New Delhi: Kathak Queen Sitara Devi passed away early Tuesday morning due to kidney failure at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai.
The 96-year-old danseuse has been fighting for her life for the last 5 weeks since she was admitted to the Cumballa Hill Hospital and Heart Institute in Mumbai. She was admitted with some abdominal and pancreatic complications and was operated about three weeks ago.
Post her operation, she seemed to recover, but unfortunately, her ailing body was not able to bear the stress of an operation and her condition deteriorated further. Later she was shifted to Jaslok Hopsital.
She was shifted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) two weeks ago and her condition has been failing further since then.
She was put on ventilator and other life support systems as her lungs had failed and she was unable to breathe on her own. On Sunday night, doctors reported that her kidneys had failed and that she would have to be put on dialysis post complete renal failure.
Her two dreams still remain unfulfilled – the first one was to act in a big-budget commercial Bollywood film and the second to start an Indian classical dance training institute of her own.
Born Dhannolakshmi in the family of Brahmin 'kathakar' Sukhdev Maharaj in Kolkata in 1920, Sitara Devi impressed Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore with a three-hour solo recital after her family moved to Mumbai.
She became a Kathak legend and is known as a pioneering force in bringing the genre to Bollywood.
She is the recipient of prestigious awards like Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, Padma Shri and Kalidas Samman.
May her soul rest in peace!
