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ARTS: MEMORABILIA
Saving Shankar
Government inaction sends a legendary dancer's belongings
from Kolkata to Puttaparthi
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DISCORDANT NOTE:
Amala with her husband's instruments |
It resembles the
forgotten storehouse of a great theatre company. Instruments devoid of
strings; drum hollows swarming with cockroaches; gaudy clothes turned
papery thin with age; masks splattered with crusty bird droppings. But
not for long. For all of these objects have now found a home away from
home in Puttaparthi.
No 33 Golf Club Road, Kolkata, is a six-bedroom
apartment where legendary dancer-choreographer Uday Shankar spent the
last 26 years of his life. Before his death in 1976, the house was a bustling
hub of creativity. His two children Ananda and Mamata and some of his
best productions were born here. Then for decades, Shankar's material
legacy-costumes, instruments and books-lay turning to dust. His widow
Amala, a dancer, zealously guarded the collection until the flat was no
longer safe to live in. Once she realised she lacked both the finances
and the energy to play caretaker, she sought the help of the West Bengal
Government to save Shankar's memorabilia. "Uday Shankar belonged
to the country," she says. "Shouldn't the state do something
for this national heritage?"
In 1980, former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti
Basu and the then cultural affairs minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya pledged
land for an Uday Shankar complex in Salt Lake. Despite sending several
letters, however, Amala received no notification of further developments.
Finally, a dejected Amala sought help from an unlikely quarter. A couple
of years ago she met the Sai Baba and within a few meetings, she says,
he helped chart out plans for a college in Puttaparthi which would have
an auditorium and a museum bearing Shankar's name. "Looks like Uday
Shankar's belongings will receive respect only outside his native land,"
says Amala. "And if the people of Bengal feel humiliated, they deserve
it."
This week the Rs 10-crore project which includes
a swank cultural centre spread over 45 acres, a museum, an administrative
building and a dance and music wing, will be inaugurated. The museum will
house over 200 instruments of a mindboggling variety. These include a
4-ft-long maha mridangam, 10 smaller mridangams from Burma, several large
gongs, 20 small gamelongs from Bali, and a dhutka from south India. There's
also a vichitra veena Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar had gifted Shankar
and an ivory veena Paluskar used as an accompaniment. Among Shankar's
personal belongings that may find their way into a glass case is the script
of Kalpana, the sign-of-the-times film the dancer had made. The memorabilia
will be catalogued by 82-year-old Amala over the next six months.
Asked about their apathy, government officials
say a family dispute held them back. "Amala had seen and approved
the Salt Lake plot," says an Information and Culture department representative.
"But shortly after the allotment, the state received requests from
Shankar's children for plots for their individual institutions as well.
How many people can the state award land to?" But the family is quick
to close ranks. "The matter was subsequently cleared up," says
Mamata, who claims to have written a letter to Basu asking that the land
be allotted to her mother.
Kolkata's culturati is surprised at the impending
relocation. Says musician Jaya Biswas: "The Shankars have friends
in high places. Why did they wait for so long?" And Amala can't explain
why she never approached brother-in-law Ravi Shankar for help. "The
Sai Baba taught me a trick," she says. "When I get angry, I
say Ram to seal my mouth." If only he could teach her how to get
around a recalcitrant government.
--Labonita Ghosh
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