While browsing through the rest of the
Vedhala Ulagam videos after my
post about Kamala's peacock dance, I noticed that tucked in the middle of the clip "
Sarangapani Sees Maharaja's Statue" was a classical-esque dance by a woman I did not recognize. Re-reading Randor Guy's
write-up of the film revealed that in addition to Kamala, Lalitha, and Padmini,
Tara Chowdhary also had a dance sequence. I knew I recognized that name from past researching but I couldn't remember why. Another Randor Guy
article revealed that Tara was "a classical dancer who was active in the field and danced in quite a few Tamil films of the bygone era. Today she is hardly remembered even by the dancing community in south India!" I was initially going to do a post just on this (for my research on Tara see the section "More on Tara Chaudhury" near the end of this post), but then I made an
awesome discovery!
As I googled different spelling variations of Tara Chowdhary's last name (which I'll use throughout this post), I found another rare discovery: footage not only of
Tara Chowdhary but also
Guru Gopinath dancing in the Soviet Union in 1954! And the video also features a young
Ravi Shankar! Further searching of the site also turned up additional footage from the same 1954 event as well as 1967 footage of
Indrani Rehman dancing! Holy cow!!
Guru Gopinath was originally a Kathakali dancer who
created the dance form "Kerala Natanam,"
a simplified and more accessible style of Kathakali with many
innovations. He and American-born dancer Ragini Devi formed a touring
duo that "was the first professional effort in India to popularize Kathakali outside its home state or setting" [Khokar at narthaki.com]. While I once
posted about Gopinath dancing in the Telugu film
Mayabazar, I don't think video of Gopinath dancing outside of films is easily available, so this is quite a rare find. And the footage of Indrani Rehman is a coincidental find because she was the daughter of, guess who, Ragini Devi!
The website that houses all these treasures is
Net-Film, an online "professional digital footage archive" of the "Russian Central Studio of Documentary Films, the oldest documentary film studio in Russia." The archive contains "21,000 items of documentaries, newsreels, arсhival footages, rough shootings etc." from the late 1800s to today, and the descriptions are available in English. Basically, it's
the Russian version of BritishPathe! Given India and Russia's history of friendship and exchange (previously discussed in my
post about Indo-Soviet cinematic ties and coproductions) and the interest Russians still maintain today in Indian dance, it is no surprise that the Net-Film archive has some fantastic and rare footage of Indian dancers visiting the former Soviet Union!
Masters of the Indian Art (1954)
Before I discuss the video footage below,
here's a link to the webpage it is housed on (or click image below) so you can get it playing. The site is a bit finicky; sometimes the net-film graphic shows instead of the video even after hitting the play button. If you have any trouble, simply scroll to the bottom, click on "download links," and click on the .mp4 file to download the video for free!
Click image to link to video page
What rare footage this is! This 39-minute video documents the Indian Cultural Delegation of musicians and dancers sponsored by the Government of India who visited and performed in the U.S.S.R., Poland, and Czechoslovakia in 1954. According to a government report [link at http://mealib.nic.in/reports/1954-55.pdf no longer available], the 1954-55 year saw a number of cultural and scientific exchanges between India and the U.S.S.R. as part of an effort to develop "cultural and economic relations with the countries of Eastern Europe" and "promote understanding at a popular level in both countries of each other's achievements." The Delegation was headed by Mrs. Chandrasekhar, India's Deputy Health Minister, and according to the video's description included the dancers Guru Gopinath and Tara Chowdhury, singers Asa Singh Mastan, Mira Chatterjee, and Surinder Kaur, musicians Ravi Shankar, Gian Ghosh, Keeshan Maharaj, and All India Radio Director Mallik. It is clear from the video that other unnamed dancers (Manipuri, Naga) and musicians were part of the Delegation too.
The Indian dances in the video are (most take place in the famous Bolshoi Theatre):
- 7:11-9:07: Guru Gopinath performs three short mimetic dance pieces which the description identifies as "water," "elephant," and "combing the hair."
- 11:04-12:55: Tara Chowdhury performs a Bharatanatyam Alarippu.
- 18:50-20:12: Dance demonstration exchanges. Russian ballerinas perform first, then at 19:22 two female Manipuri dancers perform and at 19:29 Tara Chaudary gives an abhinaya demonstration.
- 22:38-23:42: Naga tribal dance by four dancers.
- 32:18-33:47: Manipuri Pung Cholom dancers who end with an exciting rhythmic interplay.
- 34:09-36:10: Tara Chaudhury performs a Bharatanatyam Thillana.
- Note: According to a glowing Soviet review of Chaudhari's performance, she also danced a Kathak number, but it is not found in any of the event footage (though she can be seen in her Kathak costume).
Screencaps from the dances (and Ravi Shankar in sunglasses :D ):
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