Pandits in the Movies: Contesting the Identity of Hindustani Classical Music and Musicians in the Hindi Popular Cinema

Abstract

Toward end of V. Shantaram's 1955 classic and phenomenally popular Hindi film, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje, film's hero, Ghirdar, competes for artistic supremacy in kathak dance against another dancer, Ram Prasad. The competition (muqabala) proceeds in a series of virtuosic and overtly confrontational displays of dance prowess. The competing dancers employ all manner of rhythmic intricacy, speed, technique, dramatic gesture, loudness, and sheer self-assertiveness. Ghirdar's final triumph is ensured when he and his opponent engage in a series of simultaneous rhythmic turns, or chakkars, which are a standard feature of kathak performance practice. While Ghirdar maintains an elegant balance and poise during this performance, Ram Prasad becomes increasingly dizzy and disoriented, finally reeling from stage in defeat. Viewing this and other dance scenes in this film, it is easy to agree with Fredric Jameson (1992:10), who suggests that in a capitalist system, the quality of various forms of human activity ... has effectively been bracketed or suspended by market system, leaving all these activities to be ruthlessly reorganized in efficiency terms, as sheer means or instrumentality. Although Gopi Krishna, star of Ihanak Jhanak Payal Baje, was a highly respected classical kathak dancer of exceptional artistry, his prowess as a dancer throughout film is expressed in terms of quantitative extremes: his rhythmic compositions are longer and more complex, he dances faster, he leaps higher, he completes more turns, and so on. Thus comprised, and in terms of film's narrative, Krishna's quantifiable virtuosity is instrument by which his character overcomes all obstacles, thus ensuring both his artistic and romantic