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 Zohra
Segal
- Ashish Mohan Khokar, Bangalore e-mail: khokar1960@gmail.com Based on archival materials from The Mohan Khokar Dance Collection Click on images for enlarged version May 29, 2009 How could April go by and I forget to pay tributes to Zohra Segal born 27th? I am not stating the year, not because unlike most female dancers she wishes to underage herself by half! but because we wish her to complete her centenary and I want it to be celebrated with fanfare! As I see of late, this column is vastly read and gives idea to many. In Hyderabad two months ago, Anuradha Jonalagadda smiled and said your 1958 Dance Seminar gave us idea to organise a focus on Kuchipudi. Why I was not included she had no answer for, especially as I was already in Hyderabad and some others included prominently had never been in the dance field until two decades ago! Such is the dance world. But I continue to serve it in the hope younger generations will benefit. Zohra Segal (Sahibzaddi Zohra Begum Mumtazullah Khan) was born in Saharanpur, to the Rampur nobility (Rohilla Pathan stock) on 27th April. There was no dance in her immediate surroundings. Her mother died early and Zohra, one of seven siblings, was sent to Queen Marys Girls School in Lahore as she was a bit of a tomboy and needed moulding! The school PT drill became a source of amusement for her and one thing led to other and she went off to Germany with her maternal uncle Saeeduzaffer Khan, who studied medicine at Edinburgh, in a car! Imagine in 1930s going through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and then take a boat from Alexandria to reach eastern "walled" Europe and arrive in Dresden to join ballerina Mary Wigman's school? This is stuff Zohra the great, is made of. Her training under Wigman style made her a true talent, sought no less by Uday Shankar when she met him backstage when he was touring Europe with 'Shiva Parvati' and assured her a job in his troupe once she finished her training and sure enough when she did and returned home, she received a telegram asking her if she would join him for his forthcoming Japan tour! Her father was bit worried. How to send a young girl off on a tour like this? He asked her to think it through. While she was, he went into the bedroom and came out with a train timetable saying, "Beta, the next train to Kathgodam is at 11.22!" Zohra was off.
Zohra got a scholarship to study theatre in UK in 1962 and thus shifted and settled there for sometime. She met the great Ram Gopal and taught at his school in Chelsea. She set the Thames on fire and soon earned herself an important place in films made in the UK. She became an important link to India. She was instrumental in giving English theatre in India and Indian theatre arts in Europe, a fillip. She did several TV serials in this period (1964 -74) like Doctor Who, The Long Duel and The Guru. In 1974, her student Mohan Khokar headed the Sangeet Natak Akademi and under Indira Gandhi's patronage and direction created the National Folk Dance Ensemble, for which Zohra Segal was invited and appointed Director. It was a short lived experiment as Delhi politics ruined it. Having left London for Delhi, Zohra soon found herself without much to do. Not one to sit idle, she was soon engulfed in many cross cultural productions and one saw her in many cameo roles in nearly all Indo-centric international films made those days. It started with the Jewel in the Crown in 1984 to Tandoor Nights in 1987, Bhaji on the Beach in 1992, followed by Amma in 1996. The list is exhaustive. This association with films brought her to advertisements in the eighties and through the nineties, she has done scores of mainstream films with all top actors like Amitabh Bachchan (as his mother in Cheeni Kum), Dil Se (1998), Kal Ho Na Ho, Veera Zara, Mistress of Spice and last being Saawariya. To think she acted with Ranvir Kapoor's grandfather Prithvi shows Zohra Segal's selfless commitment to art for which she deserves the highest award, Bharta Ratna. Responses  Ashish
Mohan Khokar takes special delight in reconstructing dance history. His
own Masters in Indian History (merit lister, Delhi University) helps him
in this process as also his inheritance, born as he is to the most distinguished
dance family. His father created India's largest dance archives, materials
from which now helps him save and serve; rewrite and reconstruct dance
history of India. His own world vision (having practically handled many
high level projects all over Europe and America) and vast exposure to variety
of cultural administration and involvement at home in India, have furthered
the process of making him unparalleled, in his generation. He has watched
dance for almost 45 years now born to a legendary dance mother, and written
about it in last 30 as critic of leading publications (Times, India Today),
in addition to his own over 35 books and editing-publishing India's only
yearbook on dance, attendance.
See www.attendance-india.com |
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