Kathak is one of the gorgeous forms of dance. An artist needs to worship the dance form to express his/her heart out through calculated and smooth footsteps. Sitara Devi, a big name in kathak had a very close connection with Bengal. Kalindi Darpan Socio-Cultural Organization organized SMARAN 2016 on the fond memories of the Kathak Queen on 24th December, remembering her 2nd death anniversary.
Sitara Devi was born and brought up in Kolkata. She got the chance to perform in front of Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore. After witnessing her dance Rabindranath Tagore was mesmerized and offered her some gifts. Sitara Devi requested for something eternal. Tagore, then, blessed her with the title ‘Queen of Kathak’. She was fortunate to perform at the Royal Albert Hall and get the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Shree, Kalidas Samman. She refused to take Padma Bhusan as she once said, “Is the government not aware of my contribution to Kathak? I will not accept any award less than Bharat Ratna”.
The event Smaran portrayed performances of exponents from Delhi- Amit Khinchi (disciple of Pt. Rajendra Gangani ) & Subhi Johri ( student of Pt. Jay Kishan Maharaj ).The main attraction of the evening was the performances offered by both artists who are the grandsons of Sitara Devi VISHAL KRISHNA (Kathak exponent) & KUSHAL KRISHNA (Tabla exponent ) from Benaras. There were many other performers from Kolkata like Anasua Majumdar,Gargi Mukherjee, Rudrani Konar with their exciting presentation .
Talking about the event to Soumali Ganguly, The secretary of Darpan Socio –Cultural Organization said, “It’s an honor for us hosting the prestigious event remembering the legend Sitara Devi where her family members were also involved. This was the only festival which is dedicated to the Kathak legend Sitara Devi. We love to promote the rich tradition of Indian classical dance forms among the youths.”
The ace dancer Smt. Alokananda Roy was felicitated by the name of Sitara Devi as chief guest with two other special exponents as special guests like Chitra Bishwanathan from Mumbai & Saraswati Rajathesh from Bangalore. Vishal Krishna felicitated all of them on behalf of Kalindi Darpan.
© 2023 Tollykata Entertainments | All Right Reserved
