Subbulakshmi (dancer)

Subbulakshmi (dancer) Biography

Subbulakshmi is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer who appeared as a dancer of many Bollywood movies in the 1950s and 1960s. She along with her cousin Sayee formed the very famous Sayee Subbulakshmi pair, and apart from their regular appearance in Indian movies, they also performed together for live concerts. Sayee was her cousin, from her extended family, and three years younger to her. Sayee passed away in 2010 following breast cancer. Subbulakshmi taught Bharatanatyam to students after retiring from active career, and was awarded Kalaimamani award in 2000 for her services as a teacher.

Subbulakshmi belongs to a family with many members related to film industry. The cousins are the descendants of Panrutti Adilakshmi, mother of Carnatic singers P. A. Rajamani and P. A. Periyanayaki, known as Madras Sisters. R. Padma who appeared as a model of Lux soap ad in the 1940s is the mother-in-law of Sayee. The cousins learnt Bharathnatyam from Muthusami Pillai, who has remained as a film choreographer since late 1930s. When P. A. Periyanayaki approached Muthuswami Pillai for a dance sequence for a movie starring B. S. Saroja, she also requested the choreographer to train both girls to appear in the movie. Sayee was 5 years old and Subbulakshmi, 8 years old.

The girls took rigour training from Muthusami Pillai and later appeared in many movies. Pillai trained them for 7 years in between his film assignments. Later they continued their dance training from Gopi Krishna. Sayee and Subbulakshmi had their Arangetram on 14 September 1953 at R. R. Sabha Hall in Chennai. Malaikkallan (1954) marked their screen debut as dancers, and since then they appeared as background dancers or duo performers of Bharathnatyam for Hindi and south Indian language films. They were very popular for their sheer exuberance, expression, speed, precision, body control, grace and effortlessness .They also played a few minor roles onscreen.

In the 1950s, Sayee Subbulakshmi was the most sought dancing duo of Indian screen, and their screen presence faded in the 1960s when western dance forms started to rule the roost. Demand of classical dance forms went down slowly. Sayee was married to V. S. Santaram, eldest son of Lux beauty R. Padma. She died of breast cancer in 2010, and was survived by one son.

The duo had danced to the tunes of some of the leading composers of the time like Shankar Jaikishen, C. Ramachandra and many more. They also danced to the tunes composed by their guru Gopi Krishna for the movie, Bharosa - "Dhadka Ho Dil Dhadka Guzra Gali Se". In many instances when duo set fire on screen as dance performers, they were pictured as jugalbadhis or duets, and two leading female singers sang playback. For many Bollywood songs like "Dhadka Ho Dil Dhadka Guzra Gali Se" of Bharosa, , ‘Aji Chale Aao…of  Halaaku and "Man Bhawan Ke Ghar" of Chori Chori, the voices were provided by Mangeshkar sisters. “Joru Ka Ghulam" of Sharada, ‘Aplam Chaplam …’ and ‘Balliye Ni Balliye…’ of Azad etc are a few more hit numbers.

Published: October 01, 2018

Updated: October 01, 2018