NEW DELHI: Legendary Kathak dancer Sitara Devi died at a hospital in Mumbai on Tuesday. She was 94.

Born in 1920 in Kolkata, Sitara Devi drew from the themes, poetry and choreography collected by her father. Having appeared in a clutch of successful movies in which she invariably had a dancing role, Sitara Devi last performed a classic Holi dance in Mother India. Thus she connected two great movie makers, Mehboob who cast her in her last role in Mother India, and K. Asif of Mughal-i-Azam fame to whom she was married for some time.

“Her funeral will take place on Thursday morning. We are waiting for her son who has gone abroad for a show,” Rajesh Mishra, the son-in-law of the ageless danseuse, said.

The characters around her came alive in her dance. “By training, I am just a ‘kathakar’ of Krishna-leela (tales of Krishna),” the danseuse used to say.

Kathak, which literally means ‘katha’or story is a narrative drama which evolved out of the Krishna temples of hinterland to scale the pinnacle of glory in the Muslim courts.

Sitara Devi’s roots were inextricably woven to the tradition of ‘kathakars’, the early Kathak dancers. She was born as Dhannolakshmi to a family of Brahmin ’kathakar’ Sukhdev Maharaj and chose school and dance over an early wedding, as was the norm of the 1920s.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2014