Biography

Meitei family

Mayang Imphal

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...

Gouramani Devi, her aunt and a known stage actor, trained Sabitri from a young age and introduced her to theatre as a child artist, the lead role in ''Nimai Sanyas'' as 'Nimai' and as 'Queen Chintamani' in ''Shri Vasta-Chintamani'' were two of her notable early performances. Her career took a turn with her performance in ''Layeng Ahanba'' (first treatment), directed by

Heisnam Kanhailal Heisnam Kanhailal (17 January 1941 – 6 October 2016) was an Indian art theatre personality. For his work, he was awarded the Padma Shri Indian honours system, civilian award in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan civilian award in 2016 by the Governme ...

in 1961, and she married Kanhailal the next year; she was also a part of the group led by him who would found ''Kalakshetra Manipur'' in 1969. Heisnam Sabitri has made many notable performances on various stages in India and abroad, including Japan and Egypt; 'Ekhoulangbi' in ''Ekhoulangbi'' (1970), 'widow mother' in ''Tamnalai'' (1972), 'old woman' in ''Kabui Keioiba'' (1973), 'mother pebet' in ''Pebet'' (1975), 'tribal woman' in ''Laigi Machasinga'' (1978), 'Mi' in ''Memoirs of Africa'' (1985), 'Thambam' in ''Migi Sharang'' (1990) and 'Radha' in ''Karna'' (1997) are some of her major productions under Kalakshetra. Her portrayal of Draupadi, in the drama of the same name based on a short story by

Mahasweta Devi Mahasweta Devi (14 January 1926 – 28 July 2016)
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, made news as the final moments of the play saw her dropping her clothes one by one and stripping naked on stage. After its first two stagings on 14 April and 20 April in the year 2000, the performance evoked public protest for deemed obscenity, but is known to have inspired a group of twelve women to stage a protest by parading naked in front of Army personnel in 2004 who were alleged to have raped and killed a woman. The role of a young boy, enacted by her while she was in her sixties, in ''Dakghor'', a drama based on one of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

's short stories, was another performance which drew critical acclaim. Sabitri, a former government nominated member of the

Sangeet Natak Akademi Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in English) is the national level academy for performing arts set up by the Government of India. History It was set up by the Indian education ministry on 31 May 1952 and be ...

, also acted in ''Mahadevi Akka'', a short film of 60 minutes duration directed by

Madhusree Dutta Madhusree Dutta is an Indian filmmaker, author and curator. Life and education Madhusree Dutta was born in the industrial town of Jamshedpur, Jharkhand (then Bihar). She has studied Economics at Jadavpur University, Kolkata and Dramatics at Na ...

in 1999, where she acted as the title character and the film won the

National Film Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate ...

for the best anthropological film as well as IDPA Award of the Indian Documentary Producers' Association and the award for the best screenplay at the

Shanghai International Film Festival The Shanghai International Film Festival (, French: ''Festival international du film de Shanghai''), abbreviated SIFF, is one of the largest film festivals in East Asia. "China's biggest film festival" according to the Hollywood Reporter. Nex ...

.000 Triple zero, Triple Zero, Zero Zero Zero, Triple 0, Triple-0, 000, or 0-0-0 may refer to: * 000 (emergency telephone number), the Australian emergency telephone number * "Triple Zero", a song by AFI (band), AFI from ''Shut Your Mouth and Open Your ...

/> Nemi Chandra Jain, a renowned theatre personality, has documented the career of Sabitri Heisnam in his book, ''From the Wings, Notes on Indian Theatre'', which is a prescribed academic text at

Christ University CHRIST - Deemed to be University is a deemed to be university in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Founded in 1969 as Christ College, the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India conferred autonomy to Christ College in 2004. On 22 July 2008 i ...

. Natarang Pratishthan, a knowledge repository of Indian theatre, has compiled around 100 documents related to her performances, which include books, posters, news reports and articles, photographs and video clippings.

Awards and honours

Manipur State Kala Akademi awarded Sabitri their annual award for acting in 1988 and 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 ...

reached her in 1991. The same year, she received the Critics' Award for best actor at the III Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre for her performance in ''Migi Sharang'' (Human Cage). Her performance in the 2001 production, ''Death of Two Women'' earned her the Fellowship of Majlis Culture, Mumbai, an award-winning platform for interdisciplinary arts, which commented on her ''technique of breathing and its influence on performance''. In 2002,

Nandikar Nandikar ( bn, নান্দীকার) is a theatre group in India. The group has its headquarters in Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Be ...

, a Kolkata-based theatre group and the Department of Child and Woman Development, Government of India awarded her the Nandikar Award and she received the ''Natya Ratna'' title in 2006. The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the

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, ...

in 2008.

References

External links

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Biography

Awards and honours

See also

References

External links

Further reading