 Life after films
The year was 1982 or 83. We had just moved into our Besant Nagar flat near the Velankanni Church. Kalakshetra was a stone’s throw from our place and my wife Gowri was practising there regularly to sing for a production of Meera of Mewar that year. A couple of others had Kalakshetra connections either teaching or studying there, and so it happened that this lovely little thirteen-year-old, the daughter of an Irish mother and Bengali father, came to be visiting us regularly, even taking informal English lessons from my wife to help her do better in exams. She was a really bright kid, vivacious, talented and determined to do well in dance. Soon she impressed Rukmini Devi Arundale so much that she cast her as Andal in the eponymous dance drama at the annual art festival.
It was not long before Amala Mukherjee became one of the more popular students of Kalakshetra. She and her schoolmates like Valli Subbiah could be seen cycling back and forth in the Tiruvanmiyur-Adyar belt. When Amala’s family moved to Chennai, they took up residence in Valmiki Nagar, and soon their home became a shelter for most of the stray dogs and cats of the area. Amala could never resist these defenceless creatures whom she invited home at random. Physically very fit and supple, she was also an early practitioner of yoga and gymnastics. She could do incredible things with her flexible body.
As she was growing up, Amala began to do some fashion shows, more for fun than with any idea of taking up modeling as a career, I think, and one day she was spotted by a film director. A career in cinema beckoned, and before we knew it, she was a successful actress, breaking the hearts of her dance teachers in the process. They knew that cinema’s gain was dance’s loss, for she was a genuine talent.
Over the years, through her stint in the movies, marriage and settling down in Hyderabad, Amala has remained in touch with some of her old friends, especially her teachers. She still manages to watch some of the performances during the art festival at her alma mater. She has an eleven-year-old son, and leads a busy life in Hyderabad running an animal shelter and now teaching yoga, operating a centre of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram there. She is still very slim and fit, probably slimmer and fitter than she was in her youth, and is totally committed to her work.
Looking at her current passions, it is hard not to remember her childhood love of strays and ability to perform gymnastic tricks. In caring for animals, she has carried one of her former guru Rukmini Devi’s messages forward. She is one artiste who has managed to retire early from the arc lights and still contribute something worthwhile to the world around her.
V Ramnarayan
vramnarayan@gmail.com
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