Remembering the Kathak legend, Sitara Devi

A city-based socio-cultural organisation hosted an event, Smaran, based on the fond memories of

Kathak

dancer Sitara Dvi at a city auditorium recently. The event was organized on the occasion of the dancer’s fouth death anniversary. Few of us know that

Sitara Devi

had a very close connection with Bengal. She was born and brought up in Kolkata. She was very fluent in Bengali, was fond of makeup. At a very tender age she got a chance to perform in front of Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan. After watching her dance, Tagore blessed her with the title, Queen of Kathak. Then she joined films, earned adequate stardom but didn’t continue with it for a long time. She made her film debut with

Usha Haran

in 1940 and went on appearing in films like Roti, Anjali,

Mother India

and so on. She left films soon just for her dedication towards Indian classical dance. She was fortunate to perform at the Royal Albert Hall, got the

Sangeet Natak Akademi

Award, Padma Shree,

Kalidas Samman

, but she refused to take the Padma Bhusan award as she once said, “Is this government not aware of my contribution to Kathak? I will not accept any award less than Bharat Ratna.”Coming back to the event Smaran, it was featured some duet performances. The show featured acts by artistes Paramita Maitra and her daughter Nilopa Maitra, Kajal Misra Roy and her daughter Trina Roy, Vishal Krishna and her sister Shriyana Krishna, Vidha Lal and Abhimanyu Lal. The chief guest was the famous classical dancer Molly Roy. Soumali Ganguly, secretary of the socio-cultural organisation, said, “It’s an honor for us to host the prestigious event remembering the legend Sitara Devi where her family members are also involved. This is the only festival which is dedicated to the Kathak legend. We love to promote the rich tradition of Indian classical dance forms among the youths.”