Sitara Devi: The original diva of cinema

Born in then Calcutta on November 8, 1920 Sitara Devi was justly known as the queen of kathak. After watching her perform, when she was just sixteen, Rabindranath Tagore called her NrityaSamragyi, the empress of dance. Her father Sukhdev Maharaj, a noted kathak dancer from Benaras, keenly taught his children the ancient dance form. Sitara’s dance style consisted of key elements of both Benaras and Lucknow Gharana. She auditioned for her school’s dance drama at the age of eight and was asked to also teach the dance to her co-performers in the act. Her professional debut was at the Atiya Begum Palace before a select audience including Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Sir Cowasji Jehangir. Devi was recruited by film maker and dance director Niranjan Sharma to perform dance sequences in Hindi movies (Usha Haran 1940, Nagina 1951, Anjali 1957) when she was twelve. Her last performance in movies was a Holi dance in Mother India (1957).

Devi taught dance to a series of film stars including Madhubala, Rekha, Mala Sinha and Ka*jol. In his masterpiece memoire about the then Bombay film personalities Meenabazar, Manto wrote about her unconventional life style and her never say die spirit. She used to be the life of every party at RK Studios.

Kathak was her forte but she was also accomplished in other styles including Bharatanatyam and many forms of folk dances. She also mastered Russian ballet along with other western dances. With advancing age her dancing activities diminished and she was working on a book based on the research done by her father and her in the field of dance. Instantly recognisable by her huge red bindi and loose hair, to her very end Sitara Devi would often turn up at the annual Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan in Mumbai to watch younger dancers perform. In early 2014, refusing to let age get in the way she presented a ghazal sitting in a chair, restricting herself to abhinaya, the art of facial expressions, and hand movements.

For her service to the field of art Devi received a number of awards, including Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1969), the Padma Shri (1973) and the Kalidas Samman (1995). She died on November 25, 2014 in Mumbai.

Sitara Devi