Bala (1976)

Bala is a 1976 short documentary film made by Satyajit Ray, about a Bharata Natyam dancer, Balasaraswati, fondly known as "Bala". The film was jointly produced by National Centre for the Performing Arts and Government of Tamil Nadu. The thirty three minute documentary features the life and some of the works by Balasaraswati in the form of narration and dance, starring herself. At the age of fourteen, Ray had seen a performance of Balasaraswati in Kolkata, then known as "Calcutta", in 1935, when she was seventeen years old.

Ray had initially planned to make a film on Bala in 1966 when she was in her prime. However, he could only start filming in 1976. Incidentally, though Bala was often called as "a revolutionary Bharata Natyam dancer", she had never been filmed till she was 58 years old, in spite of having a career spanned over four decades. Ray decided to make the film on Bala, "the greatest Bharata Natyam dancer ever" according to him, to document her art for future generations with the "main value as archival". When Ray filmed then 58-year-old Bala for the documentary, she found to be wearing same pair of anklets which she wore more than fifty years ago for her debut performance, at the age of seven. Ray reported to have been said about the delayed filming of the documentary about Bala that "Bala filmed at 58 was better than Bala not being filmed at all."

The film's original script was included in a book named Original English Film Scripts Satyajit Ray, put together by Ray's son Sandip Ray along with an ex-CEO of Ray Society, Aditinath Sarkar, which also included original scripts of Ray's other films.

Synopsis

The film begins with the introduction of Bharata Natyam since its inception. It also explains the various hand gestures, known as Mudra and Bala demonstrates one of them, "Mayura Mudra" ("Peacock Mudra"). Narrated by Satyajit Ray, the film describes Bala's lineage and her debut performance in 1925, at the age of seven, at Kancheepuram at the Kamakshi Amman Temple. A noted Sanskrit scholar and musicologist explains Bala's dancing style and an Indian dancer, Uday Shankar mentions about his association with Bala.

Actors