Mallika Sarabhai (born 9 May 1954) is an activist and Indian classical dancer and actress from

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, India. Daughter of a classical dancer

Mrinalini Sarabhai Mrinalini Vikram Sarabhai (11 May 1918 – 21 January 2016) was an Indian classical dancer, choreographer and instructor. She was the founder and director of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, an institute for imparting training in dance, ...

and space scientist

Vikram Sarabhai Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (12 August 1919 – 30 December 1971) was an Indian physicist and astronomer who initiated space research and helped develop nuclear power in India. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966 and the Padma Vibhushan ...

, Mallika is an accomplished

Kuchipudi Kuchipudi () ( Telugu: ) is one of the eight major Indian classical dances. It originates from a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sa ...

and

Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of S ...

dancer and performer who has specialized in using the arts for social change and transformation.

Early life

Mallika Sarabhai was born in

, Gujarat, India to

and

. She completed her

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

IIM Ahmedabad Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...

in 1974 and Doctorate in Organisational Behaviour from the

Gujarat University The Gujarat University is a public state university located at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The university is an affiliating university at the under-graduate level and a teaching university at the postgraduate level. It is accredited B++ by N ...

in 1976. She is a noted choreographer and dancer and has also acted in a few Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati and international films.

Career

She started to learn dancing when she was young and started her film career in the parallel cinema when she was 15. Mallika played the role of

Draupadi Draupadi ( sa, द्रौपदी, draupadī, Daughter of Drupada), also referred to as Krishnaa, Panchali, and Yagyaseni, is the main female protagonist of the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata,'' and the common consort of the five Pandava brothers ...

in the

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...

's play ''

The Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

''. Mallika has won many accolades during her long career, the Golden Star Award is one of them, which she won for the Best Dance Soloist, Theatre De Champs Elysees, Paris 1977. As well as a dancer, Sarabhai is a social activist. She manages the

Darpana Academy of Performing Arts Darpana Academy of Performing Arts is a school for performing arts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, established by Mrinalini Sarabhai and Vikram Sarabhai in 1949, it has been directed by their daughter Mallika Sarabhai for the last three decades. The sc ...

located at Ahmedabad, a centre for the arts and for the use of arts as a language for behaviour change.

Performance

She acted in the Hindi movie titled ''

Himalay Se Ooncha ''Himalay Se Ooncha'' () is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language action film directed by B.S. Thapa. The film stars Sunil Dutt as a reluctant mountaineer.. The title is based on H. P. S. Ahluwalia's book ''Higher than the Everest'' (1973) about the 1965 ...

'' that was released in 1975. The movie which had ''

Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt (born Balraj Dutt; 6 June 1929 — 25 May 2005) was an Indian actor, film producer, director and politician. Dutt was one of the major stars of Hindi cinema in the late 1950s and 1960s and continued to star in many successful film ...

'' as the hero, did not do very well at the box office. In 1986 she acted in the Basu Chatterji directed movie titled '' Sheesha'' opposite super star

Mithun Chakraborty Mithun Chakraborty (born Gouranga Chakraborty; 16 June 1950) is an Indian actor, producer and politician who predominantly worked in Hindi and Bengali language films. He is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three ...

. In 1989 she performed hard-hitting solo theatrical works, Shakti: The Power of Women. Her performance Sita's Daughters has toured the world and been performed over 500 times in three languages. After that, she directed and acted in numerous productions reflecting current issues and awareness among people. Amongst them is An Idea Named Meera; In Search of the Goddess and SvaKranti: The Revolution Within. Mallika Sarabhai also wrote the script for the play 'Unsuni' based on Harsh Mander's book 'Unheard Voices' to raise awareness amongst children in elite schools and colleges to the real issues facing India's marginalized. The play went around 120 schools and colleges. Arvind Gaur later directed it as a play, with the same name. Darpana Academy has launched the people awareness movement through its production Unsuni which travels all over India. In 2009 Mallika Sarabhai acted in an Indian adaptation Bertolt Brecht's of ''

The Good Person of Szechwan ''The Good Person of Szechwan'' (german: Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, first translated less literally as ''The Good Man of Setzuan'') is a play written by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht, in collaboration with Margarete Steffin and Ruth Berlau ...

'' (Ahmedabadki Aurat Bhali-Ramkali) directed by

Arvind Gaur Arvind Gaur is an Indian theatre director known for innovative, socially and politically relevant plays in India. Gaur's plays are contemporary and thought-provoking, connecting intimate personal spheres of existence to larger social politica ...

in 34th Vikram Sarabhai International Art Festival. In the year 2012, Mallika co-directed 'Women with Broken Wings,' an international production with filmmaker Yadavan Chandran and Swiss pianist

Elizabeth Sombart Elizabeth Sombart is a French pianist, born in Strasbourg. Biography Sombart began studying the piano at the age of seven. She entered the Strasbourg Conservatory and her first public performance was at the age of 11. After winning first prize ...

, an ode to the millions of women who have been the victims of violence. In 2014 she recreated, with Yadavan Chandran, Kadak Badshaahi, a multimedia production on the 603-year-old history of the city of

. The performance ran for an unprecedented 33 full nights in Darpana's venue, Natarani.

Television

Mallika has also used film and television for social change, especially for women's empowerment and environmental consciousness. Through Darpana Communications, she has been responsible for the production of three thousand hours of TV broadcast programming, all of which has been shown through

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

, Gujarati. The programming uses the most popular genres of TV. She has anchored many shows on STAR TV and

as well as the first NACO series on HIV, Talk Positive; the science series ''

Turning Point A turning point, or climax, is the point of highest tension in a narrative work. Turning Point or Turning Points may refer to: Film * ''The Turning Point'', a 1914 silent film starring Caroline Cooke * ''The Turning Point'' (1920 film), an Ame ...

''; Vaividhyotsav, the culture quiz and Srishti: The Environment Quiz.

Writing

Mallika first started writing when she produced and performed Shakti: The Power of Women. Since then she has scripted her shows, TV serials for ISROs educational TV in Madhya Pradesh, film scripts and more new contemporary lyrics for Bharatanatyam. She has been a columnist for ''Times of India'', ''Vanitha'', ''The Week'', ''DivyaBhaskar'', ''Hans'' and ''DNA''. Her recent memoir is title
In Free Fall, My Experiments With Living
She recently appeared on a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

The Literary City
with

Ramjee Chandran Ramjee Chandran is a journalist and author. Chandran has been the Editor of Explocity a fortnightly magazine since 1998. According to The Daily Telegraph, ''Explocity'' is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch. He is also the host of the podcastThe Lit ...

to talk about the memoir.

Politics

On 19 March 2009, Mallika Sarabhai announced her candidature against the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

's prime ministerial candidate

L K Advani Lal Krishna Advani (born 8 November 1927) is an Indian politician who served as the 7th Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. Advani is one of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is a longtime memb ...

for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, as an independent candidate in the 2009 general election. She had several offers from the Congress to contest elections, the first being in 1984 from

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

, but did not join any political party as she believed that all parties are corrupt. She eventually lost to L K Advani by a huge margin and forfeited her election deposit in the process. She protested against

Chief Minister,

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

during Sadbhavna Mission in September 2011. She accused

of scuttling the petition filed in Supreme court by her on the

2002 Gujarat violence The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...

. She joined the

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

on 8 January 2014.

Personal life

Mallika met Bipin Shah in 1982 and married him. They have two children, a son,

Revanta Revanta or Raivata (Sanskrit: रेवन्त, lit. "brilliant") is a minor Hindu deity. According to the ''Rig-Veda'', Revanta is the youngest son of the sun-god Surya, and his wife Saranyu. Revanta is chief of the Guhyakas, semi-divine and d ...

and a daughter Anahita. They divorced in 1989. Bipin and Mallika co-founded Mapin Publishing in 1984 and continue to run it together.The loss of her mother, classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, in 2016, left her bereft; yoga, dance,

Transcendental Meditation Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a form of silent mantra meditation advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a ...

(TM) and Non-Violent Communication (NVC) were some of the ways that she coped. She is the cousin of Indian politician and member of the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)/CPIM/CPM) is a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party of India in term ...

Subhashini Ali, daughter of her mother’s sister Captain

Lakshmi Sehgal Lakshmi Sahgal () (born Lakshmi Swaminathan; 24 October 1914 – 23 July 2012) was a revolutionary of the Indian independence movement, an officer of the Indian National Army, and the Minister of Women's Affairs in the Azad Hind government. La ...

(née Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan) and Colonel

Prem Sehgal Lieutenant colonel Prem Kumar Sahgal (25 March 1917 – 17 October 1992) was an officer of the British Indian Army. After becoming a Japanese prisoner of war, he served as an officer in the Indian National Army, which was led by Subhas Chan ...

. Her brother is environmental educator and director of Centre for Environment Education (CEE) Kartikeya Sarabhai.

Honour

* Government of

awarded her with 'Gaurav Puraskar' for the contribution in the field of drama and dance. * She received the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

by government of India. * The French Government awarded her with a knight's rank in the Order of Academic Palms in 2005 for her contribution in the field of drama and dance.

Gallery

File:Mallika-sarabhai-during-performance-saarang-2011-iit-madras.jpg, Performing Saarang in 2011,

Indian Institute of Technology Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance and has be ...

File:Mallika sarabhai with m t vasudevan nair.JPG, With M T Vasudevan Nair File:Mallika Sarabhai.JPG

References

External links

Mallika Sarabhai's personal website

Welcome to World of Darpana
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