Hema Malini, the evergreen Bollywood star or rather super star proved to the Boston area that age indeed has not withered her star power. The Hema Malini magic shone brightly at the Hanover Theater in Worcester, Ma where hundreds watched Hema Malini light up the stage with her magnetic personality as she potrayed the character of Sati, Parvathy and Durga in a classical dance ballet  - Durga. The show was held on Monday, June 30, 2014. 

Everything about Hema Malini is always larger than life and the show was no exception. Fabulous background images synchronized perfectly to the music, grand props and beautifully tailored costumes that were designed to suit every mood in the dance helped transport the audience to another Yuga when the Great Goddess was enacting Her Leelas. 

The music for the production was a semi-classical Hindi composition with lyrics by Ravindra Jain.  The dance was of a very light classical nature with Chakkars in the Kathak style being very central to the creation. The choreography was crafted to showcase the beauty of Hema Malini and make her role as the Goddess very believable.  The role of Shiva was played by Kuchipudi dancer Murthy, student of Vempatti Chinna Satyam who became famous for dancing the Shivashtakam , which was the title song of the serial Nupur, Hema Malini’s Ode to classical dance .  The  perfect casting of male dancers for the role of Madana, Mahishasura, Dakhsha, Narada and Shiva  enhanced the theatrical nature of the presentation. 

 

Hema Malini’s charisma clearly cast a spell on the audience that rose to give her a standing ovation. The show was preceded by performances by four dances choreographed by local choreographers Nikita Rao, Jasmine Shah, Mahi Arora and Urvi Pathak. Shuchita Rao and Mahi Arora served as mcees for this part of the presentation. Boston's own nightingale presented a beautiful invocatory number in the Raag Durga. 

What came after the presentation was truly heart warming. Hema ji is an ardent devotee of the Goddess and everyday recites the Durga Saptashathi. She had memorized the entire verse and was able to recite it on stage.  The blessings of the Goddess was upon her.  It is hard to believe that even at the age of 67 she keeps a grueling schedule of performing at least 3 – 4 shows a month. 

“Hema Malini is very passionate about everything she does. She is a true Karma Yogi. She just does what she likes and does not worry about the consequences,” says Chakravarthy, her brother who introduced the piece. Her cousin, Prabha Raghavan was the director for the production. “Hema ji gives her 200% to the production. She expects that we will give at least 100% of ourselves to it” said Raghavan.  All the dancers were raving about Hemaji ‘s support for them. “I just had a baby. Hema ji strongly encouraged me to continue to dance and not give up my passion. She is very supportive of women and her dancers” said one of the lead dancers. 

I also had a chance to chat with Hema Malini about Ekal Vidyalaya, for which she has served as a brand ambassador. “Ekal is a cause very close to my heart” said Hema Malini. After winning the elections from Mathura she is looking to bring about development to her constituency. I had a conversation with her about the use of technology for rural development and she was very open and excited to hear about innovative opportunities. 

We pray that the Lord blesses this star to continue shining  brightly as she transforms the world with her positive energies.

The program of this magnitude was made possible  due to the hard work put in by a large team including Suresh Sharma from Milan, Anil Chawla of Boston Sargam, Prashanth and Anuradha Palakuthi,  Rajesh Bhutani, Praveen Misra, Anit Gupta, Ashwini Misra, Bibek Das, Meena Gada, Lata Kumar, Himani Chawla, Maddie Phadke, Vaishali Sabnis, Jaya Asthana, Sanjay and Bela Kaul, Upendra Mishra, Shobha Shastry, Nikhil Ghokale.  It was also an honor for me and Anil to be part of this team. 

We look forward to other such presentations in the future.