S onal Mansingh – A Life like NoOther ( Penguin Random House) is author, civil servant and admirer Sujata Prasad’s quest to unravel the cherished journey of Bharatanatyam and Odissi dancer Sonal Mansingh. Sujata Prasad studied history at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and has dabbled in classical music and dance. She debuted as an author with a volume on health security, followed by a novella-like memoir for children.
Prasad has also been a frequent commentator on performing arts and gender related issues. In this biography, Sujata Prasad records various terrains in the tumultuous life of the celebrated dancer. Excerpts from an interview.
Why Sonal Mansingh and what qualities of her art appeal to you?
The irresistible ache of nostalgia. I am part of a starry-eyed generation that adored her. Her dance has been part of my life for what feels like my entire lifetime. And some things just happen. I was planning to work on a book on the political economy of Bihar when a chance meeting and revelatory glimpses of her extraordinary life suddenly changed my priority. In a sense her irresistible charm, candour and certitude of opinions worked their magic on me. It was a leap of faith. I really did not know how it would go. What appeals to me most is the incandescent energy that flows into her art, the emotional intensity that precedes every new creation and the fact that her art is driven by her mind.
What should a good biography do?
A good biography should have a novelist’s eye for detail. It should be authentic and intimate. And finally, it must tell it like it was by recreating the past evocatively.
From editing public policy journals to writing research paper on health and gender, this biography is a huge leap. How did you decide the tone of the book?
I have dabbled with the arts for a long time. My mother was an accomplished singer. My own life has been enveloped in a tangy marinade of classical music and dance. So in a sense this book helped consecrate my love for the classical arts. For my research, I drew on classical mythology, colonial studies, dance history, philosophy and classical literature and this, broadly speaking, helped me adjust the lens. It certainly was a tightrope walk.
Biographies more often than not are hagiographies and in India, there is a tradition of veneration when the subject is a classical dancer or musician. How did you deal with these issues ?
Well, I must confess that I was in love with my subject and most of the time was content to just sit with her shooting the breeze. I wrote the book at a time when I was dealing with a tough assignment as Financial Advisor to a couple of economic ministries. My father was slowly dying and I was dealing with post-menopause body neuroses. It was a turbulent period. I plunged into her life with ferocity and it became my place of refuge. My book however does reflect on the dilemmas and dichotomies of her life and I would like to think that my portrait is not all saccharine.
Artistes also have a persona or a self they like to project. How did you capture the woman behind the artiste?
Sonal has a very real and distinctive aura — sharp, outspoken, irreverent, and acerbically witty, without any prima donna hang-ups. She is stripped of any artifice with an incredible almost brutal candidness. If she was discomfited by the idea of sharing her life, she certainly did not show it. Stitching our non-linear conversations into a coherent track was the real challenge. I let them nestle in my mind for days, decoding them in a slow, crab-like fashion on long-haul flights, swivelling round my chair in office during lunch and during sleepless nights spent in the convalescent calm of my father’s room...
The book blends personal memory with history of post-Independence India and also comments on the classical arts scene in the country. Tell us a bit about that.
This book should give readers from Sonal Mansingh’s generation, a sense of déjà vu. There are several revealing vignettes on the expanding classical arts universe in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and the shrinking, anorexic performing arts spaces in the current times. Her earliest musical memories are of music congregations at the Raj Bhavans, where she grew up. Memories of Siddheshwari Devi, Pt. Omkarnath Thakur, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Faiyaz Hussain Khan, Sarod maestro Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, Ustad Vilayat Khan, M. S. Subbulakshmi and the senior Dagar brothers, Moinuddin and Aminuddin who were invited frequently for baitaks. There is an interesting anecdote about Pt. Jasraj, who gave his first public recital on her twenty-first birthday, guided by his brother, Pt. Maniram. And yes, even though the primary focus of my book is Sonal Mansingh, the book is densely annotated with the history of the period she has lived through. She belongs to the famous Pakvasa family from Gujarat. Her grandfather, Mangaldas Pakvasa, was a close confidante of Mahatma Gandhi. Post-Independence, he was appointed Governor of the Central Provinces and Berar, followed by terms as Governor of Bombay and Mysore. Sonal herself went through a very distinct Socialist phase and a direct engagement with the politics of dissent during the Emergency. In the 1990s, she was deeply involved with a group of performing artistes, writers and poets, collectively known as ‘Artists against Communalism’.
Were there any moments of conflict, disruption while writing?
Yes, my subject deals in extremes so I had to weather several stormy moments. Her temper frays easily, her anger can often be apocalyptic. Sometimes when I contradicted her I felt sucked into a gladiatorial space where, speared by her remarks, I nearly perished. But most of the time she was utterly adorable and supportive even while quibbling about the enormous time I was taking.
Are there any biographies that you often turn to?
I like exploring extraordinary lives, even fictional ones with pesky allegiance to known facts. So I often turn to Leopold Bloom’s interior monologues in James Joyce’s Ulysses . I like the trippy uncertainty of Meursault in Albert Camus’s The Outsider and the narrative arc of Sarah Bakewell’s At the Existentialist Cafe based on the lives of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. I have enjoyed reading The Imperfect Life of T. S. Eliot , a literary biography by Lyndall Gordon.
My friend S Kalidas’s small biography of Begum Akhtar is riveting. I am currently browsing through Everything She Wants , the second volume of Charles Moore’s authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, a bit of a capricious choice.
The book, Sonal Mansingh — A Life Like No Other , published by Penguin, will be launched on May 2 at the Yatra Kala Festival, Kamani Auditorium, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi. Prof Ralph Buultjens will release the book. On the occasion, the senior dancer will present ‘Pancha Kanya’, tales of women from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Ekal Naatya style (solo dance theatre). With the World Dance Day being celebrated tomorrow, the launch is well-timed and is a beautiful way to capture the life and journey of one of the most prolific and thinking performers. Biographies on such artistes can be viewed more as a cultural marker that bring into focus classical arts and their timeless appeal.
(Kunal Ray teaches contemporary literature at FLAME University, Pune and writes on art and culture)
