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Fifty Years in Symphony
A Celebration of Music and the Arts
Speaker
35 minutes | English | 2025
In 1975, the International Music and Arts Society opened with a Bharatanatyam performance by Vyjayanthimala Bali. Fifty years later, they mark the milestone with a film.
Fifty Years in Symphony: A Celebration of Music and the Arts traces the Society’s history through the voices of members, patrons, and partners who were integral to this journey. Filmmakers Biswajit Das and Sumit Das follow half a century of bringing Indian and foreign artistes to Bangalore. Founded by Rani Vijaya Devi at the suggestion of her brother, the Maharaja of Mysore, IMAS has sustained this work for five decades. This film is the record of their legacy.
The screening is followed by a talk by Leela Samson, Bharatanatyam performer, choreographer and writer, titled ‘The Essential Oneness of the Arts in India’. She suggests that a historical study of the art of dance in India would call for a complex inquiry involving several other disciplines. The essential inter-connectedness of the arts is one of the basic assumptions of classical Indian aesthetics. There are many things that bind us together inextricably and one intangible example is an aesthetic theory that is common to Indian literature, to poetics, to dramaturgy, to sculpture, music and dance.
Image Caption:
Annarosa Taddei and Rani Vijaya Devi performed together for the first time in Hong Kong in 1964. They then appeared together as a piano duo (on two pianos) in a number of concerts in Hong Kong and India. They broadcast for Radio Hong Kong and All India Radio and on television in Hong Kong. They performed together for the International Music and Arts Society in Bangalore in September 1975 and again in February 1992.
Presented by:
Speaker
Leela Samson
Leela Samson is a distinguished Bharatanatyam dancer who trained at Kalakshetra, Chennai (1961–67), earning a first-class diploma and later joining its repertory, performing widely in India and abroad. From 1975 to 2005, she taught in Delhi and developed Spanda, a body of choreographic work celebrated for its innovative yet rooted approach to Bharatanatyam.
Renowned for her precise nritta and sensitive abhinaya, she has performed at major dance festivals internationally. She served as Director of Kalakshetra (2005–2012), where she expanded its academic scope and led initiatives in publications, films, and archival documentation.
Leela has also held key cultural leadership roles as Chairperson of the Sangeet Natak Akademi (2010–2014) and the Central Board of Film Certification (2011–2015). An author of books including Rhythm in Joy and Rukmini Devi: A Life, she has also appeared in films such as O Kadhal Kanmani and others across Indian cinema.
She is the recipient of several prestigious honors, including the Padma Shri, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Nritya Choodamani, and Natya Kala Acharya.
