Lachhu Maharaj

For the musician, see Lachhu Maharaj (musician).

{{Infobox musical artist |name = Lachhu Maharaj |image = Lachhu Maharaj 2001 stamp of India.jpg |image_size = 245px | caption = Maharaj on a 2001 stamp of India |background = non_performing_personnel |birth_name = |alias = |birth_date = 1901 (1901) |birth_place = Varanasi |death_date = 1978 (aged 70–71) |origin = India |instrument = |genre = [[classical music and dance )) |occupation = Classical Kathak Nritya Acharaya |years_active = |label = |associated_acts = |website = |current_members = |past_members = }} Pandit Lachhu Maharaj (1907–1978) was an Indian classical dancer (Kathak Acharya ).He was also known as Lasya Nritya Samrat .He was having beautiful and graceful kathak style.He had trained many more kathak dancers in India and abroad .Lachhu Maharaj did lots of great work in to bench mark movies. He was master of grace ,beauty and elegance in kathak . He was not only kathak dancer bust also a great author and poet .He was having command over English or Urdu and Hindu language .He was the founder of Lucknow kathak Kendra ,Lucknow . He opened Kathak kendra in 1972 after returning from Mumbai His work was so natable.He was master of his art form .In Kalka Bindadin family he was the only one who did universo kathak in to this World . 4and choreographer of Kathak. He came from a family of illustrious Kathak exponents in Lucknow, and also worked as film choreographer, Hindi cinema, most notably Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Pakeezah (1972). He was awarded the 1957 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest award for performing artists, conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama.He was the uncle and Guru of Pt Birju Maharaj .Who is very famous in this world .For Lachhu Maharaj kathak was not an Art even the art of life . He was having lots of disciples .Lachhu maharaj refused to take Padmashri because of his dignity .Maharaj also trained famous Bollywood heroins of that time Madhubala,Meena kumari, Rekha, vaijaynti mala etc .Maharaj ji did lost of work on Kathak bellets too He had trained many more famous kathak dancers like as Rama Devi Lachhu Maharaj his wife Smt Kapila Raj former director of Kathak kendra Lucknow Rohini Bhate Damayanti Joshi Sitara Devi Gopi krishna Maharaj Madhurata Sarang PD Aashirvaadam Dr Padma Sharma Rajakumar Katkar Teerth Azmani Saradini Gole Kumkum Adarsh Kumkum Dhar Meena Nandi Malvika Sarkar Shashi Bhardwaj Shannu Maharaj Omprakash Maharaj Savita Godbole And many more .

Early life and training

He received extensive training from Pandit Bindadin Maharaj, his uncle and the court dancer of the Nawab of Awadh, for nearly ten years. He also learnt the Pakhawaj, the Tabla and Hindustani Classical vocal music.

Career

Later, he moved to Mumbai, where the emerging film industry helped him to bring Kathak to a far wider audience. Lachhu Maharaj was acclaimed for the choreography of dance sequences in movies like Mahal (1949), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Chhoti Chhoti Baten (1965) and Pakeezah (1972) as well as his ballets like Goutam Buddha, Chandravali and Bharatiya Kissan. He was also the founder Director of the Kathak Kendra started by the Uttar Pradesh Government in Lucknow.

Awards

Among many prestigious awards he won were the Presidents' Award and the 1957 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest award for performing artists, conferred by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama.

Legacy

In September 2007, a two-day festival was organized in Lucknow to celebrate his birth centenary, in presence of his wife Rama Devi, his disciples like Nalini and Kamalini, a book on him was also released and students of the dance institution he founded, Kathak Kendra staged a ballet, Megh Malhar.

See also

• List of Kathak dancers

External links

• Lachhu Maharaj at IMDb