Kalpana is a 1948 Indian Hindi-language dance film written and directed by dancer Uday Shankar. It is his only film. The story revolves around a young dancer's dream of setting up a dance academy, a reflection of Shankar's own academy, which he founded at Almora. It starred Uday Shankar and his wife Amala Shankar as leads. Kalpana was the first film to present an Indian classical dancer in the leading role, and was entirely shot as a dance ballet and a fantasy. It was shown at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI-Goa) (2008), as a part of the section "Treasures from NFAI" (National Film Archive of India), with other "rare gems" from the archives.

Cast

Songs

The music was composed by Vishnudas Shirali, and the lyrics were penned by Sumitranandan Pant. The Bhil folk songs were written by Devilal Samar.

Notable dancers

Comments

Well known Tamil actress and dancer, Lakshmikantham, credited in the film as "Lakshmi Kanta" plays Kamini. 16-year-old actress Padmini and along with her sister Lalitha. Tamil dancer and actress Yoga of the Yoga-Mangalam sisters makes an appearance as a dancer credited as "Yogam". Small role actress P. K. Saraswathi credited as "Saraswathi" also appears as a dancer. Gopal Rao, who played a small role in Thyaga Bhoomi (1939 film), also plays a small role. Finally, Usha Kiran made her debut into films in this movie, credited as "Usha". Satyajit Ray was said to have watched this film 16 times.

Restoration

In 2009, the film process of digital restoration was taken up by NFAI in collaboration with France-based Thomson Foundation. In 2010, it was being restored by the World Cinema Foundation (director Martin Scorsese is a founding member). The restored film was released in home video format by the Criterion Collection.