"Maya Mahal" could easily be a moniker for cinema itself. A darkened theatre with a white screen on which light flickers like a phantom and conjures up visions of faraway people and places... what is that, if not a "Palace of Illusions"? Let's explore the facets of dance...
Priya Paul's Film Memorabilia
Priya Paul's collection of film memorabilia represents an eccentric mix of films. Many of these films have not been considered socially or artistically significant by elite standards. Maya Mahal does not intend to celebrate the realist strain in Hindi Cinema. We present to you an alternative history which is decidedly excessive, melodramatic and utopian.
Dance
The two song booklets for Nartaki (Debaki Bose, 1940) and Vasantsena (Gajanan Jagirdar, 1942) inaugurate the two foundational myths of the dancing seductress in Hindi cinema. While the first is interested in the negative powers of distraction the nartaki can exercise on the stoic sadhu, the second celebrates the erotic, and yet sublime love of Vasantsena and Charudutt. These two aspects of the seductress shadows each other through the decades. Be she tawa'if, apsara, cabaret dancer, or "Sex Bomb Silk" the seductress mimics the power of cinema itself.
Maan MaryadaPriya Paul Collection
Dance sequences have historically enabled elaborate displays of choreographed bodies, escapes into foreign lands, and transgressive desires for refashioning the self.
Farar QaidiPriya Paul Collection
Whether it is Guru Dutt taking off on a flight of fancy with his lost love, Mala Sinha in Pyaasa (1957), or it is Chiranjeevi and Jaya Prada dancing atop giant daphlis in Faraar Qaidi (A.K. Reddy, 1989), dances create a space for fantastical reinvention.
Note also the instances of cross-dressing, tribal dance, black face, and oriental masquerade in some of the lobby cards on display.
These are ways in which dance can be a mode of cinematic travel which is quite oblivious to the politics of race and stereotyping.
NastikPriya Paul Collection
In examples such as Alif Laila (K. Amarnath, 1953), Aan (Mehboob Khan, 1952) and Shatranj (S.S Vasan, 1969) we see the impulse to frontal tableau displays.
Such symmetrically arranged bodies, epic sets, chorus lines, and backup dancers can be still seen in Bombay cinema.
YudhPriya Paul Collection
Various trends on the international dance scene are regularly incorporated into Indian cinema and we see the impact of disco in Nastik (Pramod Chakravarty, 1983), Meri Adalat (A.T. Raghu, 1984), and Yudh (Rajiv Rai, 1985).
ShatranjPriya Paul Collection
Surya Kumar
Surya Kumar was a prolific dancer and choreographer who worked in Hindi films from the 1950's right up until the 1980's. Anglo-Indian by birth, he was known to his colleagues as "Robert Master" and is sometime even listed in a film's credits as "Robert". Symptomatic of the acute lack of documentation of choreographic practice in Bombay cinema, Surya Kumar's professional information is nearly impossible to come by. This is compounded by the fact that for the 94 films he is known to have worked on, there are many more where his work might be uncredited.
He is known to have appeared himself in many of the famous dances he choreographed as a backup dancer, a band member, or even to partner the lead female dancer.
According to Surya Kumar's colleague, the dancer Edwina Lyons, and Thomas Daniel, it appears that he introduced the international dance sensation of the 1960's, "The Shake" to Hindi film adiences with the song "Jaan Pehchaan Ho" from Gumnaan (Raja Nawathe, 1965).
PyaasaPriya Paul Collection
Lobby cards from two of his dance sequences can be seen in this exhibition: Pyaasa ("Hum Aapki Aankhon Mein") and Shatranj ("Ajnabi Hoon Mein").
Madame XYZPriya Paul Collection
Bhagwan Dada
Bhagwan Abhaji Palav was born in Bombay and was the son of a textile mill worker. His passion for body-building and wrestling led to his entry into stunt films of the silent era. In the late 1930's he started to direct his own films and finally opened his own studio in Chembur, Jagriti Studios (1947). He shot to fame with the musical comedy Albela (Bhagwan Dada, 1951) co-starring Geeta Bali and featuring such memorable songs as "Shola Jo Bhadke", "Sham Dhale Khidki Tale" and "Bholi Surat Dil Ke Khote."
Albela established him as a dancing sensation and Bhagwan Dada perfected a new kind of dancer-comedian role. His minimalist dancing style is said to have influenced iconic male stars of later years such as Amitabh Bachchan.
Madame XYZPriya Paul Collection
In an obituary published in The Hindu (Feb 5, 2002) it is claimed that "he was perhaps the first to introduce Ramba, Samba, Disco, rock-n-roll and other dance forms to Hindi cinema, the first male star to do so in the industry ruled by female dancers. His later days were spent in abject poverty in the city, where Bhagwan Dada stayed in a one room residence in a chawl at Dadar."
