Celebrating the 97th birth anniversary of Sitara Devi, Google today dedicated a colourful doodle to the eminent Kathak danseuse.
Born in 1920 in Kolkata, Devi drew inspiration from themes and poetry, which reflected in her choreographies.
Whether it was a town or a village, the intricacies of environment always fascinated her as an artiste and as an individual.
Devi was born as Dhannolakshmi to her father 'kathakar' and scholar Sukhdev Maharaj in a Brahmin family.
An iconoclast, she chose school and dance over an early wedding, against the norm in the 1920s.
Her father sent Devi to a local school where she impressed her teachers and the local media with her performance in dance drama, "Savitri Satyavan".
He rechristened her as Sitara after he learnt about her passion for dance and placed her under the care of her older sister, Tara, for Kathak training.
By the time Devi turned 11, the family had moved to Mumbai, where she impressed Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore with a three-hour solo recital. He gave her the sobriquet of the 'Kathak Queen'.
Over the next six decades, she became a force to reckon with in Kathak and a pioneer in bringing the genre to Bollywood.
She made her debut with the 1940 film "Usha Haran" and went on to star in "Nagina" (1951), "Roti", "Vatan" (1954) and "Anjali" (1957) among others.
Devi was last seen in the classic "Mother India" in 1957, where she performed a Holi dance dressed as a boy.
She received several honours for her contribution to Indian classical dance and music, which include - Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1969), Padma Shree (1973) and Kalidas Samman (1995).
She was also bestowed with a Padma Bhushan in 2002, which she refused to accept declaring, "It is an insult, not an honour. I will not accept any award less than Bharat Ratna."
Devi died in 2014 at the age of 94.
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