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

Film Classical Dances of Sridhar

Surely I’m not the only one who watched the male dancer matching steps with Shobana in “Oru Murai Vanthu” from Manichitrathazhu and wondered who he was and if he’d done any other film dances.  The rare male classical dancer in film- always a treat!  It wasn’t until I ran across a comment at Varnachitram that identified the dancer as the Kannada actor Sridhar that I finally had a name to search with!  I was off to the races. 

Turns out Shridhar was quite a popular actor back in the 80s and early 90s and apparently acted in over 60 films in five languages (majority Kannada).  From what I’ve seen and read about, most of his films were either of the silly variety or mythologicals with a few award-winning films in the mix such as Santha Shishunala Shareefa in which he won the best actor award in Karnataka.  He was apparently particularly beloved in his recurring roles as Lord Shiva and became a "household name" in Andhra Pradesh for his role in the Telugu serial Shivaleelalu.   He had formal training in Bharatanatyam as a teen and went into films after college.

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11 comments Bharatanatyam, Male Dance, Revathy, Sridhar

My Favorite (Color) Classical Indian Film Dances

As a follow-up to my post yesterday regarding my favorite black and white Classical Indian Film Dances of all time, today's post lists my favorite color classical dances in Indian films!

Like my post yesterday, I focused on songs that are based on classical dances and included only those that are my absolutely top favorites that I enjoy watching repeatedly.  There are some "classics" that I haven't included in my list simply because they are enjoyable but not my favorites (songs from films like Thillana Mohanambal, Pakeezah, Shankarabharanam, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje, etc.) and there are some dances that aren't classical enough to be included (like those from Amrapali).  I have a whole slew of posts coming up that will cover even more dances in all sorts of different categories!

As I noted in the black and white post, these dances are of course "not 'pure' classical dances but rather the filmy variety.  What I love about film dances is the energy the camera generates through angles and editing as well as the beauty visualized through costume and set design.  There’s just something magical about dances seen on screen." 

Let's roll the list of my favorites in order of affection!

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14 comments Bhanupriya, Helen, Hema Malini, Kamal Hassan, Kathak, Kathakali, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, Revathy, Saswati Sen, Shobana, Sridhar, Vyjayanthimala