‘Can the girl dance?’, This question was repeatedly asked to Akshay Nandi by the great dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar. As soon as he asked, the teenage girl started to dance to the rhythm. Name Amla Nandi. Akshay Nandi, father of the little girl Amla, laughed. Jahuri Uday Shankar did not delay a single moment to give a chance to disperse the latent talent. At one time this little girl became the legendary dancer Amala Shankar. Since then, the Uday Shankar-Amala Shankar duo has enhanced the country’s prestige on the international stage for several decades. Uday Shankar passed away in 1986. Indian dance became empty. After nearly four decades, this time his wife Amla also set out for Amritlok, emptying the lap of Bengali dance. Amala Shankar breathed her last at her residence on 24th July, 2020, Friday morning. She was 101 years old. According to family sources, She had been suffering from geriatric disease for a long time, died of cardiac arrest in her sleep.
Amla was born on 26th June 1919 in Jessore, undivided India. As a child, little Amala got acquainted with art with the inspiration of her father Akshay Kumar Nandi. In 1931, at the age of eleven, she took part in the International Colonial Exhibition in Paris. Introduced to Uday Shankar there. Later, she returned to the country and started taking dance training near Uday. In 1942, they were tied in seven knots. The couple’s popularity continues to grow after marriage. Amla also acted in Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1947). The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Apart from dancing and acting, Amala Shankar was quite skilled in drawing.
In 1991, Amala Shankar was conferred the Padma Bhushan. She won many other recognitions and prestigious awards for her extraordinary feat in the field of dancing. Amala Shankar was awarded the Banga Bibhusan by the West Bengal government in 2011 for her contribution in the field of arts.
The artist’s daughter Mamata Shankar, daughter-in-law Tanushree Shankar and granddaughter Srinanda Shankar are still carrying on the family’s ‘legacy’. The artiste’s last rites were performed at the Keoratala Mahasmashan on Friday afternoon in full state honors on behalf of the state government.
Shantanu Dutta
Journalism and Mass Communication department
Vidyasagar College. (1st Year)
