg" width="93" /></a></div>
The uploader of the <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya </i>dance identifies the dancer as <b>Rangana Ariyadasa</b>, but that is certainly a mistake. Rangana Nawodini Ariyadasa (Udayakumara) currently teaches Bharatanatyam at the eminent <a href="https://vpa.ac.lk/">University of the Visual and Performing Arts</a> in Columbo, but judging from her picture she is obviously much too young to be the dancer in <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya—</i>she was probably not even born in 1965! Rangana learned Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra and unlike some other Sinhalese dancers she says that "Bharatha dance is a Tamil art form...I won't adapt it to to suit the Sinhala culture" (source article at dailymirror.lk no longer available).<br />
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Rangana's mother,<b> <a href="http://www.padminidahanayake.com/about_padmini-Dahanayake.html">Padmini Dahanayake</a></b> (Ariyadasa), was not only the first Srilankan Sinhalese to graduate in Bharatanatyam from Kalakshetra but also an actress and dancer in Sri Lankan films in the 1950s and 60s starting with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dyky6e0UTVY">a dance sequence in the 1955 film <i>Sadasulang</i></a> filmed in Chennai while she was studying at Kalakshetra at age 12. And she also choreographed a number of film dance sequences! But alas, once I looked at the photos of her and her film dance below, it was clear that the distinctively-nosed Padmini Dahanayake was not the same as the mystery dancer:<br />
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Here are a couple photos of Padmini Dahanyake in comparison to the mystery film dancer:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LvrF8HUg-h0/U45xLk2x78I/AAAAAAAAI8Q/ogD8udlqpbU/s1600/Hathara+Maha+Nidhanaya+Compare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LvrF8HUg-h0/U45xLk2x78I/AAAAAAAAI8Q/ogD8udlqpbU/s1600/Hathara+Maha+Nidhanaya+Compare.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top: Unknown film dancer<br />
Bottom: Padmini Dahanayake</td></tr>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-km0MnZLRzAA/U6TrE8CJ8rI/AAAAAAAAI9o/OYWdChoEk8c/s1600/Daruwa+Kageda+1961_Padmini+Dahanayake+(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-km0MnZLRzAA/U6TrE8CJ8rI/AAAAAAAAI9o/OYWdChoEk8c/s1600/Daruwa+Kageda+1961_Padmini+Dahanayake+(1).png" width="200" /></a></div>
Researching Padmini Dahanayake's film dances led to another rare find—<b>a second example of some Bharatanatyam-inspired filmi moves in the film <i>Daruwa Kageda </i>(Sinhala, 1961) </b>released four years before <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya</i>. The fast footwork at the beginning and the adavu-inspirations at 1:50 and 2:23 are clearly taken from Bharatanatyam. But Padmini Dahanayake's distinctive nose at certain angles makes it clear that she is not the same woman as the mystery film dancer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miranda Hemalatha</td></tr>
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<b>Miranda Hemalatha</b> seemed another promising match at first. She was, like Padmini Dahanayake, a Sri Lankan Sinhalese woman who learned Bharatanatyam first at Rukmini Devi's institution Kalakshetra, which she recalls as a negative experience, and then under Guru Adyar Lakshman. Miranda then returned to Sri Lanka in 1966 and became a very important governmental figure in dance education advancing to become the first Director of Aesthetic Education in 1984. According to an article at <i><a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2013/aug/28/Sinhalised-Bharatanatyam-a-big-draw-510968.html">The New Indian Express</a></i>, it is Miranda's doing that, <i>"in Sri Lanka today, Bharatanatyam is almost as “Sinhalese” as it is “Tamil”, and is as popular among Sinhalese girls as it is among the Tamils." </i>But a quick look at a photo of her revealed another disappointment in my search to identify the mystery film dancer. <br />
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Leela Samson recalls a number of Sinhalese and Tamil Sri Lankans who studied at Kalakshetra from the 1940s to the 1960s. Speaking of Miranda, Leela remarked that she <i>"has stood out not only for her devotion to tradition, but for her courageous and consistent efforts to add a Buddhist and Sinhalese flavour to an art form thought to be inextricably tied to Hindu religion and to the Tamil and Sanskrit languages. Her success is evident not just in the number of Sinhalese girls, who have taken to the art form, but in the use of Sinhala songs and Sinhala-Buddhist themes in their performances these days" </i>(interview "Giving Bharatanatyam a Sinhalese Flavor" no longer available at www.ceylontoday.lk).<br />
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In the interview, Miranda describes the changes the changes she made to Bharatanatyam dance: <i>“...I found that Sinhalese audiences at Bharatanatyam performances got bored, because they could not understand the songs and gestures. The Sinhalese identify themselves with the North Indian culture, and are far removed from Tamil culture and the Tamil language. I concluded that if I was to make any headway as a Bharatanatyam teacher in Sri Lanka, I had to make the art form relevant for the Sinhalese. I decided to introduce Sinhala songs and choreograph movements, while being within the set Bharatanatyam format.” </i>It is interesting to compare this view with a teacher like Rangana Ariyadasa who feels that any alteration to the dance form is unacceptable.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h6jdbTQDMV0/U6d8WXU_urI/AAAAAAAAI-k/9S9fFF6Gt40/s1600/Kamala+Johnpillai_Kalalaya+School_Noolaham.org.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h6jdbTQDMV0/U6d8WXU_urI/AAAAAAAAI-k/9S9fFF6Gt40/s1600/Kamala+Johnpillai_Kalalaya+School_Noolaham.org.jpg" /></a></div>
A distant possibility for the identity of the mystery dancer was<b> Kamala Johnpillai</b> (aka Johnpulle) <i>"who was the first Sri Lankan who entered the Kalashethra in India, in 1945 and returned to Sri Lanka after four years training" </i>(<a href="http://archives.dailynews.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2010/06/23/art07.asp">Daily News</a>)<i>.</i> According to Ahalya, Kamala Johnpillai was a Tamil Christian which explains Padmini Dahanayake's claim to be the first Sri Lankan<i> Sinhalese</i> to graduate from Kalakshetra. I was extremely delighted to find at the online noolaham.org archive a scan of the <a href="http://noolaham.net/project/53/5252/5252.pdf">1998 Golden Jubilee Souvenir of the Kalalaya School of Music and Dance</a> which revealed not only that Kamala Johnpillai was an eminent teacher there, especially in the 1950s, but also featured lots of old rare photographs and listed many names of dance students, teachers, and other important women. It's a great resource for those studying the history of the Sri Lanka Tamil Women's Union and Tamil women and Bharatanatyam dance in Sri Lanka. But the picture of Kamala Johnpillai did not look like a match.<br />
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Portions of an interview of Kamala's as excerpted in Ahalya's dissertation provide a personal perspective on Ahalya's assertion that <i>"Kalakshetra Bharata Natyam's pan-Indic and Sanskritic approach was attractive to the </i><i>diverse ethnic population in Colombo."</i> <i>"My dancing career has taught me," </i>said Kamala,<i> "that all religions teach us all to love </i><i>God. The praises sung to the divine are all the same. I worship the Thipam with devotion at a dance recital. It is all an expression of devotion to the Divine. Classical Dancing and I believe all art forms cut </i><i>through adroitly all barriers such as creed, race and caste and makes us all one in our devotion to the art forms and our devotion to God."</i><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XNS7qXxVNac/U46IbNlNVCI/AAAAAAAAI8w/Y0pbfs9IsLs/s1600/Thiripurasundari+Yoganantham_Kalaimanram.co.uk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XNS7qXxVNac/U46IbNlNVCI/AAAAAAAAI8w/Y0pbfs9IsLs/s1600/Thiripurasundari+Yoganantham_Kalaimanram.co.uk.jpg" width="146" /></a>Looking into the background of another possible match for the mystery dancer, <b>Tirupurasundari Yoganantham</b> (aka Thiripurasundari Yoganantham), revealed some fascinating information and photos about the Vazhuvoor style of Bharatanatyam that flourished in the Jaffna region. Tirupurasundari learned Bharatanatyam under Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, the eminent guru of the great Kamala! She then became the principal and chief Bharatanatyam instructor of the school Kalaimanram established in 1958 in Jaffna by her father and inaugurated by Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai himself. The school shifted to Colombo in 1987. (sources: <a href="http://archives.dailynews.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF=/2010/06/23/art07.asp">Daily News.lk</a>, article at Kalaimanram.info no longer available). The Kalaimanram website has some rare photos of Vazhuvoorar (as he was called) in Sri Lanka as well as Tirupurasundari that I've included here (source webpage no longer available but <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20140624125748/http://www.kalaimanram.co.uk/History.html">archived here</a>)—once again, it is clear that she is not the mystery dancer! While that is a let down once again, the photos and descriptions suggest that Vazhuvoorar spent quite a bit of time in Sri Lanka, something I've not heard much about previously. I would love to know more about this and how Kamala was involved!<br />
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Still searching for an identity match, I wondered if the mystery film dancer was perhaps one of the film actresses that Padmini Dahanayake was <a href="http://www.padminidahanayake.com/about_padmini-Dahanayake.html">said to have trained</a>, but a comparison of their photos quickly ruled out all but one. Jeewarani (<a href="http://www.films.lk/ArtistDetails.php?id=435">nope</a>), Clarice De Silva (<a href="http://www.films.lk/ArtistDetails.php?id=406">nope</a>), Sabitha Perera (likely not, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Cineplot.fan.page/posts/216315095070461">seems to be a 1980s actress</a>), late Sandya Kumari (<a href="http://www.films.lk/ArtistDetails.php?id=874">nope</a>) and Vigitha Mallika." Vigitha (aka Vijitha) Mallika <a href="http://www.films.lk/FilmDetails.php?id=117">is listed as</a> the main actress for <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya,</i> but <a href="http://www.films.lk/ArtistDetails.php?id=867">this photo</a> (and watching her in the film) makes it clear she is not the mystery dancer. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120314200152/http://www.dailymirror.lk/news/17405-girly-no-more.html">Another article</a> referenced a Girly Gunawardane who had a dance sequence in the film <i>Prema Tharangaya</i> in 1953 and acted in a number of Sinhala films including <i>Hathara Maha Nidhanaya</i>, but <a href="http://www.films.lk/ArtistDetails.php?id=2064">this picture</a> rules out that possibility yet again! So...I gave up on my search for now. If anyone knows who the mystery dancer might be I am all ears!<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NloTYng8_Yk/U6W4c0hMlaI/AAAAAAAAI-U/XrjUrqPl8IA/s1600/Nautch+Ceylon+Postcard_akpool.co.uk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NloTYng8_Yk/U6W4c0hMlaI/AAAAAAAAI-U/XrjUrqPl8IA/s1600/Nautch+Ceylon+Postcard_akpool.co.uk.jpg" width="400" /></a>As I wrote this post I realized that Sri Lanka is another place and archive search term that can yield rare "Indian" and diasporic dance finds. For example, that well-known image on the left was actually taken in Sri Lanka <i>not</i> India as it has sometimes been mistakenly labeled. Think of all the students who learned Bharatanatyam in the Jaffna region starting in the 1920s and images or film recordings that might have been taken. Quite a few photographs of <a href="http://www.imagesofceylon.com/people/p481-full.jpg">Ceylonese nautch dancers from the colonial period </a>are available, but I wonder what other finds out there await!<br />
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<b>Sources:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>O'Shea, Janet. "From Temple to Battlefield: Bharatanatyam in Sri Lanka." Conference paper summary. (Appears to be similar to an article by the same name in volume 13 of <i>Pulse </i>magazine according to <a href="https://jashm.press.uillinois.edu/14.4/david.html">a reference in Ann David's article).</a></li>
<li>Reed, Susan A. <i><a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4559.htm">Dance and the Nation: Performance, Ritual, and Politics</a>. </i>Book<i>. </i>2010<i>.</i></li>
<li>Satkunaratnam, Ahalya. "<a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/505079">Staging War: Performing Bharata Natyam in Colombo, Sri Lanka</a>." <i>Dance Research Journal.</i> April 2013. </li>
<li>Satkunaratnam, Ahalya. <i>Moving Bodies, Navigating Conflict: Practicing Bharata Natyam in Colombo</i>, <i>Sri Lanka</i>. Phd Diss. 2009.</li>
</ul>
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<b>Further reading:</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>"<a href="https://groundviews.org/2013/06/28/celluloid-nationalism-in-sri-l">Celluloid Nationalism in Sri Lanka</a>" - Groundviews.org</li>
<li>"<a href="https://buddhistartnews.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/sri-lanka-cinema-surveillance-and-survival/">Sri Lanka Cinema: Surveillance and Survival</a>"</li>
<li>"<a href="http://www.sundaytimes.lk/130224/magazine/book-on-south-indian-influence-on-early-lankan-cinema-33939.html">Book on South Indian Influence on Early Lankan Cinema</a>" - Sunday Times</li>
<li><a href="http://www.nfc.gov.lk/films-history.php">National Film Corporation of Sri Lanka</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.films.lk/">www.films.lk</a> - Sinhala Cinema Database</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwHF6ycxCYk">Native Dance 1929 (BritishPathe)</a> - Video of what appears to be Kandyan dance; also seen in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QkHrB0DW7g">Indian Peeps (1930)</a></li>
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<b>Related Posts:</b><br />
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<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-nrityagram-dance-ensemble-in-utah.html">The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in Utah!</a> - Discussion about their performance with the Chitrasena Dance Company.<br />
<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/12/indian-dances-in-western-films-about.html">Indian Dances in Western Films About India: Part 3 (Orientalism)</a> - Includes a nondescript "Oriental" dance by Miriam Pieris who was also known as Miriam de Saram and was apparently the "first Ceylonese woman to study, master, and perform publicly, both Kandyan and South Indian dancing."<br />
<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/01/film-dancesappearances-of-ram-gopal-and.html">Film Dances/Appearances of Ram Gopal and Extant Dance Footage</a> - Features a Kandyan dance in a Hollywood film choreographed by Ram Gopal<br />
<br />MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-52549573122450514872014-05-31T16:23:00.000-06:002020-01-10T22:36:52.137-07:00My Article "Screendance in Indian Cinema" and Thoughts on Film DanceLast week saw the end of the fourth Naada Bindu Festival—a three-day residential arts retreat at the Chinmaya Naada Bindu gurukul for Indian performing arts in Pune. The festival features a number of dance and music performances, lecture-demonstrations, and other activities. Ramaa Bharadvaj, whose "<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2011/08/personal-article-on-kamala.html">Reminiscences of a Disciple</a>" personal article on Kamala I posted back in 2011, is the director for dance at the Chinmaya Naada Bindu and she "conceptualised, designed and edited" a journal for this year's festival titled <i>Rasikatvam</i>. I had the honor of being invited to write an article for the journal on the topic of classical dances in cinema culture, and I chose to write specifically about the advantages and distinct pleasures that screendance offers to audiences of Indian dance. My submitted article was edited somewhat and given a snazzy layout for the final printing. Images of the article are at the end of this post and <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3h34Dpi-yKsLTlxdG5tM1NfcHM/edit?usp=sharing">it can be viewed in its entirety here</a>.<br />
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I wrote the article as a beginner to the topic of screendance, and as I read some published literature on the subject it became clear that the growing field is rich in thought-provoking theory with ample room for further analysis and scholarship. The sources I found the most exciting and comprehensive and would recommend to anyone interested in this subject are first Harmony Bench's <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/523993/pdf">review essay in Dance Research Journal</a>, and then the two books that Bench reviewed: <i>Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image</i> by Douglas Rosenberg (especially chapters 1-3; <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ugFpAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">brief Google Books preview</a>) and <i>Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image</i> by Erin Brannigan (<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oJASfIMFws4C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">previewable on Google Books</a>).<br />
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Reading these sources has changed the way I view Indian dance as captured in cinema and by the camera, and a spark has been lit in my mind about the advantages and pleasures the format offers to Indian dance forms. I'm not sure that I really got to the heart of my excitement in my basic and dryly-written article, but it provides a basic overview of the advantages of Indian dance on film and some interesting food for thought.<br />
<a name='more'></a>I think what most excited me about reading through screendance scholarship was the mind-shift that dance as captured by the camera can be viewed as a unique art completely disassociated from the live performance. Forget the fact that a live person was dancing in front of a camera lens or that you seem to simply be watching an edited recording of that live body. In truth, that live performance has ceased to exist and you are watching something newly birthed by the choreographic tools of framing, editing, and filming. You are watching a body that has, by the use of film and digital technologies, been "fundamentally fixed, no longer subject to the vagaries of the body, space, or time" which sits "in archival limbo until the point at which it is recorporealized for public performance" when you watch that YouTube video or press play on that DVD. Recorporealized—"the literal reconstruction of the dancing body via screen-techniques," an "edited body [that] becomes the authentic body as it outlives its subject" (Rosenberg).<br />
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I realized that my normal way of watching film dance is somewhat passive and I am not fully cognizant of all the technical and creative facets that are part of the moving image I am viewing. I tend to watch it in a way that is similar to how I would if I was sitting in the audience in front of a proscenium stage, and the documentation aspect of that live person standing there many years ago is never far from my mind. I certainly notice editing and cinematography, especially if it's particularly inventive or noticeable enough, but it's usually not in the forefront of my attention. But having read screendance scholarship, I find myself watching these same dances with a completely new lens!<br />
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A passive viewing mindset is perhaps how dance in popular Indian cinema is designed to be viewed—as entertainment as part of larger package that aims for commercial success. Harmony Bench notes in her review essay that the subject of "screendance as a popular phenomenon" is a large gap area "begging for additional scholarship." Certainly with Indian popular screendance, "filmi" and Bollywood song-and-dance has gotten some scholarly attention, but I don't recall anything beyond basic references to screendance technique and theory and certainly no one seems to have written about the subject with the depth and detail that scholars like Rosenberg have for general screendance.<br />
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Rosenberg's well-written text made me realize that much of the dance I have seen in Indian cinema is not sufficiently "designed for the express purpose of the camera," a common definition of screendance. Sure, there are a number of interesting editing and film-making choices as I summarized in my article, but they seem to rarely rise to the level of true screendance free of other purposes (films like <i><a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/02/finally-kalpana-1948-is-viewable-online.html">Kalpana</a></i> being an exception). The enormous film industry in India offers what seems to me an untapped opportunity for creative minds in screendance—hundreds of opportunities to choreograph, frame, and edit dance designed just for the camera that would in many cases enjoy broad distribution and automatic preservation.<br />
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The area that does seem to offer space for the full flowering of innovation in Indian dance as captured by the camera is in the non-feature film, "dance film" format that is increasingly given recognition at <a href="https://www.dancefilms.org/other-dance-film-festivals/">dance film and screendance festivals</a> around the globe. Bollynatyam featured some choice Indian classical dance films in a fantastic post on the subject back in February. I think this format offers the greatest potential pleasures to dance forms rooted in traditional Indian movement vocabulary especially in the concepts of rasa, performer-audience connection, and kinesthetic empathy. And those are topics I expect no one has addressed in the subject of screendance! Expanding beyond the narrow confines of traditional "classical dance," I am sure that an exploration into the artists performing contemporary and modern dance in India would reveal fascinating works of screendance and interaction with visual media.<br />
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Now as I watch my beloved classical and traditional Indian dances as presented in Indian cinema, I now have a deeper appreciation for their construction and importance as stand-alone works of art, and I hope to discover more Indian "dance films" that showcase the potential of the art form. I'm still developing my thoughts about this broad subject and have to apply my new perspective to the plethora of film dances I've seen over the years. More to come!<br />
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My Article in <i>Rasikatvam - </i><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3h34Dpi-yKsLTlxdG5tM1NfcHM/edit?usp=sharing">Also in one document here</a>:</div>
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<b>Further reading and resources:</b></div>
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<a href="http://www.dvpg.net/screendance2006.pdf">Screendance: the State of the Art - Proceedings</a>. American Dance Festival. 2006.</div>
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<a href="http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/projects/screendance/the-international-journal-of-screendance">The International Journal of Screendance</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.dancefilms.org/other-dance-film-festivals/">List of Dance Film Festivals</a> - Dance Films Association</div>
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Nuse, Anna Brady. "<a href="https://movetheframe.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/creating-a-lexicon-for-screendance/">Creating a Lexicon for Screendance</a>."</div>
Rosenberg, Douglas. "<a href="http://www.dvpg.net/docs/screendance.pdf">Essay on Screen Dance</a>." 2000.<br />
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<b>Related posts:</b><br />
<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/10/dance-in-early-indian-cinema-some-video.html">> Dance in Early Indian Cinema: Some Video Evidence</a><br />
<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/10/two-more-busby-berkeley-inspired-top.html">> Two More Busby Berkeley-Inspired Top Shots in 1930s Indian Film Dances</a><br />
<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/02/finally-kalpana-1948-is-viewable-online.html">> Finally! Kalpana (1948) is Viewable Online!</a> (now THAT's some creative screendance!)<br />
<br />MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-18509179748559390482014-05-24T19:20:00.001-06:002022-10-09T15:17:53.751-06:00Meeting and Interviewing Kamala! And a Rare Video Find at the NYPL!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Get out of the way people, dance nerds coming through!</span></td></tr>
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Last week I had the pleasure of taking a dream trip to New York City and visiting the hallowed walls of the place that has for years beckoned me with its unparalleled collection of Indian dance treasures...the <b>New York Public Library for the Performing Arts</b>! For so long I have been fantasizing about the trip but it always seemed a bit out of reach until fate coalesced and I found an opportunity to get away. I met up there with fellow Indian dance research/archive nerd extraordinaire <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/about/">Ragothaman</a> and we proceeded to voraciously power through the NYPL's Dance Division holdings with anxious excitement! Can you believe it—I held in my hands the personal notes and photos of Simkie, Indrani Rehman, and more.<br />
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But the most stunning find happened right after arrival on the first item Ragothaman and I viewed. It was an <a href="http://catalog.nypl.org/record=b12171771~S1">item in the catalog</a> that had intrigued me—a 3-minute film reel titled "two Indian dancers" with location and date unknown and the coy description "Performance of East Indian dance, possibly Bharata natyam. A dance by two women (the second dancer, at stage right, is only intermittently visible on film) is followed by solo dances." My mind went wild with possibilities! It could be anyone in the video!<br />
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The NYPL staffer set up the silent film reel for us in the private viewing room and as the first few frames of the darkly-lit, grainy recording flashed on the screen we couldn't believe our eyes! It was <b>footage of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamala">Kamala</a> and her sister <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Rhadha">Rhadha</a> dancing Bharatanatyam on stage</b>, in color, in the late 1950s or early 1960s! Kamala could be seen relatively close-up at times, her abhinaya on display as she mouthed the words of the song. The short film reel opened with Kamala and Rhadha performing an alarippu, followed by Rhadha doing a jathiswaram, then Kamala dancing a kirtanam/varnam. The segments were short clips that were hastily edited together and when both sisters were dancing together Rhadha was often unseen outside of the frame. The costumes were in blue and pinkish-orange for Kamala and dark green and orange for Rhadha. The clip seems to be the only extant footage of Kamala's early stage Bharatanatyam outside of cinema, and seeing Rhadha joining her is a rarity! The guess of the date is based on how similar Kamala and Rhadha look to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtDaIPaE6Vc">their performance in the film <i>Bhakta Kuchela</i></a> which was supposedly released in 1961. Oh how I wished I could take just one single screencap of the film reel for my readers, but recording and photography of any kind in the film viewing room was strictly prohibited.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The high I felt after happening onto such an amazing discovery was infinitely topped when I got to<b> meet the great Kamala herself in person</b>. Kamala graciously spoke to Ragothaman and me for over an hour, and she was delightfully cheerful and jovial despite a busy day of teaching Bharatanatyam (one month shy of 80, she drives herself all over the greater New York City area and demonstrates the movements herself in her classes. Amazing!) and despite our being over an hour late after missing our train! While Ragothaman will be posting about the portions of the interview outside of cinema topics (now <a href="https://sangeethas.wordpress.com/2014/06/02/know-thy-dancer-kamala-lakshmi-narayanan/">posted here</a>--especially interesting are the audio recordings of her singing!) I will report on, of course, the film stuff!<br />
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Speaking of the process of recording film dances choreographed by her guru Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, Kamala<span style="background-color: white;"> related tha</span>t the film choreography would be designed at home while listening to the already-composed film music, and the movement design was a collaborative process between she and her guru. The film shootings almost always happened only on weekdays and the schedule was grueling with a 5-6 a.m. pickup time for the car sent from the studio, a makeup session, and then film shooting for hours. The shoots did not stretch for a full-day shooting as her mother signed only for a half-day call sheet, allowing Kamala to study with her guru in the evenings. At the studio, Vazhuvoorar would be given complete freedom to choreograph the song as he wished in his style that was the same as he composed for the stage. "No camera conscious," Kamala said of his approach to the craft under the eye of the camera lens. After a segment was shot, she and Vazhuvoorar could preview the rushes and make adjustments as needed. An advantage of the movies over the stage certainly, but one that likely wasn't needed by Kamala as she was "known for giving just one take in one shot," a skill which she credited humbly not to herself but to God.<br />
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Touching on the topic I have recently found fascinating, that of the unique advantages the film medium brings to dance, Kamala noted that dance in the movies is completely different from dance on the stage in its themes and locations and, most of all, the tricks and angles offered by the camera which create "a new feeling for the dance." But Kamala preferred dancing for the stage because it offered her complete control and, seemingly, a challenge. "On the stage we cannot create that [new feeling], but with our work, we'll make the audience spellbound. That is the only thing we have." And isn't Indian dance so highly developed in the way it takes a solo performer on a bare stage and transforms the experience into a <span style="background-color: white;">transcendental </span>connection with the audience!<br />
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Kamala was at her most delightful when she spoke of specific film dances and told humorous stories peppered with her charming laughter. She seemed most fond of the dance in <i>Chenda </i>that she choreographed for herself and her two sisters (the video of which <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/06/found-kamala-rhadha-and-vasanthis-dance.html">I discovered online last year</a>) at the insistence of the film's cameraman. It was the only dance featuring all three sisters. She also spoke of the camera tricks utilized in many of her dances like the camera mask in <i><a href="http://youtu.be/9rCAD35PUP8?t=5m36s">Naam Iruvar</a> </i>where she danced first the right side and then the left and also the colored powder footwork of the Simha (Lion) in <i>Konjum Salangai</i>. Kamala immediately recalled her peacock dance in <i>Sumai Thaangi</i> (also <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/kamalas-peacock-dance-found-and-some.html">discovered online last year</a>) when we mentioned it and noted that she was asked to dance it on stage after people saw it in cinemas.<br />
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The film dance setting Kamala was most disappointed by seems to have been for her grand performance in <i>Chori Chori</i>. "My dance in <i>Chori Chori</i>—it was such a beautiful thillana, and they put it where! When Pran is sitting there and watching and looking at this another girl. I told Chettiar, such a beautiful thillana and you have Nataraja in the background and the orchestra and everything playing so nicely...and what a situation you have given for the dance!" she exclaimed with her infectious laughter. "Very crazy people...sometimes they are crazy. What to do!"<br />
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Kamala confirmed that she had never danced in films with Vyjayanthimala or Padmini—something I have wondered about for some time because it would simply be EPIC, would it not! She shrugged off the idea noting that both were "snobbish people" though Padmini would at least recognize and talk to her. The great Vyjayanthimala-Padmini dance-off in <i>Vanjikottai Vaaliban</i> seemed to be on her mind when she surmised that film producers simply wanted to make more money by pairing such eminent stars together in one film which brought each's fanbase to the cinema halls.<br />
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As the interview neared its end, Kamala endearingly spoke of seeing the movie <i>The Dirty Picture</i> just to see Silk Smitha's dance, though she likely meant Vidya Balan's portrayal of Silk Smitha's dance. "When I was young, you know, I couldn't see those things, I was busy with my own work...but she is a fantastic dancer!" After seeing the film, Kamala felt such sadness for Silk Smitha that she couldn't sleep that night. "See how lucky I am that God didn't push me into things like that...to do dances like that [for survival]." Once more Kamala exclaimed, "she is a marvelous dancer!" As the conversation moved to the subject of devadasi dance and changes in Bharatanatyam, Kamala connected the story of Silk Smitha's life with some of the devadasi's lives that were "spoiled by rich people."<br />
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How lucky am I to have met the woman who has provided this blog with such inspiration and joy for so long! Huge thanks are due to Aasish Cherukupalli, a big fan of my blog, and Prema Aier of <a href="http://www.sribharatakamalalaya.org/">Sri Bharata Kamalalaya</a> for their crucial assistance in helping the interview become a reality, as well as those who kindly hosted us. And I'm also greatful for Ragothaman's expert usage of Tamil in smoothing over the awkward moments when Kamala couldn't understand my accent or volume :). I also met up with another blogger at the NYPL—Richard of the <a href="https://roughinhere.wordpress.com/">Dances on the Footpath</a> Blog who posted about Kamala long before I. It has been a great meeting of the Kamala-loving minds this month!<br />
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<b>More Kamala Finds at the NYPL</b></div>
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While Kamala unfortunately does not have her own "papers" in the special collections of the NYPL like some other Indian dancers do (maybe one day she will donate some or all of her documentation), there were a few interesting finds of hers in the NYPL's catalog. A 1960 article she wrote titled "Bharata Natyam as I See It" was available as was the 1954 Films Division documentary on Bharatanatyam that <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/03/kumari-kamala-dancing-in-documentary.html">I've previously discussed</a> (and that I hope will soon be posted online in good quality at the Films Division YouTube channel, especially since they just posted <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stljuVEYgGY">the Kathak one</a> a few weeks ago).<br />
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Adding to the list of coincidences related to Kamala's name and life (<a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2012/04/all-about-kamalas-sister-rhadha-other.html">recall</a> how her first husband remarried another woman named Kamala and also the crossed paths of Radha Viswanathan with Kamala's sister Rhadha), I was surprised to find that an item in the catalog referencing "Kamala Kumari" was not the Kumari Kamala of this post with the name order reversed but instead the name of a completely different person! The item was a <span style="background-color: white;">1959 p</span>rogram for Shakuntala with the lead role of Shakuntala performed by Kamala Kumari and "dances by Nala Najan and Medah Von Essen." The "About the Cast" section of the program sheds light on who Kamala Kumari was: "Miss Kumari came to this country from Bombay three years ago as a scholarship student from Bombay University to study pharmacy at Drake University, Iowa, from which she was graduated with honors this year. An accomplished dancer, she appeared with the famed Ram Gopal troupe at the Edinburgh Festival in 1956 while en route to the U.S. She was selected for her present role by director Lee Morgan who saw her dance at a convention of the India Association in Chicago. This is her first New York appearance." Through Ragothaman I then learned that "Kamala Kumari" was the stage name of Penny Thomas aka Penny Furgerson, who runs the Gateway Dance Theatre in Iowa. How interesting that she danced with Nala Najan and Ram Gopal (<span style="background-color: white;">though unfortunately not in a year that BritishPathe <a href="https://www.britishpathe.com/search/query/edinburgh+festival">has viewable in its online archive</a>).</span><br />
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The most exciting Kamala finds at the NYPL were of course items not identified in the catalog because they were scattered among a slew of items from a folder in the papers of a dancer's special collection. Within the Nala Najan papers was a program for the 1985-86 Festival of India presented at Columbia University with dances by Kamala Narayan, Ritha Devi, Janaki Patrik, and Leela. How interesting to learn that "Kamala Narayan" as she was called at that time was selected by the Indian government "to represent Indian Art and Music at the Asian Convention in Las Vegas in 1962 and at the Theatre Des Nations in Paris in 1964." Yet more video recordings that might be in existence of Kamala's dance!<br />
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But the most rare Kamala find in the Nala Najan papers was a handful of small black of white photographs of her performing on stage in what appears to be the early 1950s. No name was written on them, but we knew they were Kamala! Here are three that I find quite interesting which I'm posting here in low quality with commentary. Her choice of jewelry is very understated and the fan ends higher on the leg than many of her costumes in later years. And the back of a head and possible microphone can be seen at the bottom of the last picture. Might it be a snap of Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai's nattuvangam?<br />
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-48616962497404222372014-04-12T15:00:00.002-06:002020-01-10T22:28:42.763-07:00Uday Shankar, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn in Utah!While browsing through the <a href="https://digitalnewspapers.org/">Utah Digital Newspapers website</a> (mostly public-domain material, woo!), I was surprised to learn that Uday Shankar, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn all performed multiple times in Utah, my current U.S. state of residence, between 1911 and 1962!<br />
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That Uday Shankar performed here was most surprising of all. In all my past reading and research about Uday Shankar, I had never read a reference to him or his company performing anywhere in the <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb1041696.png">Intermountain West</a> region of the United States. Very little details about Shankar's touring schedules are available, and for a long time I assumed his company only performed in big cities like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles because those were the only ones briefly mentioned.<br />
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General details of Uday Shankar's tours are outlined in the writings of Mohan Khokar and Ruth Abrahams. Nearly all of the performances in the U.S. by Shankar's company were sponsored by the renowned impresario Sol Hurok who first saw the group perform in Paris. Uday Shankar's first company (comprised of family, friends, and Simkie) first toured the U.S. in 1932-33 and 1933-34. Uday Shankar's second company (with new choreography and dancer additions Zohra Segal and Madhavan) performed in the U.S. in 1936-37 and 1937-38. After a return to India, the opening and closing of the Almora Center, and the release of the film <i>Kalpana</i> with little commercial success, Shankar and his third company (entirely revised with dancer addition Amala Shankar) returned to the U.S. in 1949 for a 10 week tour and again in 1951-52. The company's last performances in the United States took place in 1968.<br />
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Ruth Abrahams' dissertation on Uday Shankar is the only source I've found that gives specific details about Shankar's tours. A 1933 touring schedule on page 147 reveals that beyond the expected big cities, the tour included stops in places like Cleveland, Ohio; Madison, Wisconsin; Springfield, Missouri; Birmingham, Alabama; Waco, Texas; Tuscon, Arizona; and cities along the coastal pacific northwest and California. Abrahams notes, <i>"The magnitude of the tour effort is remarkable to consider when one reflects on the circumstances of the times, the lack of convenient transportation, and the sheer bulk of personnel and baggage. Amenities, both professional and personal, were schizophrenic in effect—sometimes luxurious, but more often minimal, and the company was hard put upon to locate decent, affordable restaurants and housing. Usually, they just ate and slept on trains between concert dates."</i> I wonder if the company encountered difficulties in their Deep South performance in Birmingham. When Indrani Rehman and her troupe performed in Louisiana almost three decades later in 1961, the troupe was refused admission to two restaurants due to racial segregation <span style="font-size: x-small;">[14].</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3qEgvWKWgl4/Uz9sAW_98sI/AAAAAAAAI4c/ljqXFwVnybg/s1600/Uday+Shankar_Kingsbury+Hall_1962UTDailyChronicle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3qEgvWKWgl4/Uz9sAW_98sI/AAAAAAAAI4c/ljqXFwVnybg/s1600/Uday+Shankar_Kingsbury+Hall_1962UTDailyChronicle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Utah Daily Chronicle</span></i><i style="font-size: medium; text-align: left;"> </i>[12]</td></tr>
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It wasn't until I took a stroll through the <a href="https://digitalnewspapers.org/">Utah Digital Newspapers website</a> that I discovered Uday Shankar and his company performed in Utah at least three times in the 1950s and 60s. The company performed first in 1952 at the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City and then in 1962 gave two performances—one at the College of Southern Utah in Cedar City and another at Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah. The picture on the right is from <a href="https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=637277">an article</a> announcing the Kingsbury Hall performance, and I don't believe I have seen it anywhere else! A 1962 tour is not explicitly mentioned in Abrahams' or Khokar's descriptions (Khokar just says Hurok sponsored Shankar's tours several times from 1949-1968), so this discovery adds to the knowledge base about Shankar's touring schedules.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>For a visit to Utah, the performances in Salt Lake City are expected. The greater Salt Lake City area has always been one of the few large metropolitan areas in the Intermountain West and was once known as the "crossroads of the west." But a performance in the small college town Cedar City 250 miles away in southern Utah is hard to fathom! <b>Below are a few photographs I found of the Cedar City performance </b>at the <a href="https://contentdm.li.suu.edu/digital/search/searchterm/Shankar">digital archives</a> of the College of Southern Utah (now Southern Utah University), but no details are listed other than the ID of the "Shankar Ballet." I don't recognize any of the dancers, and I haven't the slightest idea who the guests are. Anyone recognize them?<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hf6KDRCQ1eg/U0icbxTfJ1I/AAAAAAAAI5I/jc5gBP0MIYM/s1600/Visitors_Shankar+Ballet_CollegeSouthernUtah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hf6KDRCQ1eg/U0icbxTfJ1I/AAAAAAAAI5I/jc5gBP0MIYM/s1600/Visitors_Shankar+Ballet_CollegeSouthernUtah.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NceBRPTxDE4/U0icbOBVbhI/AAAAAAAAI40/dNjLqm-I4Cs/s1600/Shankar_Ballet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NceBRPTxDE4/U0icbOBVbhI/AAAAAAAAI40/dNjLqm-I4Cs/s1600/Shankar_Ballet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KBgeqyKaTLc/U0icbX0-xQI/AAAAAAAAI5M/_xMc2qnjrIk/s1600/Shankar_Ballet+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KBgeqyKaTLc/U0icbX0-xQI/AAAAAAAAI5M/_xMc2qnjrIk/s1600/Shankar_Ballet+%25281%2529.jpg" width="232" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M47gSp99LAk/U0icbQY6W2I/AAAAAAAAI5E/qhyAnkwvhZs/s1600/Visitors+with+Pres+Royden+Braithwaite%252C+Shankar+Balle_1963t.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M47gSp99LAk/U0icbQY6W2I/AAAAAAAAI5E/qhyAnkwvhZs/s1600/Visitors+with+Pres+Royden+Braithwaite%252C+Shankar+Balle_1963t.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Right: Indian guests with College of Southern Utah President Braithwaite</i></span></div>
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Shankar's performances in Utah were well received. Keeping in line with the orientalism of the time period, a <i>Salt Lake Telegram</i> article reported, <i>"Mr. Shankar brings a complete repertoire of exotic dances from his native India. Through his art, American audiences will have an opportunity to become acquainted with a dance technique unknown in the western world, the Mudras. The Mudras, an incredibly graceful, intricate and expressive system of sign language, are capable of relating the most complex legends of Hindu gods and heroes with all their overtones of mysticism and sensuality. </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[4]</span>"<br />
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A review by Tom Mathews described the performance in more earnest, appreciative terms.<i>"Those bold enough to attend were rewarded richly for their temerity. For those who were frightened by the words "Hindu Ballet," I give my sympathy. They made the most serious mistake of the season in their show-going judgment. Without knowing the least thing about such an admittedly esoteric subject as Hindu dancing, I sat in a goggle at the incredible grace and gentleness of maestro Shankar. He didn't move; he flowed....Shankar's wife, Amala...never stopping, always melting, she dipped and swooped like a leaf falling in still air..." </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[13]</span>. And let's not forget that Uday Shankar was a very handsome man who was referred to in an advertisement as "ardently admired by repressed women throughout the world," or, in the frank words of Mohan Khokar, as one who "turned American women on, and they said so uninhibitedly."<br />
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<b>Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Utah</b></div>
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So guess who else performed many times in Utah? Early modern dance pioneers <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170217143622/http://www.danceheritage.org/stdenis.html">Ruth St. Denis</a> and <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150226222615/http://www.danceheritage.org/shawn.html">Ted Shawn</a>! This is not as surprising as Uday Shankar given that St. Denis and Shawn were Americans who toured extensively all over the country, and Salt Lake City had some nice theaters at that time. Researching their travel schedules is refreshingly easy thanks to a 1962 publication by Christena Schlundt that documents their performances. However, the <a href="https://digitalnewspapers.org/">Utah Digital Newspapers website</a> fills in some details not available from Schlundt's book including a couple missing performances.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dr354eXU_xI/Uz9syrG3Y7I/AAAAAAAAI4k/PZqlheAJay0/s1600/Attractions+Mar261911+SLTribune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dr354eXU_xI/Uz9syrG3Y7I/AAAAAAAAI4k/PZqlheAJay0/s1600/Attractions+Mar261911+SLTribune.jpg" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Source: Salt Lake Tribune, 1911</i></td></tr>
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Ruth St. Denis visited Utah at least seven times. Her first was in 1911 as a solo artist performing "Egyptian" and "Hindu" numbers accompanied <span style="background-color: white;">by Professor Inayat Khan and his Indian musicians under the direction of Walter Meyrowitz. Her return visits with Ted Shawn over the following decade were all performances at vaudeville circuit theaters in Utah. In 1916, the Denishawn company performed at the Orpheum theater in Salt Lake City, and Ruth also gave an illustrated talk to a dramatic arts class at the University of Utah under the invitation of Professor Maud May Babcock. The Denishawn company then performed at the Pantages theater in Salt Lake City in 1918, 1919, and 1920. The company predated Uday Shankar in adding performances in smaller Utah towns to the list, in this case at the Orpheum theater in Ogden in 1919 and the Lyric Theatre in Logan in 1920. After Ruth announced her retirement from vaudeville, the Denishawn dancers returned in 1926 for an elaborate concert performance at the </span><a href="https://utahcommhistory.com/2012/04/27/salt-lake-theatre-the-cathedral-in-the-desert/">Salt Lake Theater</a> <span style="background-color: white;">with "exotic" costumes purchased "in the Orient". That appears to have been their last performance in Utah. </span>Ruth did return in 1939 to Salt Lake City where in addition to being hosted by local society ladies she also "addressed a meeting of the New Frontier club on 'The Ministry of Beauty'" and was described as "a staunch believer in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Re-Armament">moral rearmament movement</a> and is at present director of all arts for the Oxford movement in this country" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[15,16]</span>.<br />
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A review of one of the 1926 performances had a harsher orientalist tone than the Uday Shankar reviews above which were written a generation later: <i>"The Orient, with all its savage, grotesque abandonment, was vividly presented in a series of dances by the Denishawn artist Monday evening." </i>Most amusing of all was the description of Ted Shawn's "<i>superb rendition of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1jyD0QiTsQ">The Cosmic Dance of Siva</a>" </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">[5]</span>.<i> </i>I can think of a host of adjectives other than "superb" to describe that one, though commenting on the Denishawn dance style and their being products of the time period is beyond the scope of this post.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ih2hdXb9sgw/U0l0kkSOcRI/AAAAAAAAI5o/x943A6U-Qgo/s1600/With+the+First+Nighters+_Ruth+St.+Denis_Goodwins+Weekly+Mar251911.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ih2hdXb9sgw/U0l0kkSOcRI/AAAAAAAAI5o/x943A6U-Qgo/s1600/With+the+First+Nighters+_Ruth+St.+Denis_Goodwins+Weekly+Mar251911.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Source: <a href="https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=3527287">Goodwin's Weekly, 1911</a></i></td></tr>
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Writing about Ruth's dance style, a 1913 article in the <i>Ogden Standard</i> <span style="font-size: x-small;">[5]</span> reported, "<i>...she can dance with her toes, her feet, her fingers, her body and then she can dance without dancing at all. She calls that last kind of dancing the soul dance. She learned it in India and is now showing Americans how to dance while sitting on the floor. 'When I sit motionless, as the Hindu idol Vishu [sic], I am dancing' she asserts. 'The impression is mental. I send out what might be called vibrations which are felt by the audience'..."</i> The articles goes on to assert, <i>"Dancing is classed by Ruth St. Dennis as the Cinderella of the arts. While the more favored sisters were being patted on the head and led on to greater perfection, dancing has been shoved out in the back shed and made to look shabby...Miss St. Denis is another fairy godmother rescuing the art of dancing from the house of neglect." </i>Sound familiar, my fellow students of Indian dance history?<br />
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<b>Dance in Utah</b></div>
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Both of the above discoveries are reflective of the history and popularity of dance in Utah. Utah's capital Salt Lake City <a href="https://utah.com/salt-lake-city/history">was founded</a> by members of the Mormon (Latter Day Saint) religion who migrated from the northeast/midwest to escape religious persecution, and dance and theater have always had an elevated status in Mormon culture and <a href="https://continuum.utah.edu/back_issues/winter99/past.htm">Utah history</a> from the beginning. As modern dance evolved in the twentieth century, Utah followed suit. Early on, dancers inspired by Ruth St. Denis and/or trained at Denishawn taught and performed the style at local social clubs and schools<span style="font-size: x-small;"> [9,10]</span>. One article explained, <i>"The idea in teaching these dances to the girls of the school is to make it possible for them to interpret the school of the oriental world and to understand the ideals of those people and not for the purposes of reproducing the steps of the dances...the Yogi or religious dances of the Mohammadans, in which the eternal quest for knowledge of the divine spirit is the interpretation to be made by the dancer...</i>" <span style="font-size: x-small;">[17]</span>. As modern dance continued to evolve, influential individuals like Maude May Babcock and Aline Coleman Smith were part of what became the University of Utah and Brigham Young University (BYU) dance departments. Speaking of BYU and in light of <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-nrityagram-dance-ensemble-in-utah.html">the recent performance there by Nrityagram</a>, I was surprised that I found no evidence of Shankar or Denishawn performing at BYU or in Provo/Utah County.<br />
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I was quite fascinated to learn that Ruth Emma Hull, the mother of Ruth St. Denis, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QCWsH_DzWZoC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq=ruth+emma+hull+burnt+over&source=bl&ots=pBQpYpaJmp&sig=Ew1dkZy1TYJnZs6jl22HUsi3914&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dpJJU5itOuGSyQHJhYHoCA&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ruth%20emma%20hull%20burnt%20over&f=false">was raised</a> in the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned-over_district">burned-over district</a>" area of western New York which was nicknamed as such due to the intense, uniquely-American Christian religious revivals and new religions (<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/nmormon.htm">including the Mormons</a>) that swept over the area like a forest fire. Hull became a Methodist and she and her husband moved to New Jersey where daughter Ruth Dennis (stage name Ruth St. Denis) was later born, but Hull could have easily become a Mormon and moved to Utah! Imagine how differently dance history might have turned out...<br />
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What makes this post so exciting is that it leads to the identification of more places that a dance performance of Uday Shankar or Ruth St. Denis might have been recorded or photographed and preserved in an archive that has gone or is going digital. What treasures out there might await!<br />
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But the most exciting part of all was learning of the performance at the University of Utah which is a hallowed place for me as it has served as a source/conduit for much of my blog research! Having just last weekend attended an event at a performance hall right next to Kingsbury Hall, it is so exciting to think that the spaces I walked on may have once been the same spots Uday Shankar once stepped. If only Shankar's company would have performed here when <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Simkie">Simkie</a> was a member of the troupe. Now <i>that </i>would be truly inspiring!<br />
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<b><u>Sources</u></b></div>
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<b>Books:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Abrahams, Ruth. <i>The Life and Art of Uday Shankar. </i>PhD Dissertation.<br />
Khokar, Mohan. <i>His Dance, His Life: A Portrait of Uday Shankar</i>.<br />
Schlundt, Christena. <i>The Professional Appearances of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn: A Chronology and an Index of Dances 1906-1932.</i><br />
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<b>Articles at <a href="https://digitalnewspapers.org/">Utah Digital Newspapers</a>:</b><br />
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<ol>
<li>"Address is Given by Ruth St. Denis: Famous Orpheum Dancer Speaks to Class in Dramatic Art at University of Utah." <i>Salt Lake Tribune.</i> September 23, 1916.</li>
<li>"Attractions of the Week in Theaters of Salt Lake." <i>Salt Lake Tribune.</i> March 26, 1911.</li>
<li>"Attractions of the Week in Theaters of Salt Lake." <i>Salt Lake Tribune.</i> March 19, 1911.</li>
<li>"Box-Office Ticket Sale Near for Shankar Hindu Ballet." <i>Salt Lake Telegram.</i> January 25, 1952.</li>
<li>"Dances Without Wiggling Her Feet." <i>Ogden Standard.</i> December 27, 1913.</li>
<li>"Denishawn Dancers Feature Bizarre Oriental Numbers." <i>Salt Lake Telegram. </i>December 28, 1926.</li>
<li>"Denishawns Coming to the Lyric Theatre." <i>Logan Republican.</i> March 2, 1920.</li>
<li>"Graceful Dancers at Pantages This Week." <i>Salt Lake Herald.</i> April 17, 1918. </li>
<li>"Granite High Pupils to Do Denis Dances." <i>Salt Lake Tribune.</i> March 22, 1918.</li>
<li>"Happenings in Society." <i>Salt Lake Tribune.</i> May 18, 1919.</li>
<li>"Hindu Artists Will Display Dancing Talent." <i>Iron City Record.</i> September 29, 1962. </li>
<li>"Hindu Dance Troupe Slated for Kingsbury Performance." <i>Utah Daily Chronicle</i>. October 22, 1962. </li>
<li>"Incredible Grace of Hindu Dancers Exciting Experience for Audience." <i>Salt Lake Telegram.</i> January 31, 1952.</li>
<li>"Indian Dancer Hits Race Curb in South." <i>New York Times.</i> November 21, 1961. [accessed via ProQuest Historical Newspapers]</li>
<li>"Noted Dancer with Her Hostesses." <i>Salt Lake Telegram.</i> August 29, 1939.</li>
<li>"Ruth St. Denis Dashes from Party to Party During Brief Visit Here." <i>Salt Lake Telegram. </i>August 29, 1939.</li>
<li>"Salt Lake Girls Will Interpret Dances of Orient: 25 Taught to Express Emotions by Rhythm." <i>Salt Lake Herald.</i> March 17, 1918.</li>
<li>"The Denishawn Dancers to Appear in Salt Lake." <i>Salt Lake Telegram.</i> December 12, 1926.</li>
</ol>
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6812053459854550777.post-30062240480609736952014-03-22T10:23:00.000-06:002020-01-10T22:22:40.270-07:00Found: Vyjayanthimala's Other Bharatanatyam Dance in Chittor Rani Padmini (1963, Tamil)!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4gqWRSXZwOQ/Uy20VS6JHQI/AAAAAAAAI4A/XFAwfSu4FTA/s1600/Chittor+Rani+Padmini_Vyjayantimala+Dance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4gqWRSXZwOQ/Uy20VS6JHQI/AAAAAAAAI4A/XFAwfSu4FTA/s1600/Chittor+Rani+Padmini_Vyjayantimala+Dance.jpg" width="330" /></a></div>
In my first post on <a href="https://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/2013/07/film-choreographies-of-nattuvanar-vs.html">V.S. Muthuswami Pillai</a>, the nattuvanar who among many things choreographed most of Vyjayanthimala's best Bharatanatyam in Indian cinema, I had discussed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7oBW8QsHmg">a beautiful Bharatanatyam dance of Vyjayanthimala's</a> in the 1963 Tamil film <i>Chittor Rani Padmini</i> but lamented that I couldn't locate the second dance at the end of the movie she was said to have performed for the king.<br />
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Well! The dance has now been located, at the rich treasure house of Kandasamy Sekkarakudi Subbiah Pillai's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/KANDASAMYSEKKARAKUDI">YouTube channel</a>, and it is fantastic!
Whereas "Devi Vithayar Bhavani" depicts the dance of a devadasi inside a temple, "Paarthuk Kondirunthaaley Pothum" depicts the dance of a rajadasi at the king's court. Muthuswami Pillai choreographed the numbers differently; the former dance is restricted to a small physical space and the choreography is performed very precisely, but the latter court dance is snazzed up with expansive flourishes and speedy embellishments fit for the court. And what elevates it from so many other mundane and sloppy Bharatanatyam-inspired court dances in cinema is Vyjayanthimala's sheer talent and training.<br />
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The dance starts at 2:16 with a Bharatanatyam salutation (quite similar to that in <i>New Delhi</i>) and raises ones hopes of seeing classical choreography come to life on screen, but the next three minutes are a mix of abhinaya and "filmi classical" movements that reminds me so much of the way that Padmini danced in cinema, though Vyjayanthimala has a more methodical grace. At 5:10, some refreshingly-skilled tabla playing kicks off a four-and-a-half-minute, fast-paced, pure-dance segment in which Vyjayanthimala energetically mimics through dance the raaga-scaling vocal antics of Sivaji Ganesan's character in a "call and response" fashion. The speed she is performing at is too fast for a lot of the adavu-fusions, but despite that she manages to lock her limbs into place and create beautiful visual geometry. Look at her go! Only <a href="http://cinemanrityagharana.blogspot.com/search/label/Kamala">Kamala</a> and Vyjayanthimala are capable of dancing Bharatanatyam in films with such speed while maintaining relative poise and form.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts 2:16</i></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YOXZzH78aos?start=136" width="560"></iframe>
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Wow! Of her film choreography that stays quite close to Bharatanatyam, this is her most energetic and exciting dance number! The knee spins at 8:20 are an interesting inclusion. I found the ending quite disappointing because the lazy footwork and editing didn't match the increasing excitement of the vocals and pace. Wouldn't some of this song's choreography have been spectacular in the epic danceoff in <i>Vanjikottai Vaaliban</i>!<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Since I'm on the topic of Vyjayanthimala, I realized that when I previously created the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoSNBTWm11zPnvI_u3nA0B0FxiClHiVpI">playlist of her Bharatanatyam/South Indian-based film dances</a>, I forgot about her <b>Bharatanatyam segment in the 1954 Tamil film <i>Penn</i></b> (also made in Telugu as <i>Sangham</i> and in Hindi as <i>Ladki</i>) which is quite an egregious oversight because it is among her best film Bharatanatyam! It is the one authentic-leaning Bharatanatyam film dance of hers that is not choreographed by VS Muthuswami Pillai. Instead, the nattuvanar <b>KN Dhandayudhapani Pillai</b>, who choreographed many film dances (including Kamala's Bharatanatyam in <i>Chori Chori</i>), crafted it. Here's the playlist again starting with Vyjayantimala's beautiful dance in <i>Penn</i> followed by its very similar reproduction in <i>Sangham </i>and <i>Ladki </i>(notice in the Hindi version the raaga/melody is changed to what sounds like a distinctly North Indian one). <b>Update: YouTube no longer allows specific timestamps in playlists, so the videos may not start at the dance portion. Navigate the playlist using the menu icon visible when mousing over the playlist.</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2CDio_dK4Vg?list=PLoSNBTWm11zPnvI_u3nA0B0FxiClHiVpI" width="500"></iframe><br /></div>
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And last, here is another new dance of Vyjayanthimala's from <i>Chittor Rani Padmini</i> in a filmi North Indian style (and there's also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NalXLc0CPfw">a dance by Ragini</a> in the film too!):<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Starts 0:30</i></span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W-vWBrBVYuA?start=30" width="560"></iframe>
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MinaiMinaihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02868497630163066412noreply@blogger.com6