Kalpana (1948 film)

Kalpana (Hindi: कल्पना) (lit. 'Imagination') is a 1948 Hindi film featuring a dance-drama, written and directed by noted dancer, Uday Shankar. It is his only film. The story revolves around a young dancer's dream of setting up a dance academy, a reflection of Shankar's own academy, which he founded at Almora.[1] It starred Uday Shankar and his wife Amala Shankar as leads and 16-year-old actress Padmini, making her screen debut.[2][3] It also marks Usha Kiran's debut film too.

Kalpana
Poster
Directed byUday Shankar
Screenplay byAmritlal Nagar
Story byUday Shankar
StarringUday Shankar
Amala Shankar
Lakshmi Kanta
Music byVishnudas Shirali
CinematographyK. Ramnoth
Edited byN. K. Gopal
Production
company
Distributed byUday Shankar Production
Release date
January 1, 1948
Running time
160 min
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi

Kalpana was the first film to present an Indian classical dancer in the leading role, and was entirely shot as a dance ballet and a fantasy.[4][5]

It was shown at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI-Goa) (2008), as a part of the section "Treasures from NFAI" (National Film Archive of India), with other "rare gems" from the archives.[6]

Cast
Supported by

Lalitha, Krishnan Nair, Padmini, Krishna Namboodiri, Saraswathi, Neelakanta Sharma, Shakuntala, Popatlal Gupta, Suniti Kowshik, Narasing Rao, Jayalakshmi, Upendra Singh, Rani Bai, Ramakant Singh, Rajeswari, Chellappan, Yogam, Karunakaran Nair, Ramanamma, Narayan Kunju, Sudha Kowshik, Pandurangi, Leela, Raghavan, Usha, Vasudev Namboodiri, Lakshmi, Gopal Rao, Anasuya, Bhaskar Rao, Kamala, Vasan, Krishna Pillai, Rammoorthy, Narayan Panicker, Ramakrishna Kurup, Radhakrishna Nair, K. Raman Pillai, Shivasankara Nair, Raman Pillai, Keshav Namboodiri, Ajoy Chaliha, Shivaram Panicker, Deviprasad Ghatak, Raju, K. Bhaskar Pillai, Vittal Dass, Bhaskaran Pillai, Venkateswar Rao, Damodaran Pillai, Abdul Azeez, Kuttan Pillai, Amir Khan.

Songs

The music was composed by Vishnudas Shirali, and the lyrics were penned by Sumitranandan Pant. The Bhil folk songs were written by Devilal Samar.[7]

Song Title Singer(s) Lyricist Length
Bharat Jai Jan Bharat Everyone Devilal Samar 03:48
Behti Ja Behti Ja Sarite Devilal Samar 03:21
Kya Kahoon Devilal Samar 02:15
Bhil Folk Song Devilal Samar, Sumitranandan Pant
Deep Jalao Devilal Samar 03:19
Hindustan Ka Bal Hai Hal Devilal Samar 02:55
Sadiyo Ki Behoshi Devilal Samar 02:57

Production
A still featuring Uday and Amala Shankar

Well known Tamil actress and dancer, Lakshmikantham, credited in the film as "Lakshmi Kanta" plays Kamini. 16-year-old actress Padmini and along with her sister Lalitha, makes their debut into Hindi films.[8][9] Tamil dancer and actress Yoga of the Yoga-Mangalam sisters makes an appearance as a dancer credited as "Yogam". Small role actress P. K. Saraswathi credited as "Saraswathi" also appears as a dancer. Gopal Rao, who played a small role in Thyaga Bhoomi (1939 film), also plays a small role. Finally, Usha Kiran made her debut into films in this movie, credited as "Usha".

Restoration

In 2009, the film process of digital restoration was taken up by NFAI in collaboration with France-based Thomson Foundation.[10] In 2010, it was being restored by the World Cinema Foundation (director Martin Scorsese is a founding member).[11][12]

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References
  1. Synopsis, British Film Institute.
  2. "Beauty, charm, charisma". The Hindu. 29 September 2006.
  3. Subhash K Jha (24 September 2004). "What happened to the classical heritage in our films?". Sify.com Movies.
  4. "Films featuring dance". Screen. 8 April 2005.
  5. "East/west musicals: Play That Back". Outlook. 26 June 2006.
  6. "NFAI brings its treasures to IFFI-Goa". Ministry of Information and Broadcasting PIB. 25 November 2008.
  7. "Kalpana : Lyrics and video of Songs from the Movie Kalpana (1948 film)". HindiGeetMala. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  8. "Beauty, charm, charisma". The Hindu. 29 September 2006.
  9. Subhash K Jha (24 September 2004). "What happened to the classical heritage in our films?". Sify.com Movies.
  10. "French embassy donates 230 films to NFAI". The Times of India. 3 May 2009.
  11. "Uday Shankar dance ballet, Kalpana to be on celluloid". Indiatimes Movies. 3 February 2010. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  12. Subhash K Jha (4 February 2010). "Martin Scorsese to reviving Kalpana". The Times of India.
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