Classical 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'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!

Vara: A Blessing (2013, Coproduction) - Screened at various film festivals since it's debut but apparently not commercially released in theaters or on DVD, Vara: A Blessing has been described as "a visually stunning exploration of the cross between spiritual devotion and bodily temptation that incorporates hypnotic use of tradition Indian dance and music" and as 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.

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 Variety's review 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 Ragothaman for pointing out this clip from Chandran's Facebook page.

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5 comments Aditi Rao Hydari, Assamese, Bharatanatyam, Documentary, Geeta Chandran, Humor, Kamal Hassan, Kathak, Kathakali, Kootiyattam, Kuchipudi, Male Dance, Margi Sathi, Mohiniattam, Odissi, Practice Dance, Sattriya

Odissi Dance in Indian Cinema Outside Odisha

Continuing on from last week's post about Odissi dance in Odia films, here I want to highlight the usage of Odissi in films outside of Odisha. Like other classical dance forms beyond the ubiquitous Kathak and Bharatanatyam, Odissi is rarely seen in non-Odian films. When it does appear in a significant way, it is usually tied to the setting of the film or a character having Odishan heritage. Below are five Indian films that featured Odissi in a significant way starting with my absolute favorite, Hamari Beti.

Hamari Beti (2006, Hindi) - I am thrilled to have discovered this film! In the same spirit as the films Mayuri/Nache Mayuri, Hamari Beti starred Sakti Swarupa Bir (aka Shakti Swaroop) and portrayed her real-life story as a girl in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, who was deaf and speech impaired but triumphantly rose above her challenges and became an Odissi dancer. National Award-winning Odia film director/cinematographer A.K. Bir directed, scripted, and photographed the film, and Telugu film producer D. Rama Naidu produced it. While the film seems to have only been screened at some film festivals and had a very limited commercial release, luckily for us the production company Suresh Productions has posted the entire film on their YouTube channel! Distributed throughout the film is nearly 15-minutes of Odissi dance, and to my delight nearly all of them are practice dances (my favorite!) done in cotton practice saris. The careful attention to the cinematography and sound design makes the dances a gorgeous watch.

Chittaranjan Acharya (aka Prachee Chitta Ranjan Acharya or C.R. Acharyya), Sakti's real life Odissi guru and inspiration, plays himself in the film and is credited for the film's choreography. Chittaranjan is "an engineer by profession and an Odissi dance exponent by passion" who learned Odissi from Pankaj Charan Das. He still performs Odissi today with his daughter Asmita Mahapatra or his troupe. Here he is in the film demonstrating Odissi for his students—a rare male Odissi film dance!

Start 31:43

In real life, Sakti had developed her speech and hearing disabilities when she was an infant. After seeing a seven-year-old Sakti imitate dancers she saw on the television at home, her father connected her with his work colleague Chittaranjan who found she was a "promising dancer" and agreed to take her as his student. Sakti learned the form by imitating the dance of Chittaranjan's daughter Asmita who was also learning Odissi from him, and when Sakti later performed on stage Chittaranjan would "play" the rhythm with his hands next to the stage. In the film, Asmita's role is played by Odissi dancer Dr. Prachi Mehta who has an expressive and cheerful face.

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2 comments Chittaranjan Acharya, Komal Mahuvakar, Male Dance, Odissi, Prachi Mehta, Sakti Swarupa Bir, Sharon Lowen

Odissi Dance in Odia Films - Including a Rare Dance in Lalita (1949)!

I must start this post immediately with a startling find—a 25-second clip of "Odissi" dance from Lalita (1949), the second Odia-language film ever made. Odissi dance as we know it today was not even formed yet in 1949! It would be years before the dance form became known outside of its regional borders, into the late 1950s before it started to become codified into its modern design and format through the Jayantika project, and into the 1960s before it flowered and was fully recognized as one of India's classical dance forms. Take a look at this gem (Update: Embedded different video source September 2019):

Video should start at 1:35

While the clip is short and hastily edited, the full scene appears to be set inside an Odishan temple where rituals and dances for Lord Jagannath are being performed. The dancer, presumably meant to be a mahari (Odishan devadasi), appears and after prostrating herself before the Lord she settles into one of the elemental postures of Odissi dance, the Chauk. A jump cup reveals the dancer rotating one of her hands in the characteristic Odissi hand gesture “hamsasya.” Fascinating evidence of these dance elements from 1949.

As elaborated upon further on in this post, in 1940s Odisha brief and simple dance presentations of varying inspirations were increasing in popularity in the new professional theaters, and young girls from privileged backgrounds began learning and performing dance amidst the awakening cultural scene in Cuttack. The dance above was filmed in the latter part of the decade when the beginnings of what we know as Odissi movement vocabulary today was gaining ground in the collaborative atmosphere of professional theater.

Mahari Suhasini, 1958 - Source:
Central Sangeet Natak Akademi

While it's important to recognize that the dance above is a "film dance" and its intentions in presentation authenticity are unknown, it's intriguing to analyze the brief portrayal and try to make inferences from it. The dancer's appearance seems to have more affinity with other film dances of the period which took on their own style from various sources of the day. Compare the costume and jewelry of the film dancer with the picture of the Jagannath temple Mahari on the right (taken in 1958). The film dancer's blouse is not velvet (as was customary for Maharis) but rather sateen, and her jewelry-lined ears and decorated side bun seem unusual. The velveteen belt with the long frontispiece reminds me of Manipuri costume (especially Sadhona Bose's costume in her so-called Manipuri dances in Raj Nartaki), and the artistic design is similar to that worn by Kelucharan Mohapatra and Laxmipriya in a photo of their 1947 Dashavatara performance (see in history section below). The film dancer's appearance also seems to differ significantly from the pictures of Priyambada Mohanty in her dance costumes in the 1940s and 50s some of which are shown below.

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7 comments Archita Sahu, Minati Mishra, Odia, Odissi, Rare Find

Found: Sharon Lowen's Odissi Dance in Swarnakamalam (Telugu, 1988)

In my post on Bhanupriya's classical dances in Swarna Kamalam, I noted to my astonishment that there was supposed to be a scene in the film after Bhanupriya's "Cheri Yashodaku" hotel number where American-born Odissi dancer Sharon Lowen danced Odissi!  None of the copies of the film I'd seen (EVP DVD, Universal DVD, TeluguOne's YouTube upload) included Lowen's dance.  I couldn't imagine why it would be cut out, and I promptly put the scene on the top of my "holy grail" list.

I'm happy to announce that the scene has been found, and it's all thanks to commenter and friend Gaddeswarup who graciously took the time to have the scene converted and sent to me (thank you!!) after discovering it.  I'm so excited!  Take a look (note: the quality is fairly low, and there is a short glitch near the beginning) (EDIT: Better-quality version linked below March 2014, see old video for reference):

Bhanupriya's irritated head-bob at Venkatesh (I'll refer to them by their real names) starts out the number on a humorous note, but it quickly shifts tone to reveal a thoroughly classical Odissi performance by Sharon Lowen framed by an idol of Lord Jagannath.  Her performance is intercut with shots of Bhanupriya dreaming of dancing Odissi herself (which is at odds with her consistently-irritated expression throughout the performance).  Bhanupriya's attempt at the s-shaped Tribhangi posture at 1:55 is extremely stiff compared to Sharon's gracefulness.  There's something about Sharon's performance that seems to be not in top form here and almost as if they have her dancing too quickly.  I like some of her other TV performances a little better (see the end of the post).  But for an outsider, I think she does a fantastic job.

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15 comments Odissi, Sharon Lowen

A Better Quality Bala AND Sanchari, Bamboo Flute, and Kuchipudi Revisited Posted Full Length!

What a coincidence!  I just discovered that not even a month after I had posted Bala (1976) on YouTube a much better-quality version was posted by the imagineindia channel which appears to be linked with the "Imagine India International Film Festival Madrid" that took place in May.  The quality of their version is excellent with no pixelation or compression, sound perfectly synched, and a rose-tinted sepia appearance.  If only I would have waited a few weeks it would have already been up online, amazing!  Oh 2012, my love for you has no bounds!

Update: Video removed/channel no longer available

Imagineindia's channel also has what I understand is another rare film of Satyajit Ray, Pikoo's Diary.  Other non-related channels have uploaded Sukumar Ray and The Inner Eye, both also quite rare apparently.

While that is quite awesome, I am even more excited to see that Sanchari, Bamboo Flute, and Kuchipudi Revisited are now all posted full length! I was so excited about the discovery of the full-length Bhavantarana on Monday that I didn't check to see if any other Indian Diplomacy hosted documentaries I blogged about had been posted in full!

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3 comments Alarmel Valli, Balasaraswati, Bharatanatyam, Documentary, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Kuchipudi, Leela Samson, Odissi, Swapna Sundari

Full-Length Bhavantarana is Now Up!

I would like to thank La_Surrealiste for posting in the comments today that the film/documentary Bhavantarana on the late Odissi Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra is now posted full length on YouTube--and it's fresh, only two days old!  The Indian Diplomacy folks who had previously posted the short snippet (see my post here) must have had a change of heart and decided to give all of us eager dance enthusiasts reason to rejoice! The one hour-plus Bhavantarana is up on YouTube!

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4 comments Documentary, Kelucharan Mohapatra, Kumkum Mohanty, Odissi, Sanjukta Panigrahi

Minati Mishra's Odissi Dances in Arundhati (Oriya, 1967)

I've found the remaining Odissi dances of Minati Mishra in the 1967 Oriya film Arundhati!  I'm simply stunned.  I had figured I would never get to see any of the film's dances other than the rare Bharatanatyam-Odissi one from my favorite black-and-white classical dances post because Oriya/Odia films are very difficult to come by (in fact, I haven't the first clue how to get my hands on one).  Perhaps Arundhati's 1967 National Award (Best Feature Film - Oriya) has been a factor in its availability.

I found the dances by performing a quick Google search after happening onto the news of veteran Odissi dancer Minati Mishra being one of the recipients this year of the Indian Padma Shri award (here's video of her accepting the award - what a fancy ceremony!).  2012 has indeed been the year of ridiculously amazing discoveries on this blog!

Below are the wonderful, rare dances, uploaded by YouTuber hellodebabrata.  It's incredibly rare to see such classical Odissi in Indian films, though I suspect there is likely some filmy license taken such as increasing the speed and other minor deviations.  But given how respected a dancer Minati was, I assume the alterations are minimal.  Surely there are more of these wonderful dances hiding in the archives of Oriya cinema (such as Baje Bainsi Nache Ghungura from my Holy Grail post).  Occasionally there is a disgraceful bar/graphic that appears, but it only last a few seconds!  Embedding is disabled on all the clips, so please click on the image to link to the video.  Update March 2013 - YouTube videos no longer available; replacements listed below!

Namami Bighnaraj - The most classical of the bunch, this dance begins with the dancer's invocation of offering flowers before beginning her performance.  The first half features a good amount of expressional dance/abhinaya whereas the second half offers plentiful pure dance flourishes!  The hallmark Odissi poses, like the tribhangi and chauk, are clearly evident.  Only downside is this song has no english subtitles, boo!

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11 comments Minati Mishra, Odia, Odissi

Upcoming Documentary: Odissi - From the Temples to the Contemporary Stage

One of my favorite classical-dance related blogs, Sacred Space, recently posted a teaser from the upcoming documentary film Odissi - From the Temples to the Contemporary Stage by Sandrine Da Costa (with collaboration by the Sacred Space blog author herself, Isabel Putinja).  The film is beautifully shot and looks to feature an excellent array of Odissi artists and performances. 

Click on the teaser screencap collage below to link to the original Sacred Space post to watch the teaser:

What struck me most was the recent footage of young male gotipua dancers!  A cursory look into Odissi history usually reveals its origins in the dances of the maharis and nartakis (Oriya temple and court dancers), the gotipuas (pre-pubescent boys apparently trained in acrobatic and mahari-imitative dance and dressed like girls), and perhaps the martial arts and dance theater traditions of the area.  Some writings allude that modern Odissi actually largely came from the gotipua and theater traditions (and it's interesting to note most of the men who came together to form "Odissi" were former gotipua and theater dancers).  For more on the subject, I would recommend the section "Odissi, Temple Rituals and Temple Sculptures" from Alessandra Lopez y Royo's online book ReConstructing and RePresenting Dance: Exploring the Dance/Archeology Conjunction hosted at the Stanford Humanities Lab website [Update: The Stanford site is no longer available, but the book can be viewed at Lopez y Royo's Academia page].  (Sidenote: I've just discovered her writings in a couple hardcopy dance books I've been reading and she looks to have some fascinating information/theories.)

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5 comments Documentary, Odissi, Sujata Mohaptra

My Latest Collection of Lesser-Known Film Classical Dances

I'm happy to present my latest collection of classical-oriented dances I've found recently (or have been holding onto for a while) that are either lesser known or have been difficult to track down. Enjoy!

"Vikraama Rajendra" - Bhakta Kuchela (Malayalam, 1961) - Attention!! New Kamala Lakshman material starting at 5:00!  I originally talked about this song on my post about my favorite twin dances and the only version online at the time was quite poor in quality and ended abruptly.  I since got a hold of the original film and also what appears to be a Kannada dub and was amazed that the Kannada version adds about two minutes of extra footage of a third Manipuri dance that's missing from the Malayalam version!  The only downside is that it cuts a little bit of footage off from the beginning, so I included the beginning from the Mallu version and the rest from the Kannada version to create a complete whole. The old uploader had split the original song into two pieces so that is all taken care of as well. I am 100% convinced the taller dancer is Kamala Lakshman, and Richard of the Dances on the Footpath blog suggested the shorter dancer might by Kuchala Kumari.  So enjoy the two minutes of Kamala Lakshman material you've probably never seen before!

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7 comments A White Chick, Anoushka Shankar, Bharatanatyam, Kamala, Kathakali, Malayalam, Mohiniattam, Odissi, Roshan Kumari, Vineeth

Classical Dances in Kannada Films - Part 1

Subba Shastry DVD Cover

Throughout all of my posts on classical dance, one thing that has bothered me is the lack of representation from Kannada movies.  Tamil and Telugu films seem to dominate the landscape of filmi classical dance offerings with Malayalam films in a distant third likely due to Kerala's rich classical dance traditions.  But finding native Kannada films (not dubbings) with classical dance content has been difficult. 

There is a relative lack of information about Sandalwood (the Kannada film industry) online compared to other southern industries which means an outsider like me has put forth extra effort to unearth anything useful. When I first pondered why I had so few Kannada songs in my blog posts, I wondered if the film industry's obscurity relative to its southern counterparts had simply hidden songs from my view.  Or was it the industry's recent struggles compared to its earlier golden years?  I even started to wonder if Karnataka had less of an engrained classical dance tradition that would be reflected in film compared to, say, Tamil Nadu, but I suspect I'm ignorant on the subject. In any case, here's what I've been able to find about classical-inspired dances in Kannada cinema.

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9 comments Anuj Mishra, Bharatanatyam, Gopi Krishna, Kamala, Kannada, Kuchipudi, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Latha, Male Dance, Odissi, Sridhar, Yakshagana