A GREAT DANCER DANCES OUT OF THIS LIFE TO DANCE IN A BETTER WORLD

Ali Peter John

I am guilty .I had promised myself to write  a proper piece on Saroj Khan.I had met  her may be hundreds of times .

I had seen how she dance , how she made others dance and dance their ways to dizzy heights because of the steps they had taken according to her guidance. I had talked to  her each time I met her during the shooting of one of her dance sequences and I kept mentioning her in my column and some of the articles I wrote about people and films I was witness to.I kept postponing my  promise to write about  her and then I was out  of action and couldn't visit studios and watch shooting and talk to stars and star  -makers after I met  with that ghastly accident which put an end to all my  moments .And now look  at what has happened !

 "Master ji"Saroj khan  has danced her way  into eternity and I  have to keep the promise I made myself and I have to write  what  may read  like an obituary but is certainly not . It is and will be and must be seen as the piece I would have written when she was alive and so very full of the joy of living and dancing which was not only her way  of life or making  a living,but was life itself for her.

I remember Saroj Khan  ever since I started my  career but I came to know her  better only after  I  met  her during the shootings of films made by Boney Kapoor, Subhash Ghai ,N.Chandra and Rajiv Rai  among many others. We first talk  at length during the picturization of the song, "Kaate nahi  kate din ye raat "from  'Mr.India "in which  she was giving a new life to  Sridevi and their were several times during the sensuous dance performed by Sridevi when I  and many  like me wondered whether "Master ji" was better when showing Sridevi her steps and moments or whether Sridevi was . I don't have to say how that  one dance made a very big difference to Sridevi's career.

One afternoon we sat in one of the make-up rooms at the Filmistan Studio and she told me a little about herself....Saroj (also known as Nirmala)was born a Hindu with her name, Saroj  Kishinchand Sadhu Singh Nagpal and had crossed over from Pakistan with her family .She had played her first role as  a three year old girl in a  film called "Nazarana".

Dancing, she said came  to her  naturally and she had started by dancing in a group of dancers. Sohanlal,a leading choreographer of the  sixties was her guru who not only taught her how to take dancing in films seriously,but also married her even though there was a big age gap between them and the marriage didn't last long. She then married Sardar Roshan Khan  and had two daughters and a son .Her  husband died and she was a mother who brought up her  children all on her own.

She got her first break as a choreographer in a film called "Geeta Mera Naam "which was directed by the very popular actress of the sixties, Sadhana and then their was no  stopping Saroj Khan from dancing the dance of success. It is beyond imagination to believe that she choreographs two thousand films in forty years and worked with all the leading directors and stars both male and female....

She will  be best remembered for the dances that she choreographed for the films made by directors like Yash Chopra,Subhash Ghai ,N.Chandra and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

She literally changed the career graphs of actresses like Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala, Meenakshi Sheshadari, Aishwarya Rai  and ......How many more names should I take ? She was  also  at her best when choreographing  the dances of actors  like Govinda ,Shah Rukh Khan who called her  his first teacher in the industry, Akshay Kumar and even  Amitabh Bachchan.

When she was Incharge of a dance sequence ,even the best and the most experienced directors had to sit back and leave her to herself  till  the dance or the song  and dance was  picturized. She had complete command over the camera and knew how to use it to  get evey  sequence in a dance captured to  perfection. It was exciting to see a woman calling the shots when there were big male directors who  had so much confidence in her that  they had no  other choice but to let  her have her  way .It was the best tribute paid  to her talent which many  directors and stars said had no  other parallel or alternative and she never once failed to live upto the expectations people had of her.

There  were other dance directors who were in the competition with her, like P.L.Raj , Vijay-Oscar, Chinni Prakash, Shiamak Dawar and a young competitor like Vaibhavi Merchant, but the competition didn't make any difference  to the woman who  was accepted and respected as "The Queen Of Dance "

With  all the talent she was blessed with and how she got the best from other talented artists, she had  to  win  awards and laurels all over and she crowned it all by being  the first choreographer to win three  National Awards and eight Filmfare Awards .She  deserved a biopic on her  life ,but she was happy with a docudrama made on her life and her  passion, dance.

I could write a book about her if I  had spent more time with her and if she had more time to spend with me,but that was not to be beacuse or some conspiracy hatched by time and it will  be one of the major regrets of my life and career.

I remember how I had asked about her being converted to Islam and she could tell me the real story only after years  of my first meeting with her. She said she was  a Hindu, but  had decided to get  converted to Islam  because she didn't find all the reasons to be happy as a Hindu.In her story she told me about her conversion she had said that  she had gone to the Jumma Masjid in Bombay and told the Muslim clerics that  she wanted to get converted. They asked her  if she was forced or pressurised to get converted and she had said that she was doing it out of her own free will.

She had also told me how she had told the clerics that she had lost her baby girl who she saw in her dream in which her baby kept calling her from inside a Masjid  asking her to come and join her. I had forgotten this story told by her till  this morning when news  about her going away from this life spread all over and my young friend from Dubai, Zain Hussain who keeps in touch with everything and everyone associated with the film industry called me and confirmed the story about Saroj Khan's conversion. Two  hours later, I  saw Saroj giving a live interview and I heard her  telling the same story about her conversion.

There maybe many other stories about the choreographer who everyone who was anyone and even those who were noone respected in the same manner,but know those untold stories will have to remain untold.

I was guilty when I started writing this tribute to Saroj ji  or "Master ji"as she was popularly known,I still feel  guilty, but I hope a little of my guilt is washed away after  this little attempt I have made to  make up  for what I couldn't do for her when she was here  alive, alert and on the move all the time which she said was what kept her kicking . Dancing, she had said was the best panacea for all ills, pains and even depression. It is difficult to believe in what she believed, but  what's wrong in giving her  believe a try ?

And whenever someone very dear and close  dies, I am  tempted  to  believe in what my favourite human being Dev Anand once said and I give you what  he had said about death which he had a strange hate and love relationship with. He had told me, "why do people make death look so scary and something to be sorrowful about ? Why can't we think that there could  be a  better life waiting to welcome us after we leave this world ? "

I don't believe in illusions like heaven or hell, but there  are  times when I  would like to believe in such illusions. And this is one time when I  would like to believe that there is a heaven and  Saroj Khan has been welcomed into that  heaven by a group of angels who dance according to the movements she had taught Madhuri and all the other actresses on earth.

Thank you, heaven for welcoming a favourite woman of our  earth  !