Sadhona Bose in The Court Dancer (1941)

Posted by Richard S. on August 8, 2009
Posted in: Bollywood. 11 Comments

It was great to find this wonderful relic.  I love Sadhona Bose’s dancing and I love the music, and it is always great getting the chance to see Prithviraj Kapoor.  If you want to see more excerpts from this historic Wadia Movietones production and read a very interesting article on the subject, you should go to the excellent blog called The Cinema Corridor, an exclusive domain for the articles that Nivedita Ramakrishnan also posts to the Passion for Cinema blog.  Nivedita also has a YouTube station, Alaknada2007.  (Actually, that is where I first found her, as she left comments for some videos at my YouTube station.  I don’t pay as much attention to comments, etc., going on there as I do over at this blog, but this is a strong indication that I should!)

11 comments on “Sadhona Bose in The Court Dancer (1941)”

  1. This is the first I am hearing of Sadhana Bose. And I thought I knew every Indian dancer of repute…see I am still learning from you.
    What style of dancing is that? I can’t recognize it. It looks like a combination of Manipuri and Bharata Natyam or something.

    Wow Prithviraj when he was a Shammi..Way cool. Never saw that before either. By the time I saw him he was a robust Akbar in all of his movies.

  2. Thats a lovely lovely find. Sadhona Bose’s dance is soooo beautiful and I have never seen Prithviraj Kapoor look so young either! Just been over to Nivedita’s blog to peek at the other clips. Thanks for linking to her post – its a really interesting article that I’ll finish reading once I’ve had my required sleep quota!

  3. Hema, always nice to hear when someone is learning from me, since I am very much still learning myself. :) Sadhona Bose was quite an interesting star of yesteryear. If you do a search of her, you’ll find a bunch of good stuff. (I think it’s best to search under “Sadhona” (with an “o,” that is), but I have also read that the ’60s actress Sadhana was named after her!) I guess she is doing her own hybrid kind of dance…

    And yes, I guess that Prithviraj does look a little like Golden Age Shammi, doesn’t he? (Well, it would be another 19 years before Mughal-e-Azam…)

    Bollyviewer, you are welcome, glad you enjoyed that. Yes, her dance is very beautiful, and I was delighted myself by this find!

  4. I had heard of Sadhona Bose, but don’t remember having ever seen her onscreen… thank you for that. Her dancing is awesome, especially the mudras: beautiful!

    And it’s great to see Prithivraj Kapoor as a young man. I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to get hold of Sikandar, where I first saw a young and very handsome Mr Kapoor play Alexander the Great – unfortunately, the film doesn’t seem to be available anywhere, except for odd clips on youtube.

  5. Dustedoff, you are welcome.

    And, yes, it’s a bit frustrating not being able to find an old film that you want to see. On the other hand, it’s not too bad seeing odd clips on YouTube. :)

  7. It was nice to see Sadhana Bose. Thank you Nivedita. Keep up the good work.I saw “Alibaba r chollish chor” in Doordarshan, Calcutta long ago. It was starred by Madhu Bose and Sadhana Bose. The songs and dance became talk of the town as I heard from my grandfather ( paternal and maternal). Sadly Sadhana Bose had a disturbing end. Many say due to flamboyance and overspending Madhu and Sadhana Bose landed in financial trouble. After Madhu Bose’s death she used to stay in a rented apartment in Karnani mansion in Park Street Kolkata. Some eye-witnesses wrote in letter to editor section of Anandabazar Patrika, a leading bengali daily that they saw Sadhana Bose begging on Park Street. One sympathetic sarkari babu made her a ration card ( he wrote this in that daily). How cruel life can be ! Sadhana Bose was born into wealth and culture, lived as a diva and died as a pauper. Sad !

  8. Sadhana Bose was the granddaugher of the Brahmo Samaj leader Keshab Chandra Bose, In the film Court Dancer, she acted opposite Prithviraj Kapoor. Few of our film stars spoke English in the way he did. There was the othe star in that film Prathma Dasgupta. I also saw Sadhana Bose’s other film “Alibaba” directed by her husband Madhu Bose. I had not known that she had been forced into begging. But I had known that she had become an alcoholic and the HIndi and Bengali film star and singer of renown Kanan Devi took care of her in her last days.

  9. Arakere, thank you for the interesting info. It is nice to see that Kanan Devi took care of her. I am very fond of Kanan Devi’s screen presence and, especially, her singing (I would say she’s my favorite female singing star among those who preceded Noor Jehan), so it is good to see that she was probably a nice person too. :)

    And that Alibaba is also very interesting… I have seen a lot of the scenes from that film (if not the whole thing) and posted a number of clips here.

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