Imagining Bengal’s Past: Dance in Ray’s Cinema
by দেবাঞ্জলি বিশ্বাস | Debanjali Biswas

Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) selectively used dance in his films. Once mesmerised by a performance of Bharatnatyam exponent Tanjore Balasaraswati (1918-1984), Ray was inspired to make a documentary on her art many years later. Bala (1976) remains a richly mined life-story of the dancer’s ancestry, struggles, patronage, and her outstanding command of gestures in Bharatnatyam. 

...more