Mallika Sarabhai is an Indian classical dancer, activist and actress from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Daughter of a classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and space scientist Vikram Sarabhai, Mallika is an accomplished Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancer and performer who has specialized in using the arts for social change and transformation.

Early life and education

Mallika Sarabhai was born in Ahmedabad to Vikram Sarabhai and Mrinalini Sarabhai. She graduated from the St. Xavier's College, Ahmedabad with a degree in Economics. She then completed her MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 1974 and Doctorate in Organisational Behaviour from the Gujarat University in 1976. She is a noted choreographer and dancer and has also acted in a few Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati and international films.

Career

Sarabhai started to learn dancing when she was young and started her film career in the parallel cinema when she was 15. Mallika played the role of Draupadi in the Peter Brook's play The Mahabharata. She has won many accolades during her long career, the Golden Star Award is one of them, which she won for the Best Dance Soloist, Theatre De Champs Elysees, Paris 1977. As well as a dancer, Sarabhai is a social activist. She manages the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts located at Ahmedabad, a centre for the arts and for the use of arts as a language for behaviour change.

Films

She acted in a Gujarati movie titled "Mena Gurjari" released on 30 August 1975. Rajiv was her hero in that movie. Movie was based upon a Gujarati Folklore.

She acted in the Prakash Mehra's Himalay Se Ooncha opposite Sunil Dutt which was released in 1975. In 1986, she acted in the Basu Chatterji's directed movie titled Sheesha opposite Mithun Chakraborty.

In 2009, Sarabhai acted in an Indian adaptation Bertolt Brecht's of The Good Person of Szechwan (Ahmedabadki Aurat Bhali-Ramkali) directed by Arvind Gaur in 34th Vikram Sarabhai International Art Festival.

Television

Sarabhai has also used film and television for social change, especially for women's empowerment and environmental consciousness. Through Darpana Communications, she has been responsible for the production of three thousand hours of TV broadcast programming, all of which has been shown through Doordarshan, Gujarati. The programming uses the most popular genres of TV. She has anchored many shows on STAR TV and Doordarshan as well as the first NACO series on HIV, Talk Positive; the science series Turning Point; Vaividhyotsav, the culture quiz and Srishti: The Environment Quiz.

In 1989, she performed hard-hitting solo theatrical works, Shakti: The Power of Women. She eventually lost to L K Advani by a huge margin and forfeited her election deposit in the process.

She protested against Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi during Sadbhavna Mission in September 2011. She accused Narendra Modi of scuttling the petition filed in Supreme court by her on the 2002 Gujarat violence.

Personal life

Mallika met Bipin Shah in 1982 and married him. They have two children, a son, Revanta and a daughter Anahita. They divorced in 1989.

Bipin and Mallika co-founded Mapin Publishing in 1984 and continue to run it together. The loss of her mother, classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, in 2016, left her bereft; yoga, dance, Transcendental Meditation (TM) and Non-Violent Communication (NVC) were some of the ways that she coped.

She is the cousin of Indian politician and member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Subhashini Ali, daughter of her mother's sister Captain Lakshmi Sehgal (née Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan) and Colonel Prem Sehgal. Her brother is environmental educator and director of Centre for Environment Education (CEE) Kartikeya Sarabhai.

Honour

  • Government of Gujarat awarded her with 'Gaurav Puraskar' for the contribution in the field of drama and dance.
  • She received the Padma Bhushan by government of India.
  • The French Government awarded her with a knight's rank in the Order of Academic Palms in 2005 for her contribution in the field of drama and dance.

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File:Mallika-sarabhai-during-performance-saarang-2011-iit-madras.jpg|Performing Saarang in 2011, Indian Institute of Technology Madras

File:Mallika sarabhai with m t vasudevan nair.JPG|With M. T. Vasudevan Nair

File:Mallika Sarabhai.JPG

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See also

  • Indian women in dance
  • Sarabhai family
  • Vikram Sarabhai
  • Mrinalini Sarabhai
  • Jan Lokpal Bill

References

Further reading

  • India's 50 Most Illustrious Women () by Indra Gupta
  • Mallika Sarabhai's personal website
  • Welcome to World of Darpana