Sadhona Bose (1914-73)

Actress born in Calcutta. Some sources give 1903 as year of birth. Granddaughter of 19th C. reformist leader Keshub Chunder Sen. Participated in her husband Modhu Bose’s dance spectaculars (Kumkum?; Raj Nartaki?) which helped convert the late 19th/early 20th C. Parsee Theatre-influenced operatic mode into popular Bengali and Hindi films. A classically trained dancer (Kathak dance under Taraknath Bagchi and Manipuri under Guru Senarik Rajkumar) and musician (studied under Inayat Khan, Timir Baran and, briefly, S.D. Burman; piano with musician Franco Polo), her early work included ballets supervised by Rabindranath Tagore (one of which later became the film Dahlia?, 1930). In the 1929 stage version of Alibaba?, met and briefly worked with Anna Pavlova.

A classicist ideology was attributed to her work with Modhu Bose for the Calcutta Amateur Players and later in film. Her best-known play, Alibaba (1934; filmed 1937), helped translate the musical style of Calcutta Theatres, originating with Khirode Prasad Vidyavinode, into Broadway/Hollywood? inspired Orientalist spectaculars. Introduced these into Hindi cinema, via directors like ​Chaturbhuj Doshi (Shankar Parvati?) and Kidar Sharma (Vish Kanya). In her autobiography (Sadhona Bose, 1963), plays like Theme Songs of Omar Khayyam and Hindu Dance Dramas, Birth of Freedom, Samarpan and Ajanta are described as ‘neo-classical ballets‘ while her later films are called ‘film ballets’, adhering to all the tenets of traditional art. Produced the show Rhythm of Victory as a political spectacular with more than 40 dancers. An English version of her best-known film, Raj Nartaki, was distributed in the USA as Court Dancer.

FILMOGRAPHY: 1937: Alibaba; 1938: Abhinaya; 1940: Kumkum/Kumkum? the Dancer; 1941: Raj Nartaki/Court? Dancer; 1942: Meenakshi; 1943: Paigham; Shankar Parvati; Vish Kanya; 1945: Neelam; 1951: Bhola Shankar; For Ladies Only; Nand Kishore; 1952: Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo; 1953: Shesher Kabita; 1954: Maa-o-Chhele; Vikram Urvashi.

Actor