Roshan Kumari Fakir Mohammad is an Indian classical dancer, actor and choreographer, considered by many as one of the foremost exponents of the Indian classical dance form of

Kathak Kathak ( hi, कथक; ur, کتھک) is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance. It is the classical dance from of Uttar Pradesh. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in ancient northern Ind ...

. She follows the

Jaipur Gharana The Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana (also known as Jaipur Gharana, Atrauli-Jaipur Gharana, and Alladiyakhani Gayaki) is an Hindustani music apprenticeship fraternity (''gharana''), founded by Alladiya Khan in the late-19th century. Evolved from the dhrup ...

and is the founder of ''Nritya Kala Kendra'', Mumbai, an academy promoting Kathak. A recipient of the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in Englis ...

in 1975, she received the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

from the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

in 1984.

Biography

Roshan Kumari was born on Christmas Eve (year of birth uncertain) at

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala has two sub-area ...

in the north Indian state of

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

(erstwhile

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

) to Choudhury Fakir Mohammed, a noted Tabla player and

Zohrabai Ambalewali Zohrabai Ambalewali (1918 – 21 February 1990) was an Indian classical singer and playback singer in Hindi cinema in the 1930s and 1940s. She was considered one of the most popular female playback singers of early and mid 1940s. She is best k ...

, renowned classical and playback singer. She learnt the basics of Kathak from K. S. Moray and continued her studies at Maharaj Bindaddin School of Kathak, Mumbai under Sunder Prasad ji and learnt the jaipur gharana. Later, she also trained under Ghulam Hussain Khan and Hanuman Prasad and learnt Bharat Natyam from Govindraj Pillai and Mahalingam Pilai. Roshan Kumari has performed in many places in India including a special performance at the

Rashtrapathi Bhavan The Rashtrapati Bhavan (, rāsh-truh-puh-ti bha-vun; ; originally Viceroy's House and later Government House) is the official residence of the President of India at the western end of Rajpath, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India. Rashtrapati Bh ...

. She has also performed in front of personalities such as

Jawaharlal Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (; Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was elected as third prime minister of India in 1966 ...

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

Milton Obote Apollo Milton Obote (28 December 1925 – 10 October 2005) was a Ugandan political leader who led Uganda to independence from British colonial rule in 1962. Following the nation's independence, he served as prime minister of Uganda from 1962 to ...

Hussein of Jordan Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of ...

and the King of Nepal. In 1971, she founded the ''Nritya Kala Kendra'', at

Bandra Bandra (Indian English, æːɳɖɾa also known as Vandre (Help:IPA/Marathi, �aːn̪d̪ɾe is an upscale coastal suburb located in Mumbai (Bombay) area of the Konkan division, Maharashtra, India. The suburb is located to the immediate nor ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, where she tutors several students. Muktha Joshi,

Aditi Bhagwat Aditi Bhagwat (born 18 January 1981) is an internationally renowned kathak and lavani expert, actress, dance tutor and choreographer. She travels all around the world participating in stage shows performing solo as well as in collaboration with ...

, Nandita Puri, Anonna Guha and Shailla Aurora are some of her notable students. Also, Sehajpreet Singh, another dancer who belongs to her gharana, is propagating her jaipur style with her blessings and permission. Roshan Kumari Ji, who remains unmarried, lives in Mumbai and is Propagating this unique jaipur style she learnt from greatest masters.

Film career

In 1953,

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as ''Do Bigha Zamin'', ''Parineeta (1953 film), Parineeta'', ''Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas (1955 film), D ...

invited Kumari to perform a Kathak number in his film, '' Parineeta''. The next year, she performed in ''Waris'' of

Nitin Bose Nitin Bose (26 April 1897 – 14 April 1986) was an Indian film director, cinematographer and screenwriter of the nation's film industry. He was born in Calcutta and died in the same city. In the 1930s and early 1940s, he worked with New Theatre ...

and a

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Mirza Ghalib ) , birth_date = , birth_place = Kala Mahal, Agra, Maratha Confederacy , death_date = , death_place = Gali Qasim Jaan, Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk, Delhi, British India , occupation = Poet , language ...

'', directed by

Sohrab Modi Sohrab Merwanji Modi (2 November 1897 – 28 January 1984) was an Indian stage and film actor, director and producer. His films include ''Khoon Ka Khoon'' (1935), a version of Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', '' Sikandar'', ''Pukar'', ''Prithvi Va ...

. Her next appearance was in '' Basant Bahar'', a 1956 film by

Raja Nawathe Raja Nawathe (; 14 October 1924 – 15 November 2005) was an Indian film producer, director, assistant film director, in Bombay's Hindi film industry, long before it came to be known as Bollywood. He is known for films like Raj Kapoor-Narg ...

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and music composer. One of the greatest auteurs of fil ...

, the renowned Indian filmmaker used a dance sequence performed by her in his 1958 film, ''

Jalsaghar ''Jalsaghar'' ( bn, জলসাঘর ''Jalsāghar'', "The Music Room") is a 1958 Indian Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on a popular short story by Bengali writer Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, and starring Chhabi Bis ...

''. In 1970,

Films Division The Films Division of India (FDI), commonly referred as Films Division, was established in 1948 following the independence of India. It was the first state film production and distribution unit, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcastin ...

of the

released a documentary on the history and practice of

, which features performances by notable Kathak exponents like

Damayanti Joshi Damayanti Joshi (5 September 1928 – 19 September 2004) was a noted renowned exponent of the Kathak dance form.She believed Kathak is the art of storytelling. She began in the 1930s dancing in Madame Menaka's troupe, which travelled to many pa ...

Uma Sharma Uma Sharma (born 1942) is a kathak dancer, choreographer and teacher. She is also runs the Bharatiya Sangeet Sadan, Delhi, a classical dance and music academy, situated in New Delhi, founded by her father in 1946. She is most known for reviving ...

, Sudarshan Dheer and

Shambhu Maharaj Pandit Shambhu Maharaj (1910 – 4 November 1970) was a Guru of the Lucknow ''Gharana'' (school) of the Indian classical dance form, Kathak. Early life and training Shambhu Maharaj was born in Lucknow as Shambhunath Mishra. He was the youngest ...

, besides Roshan Kumari. Later she also worked as a choreographer in Hindi feature films such as ''

Gopi Gopi ( sa, गोपी, ) or Gopika in Hinduism are worshipped as the consorts and devotees of Krishna within the Vaishnavism and Krishnaism traditions for their unconditional love and devotion ('' Bhakti'') to god Krishna as described in the ...

'', '' Lekin...'' (1990), '' Chaitali'' (1975) and ''

Sardari Begum ''Sardari Begum'' is a 1996 Indian musical film directed by Shyam Benegal. The film stars Kiron Kher, Amrish Puri, Rajit Kapur and Rajeshwari Sachdev. The film's lead actress Kiron Kher won the 1997 National Film Award - Special Jury Award. ...

'' (1996).

Awards and honours

Kumari received the ''Nritya Shiromani'' title from the Prayag Sangeet Samiti at the Twelfth All India Music Conference of 1963 and the ''

'' in 1976. A year later, Sur Singer Samsad awarded her the ''Nritya Vilas'' honour. The

honoured her with the civilian award of ''

'' in 1984 and the

Government of Bengal Government of Bengal may refer to: *Government of Bangladesh *Government of East Bengal *Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of W ...

awarded her the ''Vishwa Unnyyan Samsad'' in 1989. She received the ''Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar'' from the

Government of Maharashtra The Government of Maharashtra is the state governing authority for the state of Maharashtra, India. It is a democratically elected government with 288 MLAs elected to the Vidhan Sabha for a five-year term. Maharashtra has a Maharashtra Legisla ...

in 1990 and the ''Man Patra'' honour from Kathak Kendra,

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

in 1993. Kumari, an Emeritus fellow of the

, is also a recipient of the ''All India Bhuwalka Award'' (2005) and the ''Hanumant Award'' (2008).

Filmography

* '' Parineeta'' (1953) - actor * ''Waris'' (1954) - actor * ''

'' (1954) - actor * '' Basant Bahar'' (1956) - actor * ''

'' (1958) - actor * ''

'' (1970) - choreographer * '' Lekin...'' (1990) - choreographer * '' Chaitali'' (1975) - choreographer * ''

'' (1996) - choreographer

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumari, Roshan Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts Year of birth uncertain People from Ambala district Actresses from Haryana Performers of Indian classical dance Kathak exponents Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Indian film actresses Indian women choreographers Indian choreographers Living people Dancers from Haryana Indian female classical dancers 20th-century Indian women artists 20th-century Indian dancers Women artists from Haryana Year of birth missing (living people)