If India’s national bard Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore called Kathak danseuse Sitaradevi Nritya Samragnini (queen of dance) in 1936, when she was barely 16, one would expect that in 2007, 71 years later, she would be in the audience, as a revered teacher and not in the stage as a dancer, doing the Kathak bols with verve. But that is what happened when in December 2007, 87 year old Sitaradevi gave a grand performance in the Shanmughananda hall in Bombay! A month earlier she had given a superb Kathak presentation at the Qutub dance festival in New Delhi.

 She has not only aged gracefully in the last 70 years, but also kept herself up with the newcomers in the performing art. True, after her heart attack and the accident that broke her leg in the 1970s, she has slowed down. “I can dance again. The doctor says that I can’t jump around and do tandav, but I can play Radha,” states the seniormost dancer in India.

In 2004, at the age of 84, she could still pull off Thumak chalat ramchandra baje pajenyan... based almost entirely on abhinaya. The great Kathak master Birju Maharaj  exclaimed that her abhinaya in that composition was so vivid that it seemed “as if Ramachandraji was standing in front of us”.  

A recipient of several awards, she had performed at the Royal Albert and Victoria Hall in 1967 and the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York in 1976. She has been honoured with a number of awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1969), the Padma Shree (1973) and Kalidas award (1995). But she is known best for the award she has not receive yet – the Bharat Ratna. But of that later.

The date of birth of Sitara Devi is still unknown and her biographers state that it was on Diwali day in 1920 that she was born. Born in Kolkata, Sitara Devi spent her early childhood in Benaras, where her father Sukhdev Maharaj was one of the pioneers of  the Benaras school of Kathak in an era, when girls who danced were seen as prostitutes.  Sukhdev Maharaj trained his daughters – Alkandana, Tara and Sitara – in dance, despite much public disapproval. By the age of 10, Sitara was on stage as a professional solo dancer.

In 1932, when she was about 12, Niranjan Sharma, a film producer and dance director chose her for a three-month contract in Usha Haran and Sitara became a dancer with the Sagar Studios of Bombay. Fame followed. Al Hilal, Nagina and Roti made her a movie sensation and Vatan, a superstar. To her Kathak, Sitara brought the multiple influences of the Bhand school of singers and natniyas, the girls who performed acrobatics. In Bollywood, she was exposed to ballroom dance styles and ballet; but it was always adaas (flirtatious glances) from the Lucknow schools of Kathak that were her trademark. During her later years in Bollywood, she tried her hand at choreography – and her biggest hit was Madhuban mein radhikak nache re... in Kohinoor.

The awards

According to the veteran dancer, the best award she has received in her dancing career of 75 years was the title of Nritya Samragnini from Tagore. In her own words, “In 1936,  I performed at Begum Atiya’s palace in Bombay. The audience included Sarojini Naidu, Rabindranath Tagore and JRD Tata... I performed for three hours on various themes, including a poem by my father on Radha-Krishna playing Holi. I can still remember the appreciation in Tagore’s eyes and he gave me a shawl and Rs 50 as a token of appreciation. But as I went to receive the gifts, my father nudged me, whispering in my ears – ‘Don’t take only the gifts! He is a great man, ask for his blessings, girl!’ Obediently, I asked Gurudev to bless me. He patted my head and said, This girl will teach Kathak to the world one day’.”

Unfortunately Sitaradevi's married life was a failure. Very few modern movie goers know that she was married to the famous K Asif, the creator of Mughal e Azam. Wistfully she says, “Can you imagine the famous Sheeshmahal in the film cost Rs 14 lakh in those days? The magnum opus cost Rs 1.25 crore 47 years back!” But fed up with Asif’s various romances, the dancer decided to move on and married musician Pratap Barot. This marriage also failed. Her son Ranjit Barot too is a musician. She decided to devote herself to Kathak and came back to the dance scene in the 1950s and in the 1970s, at 55, made   waves with a 13-hour recital at the Birla Matushree Hall in Bombay.

In 2002, when she was given Padma Bhushan, next only to Bharat Ratna, Sitaradevi refused  to accept it insisting on the Bharat Ratna. Comparing herself to other Padma Bhushan winners of the year, she stated, “See my age and my contribution. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Shivkumar Sharma are Padma Bhushan awardees. There is no denying that they are good but they are still new compared to the years I have put into Kathak. And further the Government of India should realise that tabala maestro Akir Hussain is talented, but a child compared to me.”

 Even today you see Sitaradevi attending important dance concerts in various cities of India and her presence in the front row is sufficient to make the concert artiste very careful of her performance. It is regrettable that despite her 75 years in the performing arts arena of India, Sitarardevi, like many greats, has failed to produce a student who can carry forward her legacy in Kathak.

Maharaja  Features