Beyond the Holy Trinity of Vyajanthimala, Waheeda Rahman and Madhuri Dixit

A Case for the Lesser Known Women Dancers of Bombay Cinema

Abstract

In this article, I will be focusing on the period from 1940s to 1960s in Bombay Cinema, with a little spillover to the 1970s. It is widely considered among film enthusiasts that the 1960s were the aesthetic peak of dance in Bombay Cinema, which had begun to take shape in the 1950s. In this decade, one notices the development of a distinct language of film dance that is identifiable as ‘bollywood filmi dance’, a combination of Kathak, Bharatnatyam, folk, semi classical and mixed western forms resulting in a hybrid form greater than the sum of its parts. Before that, in the 1940s and 50s while individual dancers like Bhagwan Dada or Kathak exponents Sitara Devi and Roshan Kumari had their signature styles, as a community the ‘Bollywood’ dance style was beginning to get formed.