Niharbala(1899-1955)
- Actress
One of the brightest stars to shine over the Bengal stage, Niharbala
was born in 1999 to Kishori Mohan Sarkar and Nirada. Nihar was lucky in
the sense that she was given due recognition by her father and was
given his name and did not suffer the indignity of being known only as
a daughter of Miss Nirada. However, it was the mother who was in charge
of bringing up the child and as such Nihar was brought to the theatre
at the age of nine. She quit the stage after some time and was given
training in music by Gouri Shankar Mishra. Thereafter she rejoined the
stage around 1917 and here she received dancing lessons side by side
her stage performances. She performed in different theaters of Calcutta
and in 1923 history was created with her role as Niyoti in the play
Karnarjun. Her songs like Kalprabaha Chale Dhire, Ami Kakhan Bhangi
Kakhan Gari and Pran Heena Putul Samaan were great hits and the songs
published as gramophone records. In 1925, Niharbala went to Burma as
part of Star Theatre group. Karnarjun and Iraner Rani were the two
plays staged in Burma. Rabindranath Tagore witnessed her performance in
Chirakumar Sabha and was extremely pleased to note that Nihar sang
Tagore songs in proper tune and spirit and he gave five more of his
songs for the play to be sung by Niharbala. On the stage she became an
automatic choice to play singing roles in plays based on Tagore
stories. This also led to her recording Tagore songs for The Gramophone
Company. In an illustrious career stretching over three decades,
Niharbala acted in Rakhibandhan, Chhinnahaar, Apsara, Sadhabar
Ekadashi, Muktir Daak, Joydeb, Chandidas, Prafulla, Bandini, Rupkumari,
Bibaha Bibhrat, Mrinalini, KapalKundala and several other plays with
great success and in her period had no rival be it in acting or singing
or dancing. Niharbala's entry into films was through a short film
Chandrasekhar where she had noted dramatist Aparesh Chandra
Mukhopadhyay as her co star in 1921. Her other memorable film
appearances include Mishar Rani (1924), Kelor Kirti (1928), Debdas
(1928), Prahlad (1931), Chand Saudagar (1934), Bidyasundar (1935),
Selima (1935) and Abartan (1936). In 1944, while on a tour of South
India she happened to visit Pandichery and then onwards became a
regular visitor to Shri Aurobinda's Ashram there. In 1950 she decided
to move out of the limelight and settled as a resident of the
Pondichery Ashram. Here she took part in cultural activities and gave
music and dance lessons to young ashramites. At Pondicherry , on the
7th of March 1955, Niharbala suffered a heart attack and left for her
heavenly abode. She was survived by a brother and his family.
