![]() ![]() ![]() With her thorough grounding of classical dancing, she became the first heroine who could dance like a dream and set a new bench mark which made any actress entering the industry to have dancing skills. Unknowingly and without any predetermined agenda not only did Vyjayanthimala become a national heroine because of all the three debut films in different languages becoming super-hits, she ended up revolutionizing the image of the Hindi film heroine in a major way. So impressed were they with the 13-year-old girl’s stunning performance that they signed her for their Tamil film Vaazhkai. As luck would have it the makers of the film who were on the lookout for a fresh young face to be launched in their new film happened to spot the young Vyjayanthimala performing Bharatanatyam dance during a school function. Interestingly Vyjayanthimala was the heroine in all the three versions. She made her debut directly as a heroine and was catapulted to fame from her first film itself.īahar (Spring) was originally made in Tamil in 1949 as Vaazhkai, (Life) followed by its Telugu version Jeevitham (Life) in 1950 and the success of these two films made AVM’s Meiyaapan venture into making its Hindi version as well, in 1951. Vyjayanthimala, who was the daughter of a popular star of Tamil cinema Vasundhara Devi (who herself was a good dancer and singer), did not go through the process of becoming a child artiste. Many heroines of that era like the famous trio of Meena Kumari, Madhubala and Nargis started their career as child artistes and had to resort to working in films from a very young age to help provide for their family. The fact that Vyjayanthimala made her mark with a distinct identity amidst these highly talented actresses spoke volumes of her scintillating screen presence and that too in her debut film itself! The year 1951 is remembered for several landmark films like the Raj Kapoor Nargis starrer Awara, Dev Anand- Gita Bali starrer Baazi, Ashok Kumar’s 1 st double role film Afsana, Nargis- Dilip Kumar-Ashok Kumar love triangle Deedar, the Bhagwan-Geeta Bali superhit film Albela, the Dilip Kumar-Madhubala romantic film Tarana, etc. The man playing harmonium in the song is Shyam Kapoor, who was Guru Dutt’s assistant director in many films. A notable aspect about the song was that it was shot in a single day which proves how quick Sheila Vaz must have been to pick up the steps. The location of the song is the famous Worli Sea-face in Mumbai, which now has undergone so much of a face change. The song was choreographed by none other than Zora Sehgal who was also a mentor to Guru Dutt when he started out as a choreographer. The grace and fluidity of her movements make the song endearing and thoroughly enjoyable. Though the heroine of the film was Shakila who is trying to be wooed by the hero Dev Anand in this song, it is Sheila Vaz’s smiling face which has remained embedded in our memory all these years whenever we think of the song. ![]() This blog is a small tribute to this lovely dancer whose name will always be etched in the pages of Hindi cinema’s Golden Era. But she was always happy to know that her songs are played even today on YouTube and there are people who still remember her. Sheila Vaz quit the film world in 1960 when she got married to director Ramesh Lakhanpal after which she changed her name to Rama Lakhanpal and lived a life away from the arc lights with her family. Some of her dance clips are also missing and only audio is there. Probably the documentation of such dancers has not been done accurately and we have to rely on what is available on the internet. ![]() Though many articles state that the 1954 film Mayur Pankh was the first film she signed, I also came across a song from a 1952 film Maa, which had her dance number. She learnt dancing from a young age but faced a lot of opposition from her family when she wanted to enter films. Her family hailed from Goa and she was born in 1934 and grew up in Dadar, Mumbai. Many like Sheila Vaz have been associated with lovely songs and their faces are imprinted in our minds by association with these songs. Not many would probably know her by name because those days the dancers’ names did not always appear in the film credits but that does not take away the contribution or hard work of these dancers to make each song stand out. She worked for a short period of about eight years but was fortunate to have had some memorable songs picturized on her. I came across this news item only yesterday and realized how her graceful dancing steps light up our hearts even today when we watch and listen to her iconic songs on YouTube. Dancer Sheila Vaz (also known as Sheela Vaz) bid adieu to this world on 29 th June, 2022. ![]()
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