How Kamala set the Bharatanatyam stage for the future

Kumari Kamala, the 'Queen of Dance', inspired generations and left a lasting legacy worldwide.

Bharatanatyam as a dance form in the post-revival years was popularised greatly by someone so famous that many parents named their daughters after her. She inspired girls from middle-class families to take up the dance form at a time when women from non-hereditary caste locations were discouraged to do so.

Described as the ‘Queen of Dance’ by none other than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Kumari Kamala (now Kamala Lakshminarayanan), a child prodigy, blazed a Bharatanatyam trail across the country and beyond with her electrifying performances in the Vazhuvoor style. The legendary dancer, who moved to the U.S. in 1980, turned 90 this June.

Initially trained in Kathak by Shambu Maharaj and Lachhu Maharaj, Kamala, aged just four, started performing small items in the recitals of senior artistes. After witnessing her debut performance at the Asthika Samajam in Bombay, film producer and director Chandulal Shah offered her a contract of Rs 500 a month to dance in all his films.

Later, Kamala and her family had to move back to the South during the World War. Thus began her tryst with Bharatanatyam. Kamala’s first teacher was Kattumannarkoil Muthukumaraswamy Pillai. He later introduced Kamala to Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai, paving the way for a brilliant collaboration. Being one of Vazhuvoor’s earliest disciples, Kamala helped him take his choreography to the masses through her foray into films as an actor.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Kamala attained great heights for executing never-before-seen pieces such as the snake dance with her signature back bend, which later went on to become an arangetram staple. During the freedom movement, Kamala’s special film numbers such as ‘Aaduvome pallu paaduvome’ and ‘Vetri ettu dhikku’ were powerful tools of resistance against the imperial government.

A thillana dance sequence in the film Chori Chori (1956) was one of Kamala’s best on-screen performances back then and continues to fascinate lovers of classical music and dance even today. M.L.Vasanthakumari, who lent her voice even appears on the screen as a lead singer in the orchestra that accompanies the dancer.

While film roles poured in, Kamala simultaneously performed on stage. Dancer and scholar Lakshmi Viswanathan who once interviewed Kamala for The Hindu wrote that Kamala’s early exposure to a certain discipline moulded her into a great artiste. “The crisp and quick movements meant to fit into a particularly short cine-musical piece, as well as the sense of drama in elegant poses to be captured by the camera, shaped Kamala’s formative years. It is no surprise that when she reached the top as a stage artiste, she faced her audience with an enviable elan,” she wrote.