Bharatnatyam is one of the most sublime of the Indian classical dances. It emerged in Tamil Nadu and among all the Indian classical dances Bharatnatyam is the most ancient. It is considered to be about 2000 years old and it follows the principles of Natya Shastra (the Bible of Indian Classical Dance). In this dance form the dancers make considerable use of hand-and-eye movements to express different emotions. Bharatnatyam is a term derived from the [...]
Amrita Sher-Gill was born on 30 January 1913 in Budapest, Hungary. She was the daughter of Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Majithia, a Sikh aristocrat and Marie Antoinette Gottesmann, a Hungarian. Her father traced his lineage to a well-known aristocratic family near Amritsar. A renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Persian, he also studied philosophy and religion, besides astronomy, photography and carpentry, and was fluent in many languages. Amrita spent the initial years of her childhood in Europe. [...]
Mrinalini Sadananda is an internationally recognized Kuchipudi dancer, an Indian classical dance. She is also a distinguished teacher and an outstanding choreographer. Mrinalini Sadananda belongs to a family of artists. All her seven brothers and sisters excelled in one art form or another. Her father Vinjamuri Parthasarathy Iyengar was an established lawyer but had keen interest in music and loved violin. Her mother Smt. Kamala Devi was a housewife and an excellent violinist. Mrinalini Sadananda [...]
Described as ‘one of India’s best and most serious contemporary playwrights writing in English’ by Alexander Viets in the International Herald Tribune, Mahesh Dattani is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi award. Born on August 7, 1958, Mahesh Dattani received his early education at Baldwin’s High School and then went on to join St. Joseph’s College of Fine Arts and Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka. Prior to his stint with the world [...]
Legendary Painter M.F Hussain Passes Away India’s most famous modern art painter M.F Hussain passed away in London on Thursday, June 8th 2011. He was 95 years old. It is believed that the legendary painter succumbed to a heart attack in London’s Royal Brompton Hospital. Hussian had been living in self -imposed exile in Dubai and London, after he received threats prior to some of his paintings depicting Hindu deities in the nude. M.F Hussain [...]
Dr. L. Subramaniam is a reputed Tamil violinist,and composer. He has extensive training in Carnatic and Western classical music and made his mark in fusion orchestral music compositions. He was born into a Tamil family of established musicians. His father V.Lakshminarayana and his mother V.Seethalakshmi were accomplished musicians of their time. L.Subramaniam gave his first public performance at the age of ten. He is highly qualified with a Doctorate in Medicine but is a violinist [...]
Shrimati Kumkum Mohanty is a world famous Odissi dancer. She has received training under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra at Kala Vikash Kendra. Her contribution to the field of Odissi dance has been vast and praiseworthy. Kumkum Mohanty has been honoured with the Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 1994. As a child, Kumkum Mohanty was an exceptional dancer. A serious student of Kelucharan Mohapatra, Kumkum Mohanty grew up as an outstanding dancer, dedicated to the dance form [...]
The doyen of Odissi, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra was born on January 8, 1926 in Raghurajpur, Orissa. Kelucharan was a precocious child, he learnt to paint, sculpt and play the Khol drum at a very early age. He joined Gotipua troupes and folk theater groups when he was just nine. He was totally immersed in Odissi. He resurrected odissi when it was at the verge of extinction. In 1994 he set up an organisation, ‘Srjan’ to [...]
Kathakali belongs to the genre of Indian classical dance-drama. It emerged in south Indian state of Kerala during the 17th century. The literal meaning of the word Kathakali is “story-play”. The term Kathakali is a combination of two Malayalam words “katha” (meaning story) and “kali”(meaning play). Hand gestures occupy a very important place in Kathakali, like all other forms of Indian classical dance. Kathakali is a blend of the five distinct aspects of dance: Natyam [...]
Dr.K.J.Yesudas a.k.a Kattassery Joseph Yesudas or alternatively Jesudas is a Malayali Indian classical musician and a noted playback singer of Indian films. K.J.Yesudas was born in Fort Kochi, Kerala on January 10,1940. His father Augustine Joseph was a noted Malayalam classical musician and stage actor of that era.His father was also his first guru (teacher). His talent for singing become apparent when he joined the music academy at Thrippinithura and won the gold medal for [...]
