Minati Mishra

Biography

Minati Sharma, née Minati Das, was born in 1937 in Cuttack, in the Indian state of Odisha, to Basanta Kumar Das, a local school headmaster, as the youngest of his three children. She started learning dance and music at an early age, theme based dance under the tutelage of Ajit Ghosh and Banabihari Maity and Odissi from Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnayak, a known Odissi dancer. In 1950, Sharma started learning under Kelucharan Mahapatra, the renowned Odissi Guru.

In 1954, Minati Sharma joined Kalakshetra of Rukmini Devi Arundale, on a scholarship from the Government of Odisha, and learned Bharatanatyam for one year under Kutty Sarada and Peria Sarada. The next year, she joined the Indian Institute of Free Arts for training under Panda Wallur Pillai Chukkalingam and Minakshi Sunderam Pillai and debuted in 1956, the first of the several performances she rendered, during the next three years, at a number of major cities in India. In 1959, she got an opportunity to perform in Switzerland, on invitation from the International Photographic Association, and performed in Zurich, Luzern, Geneva and Winterthur. Three years later, she was awarded a doctoral degree in Indology from the Philipp University of Marburg, Germany for a thesis she prepared on the topic, Natyashastra. The next year, she was invited for a performance at the Berlin Film Festival of 1963.

Minati Mishra has acted in five Odia movies. The first among them, Suryamukhi was released in 1963, followed by four more movies, Jeevan Sathi, Sadhana, Bhai Bhauja and Arundhati. All the movies, except Bhai Bhauja, received the National Film Awards for the best regional cinema. She also acted in a 1963 Bengali movie, Nirjana Saikate in which she has performed an Odissi dance number choreographed by Kelucharan Mahapatra. Apart from her film career, she has also been an A Grade artist at the All India Radio and is a recipient of Sangeet Prabhakar title for Hindustani vocal music.

Soon after the death of her husband, Nityananda Mishra, who was an engineer, in 1980, Mishra retracted from dance performances and formally retired in 1990. She is settled in Switzerland and devotes her time for dance festivals, lecture tours and workshops in Switzerland, Canada and India.

Legacy

Minati Mishra has been the principal of the Utkal Sangeet Mohavidyalaya, Bhubaneswar from 1964 till 1989. During her tenure there, the institution regularised its curriculum, academically formalised odissi dance and music training, introduced theatrical aspects into the syllabus and established examination guidelines, all of which are reported to have helped in the revivial of Odissi. The stint at the institution also gave her opportunity to work alongside the first-generation gurus of Odissi such as Guru Pankaj Charan Das, Guru Deba Prasad Das and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra.

Noted for her expressive (Bhava) and dramatization (Abhinaya) skills, Mishra has tutored many known Odissi performers such as Gobind Pal, Durga Charan Ranbir, Chapala Mishra, Minakshi Behera, Anita Singhdeo, Bimbadhar Das and Sanjukta Das who have become Odissi gurus in their own rights.

Awards and recognitions

Minati Mishra is a recipient of the 1975 Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. She has also received the Kalinga Shastriya Sangeet Parishad Award and in 2000, she received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. In 2012, the Government of India included her in the Republic day honours list for the award of Padma Shri.