Rare Video of Dancers Tara Chowdhary, Guru Gopinath, & Indrani Rehman, Sitarist Ravi Shankar, & More (all thanks to Net-Film!)

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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10 comments Guru Gopinath, Indrani Rehman, Rare Real-Life Footage, Tara Chaudhri

Kamala's Peacock Dance Found! (and some other "new" Kamala, Padmini, and Lalitha dances)

Wow! AP International's YouTube channel has some pristinely-preserved songs and scenes from 1940s and 50s Tamil gems—many of which have been MIA online for quite some time!  They've got Penn, Sri Valli, Vedhala Ulagam,Vazhkai, Parasakthi, and more!

But the most exciting random find was a new Kamala dance I've never seen or read of before: her four-part sculptor-deer-PEACOCK-dancer extravaganza in the 1962 Tamil film Sumai Thaangi!  Yes, the Kamala peacock dance that a commenter had mentioned a while back exists!  Many a dancer in Indian cinema has done a signature "peacock" dance (see this post/comments at Richard's blog for a great collection), but until now I never knew that Kamala had one as well. 

Sumai Thaangi (aka Sumaithangi, 1962, Tamil) - "Malaiyai Padaithavan" - This is not your standard Kamala dance number! Kamala's dancing portrayal of a male sculptor is brilliant and lifelike, and the rest of the number supposedly depicts the effects of the enchanting deer and peacock sculptures on Kamala who reacts with a joyous dance.  It's the most unusual and quirky of Kamala's film dances that I've seen, especially as she jumps, prances, and rapidly spins in deer costume (with deer mudra) to sound effects!  The peacock dance is introduced with a beautiful shot, and the musical orchestration is appropriately splendid.  What a dance number!  According to online folks, in this song Gemini Ganesan is trying to win his female companion (Devika)'s affections—I wish the song spent less time cutting to their annoying banter and stayed focused on the important part, Kamala! The camera gets quite shaky at times too, but the print is so lovely and well-preserved.  Good job AP International for actually knowing how to properly encode and size video uploads!  1962 was the year that Kamala's big dance film Konjum Salangai released, and it was also the same year she divorced her first husband R.K. Laxman at age 28, so in adding this dance number to the mix 1962 was quite a year for Kamala!

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10 comments Kamala, Lalitha, Padmini

The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble in Utah!

I saw Nrityagram! Dance! In person! In Utah! :D

Yes, us wee Intermountain West inhabitants don't get to see very many live performances of Indian dance, especially of the caliber of Nrityagram, so this was quite a treat! On March 14, Nrityagram performed in Provo at Brigham Young University (BYU) as part of its Performing Arts Series this year.  I was initially stunned to hear Nrityagram was coming to BYU, a private religious university owned and ran by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the LDS or "Mormons" - remember Romney?) and located in a conservative and religiously-homogenous area.  While Utah isn't the most hip and happening place overall, there are some trendy and diverse areas and offerings concentrated in Salt Lake City proper and the University of Utah which is a respected, public research university.  But Provo, and BYU, down to the south is a different story!

BYU library's Music and Dance entrance

But now I know better than to be surprised by BYU's snagging of Nrityagram. For one, BYU seems to have a great dance program and regularly hosts diverse visiting performing artists.  BYU's Contemporary Dance Theatre has even visited and performed in India, and their International Folk Dance Ensemble has performed Indian dances/music.  But here's the real reason: Over the past year I have uncovered a little secret.  BYU has a surprising collection of Indian dance materials in its library!  The dance collection contains rare pamphlets and booklets like a 1965 booklet on Kalakshetra, a 1963 pamphlet on Balasaraswati, and a 1949 program for Uday Shankar's American tour! A limited-edition original of Ragini Devis' 1928 book Nrityanjali is there as are a number of titles by Indian dance scholars Sunil Kothari and Mohan Khokar. Of more recent dancers, Padma Subramaniam's three-volume set on Karanas, Jayalakshmi Eshwar's pictorial guide to Bharatanatyam adavus, and VP Dhananjayan's book on Indian dance are in the collection.  There's even a small set of volumes from the amazing Sruti magazine published in India!  And tons more!

Clearly this collection indicates acquisition policies supporting detailed and authentic Indian dance materials and also the support of Indian dance enthusiasts who have donated rare originals.  Or maybe one of the librarians there is an Indian dance nerd!  The collection is likely driven by course offerings given that BYU offers a number of individual classes on ethnic dance techniques around the world, Indian included.  Nrityagram's visit and lecture-demonstrations are the cherry on top this year! I hope the students know how lucky they are!

Thoughts on "Samhara" and  Kandyan Dance

So back to Nrityagram!  Images of Nrityagram dancers were among the first things that drew me into Indian classical dance forms years ago when I first discovered them.  I specifically remember gazing at images like this one over at Flickr.  The simple, cotton practice saris and absolute joy of the dancers is so engaging and led to my love for performances in practice saris as collected in my post on classical practice dances in Indian cinema.

The performance on March 14, "Samhara," was a collaboration between the three Odissi dancers from Nrityagram (Surupa Sen, Bijayini Satpathy, and Pavithra Reddy) and two female Kandyan dancers from the Chitrasena Dance Company, Thaji Dias and Mithilani Munasingha (and of course five live musicians!).  Kandyan (or “up-country”) dance is one of the three main dance forms identified with the majority Sinhala ethnic community in Sri Lanka and is considered Sri Lanka’s national dance. 

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6 comments Chitrasena Dance Company, Nrityagram

Film Kuchipudi Dances of Sobha Naidu

Sobha Naidu (aka Shobha Naidu) is one of the big names in Kuchipudi dance.  She "sprang on the dance scene in 1969" and "became synonymous" with the style of the late, famed Kuchipudi guru Vempati Chinna Satyam (Kothari).  Her pictures abound in books on Kuchipudi and Indian Classical Dance, and among the many awards she has received is India's Padma Shri civilian award in 2001 in recognition of her contributions to Kuchipudi dance.  Clearly her life has been dedicated to the dance form, and she has been the principal of the Hyderabad branch/affiliate of Chinna Satyam's Kuchipudi Art Academy since 1980. 

A while back, I had done some research to see if Sobha had ever danced in any films and did not find any evidence.  In interviews and articles, Sobha makes it crystal clear that she purposefully stayed out of films completely (implying dance and choreography) to maintain her singleminded dedication to Kuchipudi dance.  She says [in a YouTube video no longer locatable now] many offers from famous directors came her way, like Siri Siri Muvva, Sankarabaranam, Hamsageethe, but she refused them all, even returning a blank check offered by filmmaker Nagi Reddy who she says then declared his respect for her "dedication to classical dance."  Sobha relates how Rukmini Devi Arundale attended her arangetram and was so pleased she made Sobha promise that she "would never succumb to the lure of cinema and would strive to stay a classical dancer" throughout her life (article no longer locatable at The Hindu).  Sobha adds, "Actually, I had already made that decision as a young girl, but Rukminijee reinforced the resolve by insisting on a promise made by placing my hand in hers!" (Deccan Herald).   

Sobha in Abhimanavanthulu

So imagine my surprise today when I read a reference to Sobha dancing in the 1973 Telugu film Abhimanavanthulu!  The reference was found in Shankar Venkatraman's book Thiraiulagil Isai Kalaignargal (Musicians in Cinema) which dance enthusiast and "Bharathanatyam and the World Wide Web" contributor Ragothaman graciously translated for me (thank you!!).  After some further research, it is clear that Sobha Naidu most definitely did participate in films!  While she certainly didn't abandon her dance career for the glamor of the cinema world, she did dance in Abhimanavanthulu and was an assistant choreographer for America Ammayi.  Surely that counts as participating in films--and not only participating behind the scenes as a choreographer but also up front and center as a solo dancer!  While I've only found two examples, it makes me curious if there are others out there!

Abhimanavanthulu (Telugu, 1973) - "Eppativale Kaadura"

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16 comments Kuchipudi, Sobha Naidu