'''Sadhona Bose (1914-73)'''


[[Image(sadhona.jpg)]]


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 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturbhuj_Doshi|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]]