Kalpana (1948 film)
Kalpana is a 1948 Hindi film featuring a dance-drama, written and directed by noted 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 and 16-year-old actress Padmini, making her screen debut. It also marks Usha Kiran's debut film too.
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 , as a part of the section "Treasures from NFAI", with other "rare gems" from the archives.
Cast
- Uday Shankar as Udayan & Writer
- Amala Uday Shankar as Uma
- Lakshmi Kanta as Kamini
- Dr. G. V. Subbarao as Drawing Master
- Birendra Banerji as Noor
- Swaraj Mitter Gupta as Ramesh
- Anil Kumar Chopra as Madan & School Teacher
- Brijo Behari Banerji as Uma’s Father
- Chiranjilal Shah as Gope
- Devilal Samar as Sundar
- K. Mukerjee as Grandfather
- Dulal Sen as Mama
- G. V. Karandikar as Producer
- Nagen Dey as Mill Owner
- Ganesh Banerji as Theater Manager
- Syd Jalaluddin as Mukhiya
- Farman Ali as Young Udayan
- Begam Zamarudh as Young Uma
- Yousuf Ali as Young Noor
Lalitha, Krishnan Nair, Padmini, Krishna Namboodiri, Saraswathi, Neelakanta Sharma, Shakuntala, Popatlal Gupta, Suniti Kowshik, Narasing Rao, Jayalakshmi, Upendra Singh, Rani Bai, Ramakant Singh, Rajeswari, Chellappan, Yogam, Karunakaran Nair, Ramanamma, Narayan Kunju, Sudha Kowshik, Pandurangi, Leela, Raghavan, Usha, Vasudev Namboodiri, Lakshmi, Gopal Rao, Anasuya, Bhaskar Rao, Kamala, Vasan, Krishna Pillai, Rammoorthy, Narayan Panicker, Ramakrishna Kurup, Radhakrishna Nair, K. Raman Pillai, Shivasankara Nair, Raman Pillai, Keshav Namboodiri, Ajoy Chaliha, Shivaram Panicker, Deviprasad Ghatak, Raju, K. Bhaskar Pillai, Vittal Dass, Bhaskaran Pillai, Venkateswar Rao, Damodaran Pillai, Abdul Azeez, Kuttan Pillai, Amir Khan.
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.| Song Title | Singer | Lyricist | Length |
| Bharat Jai Jan Bharat | Everyone | Devilal Samar | 03:48 |
| Behti Ja Behti Ja Sarite | Devilal Samar | 03:21 | |
| Kya Kahoon | Devilal Samar | 02:15 | |
| Bhil Folk Song | Devilal Samar, Sumitranandan Pant | ||
| Deep Jalao | Devilal Samar | 03:19 | |
| Hindustan Ka Bal Hai Hal | Devilal Samar | 02:55 | |
| Sadiyo Ki Behoshi | Devilal Samar | 02:57 |