75 Years of Indian Cinema Compress

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75
Years of
Indian Cinema
Firoze S:angoonwalla
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INDIAN BOOK COMPANY

:NEW DELHI
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Digitized by Google UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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© Firoze Rangoonwalla, 1975
Published by Indian Book Company, 36 C, Connaught Place, New

Delhi 110001 and printed at Mechanical Type Setters and Printers,
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(P) Ltd., _O khla Industrial Estate, New Delhi 110020
PRINTED IN INDIA
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Contents
PREFACE 7
1 The Beginnings 9
1896-1899
2 A Decade of Shorts 15
1900-1909
3 Feature Films, in Embryo 22
1910-1919
_ 4 Silent Era, in Bloom 45
The Twenties : 1920-1929
5 Talkie Comes and Conquers 70
The Thirties : 1930-1939
6 War, Freedom and After 108
The Forties: 1940-1949
7 New Audiences, New Tastes 132
The Fifties : 1950-1959
8 · Back to Adolescence ? 148
The Sixties and After : 1960-1975
INDEX 160
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Preface
THE Indian cinema industry, which is now the biggest
in the world, by way of quantity of output, has traversed
a long course, marked by the forgotten efforts of countless
people and the faded signs of innumerable phases and
trends. ·
The motion pictures were first imported and exhibited
in India on July 7, 1896. The earliest shorti films to be
photographed in India were by unknown foreign camera-
men in 1897. An Indian ventured to make his own short
films in 1899. India's first narrative feature came in 1912.
And the ,Indian talkie film arrived iri 1931.
From these pioneering and feeble attempts to the big
output, colour, gloss, escapism, mediocrity as well as· artistic
achievement of today has been a long journey indeed.
But this fascinating story has not ye1! been recorded in a
true, detailed, systematic and lucid way, as it deserves
to be.
75 Years of Indian Cinema is an attempt to fill this
gap and tell the real history of _the cinema in India, through
all the noteworthy phases and landmarks in its emergence,
evolution and development, along with keeping a critical
eye on its success and failure, merits and demerits.
The book traces the growth of the cinema in India over
seven and a half decades, bringing out its various aspects
and lines of historical interest, in a chronological manner.
It is also a highly authentic record, being based on the
author's first-hand research, the newspaper files of several
years in different centres and other original source material
from his own big collection.
Firoze. Ranp:oonwalla
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1
The Beginnings
1896-1899
IT was a rainy day in Bombay, Tuesday the seventh of

July, in the year 1896. As the shadows of the evening
were gathering, the thoroughfare around Kala Ghoda, in
the elegant Museum area, bore its usual' busy look. The
town's elite could. be usually found here frequenting places
like the Watson's Hotel, in th~ building of the Army &
Navy Store. And it was in this place that momentous
evening, that the motion picture took its birth in India.
It was not a very sensational debut for the new scientific
invention which was to become one of the most important
media of entertainment and communication in the twen-
tieth century. Nothing had been known about it in our
country, except for what may have been read or heard about
the different experiments based on the principle of Persis-
tence of Vision, which· were being made abroad to bring
movement to the static image. The cinema arrived here l_ike
any one of those magic or necromancy shows offered as
the ·evening's fare.
The coming of the 'Cinematographe' was heralded in
The Times of India that morning, along with the usual
advertisements of theatre programmes, variety shows,
brandy and whiskey, in the Entertainment column. The
show was described as, ·•the marvel of the century', 'the
wonder of the world'. It was brought to Bombay · by the
touring agents of the Lumiere Brothers
. of France. . These
pioneer film-makers had perfected their process of 'living
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10 75 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
photographic pictures' and had held the first public exhi-

bition only a year back in Paris.
In America, the earlier efforts of Thomas Edis~n, result-
ing in his successful peep-show device 'Kinetoscope', to
be seen by one person at a time, had provided a glimpse
of what movies could be. 1$.ut the first public exhibition
of the Kinetoscope reels, lined with a projector, was
offered to the ~~rican publi~ only_. qn -~pril 23, 1896.
In more or less·: the Mme period, 189fr-g6, the new inven-
tion-with Edison's gadget ·and its principles providing the
. . . .. ' . ... ..
inspiration-made its appearance in England through the
attempts of Robert Paul and, in Germany, with the 'Bioskop'
of ~ax and Emi~ ;~kladanqwski.~ . . ·, , i , ,_ . . . . · . . ·,·
·. The patented pr.~~ 'Cin_e:r:natogr~ptie~,,.o f the Lumiere
Bro\hers a\so .owe4. _it_~ or_iains .to Ecij~'.s , .m acl\µle - but
th.e. two brothers--:-:-~<>uis_an~ . ,l\4au1p~<t , :naa . turn~q .o ut , a
more versatile ~.ont~apt~~Il.._th~t .\YOJked : ~ : a eamera,-. :a
prir,.ter as well as a projector. ; The l,t~i~~es. With -their
adequate stock of equipIJ}.e~ts
. . . and
... .,. short_nlrn programmes; .
were also the first to explore new mar-k ets and make the
cinema an inter~ati~11ai. medi~ ~ . . . ., . . right . . .from the beginning.
That is how a country like India, then . under colonial rule,
could have her first ._ look ~t the motion. picture, barely
within a year .
of . its. .becoming.
. '
pop'1lar_llbroad .and within
~hree months _o f t_h e first pr~i~cted exhi~ition held for an
audience in America... . .. -
The images which flickered in l,lomba.y's Watson's Hotel
on that Tuesday evening becapie . India's . first film show
and the hotel's · clientele which saw it fo.rmed the first
audience. The day's progr~e st~rteq . ~th an item
Entry of Cinematographe . 4ltrodt1cing the new medium,
followed by _o ther items _called Ar_rival of a Train, The Sea
Bath, A Demolition, Workers Leaving the Factort1 fmd
Ladies
. a?Jd S~ldiers on Wheels. . There were four shows per·
day and the admission rate was one rupee. Within four days
there' was a change. of programme wjth new items from
the vast ·repertoire of the Lumieres. Th~se were Baby's
Dinner, Rejoicing in the Market Pl_a~e of Paris, The Street
Dancers of London, The Dive.r, Turning the Soup-plate
by Trewey and A Match at :Cards. Some of these very
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THE BEGINNINGS 11
items were shown again in Bombay at the Platinum Jubilee

celebrations on July 7, 1971, giving a vivid idea of how
the cinema had made its entry 75 years ago.
From July 14, 1896, the Lumiere programme began to
l1ave a simultaneous run in a regular drama theatre
(Novelty), with the ticket prices varying for different
classes, like two rupees for the Orchestra,
,
Stall and Dress-
circle, one rupee for the Second Seats and eight annas
for the Back Seats, meaning the pit, Now each show
contained a dozen pictures, After two weeks, the theatre
even kept a Gallery rate of four annas and there were
special Boxes reserved for purdah ladies and their families,
Just a month after the opening, a new dimension was added
to the silent show with music played from the theatre
under the direction of Mr. F, Seymour Dove. The number
of film items had now gone up to twenty.
Enthusiastic crowds came to see the amazing novelty
of moving reality on all the thirty-five days of the pro-
gramme's initial run in Bombay. It finally ended on August
15 but it was surely not the last that the Indian . people
had heard of the cinema, though there were no more
film exhibitions in the remaining part of the year. In
early 1897, it sprang to life again with Stewart's 'Vitugraph'
coming to the Gaiety Theatre with fourteen pictures at
each exhibition. Thereafter, such programmes kept
appearing occasionally as the visiting showmen brought
their gadgets and new stock of attractive items. Even
colour came to films at such an early stage, with the Tivoli
theatre announcing a film, Can-can Dance, in 'natural
~olours'. The shows carried many fantastic names like
Hughes' 'Moto-Photoscope', Prof. Anderson's 'Andersono-
scopograph', 'Biurnial Optical Diorama' and so on. They
were held in drama theatres, halls like the Framji Cowasji
Institute and the famous Town Hall and also in tent
cinemas set up in maidans. The shows travelled to other
parts of India, mainly the big cities, where they got an
equally good reception.
Some of the film items aroused great interest and re-
mained a popular draw like The Jubi_lee Procession shown
in 1897, which was said to be a life-like reproduction of the
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spectacular event in England. The motion picture camera

had already started playing its role as a recorder of news
and topical happenings. The exciting prospects opened
up by the shows of the foreigners caught the fancy of some
enterprising people in India. Among the earliest to set
up their own establishments were Clifton & Co. Photo-
graphers holding shows in their atelier at 58, Medows
Street and P. Metzer & Co. calling themselves Agents for
films and projecting machines and also. offering services
of developing and printing. But a more significant deve-
lopment was that the foreign operators who came with
their projectors and cameras (often combined in a single
machine) and found the scenic grandeur of India a good
source to feed their constant need of filmable material.
Among the first two films of this kind we come across
are Cocoanut Fair and Our Indian Empire, the latter show-
ing the monuments of Delhi and the famous Imambara
Palace of Lucknow. Both were made in 1897 by unknown
cameramen. In Calcutta, Prof. Stevenson had made quite
a big impact, by bringing the first ever 'Bioscope' show to
the city in October 1898 at the Star Theatre where the
screenings came at the tail-end of the popular plays. After
a month's successful run of the programme, which included
such items as Death of Nelsc;,n and Mr. Gladstone's Funeral,
along with tempting ones like Miss Fuller's Serpentine
Dance in colour, the professor decided to go one better by
photographing some material of local interest. The first
choice was a dancing scene from the Arabian Nights Opera,
The Flower of Persia which was a popular Bengali attrac-
tion on the stage of Star Theatre itself. This was re-
leased along with other film items like A Spanish Bull-fight.
After another month, that is, in December 1898, the
Star Theatre came up with one more of the professor's
locally shot items, called A Panorama of Indian Scenes,
which included the procession of Pareshnath through the
streets of Calcutta. At almost the same time, another
professor was doing the same in Bombay. Prof. Anderson
had brought his Scopograph operated on electric light which
he claimed was exhibited before the Queen Empress. His
programme contained two local items, Train Arriving at
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THE BEGINNINGS 13
Bombay Station and Poona Races '98, showing the start

and finish for the Governor's Cup. In early 1899, Mr. P. A.
Stewart, who was holding his shows at the Tivoli,
announced some more of 'Local Scenes' which, according
to him, were 'simple, excellent and always obtained thun-
ders of applause'. ·
The time was ·thus ripe for an Indian to venture into
the field of shooting short items and the first step was
taken by Harishchandra S. Bhatvadekar or Save Dada,
as he was better known. He was a still photographer and
equipment dealer, having his shop-cum-residence near Bom-
bay's Kennedy Bridge. He had already entered the exhi-
bition field, having taken a hand-operated projector with
which he showed imported short films in bungalows,
schools, colleges and also in some Bombay hall~ Then
· he thought of importing a camera and making his owi1
films. According to a journalist, Harieef Shakoor, who in-
terviewed Save Dada for the Scr_een weekly in 1954, the
pioneer imported a Riley camera from England. He then
got together two well-known wrestlers and photographed
a reel of their bout (entitled The Wrestlers) . Little
did he know that he was creating history by canning the
first really Indian footage. Another film he took was of
some monkeys being trained by their master. A mention
of both these
. items can be found in· the advertisements of
English and Gujarati newspapers of November-December,
1899.
Thus, within four years of its birth at the Watson's Hotel,

the cinema had indeed made spectacular progress and won·
over the audience's regular patronage. As many as
twenty-five films were now being shown in a single inde-
pendent performance, accompanied by 'piano and violin
music played by European ladies'. The pictures were
described as being 'life-like and life-size, vivid, clear,
humorous and absolutely free from flicker'. The methods
of projection had been improved. Electric light was em-
ployed and proudly announced, though when the unpre-
dictable engine failed at the exact moment, theatres had to
fall back upon the lime-light method (which was dangerous)
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and so apologise for the same. Imported films were now

bringing such varied fare as Prince Ranjit Singhji's prowess
on the cricket field in England, startling scenes of the
Greco-Turkish war and specially enacted items like Noah's
Ark. Even an attempt to bring sound to the moving
pictures was ·made at such an early stage, with Bettcini's
Microphonograph in 1899, introduced by Prof. Von Geyer,
containing living pictures, voices and speeches. About
that time, The Times of India also started offering its com-
ments ·on the film programmes, under the Local & Provin-
cial column. And Save Dada provided the crowning glory
by making the first indigenous films in the last months of
the last year of the century that drew to a close.
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A Decade of Shorts
1900-1909
IT· was the dawn of a new century in human history and

a century that was to bring about drastic changes in the
entire spectrum of life in most of the countries the world
over. And the cinema was in fact to be one of the main in-
struments to record, reflect and, even, provoke many of
these reforms and revolutions. Who could have guessed then
that this scientific gewgaw which created flickering images
on a white sheet . would grow to become such a potent
medium of entertainment, enlightenment and communica-
tion, in the century ?
The New Year's Day was heralded in Bombay with the
Tivoli having a programme of twenty-five pies on Edison's
Projecting Kinetoscope, including Fatima, an Indian Dance,
which was presumably a foreign-made item. A string-band
was in attendance. After a month, the Novelty had New
Bioscope, with 120 animated subjects, including the latest
e vents in South Africa. The Transval War and the Boer
War provided scope for a lot of film material and many
items on these were presented as a special attraction.
Different cinematograph shows bearing a variety of names
kept trickling in and out of the country. The films were
of different types. Some were just photographed pieces
of action or scenic spots; some were records of news or
events; some told a small ~tory with staged action. But
they all pointed to the potentialities of the medium, which
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later took the three broad forms of newsreels, documen-

taries and narrative features.
In thEi middle of 1900, another Indian turned from exhi-
bition to production of a few short items. He was F.B.
Thanawalla, a Muslim electrical engineer who had his shop
at Kalbadevi where he sold projectors, phonographs and
the like. The buyers were mainly from the rich or aristo-
cratic families who liked to have their own sets for prestige
and private entertainment. Occasion~lly, for a noble cause
-like the famine relief fund of the Bombay Presidency-
such equipment was also given out for holding aid shows.
Being established in the trade when Thanawalla held his
own show at the Tivoli, he included scenes of Bombay,
which were said to have been taken with a lot of expense
and effort. He called it Thanawalla's Grand Kinetoscope.
His film Splendid New Views of Bombay covered some of
the city's landmarks, while Taboot Procession was a camera
coverage of the annual pageant of the Muslims as it passed
through the busy Kalbadevi roads.
The Gujarati daily Jame Jamshed gave a long review of
the show, commenting favourably on Thanawalla's enter-
. prise but pointing out that some local scenes tended to
become dim due to inadequate light. Thanawalla-who
thus, takes the place of the second film pioneer of India
after Save Dada- seemed to have succeeded well in his
effort, though it is a mystery, why he did not attempt to
shoot any more films. On the other hand, Save Dada, after
a gap, entailed either by lack of resources or facilities,
resumed his activities in 1901, with R small film on the
reception given to Dr. R. P. Paranjpyt on his return from
England as the first Indian Wrangler of Cambridge. The
function was held in the bungalow of Narottam Morarji
Gokuldas and. the film showed the Wrangler along with
the host and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Sir Bhalchandra
Bhatvadekar and others. Save Dada also made a short on
the landing of Sir M. M. Bhownuggree at Apollo Bunder
and the reception to him by the Khoja community. By
· now he had acquired the famous. Lumiere
. gadget, which
served as a camera, printer and projector. The pioneer's
family has luckily preserved this rare antique model of
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A t>tCAt>E OF SHOR'tS 17
the earliest movie equipment used in India. With this
camera he also made another short in late 1901 on the
renovation of a Parsi fire-temple Atash Behram, at Chira
Bazar. All his shorts formed a part of the film programmes
at the Gaiety and other theatres.
In the early months of the same year (1901), another
pioneer had started working in Bengal to do something
new with the film medium. He was Hiralal Sen, who ran
the Royal Bioscope in partnership with his brother Motilal.
They had successfully set up their exhibition of some un-
usual imported films at Calcutta's Classic Theatre since
December, 1900. The foreign items went on board along
with popular Bengali stage-plays. This combination, along
with
.
Prof.. Stevenson's earlier attempt of picturising a scene
from Flower of Persia must have inspired Hiralal to start
his film-making attempts by shooting scenes from the
famous dramas. He filmed seven such extracts from plays,
like the musical opera Alibaba and the domestic tragedy
Sarala. All these were released in February, 1901 to
serve as a double programme, along with the same plays
being staged on different days. This combination of the
stage and the screen must have proved a unique novelty
considering the popularity it gained.
The Sen brothers also stuck to their more successful
career as reputed exhibitors of imported films. I~ addition
to the show at the Classic Theatre, they were running a
flourishing business of holding private shows on contract
basis and going on tours for the purpose. They had made
a lot of technical improvements in the projection and had
a large and varied stock of foreign film subjects. Hiralal
Sen was described as 'our unrivalled scientific scholar' and
the Royal Bioscope Company as being 'Gold Medalists'.
Their list of honours included an exhibition at the house
of Rabindranath Tagore and among their clientele were
chief justices, viceroys, maharajas and aristocrats. They
received many certificates _from highly-placed people and -
commendations from the newspapers. The company was
open to engagement throughout 1902.
It was in January, 1903 that Hiralal came up with a new
package programme of his own films, called Indian Life
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18 75 YEARS OF INDIAN CIN:tMA
& Scenes. It was projected on a new machine which was

~aid to have been indented at a heavy cost and as per the
scientific data supplied by H. L. Sen & Brothers. The
pictures included 'events of Indian' history, scenes from
Hindu mythology, chapters from domestic life, flowers of-
our theatrical scenes' and so on. In the middle of the
year, Hiralal brought up some more shorts, of dances taken
from the plays Alibaba, Mon.er Matan and Sonar Swapan.
Meanwhile, W. H. Palford's 'Pulfragraph' which came to
Calcutta had started showing small narrative 'films, like
Gulliver and the famous fantasy made by Melies-A Trip
· to the Moon.
'
There were, of course, innumerable short subjects and
the most attractive among them were of the Delhi Durbar
and the Coronation procession. It was a year of famine
and plague in Bengal and there were not many stage or
screen programmes. But the grand pageant of the Durbar
had its own pull. Many cameramen rushed to cover the
topical event, Save Dada also being one of them. They
were further goaded by the popularity of the films sent
from England in 1902 about the Coronation of King Edward
VII and Queen Alexandra. The spectacular event taking
place in Delhi would naturally command its own attrac-
tion. Some foreign companies like American · Biograph
had made their own arrangements to shoot the ceremonies
and show them at an early date. So the cinema programmes
for some time remained crowded with Delhi Durbar films.
Save Dada also went on tour with these and other items,
showing them in Madras, Mangalore, Goa, Belgaum, Kolha-
pur and other places.
India also frequently saw the narrative films coming from

abroad. Though of a short. length, these early films tried
to tell a story or depict a past or present event by staging
it for the camera. Among the earliest of this type, shown
in Bombay in January, 1898 were The Death of Nelson,
Noah's Ark and .Call on the London Fire Brigade. In Cal-
cutta in January 1901, came Joan of Arc of Georges Melies,
imported from Europe by the Minerva Theatre and shown
through Syd Harding and American Cineograph Co. It was
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A DECADE OF SHORTS · 19
first announced as being a long film in twelve scenes. But

it turned out to be of about twenty minutes' duration with
a length of 1,000 feet and for which a price of Rs. 1,000
was paid, as claimed by the importer. Even then, this was
surely the longest film seen in India till then.
It was soon followed in October 1901, by the showing
of the famous film Life of Christ in Bombay at the Framji
Cowasji Institute which later became the Wellington
Theatre. It was this touching passion play, which, when
revived in later years, inspired D.G. Phalke to make his
epoch-making feature films. In January 1902 came Aladdin
· and the Wonderful Lamp, followed in March, 1903, by
Alibaba and 40 Thieves, described as a 'complete drama'.
Calcutta saw A Trip tp the Moon (of Melies) and Gulliver at
the end of 1903 and Napoleon Bonaparte, The Sleeping
Beauty and the same Alibaba in the beginning of 1904.
These foreign story films continued to be shown, now and
then, for years and kept shuttling between different
centres.
But in India, the production remained restricted to short,

actuality films for some years more. In 1905, the exhibition
trade linked with production got a big fillip, as J .F. Madan,
a doyen of the theatre world in Calcutta, started Elphin-
stone Bioscope Co. This was later to turn into Madan
Theatres, the gigantic empire with a big production out-
put and a chain of theatres. Among the earliest ventures
of the company, described as 'swadeshi' (national) pictures
for the first time, there was a coverage of the political
meeting and procession concerning the 'Great Bengal
Partition Movement'. It was shot by Jyotish Sarkar, one of
the earliest professional cameramen of India. Another short
was on the daily Calcutta spectacle of those days - the
opening and closing of Howrah Bridge. The company also
undertook private engagements and offered bioscope
machines and films for hire and sale. This included Gau-
mont's Chronophone, the new device of talking-singing
pictures, which was also installed at the Corinthian
Theatre for some time.
Production of shorts in 1906 was almost completely
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20 "15 YEARS OF INl>IAN CINEMA
dominated by the Elphinstone Company. The first was a

package programme about the 'Royal Visit' to Calcutta,
•
which the company claimed to have 'anirnatographed under
special police pass'. This included the Prince of Wales and
the Princess arriving at Princep's Ghat, the ceremony of
official and non-official receptions, the procession of Impe- ·
rial Cadet Corps, the Proclamation Parade, the prince seen
with the Viceroy and other top brass, the visit to the Race
Course, the attendance at the convocation as well as the
foundation stone ceremony of the Victoria Memorial Hall.
Other shorts which followed in later months we-re Grand
Pareshnath Procession, Bathing Ghat of Howrah, Goat
Sacrifice at Kalighat and a juicy one called Dancing of
Indian Nautch Girls. Another short called Grand Masonic
Procession showed the Masonic Brethren in their full
regalia, with the jewels etc., indicating the different English
Lodges, headed by the Deputy District Grand Master
with his· standard and sword bearers.
An announcement, that would make present-day film
archivists gnash their teeth was made by the Elphinstone
Company in the Amrit Bazar Patrik(J., offering 30,000 feet
of second-hand films at three annas per foot. What a
treasure somebody could have gathered in just five thousand
rupees ! But then, those were not the days when films
were considered as anything worthy or safe to preserve.
Tilak's visit to Calcutta that year was also filmed and
shown at the Star Theatre, though the makers remain
unknown. It showed Tilak taking a holy bath at the Ganges
and the grand procession taken out for him, headed by
the famous heroes of Bengal. In Bombay, quite a flutter was
created by the Paris Cinematograph starting its career as
a tent cinema in the Esplanade Maidan. Its programmes
were packed with selections of foreign short items, which
carried catchy titles and were advertised along with the
length in footage. The longest among them ranged between
700 and 950 feet. A·f ter about three months, its programme
included Scenes . of Native Life in India, showing 'the
Malabares, charming snakes, juggling a girl and dancing'.
The makers of these films are also not on record.
From 1907 to 1909, the making of short films in India
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A DECADE OF SHORTS 21
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was meagre. The Elphinstone Company prepared a topical
one on Amir of Kabul's Procession in 1907. The floods
in Hyderabad . were covered by a cameraman for the
Excelsior Cinematograph of Bombay in 1908, and a new
View of Bombay was also prepared for it in 1909. The
earlier pioneers seem to have remained inactive for some
reason. Hiralal Sen continued to exhibit a variety of foreign
films under his Royal Bioscope. His programmes were
adequately announced in the papers and if he had made
the kind of film-making attempts, ascribed to him in some
quarters, they would have surely found a place, at least
in his own advertisements. Save Dada's activities also
seemed to have slackened, except for his touring exhibi-
tions,. where he showed films like Life of Christ, Aladdin
and Alibaba, the last two of which he recalled as the most
popular foreign films shown by him. He claimed that he
got his films· directly from London and Paris. Also, that
his was a one-man show, of handling the projection etc.
all by himself. Around 1907, he had ambitious plans of
making a feature film on the story of Lord Krishna's
birth. But the death of his brother, who was a great help
to him, proved a heavy blow. Later, he sold off his ftrst
camera (the Riley Bros. model) to A.P. Karandikar, a
partner of the Patankar Friends & Co. Thereafter, he gave
up all ambitions of indigenous film-making which he had
himself been the first to promote in the country. Evidently,
it was left to other bold men to bear the yoke of bringing
feature films to the Indian Cinema.
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Feature Films, in Embryo
1910..;1919
•
THE second decade of the new century started, without
any hopeful sign about the arrival, of an Indian story
film with the length of a feature, which by the standards
of those days would be about thirty to forty minutes.
But before the decade came to an end, the feature film
had taken its birth in all the three centres, Bombay, Cal-
cutta and Madras, in that order.
In the first two years, the short films continued to hold
· sway as the only products of cinema made within the
country. Indian cinematographers rubbed shoulders as well
as grappled with their foreign contemporaries, in bringing
out 'living pictures' of topical events which were of visual
interest. Though there were not many such opportunities,
some subjects selected for filming indeed reflect the cinema's
self-discovery as a medium of news-coverage and .docu-
mentation. What better record of an event could there be
than the thrilling and authentic one that could be viewed
with one's own eyes? In 1910, apart from a coverage of
the annual Muslim festival of the Mohurrum in Delhi,
done for Bombay's Excelsior Cinematograph, another item
which draws special attention is Fugitive Dalai Lama.
Described as the record film of the season by Excelsior
Cinematograph, it showed the Tibetan Head's flight from
the Chinese to seek protection in the then British Indian
territory of Darjeeling and the big reception given to him.
The holy as well spectacular. appeal of the event was
22
Original from
FEATURE FILMS, IN EMBRYO 23
fully exploited with the camera capturing 'the grand pro-

cession of gorgeously clad priests and dignitaries and the
extraordinary religious enthusiasm'. From the historical
viewpoint, the record of such a film having been made
provides a clue to an event which was to repeat itself
years later in an almost similar form in independent India.
Unlike other short films, this one got exhibited in Calcutta
also through the Elphinstone Company, a month after the
Bombay screening.
In 1911-12, another pageant of British royalty held in
India dominated the attention of photographers and the
screening programmes of exhibitors. It was the next Delht
Durbar after the one held in 1903. Following the death
of King Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria
and with George V coming to the throne, an identical
Coronation ceremony and a visit round India became
necessary as a show of pomp and grandeur of the British
empire. So the coming of George and his queen at the fag
end of 1911 became- a big affair and the bioscope companies
vied with one another to get the coverage and release it
in the shortest possible time. The cinema had evidently
become mature enough for the public to expect it and the
showmen to take up the challenge.
After half a year of anxious waiting since the Coronation
in England - during which many films on the event came
tc India - the climate was all the more ripe for a film
coverage of 'Their Imperial Majesties in India', who would
first come to Bombay and then proceed to Delhi and
Calcutta. The Excelsior Cinematograph, which had made
arrangements with the Barker Motion Photography Co.,
promptly announced: 'Our operators are here. We shall
take and develop the pictures and create a record by •
showing them within a few hours of the procession. We
have fitted up special rooms and brought trained operators
from London.' The Royal Opera House, which had opened
only a few months back, also came out with a proud
declaration : 'An unprecedented move in the annals of
Bombay ... the State event will be shown · at our theatre
on 3rd December itself.' Unfortunately it could not keep its
big promise and blamed it on 'blocking of traffic', whil"'
Original from
the Excelsior came• out victorious by showing the films on

the very same night.
Boasting about its success, the Excelsior explained that
despite the difficulties of Indian climate, the two operators,
Yates and Raymond, had developed and printed the picturea•
in a record time of three and a half hours after the · pro-
cession at 5 p.m. For this, a special tram-car had to be
reserved for the camera to follow the procession, three
thousand pounds of ice were harnessed to keep the pro-
cessing rooms cool and the operators went without sleep
till the whole operation was completed. The pictures
included the different ceremonies of the King's arrival,
the procession shot from the specially commissioned tram-
car travelling from Sir J .J. Hospital to Homby Road, a
Garba dance performed by Parsi girls before the King and
a teasing view of some from the crowds, who had taken
their seats on the road-side stands. The Times of India
gave a rave review of the programme, pointing out that
the King was seen 'in close'. ·
The Royal Opera, which had to eat the humble pie,
tamely came out with the films after a week. To recover
its lost prestige, it now banked on being the first with the
Delhi Durbar films by engaging the photographers of the
renowned Bourne & Shepherd of Bombay. And so the
battle continued. Though the Royal Opera did succeed
this time by showing the films on December 13, it was
not the only one. The Excelsior Cinematograph and the
Alexandra (which had arranged with Gaumont) came out
with their versions on the same day. But each of the three
noisily claimed that it was 'absolutely the first'. Films on
the event were also offered for sale soon through the agents
of the Warwick Trading Co. of London which had sent
its own skilled operators. But the biggest triumphs were
undoubtedly of Excelsior, .which claimed that every night
had been a 'House Full' and that 55,000 people saw the
films in eighteen days. Yet another of its records was 600
feet about the 'Rehearsal of Calcutta Pageant and Viceroy's
Cup'.
Surprisingly, the fierce battle of showmanship was not
carried over to Calcutta, which the royal visitors reached
Original from
in the beginning of the year 1912. Though the Delhi Durbar

films were shown there, the film coverage of the local visit
was left to the local companies. The Sen brothers - Hiralal
and, Motilal - made a grand come-back with films on the
event, including the King and Queen arriving at the Amphi
Theatre, the Nizam, Gaekwar and other ruling chiefs pay-
ing homage, scenes of the magnificent procession, visit to
the Bombay Exhibition, the proclamation parade, the Cup
Race, the grand fireworks and the departure from Cal-
cutta. There were indications that the Sen brothers had
split, with each having his own Royal Bioscope show at
different theatres. Apart from them, the Globe Trotter
Bioscope Co. also presented 'every incident from arrival to
departure' at the Star Theatre. After three more years in
the exhibition field, the Sen brothers closed shop and, with
Hiralal's untimely death in 1917, the promising career of
another enterprising pioneer came to a sad end.
Show business waits for none and there were other men
crowding the arena and struggling for supremacy. Com-
petition is rather an inevitable part of the show world and
it had already taken firm roots in the field of exhibiting
films. In all the rumpus caused by the Royal Visit films,
some other Indian made shorts paled into the background.
Among them were Marriage of a Maharaja shown in 1911,
Coronation of Maharaja Holkar at Indore filmed by
Gaumont and the Excelsior Cinematograph coverages of
Garden Party to Sir Shapurji Broacha, Mahalaxm.i Races
and Cotton Fire at Colaba, all shown in 1912. An item
worthy of greater attention is Benares or Kashi made by
unknown cameramen and carrying 'scenes of the sacred
city of the Hindus', which was shown at the America-India
Theatre. Another short was Ganapati Festival photographed
exclusively for Cinema de Luxe, while the G-reat Cricket
Match in Bombay was covered by one of the Parisian
experts of the Pathe Freres. Happenings abroad which
would be of interest to Indians were also pieturised by
the foreign companies and sent to India, like Ratan Tata's
· reception to Indian princes at York House in London in
1911. Some foreign story films had Indian names and back-
grounds, like Dancer of Siva while some had misleading
Original from
26 75 · YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
titles like Indian Justice obviously referring to Red Indians.
New cinemas had also sprung up by now, along with old

theatres being converted for cinema shows. Among them
were Novelty, America-India, Royal Opera. Edward, Laxmi
and Coronation in Bombay. The theatres tried many tricks
tc lure the spectators. The earliest on record is the Tivoli
offering a lucky prize 'to a child sitting in the uttper classes
who correctly voted for the best picture in the programme'.
In later days, costly things like silk sarees, bicycles and
watches were given away as lucky prizes. A child and at
times, even a lady, accompanying a gentleman were admit-
ted free in matinee shows. By 1912, the new medium had
tried all possible tricks like adding music, synchronised
sound and colour.
One cinematograph, which had its handbills liberally
circulated and its ads. with litho pictures prominently dis-
played in all the big hotels of Bombay announced a prize
of 10,000 rupees to anyone who could prove that their
programme was not better or clearer than any other in the
city. Of course, it reserved its rights of setting down the
conditions and appointing the jury. Another cinematograph
had a Mountain Slide attached to it, charging two annas
per ride. In the monsoon, all the tent ai:id touring cinemas
would vanish from the scene. Many of the cinematographs,
like the famous Excelsior, did not have their own ·theatres
but engaged the local ones for their programmes. Theatres
kept ·a nnouncing various attractions like .h and-coLoured
films and the Royal Opera created a sensation by starting
with Kinemacolour, about which the Times remarked that
actual colours were photographed in it, instead of the films
being hand-painted.
And yet, the real tough competition was still to start with
the coming of India's own feature films. The ground had
been more or less prepared · by the many films from
different countries, based on a variety of story material
which had been widely shown and liked in India. After
the early examples of the years 1898 to 1905 already men-
tioned, there came many others like Vendetta, a story of
Original from
revenge, Whirling the Worlds, a science-fiction film and

Cinderella, the fairy tale filmed by Melies. In February,
1907 came Edwin Porter's· The Great Train Robbery (con-
sidered to be America's first narrative film made in 1903)
coupled with his own second film Uncle Tom's Cabin. Each
was a one-reeler with running time not exceeding twelve
minutes and the programme was supported by short items.
The cinema abroad had started tapping the popular lite-
rary, theatrical and other sources for story material, which
was evident in a string of films like Don Juan, Ben Hur,
Sign of the Cross, Jack and the Beanstalk and Romeo
and Juliet, all shown in India in 1908.
In those days, films came from various countries, like
King Henry VIII from England, La Tosca and The Bank
Note from France, along with the comedies of Max Linder
and Foolshead, Camille from Italy as also Italian opera
films like Carmen and spectacles like Rape of the Sabines
and Fall of Troy, a Japanese film Punishment of the Samu-
rai and even Russian dramas Kamara, Dimitry Donskos
and a documentary Iron-works at Donetskiy. Films came
from renowned companies and studios like Pathe, Barker's,
Vitagraph, Ambrosio, Bioscope, Nordesk, Lubin and Urban.
In fact, when American films came, they were announced
as a refreshing change of fare, as in the case of Faust. It may
sound amazing now but the imported films covered ~uch
a wide range of subjects as Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Mer-
chant of Venice, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Nero, Napo-
leon, Orpheus, John Milton, David Copperfield and even
Power of the Press. All these films got shown here between
1909 and 1912. The longest among them reached up to
3,000 feet, till A Tale of Two Cities topped them all with
its 4,000 feet, though a mixed, monster programme held by
the Royal Opera had touched 8,000 feet in 1911.
Thus, the audience in India was already accustomed to

enjoying narrative films of about an hour's length and
was all ready to receiv.e a drama with Indian characters
and background. And this great moment arrived at last
when R.G. Torney's Pundalik was released on May 18,
1912 at the Coronation Cinematograph, situated at San-
Original from
dhurst Road in Bombay. The film, based on the legend of

a famous saint of Maharashtra and shown in a double
programme coupled with a foreign film A Dead Man's
Child, became India's first story film, presented as one of
the two main features. It was described as 'a fascinating
religious subject, a popular Hindi drama'. The public res-
ponse to it was so overwhelming in the first week that the
Coronation kept it going for a second week, a rare thing by
itself for even the best of foreign films in those times. It
also proudly announced: 'Almost half the Bombay Irmdu
population has seen it last week and we want the other
half to do so now.' And the theatre continued to have
crowded house every night. The Times of India of May 25
reviewed the film and said: 'Pundalik has the power to
arrest the attenlion of the Hindus. As a religious drama it
has few equals. The programme is as good as it can be
made.'
The story behind the making of Pundalik was partly
told by Dada Torney himself through a signed article in
Screen, dated November 6, 1953. Tomey was a salesman
in the electrical department of Greaves Cotton & Co. and
also an active member in a dramatic club. He was one day
asked by another member, N.G. Chitre, who was general
· manager of the Advocate of India Press, why they should
not join hands to make a film based on the drama of
Pundalik.
The idea got enthusiastic support from the club.
Evidently all of them were fascinated by the number
of narrative films that were coming from abroad. Techni-
cal help was sought from Bourne & Shepherd who lent a
Williamson camera with a roll capacity of 400 feet and
also a cameraman called Johnson. The actors, clumsily
clad and made up, were led to the open space in Seth Man-
galdas Gardens at Lamington Road. They rendered their
roles by gestures and pantomime, inspired from the French
actor Foolshead's style. The picture was completed quickly
and released without any formalities of censorship, as none
existed at that time.
It is obvious that Pundalik being based on a story,
specially enacted for the camera by actors made up for
Original from
~EA'rURE FILMS, IN EMB:ElYO 29
their roles and taking up a half of the bill· of fare was a

feature film in every sense and has, the refore, to be •
acknowledged as India's first picture, preceding D.G.
Phalke's Raja Harishchandra exactly by a year. It also
means that Indians saw their own first feature earlier than
the Americans, who, according to the noted film historian
Arthur Knight, saw . the France-made Queen Elizabeth as
their first feature film only on July 12, 1912. Its only limita-
tion, if we may call it so, was that :it was shot by an Eng-
lish cameraman and was clubbed together with a foreign
story film, whereas Phalke's effort was completely indigen-
ous and was shown as a single feature, though it had also to
be supported by short items of stage and screen. But this
does not alter the position of Pundalik, since employing of
foreign technicians has remained in vogue till now, while
double programmes too have been a common practice
for years. In fact, in the double-bill itself, Pundalik got
the coveted position of the main feature just within a
couple of days as Indian audiences liked and flocked to see
it and the exhibitor as well as the Press gave it prominence.
Tomey's failure, as compared to Phalke, was that he did
not follow up his pioneering venture with other films.
There were two other story films in 1912 which also take
precedence over Phalke's film. One was Savitiri, made by
S.N. Patankar, V.P . Divekar and A.P. Karandikar, with tht'
camera bought from Save Dada, as we already know. These
three enterprising men - who later formed Patankar
Friends & Co. - pooled together their resources to produce
this initial effort. They selected the well-known mytho-
logical tale of Satyawan and Savitri and shot it more or
less on the same lines as Pundalik. An announcement of
Savitri is to be found in Jame J amshed dated May 30,
1912. But from all indications, this turned out to be an
abortive attempt due to some technical deficiency in its
making, for nothing further was heard about it.
The third venture was An Episode from Ramayana, re-
leased at the Gaiety on November 2, 1912. This film was
specially taken for the Cinema de Luxe and was described
as a special attraction, based on the great epic poem of
the Hindus. It showed 'Rama in Lanka, slaying the demon
Original from
30 75 Y:EARS OF lNDIAN CINEMA
Ravana, followed by a grand procession of elephants,

chariots etc.' It ran for a week and was also well received
though its length cannot be ascertained, as it was shown
along with other films. Two imported films in 1911-12 are
also to be noted for their Indian background and the at-
tempt of foreign film-makers to exploit its traditionally
exotic aspects. Dancer of Siva was described as a wonderful,
coloured film based on an old Hindu legend about King
Asildhar and a temple dancer. It was 1,000 feet long and
was said to be performed 'by French actors in Hindu
dresses'. Another film which came four months after
Pundalik was God of the Sun. It was callP.d a great Indian
photoplay deal~ng with temple life. It was said to be secured
by the Imperial Cinematograph exclusively for Bombay
at a cost of two thousand pounds from England, after being
acknowledged by the Press and people of U.K. as 'the
finest story of India ever seen'.
It was finally with D.G. Phalke's Raja Harishchandra,
released on May 3, 1913 at the Coronation, that the Indian
feature film came into being in its fullest sense and the
foundation was laid for a film industry that was to become
the biggest in the world. It was heralded on the
opening day as 'a fully instructive subject from the
Indian mythology ... a film of Indian manufacture, specially
prepared at enormous cost ... original scenes fro,;n the
sacred city of Benares : . . sure to appeal to our Hindu
patrons'. And appeal it did to all kinds of spectators seeing
the big success it proved. The whole was a one and a half
hour show, including Miss Irene Delmar (duet and dance),
The McClements (comical sketch}, Alexandroff (foot-
juggler) and Tip-top comics. There were four shows daily
from 6 p.m . to 1 a.m. with a gap of about half an hour
between each. The final touch was added by a cryptic
note: Double rates of admission.
Raja Harishchandra was 3,700 feet long, in four reels
and took up about fifty minutes of the programme. The
film was reviewed at length in the May 5 issue of the dai11
Bombay Chronicle, which had itself started publication tv:o
months earlier. It described the effort as the first great
dramatic film on the lines of the great epics of the Western
Original from
F~ATURE FILMS, i'N EMBRYO 31
world and added : 'It is curious that the first experiment
i11 this direction was so long in coming . . . The result of
Mr. Phalke's first effort exceeds one's -expectations . .. From
a technical viewpoint, there are some imperrections, as
Mr. Phalke .would probably readily admit ... The trials of
the truthful king Harishchandra ·can be compared to those
of Job in the Hebrew scriptures . . .This wonderful drama
is splendidly represented by the company of actors selected
by Mr. Phalke .. . Striking effect of the scene of the burning
forest and ap_p arition of God Siva ... The film was wit-
nessed by a large audience on whom it evidently made a
great impression and we have no doubt that it will have
crowded houses throughout the week.'
This anticipation was more than fulfilled as the film
successfully continued beyond the ·week. After a run of
twelve days, Phalke inserted an advertisement which stands •
out in contrast to the first one given by the theatre on the

opening day, which did not mention Phalke's name. In the
second ad., Phalke was at pains to emphasise his own
pioneering with the following words: 'Since the art of cine-
matograph was first introduced to the public, the above
has been the first Indian film, manufactured for the first
time by. M/s. Phalke & Co., the only first manufacturers of
cinema film in India.' The stresses and strains of competi-
tion and rival claims had evidently goaded Phalke into
coming out with this immodest piece of blurb. The shows
were now reduced to three but 'season and complimentary
passes' were still not allowed and the rates remained
double. On ·May 17, a special opportunity was offered with
the following words: 'With the object that the poor class
of people should have an opportunity to see this mar-
vellous film, we will give an extra show '11Y'len women and
children only will be admitted at half rates.'
After two week-s' run, the last _n ight was announced
with a warning to look out for a grand change of prog-
ramme. This had its effect and the fresh crowd made the
film run further. It finally concluded its initial run on May
25, with an unprecedented record of twenty-three days and
the Coronation changed over to a revival of Itala's tragic
drama Father. From June 28, Harishchandra had a second
Original from
32 ?5 YIARS OF INt>IAN c1mMA
run at the Alexandra (near Crawford Market). It is also

amusing that the first feature seen by Americans-Queen
Elizabeth in four reels starring the great Sarah Bernhardt
- had its Bombay release exactly when Harishchandra
tlnished its first run at the Coronation. As in the early days
of short, pioneering effort::., ~o in the case of narrative
feature films, India was on a par with the other countries
of the world, where the cinema was born and nursed.
Phalke's saga of struggle and achievement would go to

form a glorious chapter by itself in Indian film history.
Born on April 30, 1870 at Nasik in a traditional Hindu
family, Phalke was interested in many arts and crafts from
an early age. His early training at the J.J. School of Art
• and later at the Kala Bhavan of Baroda developed the
multiple facets of his talent in various fields, like drawing,
l)ainting, printing, engraving, photography, moulding,
architecture, music, magic and, even, amateur stage acting.
He engaged himself in many of these professions and won
renown. There is a reference in the Marathi weekly Kesari
of September 1900, about D.G. Phalke's special greeting
cards, with apta leaves printed on them along with Sans-
krit couplets. In 1909, he went to Germany to get new
machinery for his Laxmi Art Printing Works. But due to
some serious differences with his partners he later quit
the whole thing and went into a temporary ' .
hibernation,
doing nothing.
It was at this time, that he saw Life of Christ revived
in a hand-coloured form, during the Easter of 1911 and he
was greatly influenced by the film as well as the possibili-
ties of the medium. He began to visualise Lord Krishna
and other deities in Christ's place and· dreamt of making
films based on Indian mythology. With his methodical and
investigating mind, he went about gathering knowledge of
the new medium from all possible sources, including books
and catalogues from England and making experiments with
the equipment that he could acquire. He worked so hard
that he exhausted his resources and his eye-sight got
seriously affected by corneal ulcer for some time. But the
visionary had the faith and conviction of making a wholly
Original from
I. D.D. Dabkc io Dada Phalke's
Raja Harfa'lrclramlra ( 1,9 13 ), !he film
1ba1 laid 1hc founda 1ioo or 1he film
industry.
2. Devika Rani io Karma (1931)

(Hiodi•En11isb)
J. Sohrab Modi and Nasum io

their firs t film Ham id or Khoo11 ka
Kh oan (193.S) made under Sta&o
r,JmCo.
4. K. L. Sai11I m New .Thea tres'
Dt~das (1 935 ) directed by P. C.
Ba1 ua.
s. Pr ithviraj, Sadha na Bo5c in fim

Ulm made io Hindi. En11isb and
8cA1ali Raj Nartaki (Caurl Danct r)
(194 1) , produ.:ed by Jozh Wadia,
direc ted by Modhu 81ne.
6. V. Shantara m in hit own fi lm

Dr , Ko111/s ki Amar Kahan/ ( 1946),
also ma Je in English.
7. Mcbboob"s posh and &lossy
Anda: ( 1949) wi th Raj Kapoor, 8. Gcm1n1·s spec1acular Chandra•
Nar1is, V. H. Desai. Jtdo:ha ( 1948) with its h1ghhgbts hkc .
the dr um dance. was 1hc lim big
invasion of the Hindi markcl by 1hc
South.
9. K AJ1f•1 araod film Mu1huf-~-
A1am wH released 1n 1960 ar1cr
several years of production. Pri1bv1-
raj snd Dilip Kumar played Akbar
and Saleem.
10. Famous Kannada star Kal-

pao• in Kannada film, N . Laksbmi•
oaraya n'1 Muk tl on the problem or
dear-mutes.
I I. The 'new cinema' io Bombay

1,,,as heralded wltb Mrioal Sco's
Bhuran Shomt ( 1961). U1pa/ Dull ·
won 1be bes1 actor's award for 11.
12
12. Raj Kapoor and Nacgii in

R. K. Films' Barsaat ( 1949)
I,. Mehtiib in Sohrab Modi's

J}wnsi k i Rani ( 19S]) first te.chni•
colorfilm.
14. Kamini Kaushal and Abhi

Bhattachar ya in Hi1en Chaudbry's
Biruj Buhu (19S4) directed by Bimal
Roy, based on Sarai Chaod ra's stor y.
15. Jo AmiyaCbakrabar1y'1 Suma

(19SS) Balraj Sahni played a sym•
pathetic guide 10 Nutan, a poor girl
suffo:rin&50Ci:il injustice. •
16. Tamil Film Amardetpam

{19S6) with the South's idol Sivaji
G aneian and Padmini .
17. Meena Kumari and Raj

Kumar in Kamal Amrobi'1 Pakt tzah
(1971 -72).
ll
Original from
;f '
II I"' I .,
I
,
· \ 1 /:';;
f ;' :. ;( ( '
• , I I
'
I II .
17
: : : . l,
FEATURE. FXI,MS, 1N EMBRYO 33
Indian film and thus setting up a Swadeshi film industry.

His biggest problem was securing finance for his venture.
No amount of persuasion could convince the potential in-
vestors or the leaders of the Swadeshi movement. Only
one, a friend, was prepared to advance 25,000 rupees. But
before that, Phalke wanted to go to England to bring
the equipment and stock, verify v,hether his knowledge
was correct as well as practical and prove his ability in
the new art. So he pledged his life insurance policies-
the last security left with him-and raised a loan. With
this, he started on his journey to London on February
1, 1912. He had some interesting experiences there. After
paying his subscription for the Bioscope cine weekly, he
went and saw its Editor Cabourne. After some amount of
hesitation and dissuading, Cabourne became friendly and
helped him to buy an excellent Williamson camera, a
printing machine, raw stock etc. He also sent Phalke to
Cecil Hepworth, the British pioneer and tqp producer, who
gave valuable advice and enabled him to see all aspects
of studio work.
Armed with all this, Phalke hurried back . to India in
April and started working feverishly. In order to convince
the prospective financier, he made a short film Growth of a
Plant, showing the different stages of its growth through
the method of single frame exposure. In it, too, Phalke
must have been inspired by an item· called Birth, Life and
Death of a Plant which had been successfully shown by
the Excelsior Cinematograph in August, 1911. Phalke's
trick succeeded and the capital started flowing in. And so
he set himself to the task of making Raja Harishchandra,
soon after Pundalik had completed its run in Bombay. Sur-
prisingly, there is no mention in Phalke's own extensive
writings about Torney's successful effort, which he must
have undoubtedly noted on his return from England.
However, Phalke's venture was more elaborate and self-
dependent, wherein he had to grapple with all the techni-
cal problems himself. In fact, he was the supreme master
of his wo:k, being producer, director, writer, set and cos-
t~m~ designer, photographer, editor, processing incharge,
d1Str1butor and even publicist. His only helpers were his
Original from
wife and children and a small band of followers who were

new to the job. Phalke bravely undertook all the intricate
technical process on his own, while others before him
had benefited from the services of foreign cameramen and
companies. But it is still surprising why Phalke had so
much difficulty in getting fi.nance, since the others had a
smooth sailing in this respect and there was the successful
two-week run of Punda.lik as a precedent.
When he did find the sources, the problem of security
again arose. Phalke had now nothing left to pledge. So
his gentle wife offered her own ornaments. During pro-
duction, there were other ticklish problems, like finding
actresses to play the female roles. Phalke has narrated
some hilarious instances of his getting a response only
from women belonging to the oldest profession and then
seeing that even they shied away from working in films.
There was one whom he groomed for four days, till she
was snatched away from him by her 'keeper'. So he had
to do with boys, who donned the female garb, after gin-
gerly shaving off their moustaches. The main role of
Harishchandra was done by D.D. Dabke. Queen Taramati
was played by a young man Salunke and Harishchandra's
son Rohit was played by Phalke's son Bhalchandra, making
his debut as India's first child actor. .
The film was shot on specially made sets and curtains
in an improvised studio at Dadar (Bombay) as well as on
some outdoor locales. Being a shrewd showman at heart,
Phalke knew the value of obtaining high-level recognition
for his maiden venture. He arranged a preview at the
Olympia Picture Palace on April 21, two weeks before the
public release. The 'big people' of the city were invited
to this show, including Sir Bhalchandra Bhatvadekar, Mr.
Donald (a judge of the Small Causes Court) and Dr.
Vimadalal, who all spoke at the function in praise of
Phalke's work. Phalke also had the all-India audience in
mind, as he put the explanatory title-cards in English and
Hindi. And he was right for the film soon travelled to
Surat, Poona, Calcutta and even far-off places like Colombo
and Rangoon. This was all done with a single print and
the returns it brought were so big as to awe not only
Original from
the doubting Thomases but Phalke himselt.

The success of Raja Harishchandra firmly and surely
laid the foundation of the Indian cinema industry. making
the film a commercially profitable proposition. Moreover,
Phalke, unlike others, kept up the effort by making more
films one after another. For about four years, he was the
only producer in the entire country, except for a couple of
ventures tried by some others. But his most valuable con-
tribution was of laying down the operative norms of
Indian films, both in form and content, which are still in
use after sixty years. All this legitimately ensures for
Dadasaheb Phalke the title of 'the father of Indian Cinema'.
His birth centenary year, which got over in April 1971,
was celebrated through some commemorative gestures like ·
a postage stamp, a statue on the road at Dadar named
after him, a documentary film and a published souvenir.
But the film industry and the authorities have yet to pro-
vide a lasting, inspiring memorial to the man who laid
the foundation of such a huge industry almost single-
handed.
After Raja Harishchandra, Phalke shifted his studio

from Bombay to Nasik, as he thought that the climate
as well as the locations there, like jungles, rivers and
historical places would be far more helpful. Within three
months he turned out his second film, Mohini BhasmasuT
which was released at Bombay's Olympia in late Decem-
ber, 1913. Described as a star ,Jilm and a purely Swadeshi
programme, this film of about 3,600 feet was again shown
at double rates. The story drawn from the well-known
epic MahabhaTata was generally liked and the film was
favourably reviewed. The Bombay Chronicle commented :
'A most romantic and charming Puranic drama'. Also
forming a part of the ninety minute show were Phalke's
own short films, a comic item called Hand Prints or
Pithache Panje and a coverage of picturesque spots in
Nasik and Trimbak called Godavery Views.
For M ohini, Phalke could get two women to play the
roles. They were a mother and her daughter, Durgabai and
Kamla, who hesitantly claimed the distinction of being
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the first Indian women on the screen. And for his third
film, Satyavan Savitri, Phalke could get as many as four
women. This picture of about 4,000 feet was also complet- ·
ed at top speed and released at Olympia in June, 1914.
This time, the drawing appeal was directed to 'non-Hindus'
to witness a film on Hindu mythology from Mahabharata
apparently because the Hindus were already crowding the
theatre in any case. The film ran for two weeks in Bombay
followed by touring exhibitions and had a lot of income.
Like a true devotee, Phalke reinvested the money in further
equipping the studio. His financier friend was also in a more
cheerful mood now. Moreover, the films had already at-
tracted attention abroad and, as Phalke has noted in his
writings, there was a demand of twenty copies of each of
them. Within the country, exhibitors were eager to get
the prints of the new money-earners for the growing
number of theatres.
So Phalke decided to invest in new, electric driven
machinery for printing, as the hand-driven gadgets were
dreadfully slow. This required another trip to London and
Phalke made it a double-purpose visit by taking along his
three films. This led to the unique result of Indian films
being screened in London in such an early period and what
is more, winning favourable comments. Though tne screen-
ing was only on the trade-cum-Press level and not a com-
mercial release for the public, Phalke's films created quite
a stir. Mr. Cabourne of Bioscwe weekly had helped in this
and the magazine also did the rare honour of carrying
advance notices. The trade shows elicited high praise in
the l3ritish Press, especially for their technical excellence
and the mythological contents which enlightened the
foreigners. In fact, the commercial potential of the films
even brought a lucrative offer to Phalke, which would
have made him an international figure, right at the start
of his career.
The proprietors of two studios met Phalke and wanted
him to make films in England on Indian subjects. What
they apparently had in mind was something like Dancer of
Siva, made more authentically by an Indian and with its
exotic appeal directed at the world markets. They would
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give him a monthly fee of three hundred pounds with a

twenty per cent share in the profits and also maintain the
unit which Phalke may choose to bring from India. But
like a true patriot, fired by the call of the Swadeshi, Phalke
wanted to make his own type of films in India, with Indian
capital and talent. So he declined the tempting offer and
did not care how dearly he had to pay for it. For, all his
ambitious plans and the prospects of foreign markets went
away, as the first World War broke out.
Phalke was at that time in London and saw that despite
the war, there was business as usual, while in India a
situation of complete panic prevailed. Nobody had any
faith in new enterprises, least so, in unknown, specula-
tive ones like film-making, the material for which came
from abroad. Phalke's financier friend had reverted to his
gloomy outlook and stopped giving money even for run-
ning expenses. The infant company was on the verge of
closure which was averted for the time being by the tact
of Mrs. Phalke and the dedicated spirit of the workers.
On his return, Phalke once again faced the terrible prob-
lem of securing finance. An account of the efforts in his
own words, makes a touching story. He tried every possible
source, including the 'heroes of the Home Rule League',
the Paisa Fund, the princely families and also schemes like
raising a public loan of one rupee per person. To gain
confidence, he started a film called Life of Shriyal but
had to give it up due to a series of natural and man-made
calamities. At one stage, his docile wife even offered to
act before the cam-era for his sake. The family had already
driven itself to the brink of ruin just for the one supreme
goal, of Indian cinema as a Swadeshi industry.
For two full years, Pha1ke only moved about as a
touring exhibitor and could not make . any film. Nor did
anyone else in the country, except for one single effort,
that was being pursued for quite some time and saw the
light of the day in 1915. It was Death of Narayanrao
Peshwa, a chapter from Maratha history made by Patankar
Union of the three friends who had earlier made the
faulty attempt Savitri. This film, too, did not succeed in
making any notable impact. The theatres kept presenting
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musicians, illusionists, wrestlers and sandows, apart, of

course, from dramas and the regularly imported foreign
films in which names like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pick-
ford, Pearl White and Keystone cops had already started
figuring prominently.. There were also the serials, like
Perils of Pauline which had forty-two parts and ran for
weeks at a stretch. A couple of topical
. shorts were made
.
in the country like Funeral of the late Hon. Mr. G.K.
Gokhale by one Devashanker of Poona.
It was at last in 1917 that the woes and sacrifices of
Phalke and his family came to an end. With a small sum
of money borrowed from the Princess of lndore and some
other people, he made a grand reappearance with a revised
version of Raja Harishchandra and India's first big box-
office hit Lanka Dahan, both of which were released some
time in September. Lanka Dahan with a length of 3,000
feet and shown along with an Englisl1 feature The Blind
Fate, which described as an extraordinary production show-
ing how much India has advanced in the science of cinema-
tography. Within a week it _proved to be a record-breaker.-
There was a terrific demand for seats and the rush on the
ticket office was said to be uncontrollable. Phalke has
.noted in his autobiography that it collected Rs 32,000 at
the West End in ten days. In Poona, the crowd almost
broke the doors of the cinema and in Madras the collec-
tions had to be carried in a bullock-cart with police
escort.
-Before all this took place, Bengal saw the birth of its
first feature Satyabadi Raja Harishchandra, released in
Calcutta in March 1917. It was made by J.F. Madan's
Elphinstone Bioscope Company, which had already earned
a name for short films. Following the example of Phalke,
they picked up the same story of the truth-loving king.
But their film running into 7,000 feet or two hours-the
longest Indian feature seen till then-was adapted from a
drama which was then a big success. It presented 'the most
•
beautiful and emotional star' Miss Savaria along with Homi
Tantra and Baliwala's full troupe of Victoria Theatrical
Company of Bombay. So it must have been a Hindi or
Urdu drama, transferred to celluloid and supported with
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titles in English. It was also released in Bombay close on

the heels of Lanka Dahan. Elphinstone's second film
Prahlad Charitra arrived three months later, showing the
trials of devotee Prahlad under his cruel father.
The financially successful efforts of Phalke and Madan
were a big spur and, by 1918, the semblance of an industry
came into being and feature films were firmly established
as a mode of entertainment and moral instructions. The
three undaunted men led by director S.N. Patankar now
formed Patankar Friends & Co. and came out with three
films during the year. One was a double programme com-
prising King Shriyala (The Terrific Ordeal) and Jaimini
(Learning vs Passion). The other was the first serial to be
made in India, called Ram Banvas (Exile of Shree Rama)
based on the famous episodes from the epic Ramayana. Its
20,000 feet, covering six hours, were divided into four
instalments, spread .over four weeks. There were special
coupons issued of four tickets, one fo~ each week This
was easily the longest Indian film, inspired by the foreign
serials, topped by The Black Box shown in Calcutta, for
which it was claimed that its 36,000 feet were screened at
a stretch with an hour's interval.
Phalke steered clear of the footage race but made up for
it with . his ·devotional fervour and amazing trick shots.
After · his big success with Lanka Dahan there was no
problem of finance but the period from 1918 also found him
placed in an industry set-up, which was not to suit his
creative and ambitious temperament and independent
nature. He had started receiving many offers. There
was one from Fatma Begum, who later formed her own
company and acted in films along with her three pretty
daughters. Another was a prestigious one from Lokmanya
Tilak, Manmohandas Ramji and Ratan Tata, to form a
limited company with a capital of five lakhs. Even the
Memorandum and Articles were drawn up for what would
have been a unique institution of the nascent film industry.
But Phalke finally opted for a partnership company with
five industrialists of Bombay. The humble M/s. Phalke
& Co. was converted into Hindustan Cinema Film Co. ,
with its studio at Nasik and office in Bombay.
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40 ~-5 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
Its first film Krishna Janma (Birth of Shree Krishna)

made and distributed on a better scale became a big hit.
Proving a bigger hit than the film was little Mandakini,
Phalke's daughter, playing the mischievous child Krishna.
The film showed the incidents connected with the birth of
Lord Krishna, his escape to Gokul and overthrow of the
demon Kansa. Many scenes were claimed to have been shot
on actual pilgrimage sights. The film was immensely liked
It brought a lot of money and also gold medal awards to
Mandakini from the proprietors of Alexandra Cinema and
to Phalke from H.H. Thakoresahib of Dhrol. Encouraged
by all the success, the Hindustan Co. Studio now started
making films, like 'manufacture' from a factory, as film-
making was then called. Three films streamed out in
1919.
The first to appear was Kalia Mardan again showing Lord
Krishna's exploits like killing the demon snake and again
with Mandakini playing the role. This film turned out to
be an equally big hit. The next to follow were Ahil11a
U ddhar showing how the virtuous woman was restored to
life by the sacred touch of Shree Rama and Usha Swapna,
a love tale from Mahabharata of how princess Usha was
abducted by Aniruddha. But soon after this, Phalke real•
ised the folly of a partnership arrangement, as differences
cropped up between him and the other partners-the in-
evitable conflicts between an artist with vision who was
a working partner and sheer businessmen who were financ-
ing partners. Once again, Phalke gave everything up and
went away to Benares. His only activity during the two
following years was a drama in seven acts, called Ranga-
bhoomi which was a satire on people in the show business.
Meanwhile, film production gathered momentum from
other sources. The first feature film of South India emerged
in 1919 with Nataraj Mudaliar making Keechaka Vadham
in Madras under the banner Indian Film Co. Like the other
_pioneers, Mudaliar too had taken an easy recourse to an
episode from Mahabharata pertaining to the Pandavas
in exile and the killing of libertine Keechaka for the sake
of Draupadi. The Mail, a Madras daily, commented that
the film had been prepared with great care and was draw-
-
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ing crowded houses. It was shown through the Elphinstone

chain of J.F. Madan who had set up his exhibition wing in
Madras at the Elphinstone Picture Palace, which was soon
taken over under the aegis of Madan Theatres Ltd. Madras
also had its own pioneer exhibitors like R. Venkiah.
More films arrived from the other two among the first
three e.stablished producers. From Madan's producing wing
in Calcutta came Bilwamangal (Bhagat Surdas), starring
famous stage . star Gauhar as Chintamani, the beloved of
the blind poet-saint. I.t was claimed to be 12,000 feet long,
though we must note that it was a common tendency in
those days to exaggerate the footage as a publicity trick.
As the story of Surdas was a change from the completely
mythological and ·devotional types, the Madans trained
the drawing appeal at all classes of spectators, with the
twist that it was an interesting picture of Indian social
life, manners and customs. In any case, the film became a
hit in Calcutta and Bombay. From. the Patankars came two
films: Kacha Devayani, based o~ Mahabharata, boasted of
gorgeous scenic effects, like Indra's durbar, the murder
of Kacha by demons and his restoration to life by
Shukracharya.
Kabir Kamal depicted the life story of the poet-saint of
yore who had represented an ideal Hindu-Muslim union in
his own self as well as his teachings. It thus became the
first film to show a genuine social consciousness . and the
producers made it manifest by drawing a parallel with
the burning question of communal unity. It was based on
a story by M.G . Dave, the first to be credited with this kind
of authorship and featured Vishnu Purshottam and Hirabai
in the cast. There was one more film from a newly started
company - Vishwamitra-Menaka or Shakuntala Janma
made by India Film Manufacturing Co. that was later to be
converted into gigantic Kohinoor. It narrated the legen-
dary tale of Shakuntala being born, from the unholy wed-
look between the staunch ascetic Vishwamitra and the
temptress Menaka who was sent to violate his 'tapasya'.
Phalke's actor Dabke played the main role.
And so when the first decade of the new century ended,
India had made some twenty-five features and established
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the silent film as a popularly accepted mode of _story

telling. In all this, the contribution of Phalke was by all
means immense and in some ways comparable to what
D.W. Griffith did for American cinema. Between 1908 and
1916, Griffith made films which turned the cinema into a
new medium and a vibrant art form, with its own langu-
age. Much the same was done by Phalke with Indian ethos
and idiom. He achieved a unique combination of the tradi-
tional lore ,of myth and legend with the cinema's techni-
cal potential of camera tricks needed for. the miracles. In
fact, his mastery in this sphere-acknowledged by the trade
in London-helped him to overcome the limitations of
resources and markets in India. Phalke was also a shrewd
film producer and showman. On the one hand he played
upon the sentimental and religious appeal of the hoary
tales and revered characters. On the other hand, he ex-
ploited the camera's infinite possibilities so as to surpass
the innumerable presentations of the same tales on the
stage. _
Phalke's greatness can be realised from the fact
that he had to work almost single-handed, doing the
pioneering and innovating in every respect, while his con-
temporaries abroad had the benefits of resources, equip-
ment and specialised services in studios. Another remark-
able thing is that he understood the historical importance
of the pioneering work he was doing as well as of the
medium as a whole. As early as 1917, he made a short film
How Films Are Prepared, showing himself at work on the
different processes. This is indeed a rare celluloid record,
the like of which cannot be found in the case of pioneers
of other countries.
The fact that he had made about sixteen short films by
1919, shows the importance he attached to the film's role
as documentary. Among them were such varied subjects
as, trick films on match-sticks and coins performing acro-
batics, a magic show by himself appearing as Prof. Kelpha
(the reverse of his real name), a film preaching against
smoking, a look at the Glass Works in Talegaon (near
F>oona), wrestling and athletic tournaments, a coverage of
the Sinhastha Parvani pilgrimage and some comical. sati-
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.FEATURE FILMS, IN EMBRYO 43
rical items on typical Indian characters.

He also invented many new methods of narrating the
stories on the screen (setting the norms for sentiments and
sermons) and even of publicising his films for drawing
the biggest possible audience. There is no doubt that Phalke
moulded the new medium, not as a mode of artistic ex-
pression but as a huge, industrial enterprise, with which
he could not himself cope up at several stages of his career.
He was the first to realise the potential of cinema as a
mass medium that could bring in big profits. It was the
box-office power of his first great hits which unwittingly
laid down the yardstick by which Indian films continued
to be judged for decades. But Phalke's own vision and
cl.evotion were of course above all commercial considera-
tions. He was an organiser and a teacher who wanted the
new medium to flourish in the best of surroundings. An
inspiring description of Phalke's studio at Nasik has been
given by Mr. B. V. Dharap, in his extensive writings on the
pioneer's life. Being a disciplinarian who valued health
and total abhorrence of stimulants, Phalke would have his
staff checked up regularly by a doctor and provided all
facilities for games and exercises. The studio had its
own farm, garden, kitchen, library and a small zoo. The
unit was like 'one big happy family'.
Jn the first decade, the feature films were shown by tums

in different Indian cities, though often with their titles
modified and tailored. Patankar's King Shriyala came to
Madras as Siruthonda Nayanar. Competition was very keen
and films on the same subject often led to wordy warfare
in the advertisements. Theatres treated their patrons with
respect and tried different means to bring them in. Some of
them even arrogated to themselves the functions of cen-
sorship, the first form in which it made its appearance in
our country. The films from abroad were already showing
a tendency for violent and erotic elements. So the Royal
Opera House announced in 1916 that its management
\\'ould exercise a strict censorship on films showing mur-
der, robbery etc., being convinced that such things dege-
nerate the public. ·
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Private Press previews were often held, where journal-

ists were cordially invited, at times through newspaper
ads. Patrons were offered some special services and faci-
lities. The Royal Opera kept its staff for finding victorias
(horse-carriages) for patrons and during the flu epidemic
in 1918, it made the unprecedented gesture of providing
bottles of medicine mixtures to the ticket-buyers. The
itinerant exhibitors and !the theatres must have 'been
buying foreign films outright for which they had no use
after the run. One English company made it a point to call
back all films and make a grand bonfire periodically. But
others were not so keen and the theatres in India had to
somehow dispose of the films. The America-India once
offered five lakhs feet of films for sale. For. the new im-
ported releases, the advertisements were not only frequent
but even reached the full-page size in ·d~ilies like Bombay
Chronicle. Big spectacular films would be heralded with
great fan fare and trumpeting.
The foreign film exhibitors also tried many tricks to
meet the Unexpected competition from Indian story films.
In Calcutta, Enoch Arden was shown with Bengali titles.
Foreign filllls were often guardedly palmed off as Indian
films, merely on the basis of stories, characters or names
with an Indian background. Examples were films like
Avatar, Pearl of the Ganges etc. But there was at least
one genuine case of a foreign film based on the paperwork
of an Indian author. That was Faith of a Child written by
Niranjan Pal, which was released in India in 1916. But
nothing could alter the fact that the Indian feature film
had come into its own, as a separate entity and would no
doubt dominate the film scene in the decade that was to
follow.
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4
Silent Era, In Bloom
The Twenties: 1920-1929
AFTER stepping into 1920, the Indian cinema gradually

assumed the shape of a regular ·industry. This is most
noticeable in the quantum of production, which rose from a
mere eight per year to eighteen (1920), forty (1921), eighty
(1925) and a hundred and seventy-two at the turn of the
decade. The industry also came within the purview of the
law. The Indian Cinematogr.aph Act had been passed in
1918, which provided for the licensing of cinema-halls apd
the censorship of Indian and imported films. The boards of
film censors were set up province-wise but they started
functioning only from 1920. They replaced the old system
by which local authorities, like the police commissioner,
were empowered to certify whether a film was fit for public
exhibition. But even after the new legislation, the com-
missioner continued to be the ex-officio president of the
board at each centre. When the Act came into force, there
was a large number of uncertified films in circulation. All
these were brought before the boards and granted certi-
ficates at a nominal charge of one rupee each without any
examination.
The new decade saw the arrival of many new companies

and film-makers. Many of them were to go ahead and
shape a big, prosperous industry, in which the Indian
silent film flowered to its full bloom. One of the most
significant among these was BaburatJ Painter. who formed
45
Original from
the Maharashtra Film Company at Kolhapur. Being a

traditional brush artist, as per his family name, Painter
brought a new artistic and scenic appeal which had been
quite lacking in Indian films till then. That is why his
contribution is often considered next to Phalke's. Painter
was initiated into film art by his cousin Anandrao Mistry
through short films. They had earlier picturised the historic
Indian National Congress session of 1918, showing Lok-
manya Tilak, B.G. Horniman, Bipinchandra Pal, Sarojini
Naidu and other leaders.
This was now shown along with the new company's
first feature film Sairandhrt. Based on the famous episode
from Mahabharata, Sairandhri scored not so much with
its content as with its unusual presentation through spec-
tacular scenic effects, decor and costumes. One trick scene
of Bhima twisting Keechaka's neck was so gruesomely real-
istic that it led to the first unwelcome intrusion of censor-
ship. Painter's penchant for grandeur paid off and the
Indian cinema thus had its own modest blockbuster, only a
few months after the Bombay release of Griffith's colossal
Intolerance. Another ambitious film-maker, then stepping
into the field was Suchet Singh, who had his training
abroad, (said to be partly under Chaplin) and tagged a
proud B.C.S., C.P.A. to his name. He entered the local
filmdom by forming the Oriental Film Manufacturing Com-
pany and created a record by presenting an American
actress, Dorothy Kingdom, in his first film Shakuntala.
Throughout 1919, Suchet Singh had been announcing
his plans and inviting 'attractive, ambitious male and
female actors of any class to work with a famous foreign
actress'. He also wanted 'energetic and progressive men
for laboratory, camera and other jobs under an American
expert'. His magnum opus Shakuntala, a seven-reeler based
on the Kalidasa classic, at last reached the screen in Janu-
ary 1920. It was said to have cost a fabulous sum and
taken quite a long time in production. But the time gap
rather went against it, as the Patankar Friends took the
cue and churned out their own Shakuntala or Fateful Ring.
For some time, a battle royal raged between the two
Shakuntalas. Suchet Singh declared that his film was not
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SILENT ERA, IN BLOOM 47
like the other mediocre Indian, films. But he must have

obviously taken some libertie:. with Kalidasa_. for the
Patankars hit back by saying that their film was strictly
in accordance with the original drama. They also played
up the Swadeshi angle to sneer at Suchet's foreign lean-
ings and inserted an ad. with a classic piece of satire : ·
"Neither Jew nor gentile An Aryan drama in Aryan
drapery and actors-Real Swadeshi film from start to
finish.''
Whether Swadeshi or not, Suchet's film has gone down
in history and so, too, his heroine, Dorothy Kingdom for 1
'the unique interpretation of an Oriental character by an
Occidental star', as he himself put it. The sole rights of
his film were acquired for India, Burma, Ceylon by
Ratanji Dorabji of Watson Film Hiring Co. and it evidently
scored better outside India. All these early happenings
serve as a lesson, since they have met almost similar con-
sequences, whenever a film-maker has tried to tread that
path. Suchet's Shakuntala was revived in Bombay at half
rates, within a month. The same year saw five more films
from Suchet Singh-three features, one topical on the
funeral procession of Tilak and a two-reel comedy Three
Devils starring an Indian Chaplin named as 'Pagal'. From
the story films, Ram or Maya (starring Gauhar) dealt with
the conflict between spiritualism and materialism: Mrichha
Katika was adapted from the classical Sanskrit play (and
said to be produced with Indian capital, labour and skill)
and Narsinh Mehta told the famous lore about the poet-
devotee of Lord Krishna (accompanied by special Indian
music). The third film also had spectacular scenes show-
ing raas-leela, processions of elephants, horses etc.
But Suchet's dreams and visions do not seem to have
found favour with the Indian audiences. Before the year
ended, all his five films were offered fc,r sale, 'preferably
to one who buys the whole lot with negatives'. And then
came the reports that Suchet had met an untimely death
in an accident. A promising career was nipped in bud
within the brief span of a year and at a time when · the
growing Indian Cinema badly needed the nourishment of
talent.
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But the show must go on and so it did, with many other

producers coming on the scene. Dwarkadas Sampat and
M-a neklal Patel, who earlier had financing interests in a
couple of companies, now joined hands and formed Kohi-
noor Film Company, which was to dominate the silent era
with its huge output and bring up many directorial, tech-
nical and acting talents. Even in its earliest films, Krishna
Sudam,a and Sati Parvati, it introduced actors like Khalil,
Tara, Raja Sandow, who became the first to contend for
the elusive status of stars, and directors like K. Rathod
who were to make dozens of films.
In 1921, Kohinoor presented Bhakta Vidur with Sampat

himself in the title role which tried to convey a patriotic
message under a mythological garb and got banned in some
provinces. The Swaraj movement was gaining strength
under the leadership of Gandhiji and film-makers showed
the first conscious signs of the medium being indirectly
used for the cause. The Mahabharata episodes from a film
could also suggest a downfall, not of the Kaurava king-
dom but of the other empire, then ruling the country.
Kohinoor also showed the charkha (spinning wheel) in its
programmes, calling it the wheel of fortune, the wheel of
Swaraj. Often, the news-reel was also harnessed to serve
the purpose. The death of Tilak and the big funeral pro-
cession in Bombay covered by Oriental, Kohinoor and
other companies were widely shown, injected with a strong
patriotic fervour.
Mahatma Gandhi made his first screen appearance, in a
topical made in July 1921, showing him paying tributes to
Tilak's memory and conferring with other leaders at
Poona. On Tilak's first death anniversary, all the news-
reels about the funeral etc. were revived in a big way. But
the most fiery bunch of such films came a little later, under
the title Great Bonfire of Foreign Clothes. Gandhiji had
used the occasion of Tilak's • anniversary to conduct the
bonfire in the 'maidan' near Elphinstone Mills. And a full-
fledged film was made on this as well as related events
spread over two days. Though its sponsors preferred to
remain anonymous, the name of the cameraman was given
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out as 'The American expert Mr. Jansey'. It showed the

operation in all its details, like the collecting of foreign
clothes in the streets of Bombay, Gandhiji and other
leaders like Maulana Shaukat Ali and Mohamed Ali, Pandit
Malaviya and Sarojini Naidu gathering at Rambag (where
a khadi exhibition was being held), proceeding to ihe
maidan (where a crowd of two lakhs awaited them),
Gandhiji setting fire to the huge heap of clothes and the
crowd cheering wildly. The film ran for two weeks at two
theatres, Globe and West End-there was nothing which
the British dominated censor board could do about it.
To Bombay's sizable production of narrative features,

Bengal and Madras now began to add their own quota in
small doses. In Calcutta, Madan Theatres, now firmly
established with Indian and foreign talents, turned out a
number of films every year. The first to come in 1921
was Nala Damayanti in ten reels, produced and directed by
Signor E. de Liguoro, an Italian on the company's staff,
who was also an actor. The film boasted of wonderful illu-
sionary effects and an all-star cast with Patience Cooper
(the first among the famous Indian stars of yesteryear)
and other: Anglo-Indian and Parsi talents of the stage.
Even the great dramatist Agha Hashar Kashmiri played a
role in the company's spectacular Dhruva Charitra, which
was described as "a triumph of Indian enterprise and Euro-
pean co-operation". Another film was Shiv Ratri or Lore
of Faith, based on the legend about the night observed ir'i
honour of Shiva. It was directed by a French photograph-
er., Monsieur C. Legrand and starred an Italian pair called
Manellis. But this time, there were also big names of
the Bengali stage like P.C. Bose and Kusum Kumari play-
ing Shiva and Parvati. The Madans were conscious of their
reliance on non-Bengali talents, which provoked the rivals
to say that their films were not Bengali but merely made
in Bengal. That is why they presented this film, with a
special emphasis on "Bengali actors and Bengali titles."
But the thunder was stolen from them by a young
expressionist, calling himself D.G., standing for Dhiren
Ganguli. His Bilat Ferat (England Returned) was proudly
Original from
heralded as "a purely Bengali film, ' at a Bengali theatre,

presented by a Bengali company, with Bengali actors and
photographer". Br-t its real merit was that it was t.la~ first
film in the entire country to have a contemporary social
story. Perhaps not aware of it, D.G. presented it as "an all-
Bengali comedy drama." The film made by him under his
Inda-British Film Co. and featuring himself with Sushila
Devi was a lively satire on the Anglicised Indian youths
and their misadventures on returning to their motherland.
D.G. also included some American style slapstick comedy
for greater fun. The film clicked in Calcutta (though not
so in Bombay) and D.G. was hailed as an Indian Chaplin.
It is also noteworthy that the film was an all-coloured one.
But in his second film, D.G. dropped the social milieu in
favour of the famous Radha-Krishna legends which he
presented as Yashoda Nandan, all-coloured again. It wa&
described as the first genuine Bengali sacred film and
with Bengali music, too, provided in the theatre. Not to be
outdone by D.G.'s social film, the Madans soon turned out
Tehmu.ras and Tehmu.ljee, a comedy of twin brothers, based
on a Parsi-Gujarati drama by the famous dramatist Pijam
(Phirozshah Marzban). If D.G. had chos.e n his own world of
Bengali society, the Madans thought it fit to project their
own Parsi life in a photoplay and made it a special at-
traction for the Pateti holidays. But thereby, they, of
~ourse, severely restricted its market. The third Bengali
concern which entered the field at this time was the
Aurora Cinema Co. of Anadi Nath Bose who had been an
exhibitor. Its first was Ratnakar adapted from the Rama-
yana with celebrated stage stars Chuni Lal Dev and Shosha
Mukhi and with Bengali titles in poetry form. Moreover,
it also introduced its own news-review called Calcutta
Film Gazette and short films, starting with a comedy
Dabboo's Plight. Over the years, the Aurora has survived
the ravages of time, in which most other companies got
lost and remains the oldest one in existence at the time of
writing.
In Madras, the daily Mail carried a very lively column
'Stage and Screen', in which ·both Indian and foreign fare
was commented upon. A film to which its columnist drew
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pointed attention in 1921 was Valli's Wedding made by

Whittaker in Madras. Putting it a step above even Phalke's
Birth of Shri Krishna, the writer praised it for the fresh-
ness of its open air scenes, taken at places like Madura
and the absence of tawdry things and actors behaving
like automatons. Whittaker was said to have made the
film despite many difficulties and obstructions, though the
sponsoring was claimed to have been given by the exhibi-
tion wing of Madan Theatres in Madras. The semi-mytho-
logical story of the wedding of Lord Subramanya 'fas
said to have been done with modern presentation and set-
up, in an ideal Madrasi setting. The titles were in Tamil
and the accent was on· calling it "a South Indian film,
enacted in South Indian scenes and played by South Indian
actors." Compared with the stress on Bengali in the Cal-
cutta productions, it shows that the cinema was already
infected by the regional bias and was taking certain sides
to ensure certain markets. But as in Bengal, the real local
spirit in Madras films was to be brought by the people
belonging to that region. Exhibitor R. Venkiah and his
foreign-trained son R. Prakash were making plans to build
a studio and make their films under the star of the East
Film Co. And the film industry of the South had its real
take-off, when they released their first film Bhishma Pra-
tigya in 1922.
Meanwhile, the Hindustan Co. without Phalke had some-
how pulled on with mythological and devotional films, in-
cluding sequels to the hits on Krishna's legends. But the
competition from new companies was growing serious. A
subsidiary concern, called Bharat Film Co. was started at
Poona and later dissolved. The partners were compelled to
call back Phalke, who agreed to come on certain condi-
tions. But it was no longer the same Phalke with the
pioneer's zeal and enterprise. The vital freedom and total
control which he enjoyed in his first few films were simply
not possible in the changed circumstances and under the
restrictive influence of an organisation. Moreover, Phalke
as well as his company continued to pin their faith on
the ancient subjects alone, except for a couple of films
which stand as solitary attempts io grapple with the real-
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ities of life. Other film makers were doing far more fresh
and exciting things and rightly winning greater public
favour.
Madan Theatres brought Ramayana as a serial in twenty-
one parts, seven to be shown each week. Other prestige
productions that came from their . Calcutta studio were :
Ratnavali (Se~ Nymph of Ceylon) based on the classical
drama by Harsha, the . poet king of Kashmir, Princess
Budar (Tale of Kamar-Al-Zaman) taken from 1001 Nights
and Laila Majnu with British players Jeanette Sherwin and
H.B'. Waring appearing as the two lovers. Many of these
films were now publicised as being made under the per-
sonal supervision and direction of Madan's son, J.J. Madan.
Literary treasures of Bengal were also rediscovered, as film
versions were made of Sarat Chandra's Andhare Alo by
Taj Mahal Film Co. and Bankim Chandra's Bisha Briksha
by Madans. D.G. , who had now formed Lotus Film Co.
at Hyderabad, kept up the social satire in comedies like
the Lady Teacher while social problems were brought up
in films like Barer Bazar (Marriage Market), again from
Madan Theatres.
In Bombay, also, producers had started digging into
several sources as the myths and legends were fast get-
ting exhausted. Tales of devotees, poets and saints were
picked up from history and the classical literature was
suddenly in demand, with the stage of course providing
the nearest choices. There was much competition in the
selection of subjects and there were two Pundaliks, two
Tukarams and two Ambarishes, struggling simultaneously
for audience favour. Twists were sometimes given to make
the old subjects get a new look. Bhakta Shiromani was
presented as a mythological comedy, with the sages Narad
and Parwat as suitors in love trying to steal a march over
each other. Another was Juggler Or _Jadunath about
Krishna's magical feats. It was directed and photograph-
ed by S.N. Patankar who worked independently afte'r the
break up of Patankar Friends & Co.
The rapid formation as well as dissolution of production

companies has been a bane of the industry right from
Original from
SILENT ERA, IN lilLOOJrl 53
those early days. This is due to a variety of causes, like

the lack of proper organisation, finance and planning,
fissiparous tendencies among the persons at the helm and
the uncertain commercial prospects, so inevitable with
every film. Hence its best talents have not been able to
shine as much and as long, as they could have otherwise
done. Among the new ones entering the fields in 1921-22
was Ardeshir Irani, who was destined to do great things.
He was already in the exhibition and distribution business,
when he decided to take up production and formed Star
Films in partnership with Bhogilal Dave who had just re-
turned from America with a diploma from the New York
Institute of Photography and after having a l{ood look at
Hollywood. Their first film Veer Abhimanyu was a spec-
tacular ·in the Hollywood fashion. The blurb said that it
had cost one lakh and that five thousand people had taken
part in it. Highlights included the great battle of Kuruk-
shetra. It was directed by Manila! Joshi and written by
M.G. Dave. Meanwhile, from Hollywood itself came the
Tarzan series, Harold Lloyd's comedies, Eddie Polo's films
and Chaplin's The Kid, followed by such varied foreign
fare as Three Musketeers, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and
Flaherty's famous Nanook of the North.
Another talent of great promise being nurtured in Pain-
ter's Maharashtra Company was V. Shantaram. After
several hard knocks and odd jobs, the young boy had
managed to get a break as a lad-of-all-work in Painter's
studio. But his cute looks soon encouraged the film-maker to
give him the role of Lord Krishna in Surekha Haran made
in 1921. Shantaram rose from these humble beginnings to
become one of India's leading film talents and the only one
to complete an uninterrupted record of fifty years of active
work in 1971. Like Phalke, the story of Shantaram would
also go to form a separate chapter of Indian film history.
And his later versatility was no doubt due to the exten-
sive training he got in all aspects of film-making at Pain-
ter's self-sufficient studio. In the company's Damaji (1922)
Shantaram played a young pathan and in Maya Bazar
(1923), a re-make of Surekha Haran, he was again made
to play Krishna.
Original from
54 '15 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
In complete contrast to this, the twenty-year-old boy

donned the make-up of an eighty-year-old character call-
ed Shelar Mama for the company's grand historical film
Sinhgadh released in the middle of 1923. Taking a chapter
from the life of Shivaji and his brave warriors, Baburao
Painter had made an inspiring and thrilling film that
created quite a sensation. Painter directed it as weU as
played a role. There were many exciting scenes of war-
fare, scaling of fortresses, mobilising of armies, etc. More-
over, Painter made an innovation of doing the photography
with arc light effect; it was first time in India that such
an experiment with artificial lights was tried. Another
historical on the Mughal period, which competed with it
through simultaneous release, was Madan Theatres' Nur-
jehan (Light of the World). J.J. Madan had also turned
out quite a grand film that boasted of many high-
lights, like "Sher Afghan's fight with a tiger and artistic
titles by Charles Creed". Lovely Patience Cooper appeared
as Nurjehan, with Dadabhai Sarkari as King Akbar, M.
Chhapgar as Prince J ehangir and Creed himself as Sher
Afghan.
Other historical subjects were also tried like Hindustan
Film Company's Life of Lord Buddha directed by Phalke,
who gave it a purposeful slant by showing how love and
compassion cross the barriers of caste, colour and creed.
Ardeshir lrani's Star Films presented Champraj Hada, an
episode from the Akbar era showing the ideal of Indian
womanhood. And a similar legend from the annals of
Rajasthan was reviewed in Silent Curse made by Swastika
Film Co. of Manila! Joshi, whose proud qualification was :
'Member : Producers' League, U.S.A.' At the same time,
history in making was being recorded in the form of topi-
cals. The <keat Congress at Ahmedabad in early 1922 had
been filmed and shown in all its details, followed by the
37th Congress at Gaya which was taken by Hindustan Co.
Madan Theatres captured the famous Mohun Bagan football
team in action. Kohinoor made a noteworthy record of
Expo$ition of St. Francis Xavier at Goa.
Mythical subjects were at times given a contemporary
twist for greater appeal, like Phalke's Mahananda being
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called a social photoplay. But Bengal was already bracinc

itself to tackle some real problems, though in a garbed
form. D.G.'s Bijoy and Basanta (Step Mother) was a semi-
costume drama and Taj Mahal's Man Bhanjan (All For
Love) was adapted from Tagore's work. Madan Theatres'
Patni Pratap, made as a sequel in serial form to their own
Pati Bhakti, had Patience Cooper playing a double role of
twin sisters and thus setting a tradition for many actresses
to come. Photo Play Syndicate of India's Soul of a Slave
directed by Hem Mukerji, photographed by Charles Creed
and based on a story of Ahindra Choudhry was a romantic
drama set in North India of 3,000 years ago showing how a
pleasure-seeking, wealthy man is converted by the pure
love of a slave girl. The film was made on a lavish scale,
with huge sets and thrilling outdoor scenes. Its Bombay
release was trumpeted as a red-letter day for the Indian
film industry. The Bengali actors Ahindra Choudhry and
Prafulla Ghosh acted opposite the Australian star Adele
Willison Wirth and the British star June Richards. The
film became an important milestone of Indian silent cinema
as it was the first to be shown and liked in Europe and
America, with rave notices received from foreign publica-
tions which praised it specially for being "quite Indian".
Bombay at last came out with a 'modern' story when
director-actor Homi Master made Kala Naag for Kohinoor,
in 1924. It was based on the exploits of a real criminal,
who had become notorious in Bombay under the assumed
name used for the film's title. It was m·a de in the style
of a thriller, showing "the types of crimes in modem civi-
lisation, like rapes, robberies and murders". The lovely act-
resses Sultana and Zubeida played opposite Homi Master,
who did the title role. This 'social' consciousness now got
into vogue and film companies began to pick on such sub-
jects or at least such titles, like Beeswin Sadi (Twentieth
Century) or Sharif Badmash (Society Scoundrel). Even the
staunch traditionalist Phalke was shaken up into directing
a couple of films on current problems. One was Municipal
Election which lampooned the election practices. And the
other was Sharda (Kanya Vikraya) which condemned the
cruel system of arranged matches, where young girls were
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nearly sold in marriage to old men thrice their age. By

showing the tragic fate ·of one such girl called Sharda,
the film pleaded for social reform. An almost identical
story was brought by Kohinoor in its Navi Sethani (Kanya
Vikraya ni Kahani). Later, legislation was brought about
to curb this evil.
Calcutta continue~ its tradition by making many films
on Bengali life, like Chandra Nath (based on Sarat Chan-
dra's novel), Naveen Bharat (New India), Papeyr Parinam
(Crime and its Punishment). A more interesting example
is of Madans producing Gao Mata (Sacred Cow) under the
auspices of the All-India Cow Conference Association and
with the blessings of some British and Indian political
leaders. But the biggest triumph of the year scored by
Madan Theatres was India's first co-production with a
foreign country. The company already had Italian and
French directors as well as actors on its staff. The foreign
connections, made possible through them must have goaded
the enterprising Madans to hit upon the remarkable idea of
making Savitri in association with the Unione Cinemato-
graphical Italiana of Rome. It was proudly described as the
first Hindu mythological drama produced in Italy, under
the supervision of Arturo Ambrosio, who had directed such
big hits like Last Days of Pompeii and Theodara. It was
made at the Cine Studios, where such big films as Quo Vadis
and Messallina had been shot. But the hybrid nature of the
strange combination was betrayed the most in the cast and
the locales. One can just imagine how it must have all
looked, with Countess Rina de Liguoro appearing as Savitri,
Bruto Castellani as Yama, Angelo Ferrari as Satyawan,
Mastripiztri as Rishi Atri, Signorita Terribilli as the exiled
queen and with the Indian mythical episodes shot against
the Cascade of Trivoli, palace of Count Chiggi and the
romantic grandeur of Frascati. And, one can condone the
film for getting a poor response in India.
Grand historical subjects were also in equal demand and _
were often chosen by new companies for their maiden
ventures. Film production also began to spread to other
areas. Rajkot had its first movie company called Saurashtra
Kinematograph. which made Balee Yagna (Self-Surrender
Original from
at the Feet of the Master) and other films. Baroda, in

Gujarat, had the Eastern Film Company, which made
Prithviraj Chauhan taken from Rajput history. Another
new company, Ashok Pictures, shot its historical spectacle
Prithvi Vallabh (Lord of Love & Power) completely in
Baroda, with the active help of the State. It was based
on the novel by K. M. Munshi and directed by Manilal
Joshi, who had earned the appellation "emotional director
of, India". King Prithvi was played by the champion
weight-lifter Wagle and queen Mrinalvati by the famous
Fatma Begum, whose daughters Sultana, Zubeida and later
Shahzadi also shaped as popular actresses. Associated
with the film as a supervisor was R. G. Torney, the man
who had made India's first story film.
Torney had made a come-back to filmdom by joining
Baburao Painter as a manager. . He made quite a sensation
by arranging a special preview of Sinhgadh presided over
by Gopal Krishna Devdhar. This helped the film in getting
a lot of newspaper coverage and consequently a long run
· at the Novelty. Now Torney tried the same trick for
Prithvi Vallabh by inviting eminent lawyers, doctors,
artists etc. to give their opinions. Of course, the idea had
been tried much earlier by Phalke in his first film. Painter
himself produced two successful historicals during the
year. Kalyan Khajana (Treasures of Kalyan), portrayed
the heroic and noble side of Shivaji, through the episode
of .the Mughal official's wife (played by Sultana), who was
honourably protected while in his captivity. Sati Padmini
(Beauty of Rajasthan or Siege of Chitor) depicted the life
of the beautiful Rajput queen (played by Miss N alini) and
the ordeals she faced. The picture must have been rich
with Painter's artistry as it got lavish praises from the
Press. Moreover, it was sent to the Wembley Exhibition
where it won a special certificate along with eulogies from
the London papers.
Among other new companies, Deccan Pictures Corpora-
tion of Poona, made Poona Raided, another chapter from
Maharashtra history, written and directed by Bhargavram
Warerkar. It was called a cosmopolitan picture which was
enacted by a mixed cast of Deccani, Bengali, Muslim and
· Original from
Parsi actors. As the Star Films came to an end, Bhogilal

Dave formed the Saraswati Film Co. and made Vikram
Charitra as the maiden production. It was based on a
legendary tale, with the thematic aim of showing that
women are in no way inferior to men. His next film
Sati Sardarba also won high praise for its technical finesse.
Another new concern was born as Ardeshir Irani joined
hands with Naval Gandhi to set up Majestic Film Co. with
its own studio. They also chose historical subjects like
Veer Durgadas and Razia Begum. The first was about the
bold Rajput warrior who challenged Aurangzeb and the
second about the wise and brave Muslim queen who got
infatuated with a slave. It_was Razia Begum which proved
the undoing of D.G. during his brief career at Hyderabad,
where he had his own theatre as well as Lotus Film Co.
D.G. committed the indiscretion of screening the film
despite the disapproval shown to the subject by the ruling
Nizam. The result was an overnight pack-up-and-leave
disaster for the poor man. The Majestic company also
made a topical on Gandhiji called Mahatma at Juhu. show-
ing him with wife Kasturba and son Devidas soon after
his release from Poona's Sassoon Hospital. This part
about his illness and operation had also been covered
through an earlier short called Mahatma's Miracle. It was
said to be filmed by Mama Warerkar.
The year 1925 again had a spate of new companies and
the production figure zoomed up. Ardeshir Irani switched
over from Majestic to yet another new concern called
Royal Art Studios, in association with Patel brothers and
Seth Aboo Hussein. They started with historical films,
like Mulraj Solanki. Laxmi Pictures made Suvarna which
tackled the theme of Hindu-Muslim unity through an
episode from Mughal history. The Premier Photoplay made
Justice which was a detective drama. The United Pictures
Syndicate, formed by Pandurang Talagiri, at Kirkee near
Poona began with a daring film Two Untouchables giving
Mahatma Gandhi's tirade against untouchability the practi-
cal shape of a Harijan girl becoming the wife of a Brahmin's
son. An Indian film also came from Rangoon, which was
then a part of the British empire. It was Dana Pratar-,
Original from
(Noorani Moti) made by London Art Photo Company as its

first production.
But the two big companies which were to last longer and
make a deeper impact were Sharda and Krishna. After
the winding up of Saraswati Films with a picture called
Social Pirates (The Night Side of Bombay), Bhogilal Dave
took his partner-director Nanabhai Desai, obtained finance
from his cousin Mayashanker Bhatt (who had earlier been
the financing partner and distributor of Phalke's Hindustan
Co.) and set up the Sharda Film Company. Its first produc-
tion was a historical Bajirao Mastani, about the .daring deeds
of a female spy, with a strange combination in the cast.
Bajirao was played by the Marathi actor Mr. Phatak and
Mastani by the European actress Miss Jones. The Krishna
Film Company was started by Maneklal · Patel, who had
left Kohinoor after the big fire that practically destroyed
the studio in 1923. The Krishna started with Navalsha
Hirjee based on a legend of Gujarat and starring the
Gujarati stage actor Mohan Lalaji, who was becoming
popular in films. It was produced at the Majestic Studio
under the direction of Ardeshir Irani. After another film
Chaloo Zamana, laid against the business world and the
stock market, the Krishna presented its noteworthy film
Baap Kamai (Fortune and Fools) which marked the debut
of Gohar, who was among the first to receive the build-up
and status of a star.
Another potential star introduced by Kohinoor in its
Veer Bala was Sulochana ot Ruby Myers. It was directed
by Mohan Bhavnani, another foreign-trained talent, who
took to Indian Cinema in a big way. Kohinoor was now
under the sole control of D. N. Sampat, who had courage-
ously rebuilt it after the disastrous fire and maintained a
sizable annual output of films, in which many talented direc-
tors and actors were given a break. A quick glance at the
Kohinoor titles would give a fair idea of the- type of sub-
jects handled - Henpecked Husband, a comedy, Hand-
some Blackguard in two parts and ~ased on a novel by
P. J. Marzban on the ills of modern society, Kulin Kanta
about the sufferings of a Hindu wife because of supersti-
tions, My Wife, another comedy, and Child Widow about
Original from
the evils of child-marriages and the reformistic suggestion

about the remarriage ·of widows.
The Maharashtra Film Co. made Check to the King
a historical episode about how Shivaji freed his father
from the clutches of the Sultan of Bijapur. But its more
significant achievement and one that· has gone down as
another milestone of the silent era was Savkari Pash
(Indian Shylock). The story of the ruthless and almost
total exploitation of the Indian peasant by the blood-suck-
ing moneylender was given such a realistic treatment by
director Painter that it created a sensation and must have
been instrumental in bringing about a change in the laws
as well as in arousing the collective conscience. It was
in this film that V. Shantaram got his first opening, in the
role of the young farmer whose family is ruined. Some
political consciousness was also found in a film of Sau-
rashtra Kinematograph called Charkha (Shipping Wheel),
which used a melodramatic story to show the benefits of
the Khadi movement, its whole process and some promi-
nent people doing the spinning as per Gandhiji's teachings.
In Calcutta, the Madan Theatres dominated the
field with a wide range of subjects like Jayleyr Meye
(Fisher Girls), Turki Hpor, Premanjali, Pampered Youth
etc. It also made a topical on the funeral proces-
sion of Chitaranjan Das, with Gandhiji as the chief mourner
and a short comedy, with a politically motivated title Non-
Cooperation. The company also groomed Patience Cooper
.as one of its. top star attractior\s. The other companies in
Bengal could not compete with Madans and their ever in-
creasing chain of theatres. The Aurora Co. sounded almost
pathetic, when, during one c;>f its revivals, it offered "a
free motor-bus service up to Sham Bazaar, after the night
shows, for those buying tickets above four annas".
In the 1925-26 period, there came a film, by which the

Indian Cinema came to be widely known on an interna-
tional level. It was The Light of Asia·, made as a co-
production by the Great Eastern Corporation of Delhi·
with the Emelka Fi.1.m Co. of Munich (Germany). The brain
behind the ventur(' was Himansu Rai, who already had
Original from
some experience of the show business abroad ·and conceived

this joint venture in a unique way. The German concern
provided a share in the finance, as well as its equipment
and trained technicians, including director Franz Osten.
The paperwork was done by the well-known author and
dramatist Niranjan Pal, on thel basis of Edwin Arnold's
classic, about the life of Prince Siddhartha and his receiving
enlightenment as Buddha. Verses from Arnold's book were
used for the interlinking titles. The shooting was done com-
pletely in India, on spectacular outdoor locales
•
of palaces,
forts etc. for which the Maharaja of Jaipur gave full assis-
tance. The editing and processing work were done in
Germany.
Rai himself played Siddhartha, while his royal spouse
Yashodhara was enacted by a young Anglo-Indian girl
under the screen name of Sita Devi and the rest of the cast
was filled with other Indians, like Prafulla Roy and Madhu
Bose. Rai had thus tried the exact reverse of what was
done in the first co-venture, the misconceived Savitri.
And yet, this was of no help when it faced the Indian
box-office with only two prints and met a similar fate. In
Bombay it had just a two-week run in April, 1926 at the
Krishna Cinema. But its real success was scored abroad,
where it was released in the major European centres. The
crowning glory was a Royal Command Performance at
\Vindsor Castle, when the Queen congratulated the pro-
ducer and the writer. The film had a long run in London.
The Daily Express declared it as one of the best films of
the year. It was seen by the monarchs of other nations
and praised by many important publications for its dazzle,
sweep and lyrical-cum-spiritual charm.
The indigenous cinema remained by and large unaffected

by this achievement and it went on in its usual way, churn-
ing out products for the big home market. But within
this there were some interesting developments, like Kohi-
n.oor making Telephone Girl, Typist Girl (or Why I
Became A Christian) and Cinema Queen, all starring
the beauteous star Sulochana and proving hits at the
box-office. They were also the first films to portray a
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modern image of Eve and the place she wanted for herself
in a man's world. Other contemporary problems were also
linked with them. A real life example of female aggres-
sion occurred in the same period, as the intrepid actress
lt'atma Begum, well armed with her three pretty daughters,
decided to make her own films under the imposing banner
Fatma Film Corporation. She was the first woman to
become a producer, director, writer and her first film was
Hulbule Paristan. An additional attraction was of
Zubeida, Shahzadi and two other sirens, La Toska and
Blanche Verne, ~iving live dances on the stage. In fact,
this was another new development, of popular or would-
be actresses facing the audience with their dancing charms
and the famous names doing this included Sita Devi, Gulab
and Shanta Kumari.
Many new artistes were now gaining direct popularity
with the audience, though backed by the companies which
employed them exclusively. There were Jilloo, Ermeline,
Gulab and the two Pahelwans, Nandram and Gangaram.
But the biggest male star discovery was the Sharda Com-
pany's hero, Master Vithal, dubbed as the Indian Douglas
Fairbanks.
It was a popular practice to give the stars such
titles. Ermeline was the Indian Mary Pickford and N and-
ram the Indian Eddie Polo. The American influence was
also visible in the contents of Bombay films. Royal Arts'
Raja Bhoj even claimed that it had American tourists
in its cast. sometimes, the inspiration came from 'local
journalistic sources, like the same company's Kata.7'1,lu
Gap (meaning a crankpot), named after the humorous
Gujarati journal and with its editor Erfani writing the
scenario. Among other noteworthy films of 1926, there were
Neera (Beautiful Snake of Aravali) from Laxmi Pictures
of Baroda, Kohinoor's Shirin Farhad, Krishna's Society
Butterfly, Madan Theatres' Joydev (on the poet who
wrote Geet Govinda) and Imperial Film Company's Lion
of Mewar. 1
With the launching of Imperial, Ardeshir Irani at last
settled down with a company and studio (near Bombay•~
Nana Chowk) which was to do great things. During 1927
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··-
it remained content with popular versions of Alibaba
and Allaclin both directed by B. P. Misra and a novel
type of thriller Wild Cat of Bomba11, with different dis-
guises for heroine Sulochana, who played the lady robbing
the rich and paying the poor. Sulochana was the com-
pany's biggest acquisition and it soon modelled several
films for her, including some more with the "Girl" titles.
The other star, Gohar, went to Kohinoor where she had
excellent team support from the new writer-director
Chandulal Shah. Together they made Educated Wife
which partly touched upon the scourge of venereal disease,
and the famous Gunsundari (Why Husbands Go Astray)
which had the perennially attractive theme, of the seduc-
tive other woman trying to snatch away the husband from
his simple wife. Kohinoor also made Return of Kala N aag
'
as a sequel, showing the dare-devil convict returning to
society. The Excelsior Co. was formed by actor-director
M. Udvadia. His Dil Farosh was adapted from Merchant
of Venice.
Baburao Painter Produced a very successful historical
Netaji Palkar, which marked the directorial debut of
V. Shantaram. Even in his first film, Shantaram showed
many flashes of genius in employing cinema techniques.
The nationalistic spirit was to be found in films like
Vandemataram Ashram made by Vandemataram Film Co.
In one case, the devotee Prahlada was described as a
'satyagrahi' and another film stirred up wrath against the
princely States.
The devastating flood havoc of that year in Gujarat
was covered through shorts as well as an eight-reeler by
Krishna Co. Madan Theatres made Bankim's Krishna-
kanta's Will with a multi-coloured photographic process.
a dent, with some notable films like Incarnation' and
~ankaracharya (Renaissance of Hinduism). Another big
achievement · was Naval Gandhi's Sacrifice based on
Tagore's Bisarjan and having an all-star cast. But it
was a success only in the artistic sense, with the usual
two week run in Bombay. It was described as ''an excel-
lent and truly Indian film" in the report of the Indian
Cinematograph Committee of 1927-28.
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The appointment of this Enquiry Committee under the

chairmanship of T. Rangachariar was another important
step taken by the Government. The aims were to examine
the censorship system and consider steps to encourage films
within the British Empire generally and Indian films in
particular. Its composition was half Indian and half British,
without any representation of the industry, 'though the
Bombay Cinema Trade Association had demanded it. It
sent out a questionnaire on 45 points and visited several
places, right up to Rangoon. But the response was largely
poor and the dearth of statistics appalling. The report
finally drew · up a lot of informative data. It also made
several recommendations, like a governmental cinema
department, central board of film censors, central cinema
bureau, State help and encouragement for technical trairt-
ing etc. Reactions io the report were divided. Some
praised it for not imposing imperial preference and dumping
of British films into India, as was largely feared. The
Anglo-Indian newspapers were not happy about it. But
the huge expense incurred by the committee was unani-
mously criticised . In any case, almost all the recommen-
dations were shelved and the industry remained where it
was.
•
The year 1928 saw some spectacular successes as well as

some colossal failures. Imperial made big hits out of a
pseudo-historical called Madhuri and the legendary
Anarkali, both starring Sulochana and directed by R. S.
Chaudhry. In fact, the discovery of Anarkali (the court
dancer of Akbar, with whom prince Salim got infatuated),
as a film subject was a lucky strike that paid dividends
for years to come. Unfortunately, it did not do so, a little
later, for the Great Eastern Corporation's original Loves
of a Mughal Prince. After Light of Asia, the company had
embarked on this big project, with Sita ·Devi as Anarkali,
though without the talents of Himansu Rai. The film
directed by Prafulla Roy and Charu Roy was undoubtedly
made on a more huge and authentic scale than the popular
Imperial version, which had been quickly made and re-
leased. But it proved to be too heavy in many senses.
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To make its failure more miserable, Imperial revived its

Anarkali for a simultaneous run-a trade trick which has
been common ever since. Another Imperial success was
Puran Bhagat directed by Pesi Karani and starring
Jamshedji Khansaheb, in the title role, with Ermeline and
Jilloo.
Since many Bombay co~anies were owned by Gujaratis
and Parsis, it was common to find people from these two
communities as directors, actors, writers and technicians.
Their novelists and journalists also wrote for the screen,
as in the case of Soona Irani, Hairat and Mast Fakir. The
alternate titles of films were very often given in Gujarati,
while the title cards explaining the story were given in
three to four languages and suitably changed while being
shown in other provinces. Many tales of legendary lovers
were picturised and the Excelsior Company ~ven made an
Indian Hamlet, while a popular comedian Noor Mohd.
called himself the Indian Charlie. At the same time, a
film called Rajba (Daughters of India) was aimed as a
fitting reply to Miss Katherine Mayo's scandalous book
Mother India. · It was written by poet Shaida and direct-
ed by N. G. Deware. Another costume drama Kunj
Kishori, made by a branch of Krishna Co., called Gujarat
Studios, was mcs.nt to show "the ~asy way to overthrow
an oppressive government and get Swaraj".
Many new talents were constantly streaming into the
industry from various spheres. . One of them was from
the family of Wadias, the famous master ship-builders.
Young and highly qualified J . B. H. Wadia c·o uld have had
a glorious career in any administrative field but he came
to films by writing and producing Vasant Leela· (Sons of
the Rich). The film had some scenes specially taken at the
Tata Hydro-Electric Works. Thereafter, J. B. H. and his
brother Homi settled down for a long, successful career as
film-makers under the Wadia Brothers banner. Another
pair of brothers, called Sarpotdar, formed the Aryan Film
Co. at Poona and made many films on Maratha history,
like Ganimi Kawa (Guerilla Tactics), in which Lalita
Pawar, played a role under her maiden name Amboo, along
with her brother Master Shantaram as · a child actor. The
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6i 75 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
J agtap brothers set up their own J agtap Co. and made

many films in collaboration ~th M. Udvadia. Chandula1
Shah and Gohar left Kohinoor to become partners in Jag-
dish Film Co. and started with Vishwamohini, th~ pathe-
tic story of a fallen woman. Another brain attracted by
the cinema was Indulal Yagnik, later to become a political
leader of Gujarat.
In Madras, after the closure of Star of the East, R.
Prakash sponsored Guarantee Film Co., which made the
mythologicals Dasavtar and Kovalan. Production in
Madras was still very scanty and sporadic. Bengal, though
quantitatively and technically no match for Bombay, had
already stepped on to more serious and weighty cinema.
Madans had made Chandidas with Tulsi Chandra Banerji
and Eastern Film Syndicate now made Devdas with
Phani Burman, which got the rare honour of Subhas
Chandra Bose coming to view it and address the audience
in .February, 1928. Incarnation directed by Jaygopal Pillai
had tackled the theme of transmigration of souls. Nishid-
dha Phal (Forbidden Fruit), also produced by Indian
Kinema Arts, discussed the question of the proper marri-
ageable age for boys and girls. It was based on a novel
and directed by K. P. Ghosh, with Bhanu Banerji and
Renubala as the young couple. Madan's Vranti, a comedy
of errors, brought the stage doyen Surendra Nath Ghosh
(Dani Babu) on the screen, as other famous actors had
already done. Bengal also set the tradition for long runs.
In Bombay, a six to eight week run was considered a
success, whereas in Calcutta, Madan's Joydev ran for
twenty-three weeks.
The first record of a silver jubilee run was also set up by
Madans, in 1929, with Kapal Kundala running at the
Crown Cinema for twenty-nine weeks. Bankim Chandra's
fascinating novel had been brought to the screen in a
gripping way by director P. N. Ganguli, with Indira Devi
playing the title role and Prabodh Bose the head-hunting
. Kapalik. Madan Theatres also filmed many other Bankim
stories like Indira, Rajani, Jugalanguria. Their mono-
·poly over distribution and exhibition was such that
alinost every picture released in Bengal had to be chan-
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SILENT ERA, IN BLOOM G'l
nelJsed through them. At the close of the year, they would

give a full page ad. in the papers, mentioning all the films
shown in all their theatres, which numbered a hundred by
the end of the decade. Another notable film of Bengal was
Bicharak directed by Sisir Kumar Bhaduri and phqto-
graphed by Nitin Bose.
In Bombay, the last year of the twenties saw many
worthwhile films as well as new companies .which were to
dominate the talkie period in the next decade. The Imperial
'
continued to make popular winners, like Punjab Mail and
Magic Flute though the latter, directed by M. Bhavnani,
was criticised as being copy of a German film Secret of
the East made by U.F.A. By now, film journalism with a
fairly strong and frank level of criticism had come
into vogue, mainly in Gujarati. The first steps had been
taken by J ayshanker Dwivedi, who started the Mau;
Majah weekly in 1924, with some pages devoted to films.
~ 1g2s, he introduced English columns in it and a year
later sponsored the Moving Picture -Monthly. In April
1929, Nagindas Shah started the Gujarati Chitrapat
weekly which is the oldest in existence at the time of
writing. Like film companies, film journals have also
suffered from a high rate of infant mortality.
. Other successful films of I°929 were Jagdish Co.'s Chan-
dramukhi with Gohar in a double role. After this, Chandu-
lal Shah, Gohar, Raja Sandow, cameraman Pandurang Naik
and some others left J agdish and the famous Ranjit banner
came into existence with Pati Patni (Husband-wife). ·
Painter's Maharashtra Co. made a grand historical Baji
Deshpande (Valley of the Immortals), with Painter him-
self appearing as Shivaji and V. Shantaram as Adilshah.
But the surge of creativity in Shantaram found little
fulfilment in the tradition-bound company, which was
moreover adopting a short-sighted policy of not valuing
its own talents and offering big money and credit to
outsiders. So the split between the youngsters and their
almamater came about, when Shantaram along with
Fatehlal, Damle, Dhaiber and a financing partner Kulkarni
took the plunge, with a capital of three rthousand and
formed Prabhat Film Co., in Kolhapur itself. Under to- .
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68 ,75 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
tally adverse conditions, they made their first film GOJ)41-

Krishna. on the merry exploits of Lord Krishna and it
turned out to be a hit. Prabhat was now set on firm
grounds and became a name to be reckoned with, while
the Maharashtra Co. declined and faded away.
New companies also sprang up from unexpected quarters.
In Lahore, United Players Corporation of A.R. Kardar
made M71ste~ Eagle, a stunt thriller. Another com-
pany, Lahore-Premier, brought Daughters of Toda71,
directed by G.K. Mehta and with Vijay Kumar, Hiralal,
M. Esmail and a girl called Billie Love in the cast. In
Bangalore, the Surya Film Co. was started by Haribhai
Desai, which made a record number of silent films in the
last years of the era. It had its own fixed set of actors,
including trained animals, which would often steal the
scenes and get away with a better billing. In Madras, the
General Picture~ Corporation was floated by R. Prakash
and A. Narayan, which turned out a number of films like
Dharma Patni, Gnana. Sundari etc. Himansu Rai's
second international production Shiraz , this time comple-
tely made for two foreign companies, U.F.A. of Germany
and British Instructional Films. of England, got its Indian
release through Madan Theatres. The film had been shot
in India and with practically the same team, including Rai
and Sita Devi in the leading roles. It told a legendary tale
behind the building of the Taj Mahal and all the Oriental
splendour of camels, elephants, armies, slave markets and
so on was fully well created, partly with the help of the
Jaipur State again.
. · Foreign companies were again interested in films with an
lndian background. A film called Desire was shown with
Gujarati and Hindi titles and another, Emerald of East
made by ·British International Studios on Indian locales
was based on a story by Mrs. J erbanu Kothawalla and de-
scribed as an Anglo-Indian spectacle. Some Indian films
also drew on themes from foreign literary sources. Im-
perial's Wedding Night directed by Altekar was based
on Hugo's tragedy Hernani which had caused a riot
in France in 1830. United Pictures Syndicate's Blood for
Blood by Talagiri was taken from Sheridan's Pizarro, a
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story of the Greek invasion of India. Some films showed

a closer interest in topical 'issues. Sharda's The Saviour
tackled the question of capital versus labour. Indulal
Yagnik's Young India gave the call that youth should
be its own liberator and in the rebirth of India, all
social barriers should be broken. M. Udvadia's Tawangar
rii Talwar written by Vijay Shanker Bhatt depicted the
consequences of getting young maidens married to aged
men. A topical was made on the funeral of Jatin Das,
(an associate of Bhagat Singh), who had died in jail after
a hunger strike of 63 days.
Then, there was the novelty of a free cinema show by
the Social Purity League, on a subject tactfully called So-
cial Evil and meant "to save youths from ignorance". It
was the first to be restricted for adults only. Krishna Co.
presented a novel fantasy Hatimt:ai in 36 reels, to be
shown . in four 'i'nstalments. It was directed by P. Ghosh
and based on seven adventures of the noble Hatim, who
undertakes them to help a friend get his beloved and him-
self wins three beloveds in the process. The film was said
to have taken a long time in production-six months.
However, the biggest novelty of all was the coming of

the first talkie films from abroad. Madan Theatres brought
the all-talking photoplay Melody of Love· in February
1929. It was the famous Vitaphone system film starring
Walter Pidgeon. And in December, Bombay's Excelsior
theatre brought Show Boat. These films coming at the
turn of the decade were symbolic of the new era of sound,
that was soon to become a reality for the Indian Cinema too.
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5
Talkie Comes and Conquers
The Thirties: 1930-1939
THE most remarkable thing about the birth of the sound

film in India is that it did not come because of the silent
films losing their hold and the box-office crumbling, as it
had happened in other countries, especially America. On
the contrary, the silent cinema was at its peak when the
talkie revolution came and displaced it swiftly, within
two years. Even as the talkie machines arrived from
abroad and the first sound films reached the screen, the
silent period scored the highest production figures in its
history, namely 172 films in 1930 and 207 in 1931.
Among them, there were also some notable achieve-
ments. One was Devdasi (Bride of the Gods), directed by
Naval Gandhi and starring Zubeida, which exposed the
ancient system of condemning beautiful girls to life-long
servitude in te:,;npJes, where they often fell a victim to
the lust of priests. Another was Vasantsena (Toy Cart)
based on the classic Mrichhakatika and directed by M.
Bhavnani, with a cast consisting of names like Kamaladevi
Chattopadhyaya who was a prominent Congress leader and
also educated girls from good families like Enakshi Rama
Rau and Nalini Tarkhud. Both the films were designed
with the foreign audience in mind. Even the companies
were given names like International Pictures Corporation
and Indian Art Productions. And they did manage to get
shown and acclaimed in some places. Himansu Rai
brought his third international production A Throw of
-
70
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TALKIE COMES AND CONQUERS 71
Dice, made jointly for U.F.A. and a producer of England

and released in India through Madans. · It was the story
of two royal friends wanting to win the heart
of the same fair lady. The unit remained as before,
except that Rai played the villain. It was made as a
silent film but realising the possibilities of the talkie, Rai
went to France to get it synchronised. He had already
made plans for a partnership firm with Sir Chimanlal
Setalvad, to produce talkie films in India. Niranjan Pal
who had ben associated with Rai, formed his own hanner
and made some silent films like Needle's Eye.
Meanwhile, more new talents were emerging from the
silent films, who were to make their real impact in the
talkies. In Bengal, Debaki Bose after a spell of political
and journalistic work entered films as the story writer
and hero of D.G.'s Flames of Flesh, which narrated the
historical tale about Queen Padmini. D.G. had returned
from his sad experience in ·Hyderabad to start the British
Dominions Films ·in Calcutta. In his next film, Panchasar
(The Blind God), D.G. placed Bose in his real metier of
direction. D.G. also filmed subjects like After the Death
and Sarat Chandra's complex novel Charitraheen, while
showing his original comic flair through supporting films,
like Money Makes What Not and Master Liar. Another
new talent was a real life prince, P.C. Barua, who got
fascinated by films, went abroad for study and observation,
formed his own company and made Aparadhi and Nishir
Dak, both directed by Debaki Bose. And Nitin Bose was
fast earning a big name as a cameraman.
All these talents were later to be brought under one
fold by B.N. Sircar, who himself stepped into the indus-
try at this time. A foreign-trained building engineer, he
was drawn by the spell of cinema and launched the Inter-
national Film Craft to make two silent films, Chorekanta
and Chasar Maye (Farmer's Daughter) both based on Ben-
gali novels. Madhu Bose directed Giribala based on
Tagore's novel, for Madan Theatres. Radha Films was
another new company which filmed Sarat's Shrikanta. . In
f~ct, the last silent years in Bengal were thick with adapta-
tions of many famous literary works. In Madras, the
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. . 75 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
72
accent was still on mythologicals but a big spectacular

made by General Pictures Corporation (a public limited
company) was Laila, Star of Mingrelia, based on a book
vy· G.W. Reynolds and directed by R. Prakash. It was
a seria1 in twenty reels and presented "as a c}?.allenge to
those
.
who said that people were fed up with
.
silent films."
Actor Raja Sandow who went over to Madras, formed
A·ssociated Films and directed Orphan Daughter and other
films; .
· In the Bombay zone, from a maze of costume, fantasy,
mythical and social films of the popular type, there did
a
emerge few significant films. Krishna Co. made Whose
Ftiult,. · starring Gulab and based on K.M. Munshi's novel
.ibo.ut· a widow exploited by society, who turns defiant and
breaks· the conventions. National and political conscious-
ries·s \vas also more visible in the Bombay films and some
of 'them fell ·foul of the censor boards, which had now
become more vigilant. In the huge output of Imperial,
there· were some films which created a sensation. Hell's
Paradise (Gorf Bala) based on a story by Mama Warerkar
• was inspired by a true case of an Indian prince fooled by a
white · woman and exposed the wasteful pursuits of the
maharajas in the princely States. Ram Rahim preached
communal unity through a fictional tale of the first World
War, when a Hindu and a Muslim youth had fought to-
gether on the frontiers. An even more explosive venture
was The Bomb written and directed by Pesi Karani, which
under the garb of a costume thriller about a tyrant, tried
to throw a challenge at the alien rule over the country.
The censors objected to many things including the title
and the film was released in a truncated form as Vas ant
Bengali.
Another such film was Wrath, starring Sulochna and
directed by R.S. Choudhry, which dealt ~th poverty, un-
touchability, social inequality and even a Hindu girl-Mus-
lim boy affair. It had a character called Garibdas, played
by a Parsi actor Makanda, which was drawn in the exact
image of Mahatma Gandhi. The Bombay censors cut the
filin heavily and also got it rechristened as Khooda Ki
Shdan (Glory of God). In Bengal and Punjab, it was
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completely banned, by authorities higher than the cen-

sors. Then, there was a film called Father India which
wanted to refute Miss Mayo's falsehoods by showing India
in all her culture and fighting glory. The Sagar Film
Co., a branch of the Imperial formed with Chimanlal Desai,
which started in 1930 with The Web, made a film called
Baccha-i-Sakka based on the political events of a coup in
Afghanistan. It fell into a lot of trouble, including a
withdrawal order from the police commissioner and was
finally allowed under the innocµous titles Romance of a
Youth, Joshe Jawani and Bhagyawan Bhishti. Short topi-
cal items on Gandhiji and other leaders were promptly
banned. Political upheaval was gathering strength and
the films carried many indirect, veiled references to it.
The industry people also rallied round and held a big
meeting in the Kohinoor Studio, as a result of which an
Indian Film Association came into being and a day's hartal
was observed in which all participated, except the theatre
owners.
The most scandalous instance of political censorship
occurred in the case of a historical film of Parbhat, directed
by V. Shantaram, with himself playing Shivaji. The film
had been planned as a clever allegory on the overthrow
of foreign rule. It had a daring scene of flag-hoisting by
freedom fighters and its original titles were Swarajya
Toran (Flag of Freedom). But the censors would have
none of it and after a lot of cutting, it was allowed as
Udaykal (Thunder of the Hills). Prabhat also rolled out
four more silent films, from which Rani Saheba a comedy
featuring a child actor Bajar Battoo and Chandrasena
a lavish mythological with message against drink
addiction became very popular. The Wadia Brothers made
half a dozen action thrillers, done in a very realistic way,
including Toofan Mail shot on the rail-roads. The Bhatt
brothers, Shanker and Vijay, formed the Royal Film Co.
along with the Dave brothers, which also specialised in
action films. Chandulal Shah's Ranjit, run with the pat-
ronage of the maharaja of Jamnagar produced several
silent films, at the rate of a dozen per year, while the
. Kohinoor made almost three per month. But despite all
Original from
this abundant growth, the silent film suddenly faced a

decline, when the talkie arrived in 1931. Though they
did hold on for four more years, the production dropped
from 88 in 1932 to 39 in 1933 and 7 in 1934. Afier this,
no silent films were made and the curtain was finally
rung down on an era that had been so romantic, exciting
an<l_ meaningful.
A quick glance at the silent era, spread over some
twenty years, shows that it helped to firmly establish the
Indian film industry and the cinema as the most popular
medium of entertainment. A lot of light on this forgot-
ten period is thrown by the Enquiry Committee Report of
1927-28. It says that the studio in those days was a big,
vacant area enclosed by walls or curtains and without a
top, so as to receive the main source of light for photo-
graphy. Only some studios had glass roofs with coverings
to control the sunlight. Laboratory work was in a pri-
mitive stage and the first independent one called Atmanand
Laboratory was started by Narayanrao Desai in 1927. It
is to the credit of Indian technicians that they scored most
of their achievements through trial and error. The actors,
too, never had a chance of training. The studios main-
tained their permanent staffs. .Some like Phalke's Hindu-
stan Co. seldom announced the names of its actors. But
others realised the value of creating star-images and that
is how names like Prithviraj, Jairaj, Mubarak, Jal Mer-
chant, the Billimoria brothers D and E, and Ermeline,
Rampyari, Jilloo, Guiab, Putli, Zebunissa, Madhuri and
Lalita Pawar .attained a fair measure of popularity.
Films were completed quickly, some within ten days.
The average budget was around 20,000 rupees and three
prints would serve the initial exploitation. The stars
were paid ·salaries and allowed to work for others only
by special arrangement. When Sulochna got five thou-
sand for thirty-five days' work in Baburao Painter's Love
Immortal (Baaz Bahadur ), . she created a record, of the
highest ever paid. The censorship being mostly political,
passionate kisses and love scenes were quite common.
Producers had direct trade dealings with exhibitors in the
absence of a distribution system. The theatres were
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directly involved in exploiting the film to its maximum

level. They arranged for music accompaniment (harmo-
nium and tabla for Indian films) and even sound effects
at times. There was also the system of employing a narra-
tor, who would stand near the screen and give a running
commentary at the top of his voice. He would often get
worked up, to the extent of using bawdy language, when
the action on the screen demanded it.
But all this was changed ·overnight when film with sound
invaded the scene. At first, there was great opposition to
the new medium. The "silent" producers turned garrulous
and began to ridicqle the talkies as a passing fancy. They
even quoted the proverb "silence is golden". But soon they
had to yield to the inevitable, as the talkie revolutionised
the medium and the industry in many respects. Like the
history of the emergence of the motion picture, that of the
talkie has also been a long one, dating back to the birth
of the cinema itself. Amazingly, the film was conceived
from the beginning as a visual image coupled with sound.
The earliest experiment by Edison's assistant, Dickson on
October 6, 1889 was a brief film of himself, appearing
and speaking, through the film being linked with the
phonograph. Then, all through the silent era, India saw
many efforts at bringing talking pictures. In 1899, Bet-
tcini's Microphonograph by Prof. Von Geyer had brought
"living pictures, voices and speeches." In 1905, Calcutta
saw and heard Alex's Chronophone, which came to Bombay
in 1908, with talking-singing pictures, including the grand
operas. In 1911, the Excelsior brought Auxetophonoscope,
called as a perfect synchronising machine. In May 1927,
R.B. Salsbury presented De Forest Phonofilms, with a tiny
band running along the film margin and containing sound
vibrations which were amplified. In December 1928,
Bombay's 'Capitol' showed British talkies, containing
shorts. And soon after, the talkie features also started
coming from abroad. •
The earliest Indian attempt on record is a talkie prog-
ramme shown in September 1930 at Bombay's Krishna
cinema, along with a talkie film of M.G.M. It consisted of
'
two pictures synchronised with sound and music-<>ne on a
Original from
Khadi Exhibition at Mandvi, with Gandhiji, Kasturba, C.F.

Andrews and others making an appearance, and another,
a dance scene of Sulochna from the popular silent film
Madhuri. After that, some Indian films also boasted of
"electrically synchronised music". But the real stuff came
only in 1931, amidst a lot of heated competition. Ardeshir
Irani with his pioneering zeal had imported a single-system
Tanar recorder and after some short experiments had start-
ed shooting Alam Ara with his full staff of directors, tech-
nicians and actors. Madan Theatres and Krishna Co. did
not lag behind. And soon, there was a frantic race, to
complete and release India's first talkie feature, whieh was
finally won by Alam Ara opening at Bombay's Majestic
cinema on March 14, 1931.
But before that, there came talkie programmes consist-
ing of short items, from both the other companies. Perhaps
sensing that Irani may after all win the game, they had
rushed with brief talkie films on songs, dances, skits etc.
Thus, history repeated itself an<::I shorts again preceded
features. Both these programmes were released simul-
taneously in Bombay, in the first week of February, 1931.
Madans presented their fare as the "First Indian Talking
Pictures," which included songs and dances by Bengali
artistes and a popular song Apne maula ki main jogan by
the famous stage actress Munni Bai. This supplemented
the theatre's foreign feature Hell Harbour. The Krishna
adding "tone" to its name presented a full-length prog-
ramme of shorts, containing musical sketches, skits, garbas,
a jal tarang orchestra with chorus by Prof. Deodhar's
School, plus Bengali, Konkani and Arabic songs. After
two weeks, Madans added a couple of new songs by -Munni
Bai and Krishnatone added a three-reel Urdu comedy
Nakli Tansen.
The peak of glory was of c:>urse reached by Alam Ara,
which told a story, spoke in the people's own language,
Hindustani (a compromise between Hindi and Urdu), and
also . "sang" seven catchy songs. It was described as an
"all talking, singing, dancing" picture and became an in-
stant hit. Huge crowds thronged the theatre from early
mornings,
. to welcome the birth of a new era. The police had
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Oigitized by Google UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
TALKIE COMES AND CONQUERS · 77
a tough time controlling the crowds and there was a flou-

rishing black trade in tickets, which were already priced
at double rates. The film written by ace dramatist Joseph
David was a typical costume fantasy based on a play, the
title being the name of the heroine, played by Zubeida
Vithal had a small, almost non-speaking role as the hero
prince-his transition to the talking medium had been
difficult. Prithviraj appeared as the heroine's father,
Jilloo as the queen, Elizer as the king and W.M. Khan as
a fakir, who also sang the first song Dey dey khooda ke
tiaam pe pyare. The songs were taken straight from the
stageplay and given some musical accompaniment, com-
posed by Pirojshah Mistry and B. Irani. The film was
directed by Ardeshir Irani himself "with the co-opera-
tion of Rustorri Bharucha, Pesi Karani and Moti Gidwani".
So many directors of Imperial had got involved · with the
project, that Irani thought it best to give this unusual
credit line. The recording was at first done _by the foreign
expert Wilford Demming but soon Irani took over the job
himself. The cameraman was Adi Irani. During produc-
tion, many technical hurdles had to be surmounted, be-
cause in the Tanar system, the soun4 track was exposed
along with the picture, in the camera itself. Then, the
sensitive mike picked up all extraneous sounds and as the
Imperial studio was near the railway lines, most of the
shooting had to be done at late night, after the local
train service stopped. The film was about 10,000 feet long.
It had a packed initial run of seven weeks and had soon
to be revived. It was also taken to other centres with
portable projection equipment.
Even on the day Alam Ara was released, the other com-
panies tried to offer a shaky competition. Something or
the other had come in the way of Madans and Krishnatone
completing their features. So the Madans brought an-
other variety programme under the title 'Perfect Indian
Talkies' or Chun Chun ka Murabba, containing songs,
dances, sketches etc., in Bengali and Urdu, performed by
Master Mohan, Munni Bai, Master Nissar and Patience
Cooper as well as a lecture by C.V. Raman and a recita-
tion by Nazrul Islam. It was said to be produced under
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75 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
78
the supervision of foreign technical experts, on R.C.A.
Photophone, in the up-to-date sound studio of Madans.
Krishriatone also promptly announced a new package of
talkie shorts. And the Sharda put up a daily change of
seven silent hits of Master Vithal, by way of a contrast to
his role in Alam Ara. But nothing really could affect its
success. On the contrary, producers and exhibitors with
a foresight soon started switching over to the new medium.
Talkie equipment was imported by many film makers and
some like Naval Gandhi, Indulal Yagnik and Bhogilal
Dave went abroad for a first-hand study. ·
Twenty-seven talkies in four languages followed close
on the heels of Alam Ara, in the same year, of which three
were in Bengali and one each in Tamil and Telugu. The
Madans released their Bengali feature J amai Sasthi, a
comedy, five weeks after Alam Ara. Krishnatone soon fol-
lowed with its Bengali 'Awakening' or Jagran, which ran
into censor trouble. And its Hindi film Ghar ki Laxmi (Th€
Wife) became the second talkie to be released in Bo~-
bay. Its sound was also recorded by the company chief
Maneklal Patel. However, the real big one to arrive at the
end of May was Madan Theatres' ShiTin Farhad. It had
excellent sound recording, compared to the two earlier
features and it told the legendary love tale, backed by
seventeen songs, in the sweet voices of Jahan Ara Kajjan
and Master Nissar playing the two roles. The film ran
for fourteen weeks in Bombay, minted money all over
India and made music an indispensable factor for Hindi-
Urdu films. The film's high-flown Urdu was found diffi-
cult to follow in comparison to Alam Ara but the songs
did the trick. It was coupled with a short comedy Mum-
bai ni Sethani, in which singer Master Mohan advocated
khadi in preference. to the craze for foreign cloth. Topi-
cals were also tried in the new medium, like lmperial's
shorts on the Viceroy's arrival and on Gandhiji giving a
speech at Borsad. The U.F.A. in association with Himansu
Rai made Tagore Talkie, a short showing the world-
famous poet singing one of his songs. But when Madras
National Theatres made Congress Girl, the Madras Cen-
sor Board banned it and the company was closed.
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Some film makers tried to catch up with the talkie by

synchronising their silent films, which were either com-
plete or under production. Phalke who had remained in
the background during all these hectic developments, tried
the method for his Setu. Bandhan, just as Barua in Bengal
did for his Nishir Dak. Bhavnani turned his 'Trapped' or
Fare bi, J aal into a partial talkie. But none of these efforts
could yield a good result, when the real full talkies were
already coming in full swing. Among the Hindi films,
there were lmperial's second talkie Dau.lat ka Nasha
(Money) showing the dangers of suddeply acquired wealth
and Madans' Bharati Balak about the plight of widows.
The clash of companies, simultaneously making films on
the same subjects, continued as before. In the first year
itself, there were two Laila Majnu.s, two Harishchandras
and two Shaku.ntalas battling with each other, as in the
silent days. Ranjit and Sagar companies also switched
over to talkie with Devi Devyani starring Gohar and
Romantic Prince with Vithal and Zubeida, respectively.
Ardeshir Irani even branched out into other languages.
He pioneered the first Tamil film Kalidasa with singer
T.P. Rajalakshmi as the leading actress. Similarly, the
first Telugu talkie, Bharat Movietone's Bhakta Prahlad.
was made in Bombay at Krishnatone, as Madras had yet
to develop as a talkie production centre.
Another achievement of Irani was an English version of
his film N 0i0r J ahan., made with an eye on the foreign mar-
ket. It was written and directed by Ezra Mir with Vimla,
N ayampally and Mazhar Khan. Though the experiment
did not succeed, Irani ke,p t making other such pioneering
attempts. A year . later, he was awarded the title of
Khan Bahadur by the British Government. The Madans
stuck to their tradition of musical hits with Laila Majnu.
having twenty-two songs and Shaku.ntala having forty-
one. Film companies had now begun to tum out talkies
as fast as the silent films, which were also being made
and shown at the same time by other producers. But
despite all their protests and challenges, they had to
change over, sooner or later, to the sound medium. The
talkie had brought revolutionary changes in the whole
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7G YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
80
set-up of the industry, whic!'i could not be ignored. It
had also created many new problems. The writer, the
music director and the singing actor now became the im-
portant pillars of film-making. From the silent day stars,
there were many heads which rolled, as they lacked the
ability for speaking the dialogue or singing. Stage art-
istes were in great demand. But the worst change was in
the content and form of the Indian film. Much of the
spontaneous vitality of the silent cinema was lost as the
dialogue, the songs, the theatrical style of acting and the
restrictions on editing as well as camera movements be-
cause of sound made the films highly stagy. Writers and
directors, not equipped with knowledge about the tech-
niques of the talkie medium, took the easy way out, of
· following the pattern of the stage and many films were
just like photographed versions of the plays being staged.
Their dialogue was stilted, stuffed with Urdu couplets and
spoken with great flourish.
Matters were gradually mended as some intelligent
directors started realising the real value of sound. In
1932, tw-0 great institutions were born which wete to make
the maximum contribution in this respect. One was the
Prabhat Film Co., in Kolhapur, switching over to the
talkies, with King of Ayodhya made in Hindi and Marathi,
the latter becoming the first film in that language. It
was directed by V. Shantaram with his usual flair for
cinematic angles and compositions. The other Prabhat Part-
ners looked after their departments as before, ·Dhaiber
doing the photography, Fatehlal the art direction, Kulkarni
managing the business side and Damle taking over the
recording. It may sound strange that Prabhat selected for
its first talkie the same old Harishchandra story, which
had been filmed twice in the form of talkie, only a year
before. But its treatment, music and acting were so supe-
rior that it became a big success. Harishchandra was play-
. ed by Govindrao Tembe, who also composed the music
and sang, Queen Taramati by Durga Khote and N arada
by Master Winayak. In the next two films, Jalti Nishani
(Branded Oath), a costume drama, and Maya Machhindra a
mythological, Shantaram tried further experiments with
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camera and sound, that were to later crystallise in the

masterpieces he was to make during the decade.
The other great banner was New Theatres Ltd., set up
in Calcutta by B.N. Sircar, after his two initial silent
ventures. Its first film was Muhabbat ke Ansoo, a
romantic drama with a Muslim background, featuring Miss
.Akhtari with the company's new discovery Saigal Kashmiri,
later to become famous as the singing idol K.L. Saigal. Two
more films which followed were Su bah ka Sitara, the
romance of a slave girl with an aristocrat and Zinda Laash
(A Living Corpse) which was a comedy. All these films did
not get an enthusiastic reception at the box-office. But Sir-
car continued production in anticipation of the grand things
to come. The picture which clicked in a really big way,
that year, w~s Shyam Sunder directed by Bhal G. Pen-
dharkar for Saraswati Cinetone (Poona), set up by Baburao
Pai in conjunction with R.G. Torney. The film recounted
the childhood episodes of Lord Krishna, played by young-
ster Shahu Modak, with Shanta Apte making her debut
as Radha. The film scored with its songs and superior
qualities of production and recording. And its Marathi
version became the first talkie to have a run of twenty-
seven weeks.
A film which drew attention by its international form was
Eastern Films Ltd. 's Shikari, shot in India. It was produc-
ed by Capt. F.W. Pitt, directed by Naval Gandhi and
scripted by Major C.L. Reed and Adrian Brunel, with
other ioreigners figuring in its technical credits. The cast
had Sita Devi in her first talking role, with Jairaj, Jal
Khambatta, Jagdish and Lovji Lavangia. The inspiration
for such diverse talents coming together cannot be as-
certained, as the subject itself was a jumble of hybrid
ideas about a monk, a dacoit, his mistress, a victim of
child marriage and so on. Anyway, it remains as a rare
example of such collaboration, resulting in the film being
shown in other countries. Another notable though not
quite successful development was of Madan Theatres try-
ing the first colour film, by sending their Bilwamangal
abroad for colour printing. The film was written by the
famous dramatist Agha Hashra Kashmiri and starred
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Patience Cooper along with the famous singing pair

Kajjan and Nissar.
The pair was also repeated in other music-soaked films
Chatra Bakavali, Gulru Zareena and a film done completely
in verse, Indrasabha, where the number of songs went up
to seventy-one. But the excess soon made the novelty
wear off. The companies also pursued a policy of re-
making their successful silent films, so as to exploit them
better with the new medium of speech. Imperial re-made
Madhuri, with Sulochna doing her first talking. The tales
of legendary lover and saintly devotees once again ap-
peared on the screen. Short films on religious subjects
were made in Gujarati. Some films were also modelled
on foreign lines. Sagar's Zarina was directed by Ezra Mir,
who was proudly described as the 'Hollywood director' be-
cause of his foreign training. In Ranjit's Do Badmash (Two
Impostors), comedians Ghory and Dixit, the lean and the
fat, were presented in the popular image of Laurel
and Hardy. Kardar's Heer Ranjha made in Lahore, with
singer Rafiq Ghaznavi as the hero, had its recording done
"by a Hollywood technician." There were many sound
systems in vogue at that time, like Rico, Audio-Camex,
Fidelytone etc. and some sort of competition prevailed
about using them. The industry's organisational activi-
ties also took a concrete shape that year with the forma-
tion of the Motion Picture Society of India, in Bombay.
In 1933, many more companies came into existence and
the talkie production rose further. The Wadia Brothers
made their first talkie Lal-e-Yaman, under the new banner
Wadia Movietone, with a ship its emblem. Produced and
directed by J. B. H. Wadia and penned by Joseph David
the film became very popular and started a trend of simi-
lar costume subjects with a Muslim background. It had
classical songs sung by the boy artiste Firoze Dastoor, which
appealed to the better musical tastes prevailing then. The
older companies came out with some successful films and
some noteworthy attempts. Prabhat ventured into the
colour field with Sairandhri, which proved to be a costly
mistake. It was made in the colour bi-pack process, for
which the stock had to be imported from Germany. The
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TALKIE COMES. AND CONQUERS 83
shooting and developing could be done here but for the

printing V. Shantaram had to travel to Germany. It was
a new experiment made at a time when hardly any know-
ledge about colour shooting existed in our country. And,
after all the trouble and expense spent over it, Shantaram
faced a big disappointment when the German laboratory
people told him that good prints would not be possible be-
cause of certain technical deficiencies in the exposure. The
film in Hindi and Marathi was released all over India
through some twenty prints. But the colour results were
depressing and the film could not fare well, despite all its
spectacular sets and decor.
Another big attempt meeting a lukewarm response in
India was Himansu Rai's first co-production venture in the
talkie medium. He had already set up the banner Himansu
Rai Inda-International and travelled . abroad to explore
the new possibilities. The result was another joint venture
with the I.B.B. of England, made in English and Hindi,
called Karma, (Fate). The outdoor shooting was done in
India and the indoor work at the Stoll Studios in London.
Rai appeared as the lover prince, with his wife Devika
Rani making her debut as the princess of a neighbouring
kingdom. The cast had a real princess in it-Sudha Rani
rf Burdwan. The film was directed by J .L. Freer Hunt,
with all the technical tasks performed by British techni-
cians. The story by Dewan Sharar, scripted by Rupert
Downing, told of a rather corny love affair, between two
progressive heirs of rival princely States: All the tradi-
tionally exotic elements of royal palaces, elephants, cobras
and tiger-hunts were exploited and there were also four
songs, one being in English. The film's contents did not
make much impression but its international nature did.
In May, it opened at the Marble Arch Pavilion, London,
the premiere being attended by the Secretary of State for
India and other leading personalities. The film won laurels
from the Press and people abroad.
The London papers showered praises ,on the ·film as
well as its exciting, new heroine Devika Dani, a grand-
niece of Tagore. The Sunday Chronicle wrote : ~'Himansu
Rai has fought for ten years against terrific odds to make
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films in India that would appeal to English audiences....

Rai himself fills the leading role with another beautiful
native star Devika Rani." The Sunday Times called Devika
Rani "very beautiful and a fine artiste." The Sunday Pic-
torial described Rai "as an Indian of great culture steeped
in the knowledge of his country" and the heroine as "one
of the most delicately glamorous cinema stars ever seen."
Devika Rani was invited to broadcast three sessions of
the B.B.C., one being the inauguration of the short wave
length to India. The film's English version got shown in
some theatres in India. The Hindi version titled as Nagan ki
Ragani was released in the following year without any
conspicuous success. In Bombay, it was inaugurated by
Sarojini Naidu who said : "It is a tribute to the remark-
able courage, vision and patience of Himansu Rai_and to
that lovely and gifted little lady Devika Rani, who blos-
soms like a magical flower of romance, out of the heart
of the play." But some local film critics found it too short
Ly Indian standards and severely panned it, among other
things, for showing the country's poverty abroad-an ac-
cusation, levelled twenty years later, against Satyajit Ray.
The successful films were again those which appealed
to Indian taste. Calcutta's Radha Film Co. made the fan-
tasy Char Darvesh based on the episode of Merchant of
Arabia, in which Kanan Devi made her debut as the
princess of Damascus, with Trilok Kapoor as the Darvesh.
Imperial re-made Daku ki J.,adki, starring' Sulochna, as the
beautiful girl of noble birth, whom fate had placed as a
dancer in a wayside inn. Even more succ~sful ·was a
costume drama about a despotic atheist, brought round by
his long lost daughter. The film called Sulc,chna was
• •
named after the lovely star herself and was a tnbute
to her popularity. Similarly Gohar who was often pre-
sented as the "glorious" or "great", had her personal draw
in Ranjit's film like Miss 1933. This film made a subtl~
attack on the Westernisation of Indian women and pointed
to the dangers of free relations between the sexes. Though
Ranjit made many differerit films every year, those star-
ring Gohar were always made on a big scale under the
direction of Chandulal Shah. Bharat Movietone made
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Hatimtai, again as a serial in four instalments. Saraswati

Cinetone made Awara Shahzada based on Mark Twain's
Prince and the Pauper, with Sahu Modak playing the two
roles. It was directed by silent day star Master Vithal.
Eastern Art Productions picked on Marie Corelli's Sorrows
of Satan for its lnsaan ya Shaitan. Ardeshir Irani ventured
into one more new direction by making the first film in
Persian called Dukhtare Loar. Its story was about the dis-
order that prevailed in Iran before Shah Raza Khan came
to the throne. The roles were played by A. Spenta, Hadi
and Miss Rooh Angez under Irani's direction. The film
was also released in Iran, with the company's partner
Abdulali Esoofali specially going there for the arrange-
ments.
One big success and two notable efforts came from New
Theatres, after the initial set-backs it had suffered. The hit
was Puran Bhagat, directed by Debaki Bose as his first
Hindi film, after Chandidas in Bengali, in which he gave
a lyrical exposition of the Vaishnavite philosophy, of which
he was himself a believer. The legendary tale about the
ascetic prince Puran was treated in an artistic way and
with sound being used for the first time in a more natu-
ral and creative way. It brought many other talents into
the limelight, like Kumar who played the title role, the
gifted composer R.C. Boral who experienced with orches-
tration and set the norms for film music, the blind actor-
singer K.C. Dey whose ·haunting voice led to the great coun-
try-wide popularity of songs like J ao, jao, ai mere sadhu.
Background music also emerged in this film inl a more
refined way and as an outcome of the lyrical style of the
director, whose new techniques in · shooting, editing and
acting turned the film into an important milestone in the
evolution of Indian talkie. Debaki Bose also directed Raj-
rani Meera, on the life of the .f amous singing devotee of
Lord Krishna and the conflicts she faced with her royal
husband and his people, .who had a different religious
belief. Durga Khote and Prithviraj played the two main
roles. The third film, Yahoodi ki Ladki was a talkie ver-
sion of Agha Hashar's well-known drama, which has always
been a favourite screen subject. K.L. Saigal appeared as
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prince Marcus, Rattan Bai as the Jewess Hanna and Nawab

and Kumar, as the two adversaries.
In 1934, Vijay and Shanker Bhatt started their Prakash
Pictures with an emblem of the lamp spreading its light.
This banner has also survived the test of time. Their first
film was Bombai · ki Mohini (Actress), a crime · story
involving a faithful wife and a movie actress. Their next
was Nai Duniya (Sacred Scandal), a Hindi version of their
Gujarati Sansar Leela which was drawn from Kalapi's
poetic work about the strange relationship between the
women of pleasure and the highly-placed men of society
who patronised them. Other films also showed some social
consciousness, like the Calcutta-made Kismet ka Shikar
which had a serio-comic plot by Agha Hashar about the
plight of an unemployed Muslim graduate with a pretty
wife. Ajanta Cinetone of M. Bhavnani engaged Munshi
Premchand, the renowned Hindi novelist, to write the story
and dialogue for Mazdoor (The Mill). It was a frank and
daring attempt to portray the labour-capital conflict, show
the poor working conditions in the mills and the exploit-
ation of workers. The result was that it got nearly re-
jected by the censors and was thereafter advertised as
"the banned film" and one "which vindicated the princi-
ples of Gandhi". After this,. Mahalaxmi Cinetone of
Nanubhai Vakil made Seva Sadan based on Premchand's
novel. But it is said that the great author was not happy
with the filmic versions of his works and soon moved away
from the movie world. Similar treatment was in store,
later, for the famous Urdu author S.H. Manto. And thus
the Bombay-made Hindi film has remained largely divorced
from literary sources-a combination that would have
greatly enriched it.
· V. Shantaram made Amrit Manthan from a story by the
famous Marathi author.N.H. Apte, which struck at the root
of ,r eligious dogmatism as well as ritual and exposed the
priestly hierarchy and its political tyranny. The im-
mediate issue was about the obnoxious practice of human
and animal sacrifice. The film boldly said that the scrip-
tures recommending it were wrong to that extent and it
even presented Buddhist characters standing for non-
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violence, as a contrast to the bad aspects of orthodox Hindu-

ism. But its real purport, of a more universal and long-
ranged nature, was to deprecate the planned violence of
power-wielders in the name of religion or politics. The
film's title was explained through two mythological para-
bles, about the evils being churned out like poison, so that
the nectar of truth, justice and reform may emerge. The
central character of the Rajguru (State priest) became a
memorable one and was played by Chandramohan in Hindi
and K. Date in Marathi The Hindi version set a record
by running for more than twenty-five weeks. The film had
been made at Prabhat's new studio in Poona, which soon
grew into a huge, self-sufficient institution. Amrit Man-
than was also a big cinematic achievement and contained
many techniques which showed Shantaram far ahead of his
times. Particularly striking were the big close-ups of the
Rajguru's eye, taken with special lenses brought by Shanta-
ram from Germany. The film became a landmark of
Indian cinematography of those early days. In the follow-
ing year, it was sent to the International Exhibition of Arts
at Vienna.
At the same time, the first film to be sent to the Venice
Cinematograph Exhibition in 1934 was Seeta, directed by
Debaki Bose for Bengal's East India Film Co. In this,
Bose tackled a familiar segment from the life of Rama and
Sita but in a lyrical-philosophical style and with a differ-
ent interpretation of the ideal characters, which have made
the film stand in a class of its own, amidst the heap of pic-
tures on Ramayana. Durga Khote and Prithviraj played
the two roles. Fox: the same company, A.R. Kardar direct-
ed Sultana, ·the tale of a girl kidnapped by gypsies and
D.G. directed Night Bird, a detective thriller. The com-
pany, run by B.L. Khemka commanded a good output of
Hindi, Bengali and even Tamil and Telugu films. Its
Ramayana in l'amil and Savitri in Telugu had become
big hits in the South. Films in other regional tongues had
also now begun to germinate. For the record, the first films
made in the following languages during the decade were
Na.r sinh Mehta (Gujarati-1932): Joyomati (Assames~e-
1933), Dhruva Kumar (Kannada-1934), Ishke Punjab
Original from
(Punjabi-1935), Sitar Bibah (Oriya-1936) and Balan

(Malayalam-1938).
The New Theatres output of 1934 included the well-
remembered Chandidas, directed by photographer Nitin
Bose in Hindi. It made a fervent plea against the long-stand-
ing evils of untouchability and caste barriers, through the
legend of the poet-priest Chandidas and his love for the
washerwoman Rami. The theme of universal love was
portrayed through this forbidden emotion and its happy
culmination, with the discarding of society and tradition-
bound religion by the lovers. Saigal and Uma Shashi play-
ed the two roles and also crooned many popular songs
woven round the theme. Among the other two N.T. films,
there was Daku Mansoor, directed by Nitin Bose. It was ·
a Bengali folk tale about a brave bandit (played by Prithvi-
raj) loved by a princess as well as a village girl. The
casting methods in those days were so flexible that Saigal
in this film played the father of the second heroine. He
still sang three songs. Rooplekha was a semi-historical
subject directed by P.C. Barua, in which Saigal played
Emperor Ashoka, who gives over the reins of the kingdom
to an honest Brahmin, for a year. Within a year, New
Theatres, Saigal and Barua were all to attain immortality
with a film called Devdas.
The talkie mechanics having been mastered, production
again became cheap and quick, so that the returns could
be rewarding enough. Wadia Movietorie's Baag-e-Misar
was completed within just nineteen days. Ranjit Movie-
tone made an average of eight films per year. Its Toofan
Mail collected Rs. 15,851/- in its first week's run at Bombay.
And Gunsundari, a re-make of Chandulal Shah's silent
hit, starring Gohar again, ran for thirteen weeks. The
company published its own fortnightly Ranjit Bulletin.
Apart from studio news, it, often contained critical and
thought-provoking pieces, like a satire on the director's
thankless job, the craving of an actress to escape from
studio routine, an autobiography of the studio gate and
selected fan letters meant to debunk tinsel glamour. Babu-
rao Patel who had earlier directed silent films for Maha-
rashtra Film Co., was now having his own banner Gand-
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harva Cinetone. His Maharani, with the outdoors taken in-

side the temples of Madura and Rameshwaram was a
routine type of costume drama and so he thought it fit to
offer "an apology to critics", by publicising the film as· a
fantasy and saying : "if we succeed in pleasing the sympa-
thetic eye of the critics, we shall have achieved our ambi-
tion." In the coming years, Baburao Patel was to become a
trenchant critic of Indian films, through his popular
magazine Filmindia. Some companies also kept up an output
of short films, by way of "additional attractions" to their
features. D.G. made a three-reel comedy Excuse Me, Sir ·
for New Theatres. Sagar Co., made Crazy Lovers starring
Kumar, Yakub and its two discoveries Motilal, who rose to
become a top star and Mehboob, who shaped out as a lead•
ing director. A documentary on the earthquake in Mauj-
pur, Monghyr and Patna was made with a view to raise
relief funds. , Animation films tookl a start with composer
R.C. Boral's On A Moonlit Night. Prabhat had a fling at
cartoons with Jambu Kaka (Jambu the Fox) which was
shown with Amrit Manthan. In the following year, a
foreign technician made a cartoon with! a monkey's tale
called Lafanga Langoor.
In 1935, it was Dev~ which superseded everything else
and exerted an influence that lasted for years. Based on
Sarat Chandra's novelette, about a deep-rooted love being
frustrated by barriers of class and tradition and leading
to the lover destroying himself through drink and neglect
the New Theatres film, directed by P .C. Barua, stood out
at once for its emotional richness, brilliantly applied tech-
niques and natural style of acting. In the Bengali version,
Barua himself played Devdas, while in Hindi, Saigal gave
it a kind of popular image, with his acting and singing,
that turns a character as well as its player into an idol.
Parbati, the beloved, was played by J amuna and Chandra-
. vati the singing girl by Rajkumari. Barua himself played
Parbatli's .step-son in the Hindi version. The camera
work of Bimal Roy, the dialogue by Kidar Sharma and
the music of Timir Baran enriched the film. Songs like
Balam aay baso more man mein soon echoed throughout
the country. Barua's techniques, like cutting the shots
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and using sound to suggest a telepathic contact between

his characters pointed to fresh ways of exploiting the
medium. More long-lasting were the dramatic and emo-
tional patterns-the forlorn image of the disappointed lover,
the helpless beloved remaining faithful to her marriage
with an aged man having grown-up children, .the. singing
girl elevating herself on finding true love, the climax of
a long journey and death on reaching the beloved's door-
step. The film's sociological impact was criticised as being
unhealthy, since the fatalistic P,ath of dejection, drink,
disease and death could serve as a wrong example to those
smitten by love. But the people simply loved Devdas and
it still keeps recurring on the Indian screen in some form
or the other.
In the same year, there also came other notable films
from N.T. Debaki Bose directed After the Earthquake (ln-
quilab ), inspired by the earthquake that had rocked Bihar
the year before. Shot on the actual locales, it made an
exposure of those social parasites, who exploited the cala-
mity for getting publicity, gaining favours with rich and
idle heiresses and serving other ends. It also showed the
awakening that comes over one such rich girl. Durga
Khote played the role with Prithviraj, Nawab, K.C. Dey
and little Raj Kapoor in the cast. Dhoop:Chhaon (Bhagya
Chakra) directed by Nitin Bose was a music-based drama,
of a child getting lost and being brought up by a blind
singer. :x. C. Dey had the plum rrole and his songs like
Baba man ki ankhen khol became great favourites. In
this film, composer R.C. Boral also introduced the playback
method, whereby the songs could be pre-recorded
•
either in
the voices of the actors or gh·ost singers. The third film,
Karwan-e-Hayat directed by P. Atorthy had Saigal playing
a romantic prince, in the disguise of a commoner, wooing a
confused princess acted by Rajkumari.
Prabhat's contributions were Chandrasena, a mythologi-
cal with a topical message against drink addiction and
Dharmatma, a devotional subject about the poet-saint
Eknath, with a strong attack on the evils of untouchability.
It was originally titled as Mahatma and bore many re-
semblances to Gaildhiji's life and teachings, so that it fell
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I •
into censor trouble and had to be revised. It was made

as a joint production with the Marathi stage idol Bal
Gandharva, who appeared on the screen for the first time,
as Eknath. But he was not quite cut out for the film
medium and could not go far in it. While these two
institutions were making history, another was born that
was to rank among the top three for long. It was Bombay
Talkies Ltd., started as a public limited company, with
some eminent citizens among its directors and its own,
up-to-date studio and laboratory at suburban Malad. It was
like a dream fulfilled for its founder Himansu Rai, whose
vision at last took a decisively Indian shape and also at-
tained big domestic success, that had eluded his inter-
national ventures. For its maiden production, Jawani ki
Hawa., B.T. collected a wide. assortment of talents. The
Hindi adaptation of Niranjan Pal's story was done by J.S.
Casshyap. The direct,o r was Franz Osten and . the techni-
cians were also all German craftsmen, like cameraman
Josef Wirsching, sound engineer Len Hartley and film ar-
chitect Karl Vol Spreti. The film was meant to protest ·
against the age-long tradition of arranged marriages but it
became more like a romantic tlrama;..cum-murder mystery.
The lovers were played by charming Devika Rani and
the tall and handsome N ajam, who 1also wrote and com-
posed his songs. For music direction, Rai selected a young
Parsi lady Khorshed Minocher Homji, who was then com-
posing and singing for the radio, after a training in classi-
cal music at Lucknow's Marris College. Her sister,
M-aneck, also joined as an artiste, in a supporting role.
Rai gave them the screen names Saraswati Devi and
Chandraprabha. Both were daughters of the Parsi priestly
class. The community was furious at their entry into the
much-despised world of films. When the picture was re-
leased at Bombay's Imperial Cinema, the Parsis, known to
be gentle and progressive, raised a storm of protest, wit~
vigorous picketing. There were comical arrests and a
mild lathi charge. Soon everything fizzled out and the
Parsis, like others, have since remained starry-eyed about
films.
Two more big names who made their debut at this time
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were Mehboob and Sohrab Modi. Sagar's Al-Hilal (Judg-

ment of Allah} was the lucky break for director Mehboob,
the boy from the village who had passed through many
tribulations, as an extra and a minnr player, enacting a
variety of characters. The film, set in an ancient Islamic
regime was like a costume thriller, about the Romans cap-
turing a Muslim prince and finding a girl of their own
class in love with him. Sohral> Modi took the big leap
from the stage to the screen. Theatrical troupes were then
facing a tough competition from films and many theatres
were being turned into cinemas. So Sohrab and his elder
brother Rustom formed the Stage Film Company to pic-
turise their popular play Hamlet or Khoon ka Khoon. The
drama was staged against painted curtains, several times
inside the studio and photographed from different angles,
the presentation being justified as such. It was indeed a
free adaptation of the classic play, with seventeen songs,
characters bearing Indian names and new ones added where
necessary. With this improvement on the bard, the film, like
its famous foreign counterpart Taming of the Shrew could
have well carried a credit line: Hamlet by William Shakes-
peare, with additional characters and songs by the produc-
ing company. Playing Ophelia to Modi's Hamlet was beau-
tous Naseem in her maiden role.
An artistic success was Jeevan Natak (Life is a Stage)
made by Debaki Bose in Bombay under his banner and
from his own story which was laid in two periods divided
by .two centuries, with a girl re-enacting her past life
through a drama in which she acts. The film's purpose
was to denounce the artificial and ruthless ways of modem
living which lead to utter chaos of the mind and spirit and
give the message of going back to nature. This film par-
ticipated in the Vienna Exhibition. Another purposeful
creation was Master Winayak's first directorial effort.Nigahe
Nafrat (Orphans of Society), a Hindi version of the Marathi
Vilasi Ishwar, made for Kolhapur Cinetone. Based on Mama
Warerkar's story, it was about a dancing girl left with an
illegitimate child and her brother, who get accepted in
society after much suffering. Indira Wadker and Winayak
played the two roles. Sagar's Dr. Madhurika based on K ;M.
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Munshi's story was about a lady doctor, played by Sabita

Devi, whose progressive views and professional attachments
make her a misfit as the wife of a lawyer. The tussle goes
on till she sheds her wrong Western notions and deci_d es to
become a good wife and mother too. Ranjit's Barrister's
Wife, with Gohar in the title role, was another story of a
woman trying to make her own place in a man's world.
In the film world itself, some women tried to forge ahead.
J addan Bai started the Sangeet Film Co. and she produc-
ed, directed, wrote, acted and even composed music. Her
first was Talash-e-Huq, about a fallen woman seeking
salvation. She herself played the role. Her daughter, .•
Baby Rani, who appeared as a child was to become the

famous N argis. A year later, in the ·South, the popular
actress-singer T.P. Rajalakshmi became a film-maker with
Miss Kamala in Tamil. Imperial's talkie re-make of Anar-
kali, with Sulochana again in the main role, became very
successful. Another big hit' was the Wadia Brothers thTil-
ler Hunterwali with "fearless" Nadia as a do-gooder Ama- ·
zon. Many of these action films were given a guarded poli-
tical tone, of overthrowing a tyrannical regime and bring-
ing about freedom and prosperity. Many film titles and
even some company banners carried a hidden patriotic
fervour in them like Azadi, Desh Dasi, Hind Kesari and
National Movietone, Hindmata Films or Jawahir Pictures.
The Motion Picture Society of India organised a Conven-
tion, where it was resolved to ask for greater representa-
tion of the industry on official bodies. A Photo-Cine-Radio
Exhibition was also held.
The year 1936 was again crowded with several outstand-
ing achievements, showing a period qf rich creativity of
Indian film-makers and a matching response from the audi-
ence. From New Theatres came Manzil and Maya, both
typical products of Barµa's genius and dealing with his
favourite theme-the place of human emotions in a social
set-up that was fast getting modernised and mechanised.
The cultural onslaught of the ruling class was making in-
roads into the dress, manners, speech and general outlook
of Indians. Cynicism towards old-world values was getting
in vogue. At such a time, Barua's characters reflected
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'
the clash between true modernism of thought, in the ortho-

dox who were upholding the old order and hidden con-
servatism, in· the ultra-modems who were defying the
prevailing state. And the solution of this chaotic conflict
was uncertain, as life itself. Manzil adapted from Sarat
Chandra's Grihadaha. was about two friends, one poor
(Barua) and the other rich (Prithviraj), in love with the
same girl (Jamuna). She marries the first but is tricked
away by the second. Maya posed another quo vadis query
to a changing society, through the triangular conflict be- .
tween an orphan (Jamuna) brought up in a rich family,
the frivolous daughter of the house (Azuri) and the rich
young man (Pahari Sanyal) who secretly marries the for-
mer but is separated from her. In complete contrast was
N.T.'s Millionaire (Crorepati), directed by Hem Chunder,
which was a spicy comedy laid against the film world and
had its funny characters played by some of its best-
known talents, like Saigal (as a star-crazy youth, who wins
a lottery), Molina, Pahari Sanyal, Nawab, Kidar Sharma,
Jagdish Sethi,i Nemo, Sardar Akhtar, Trilok Kapoor.
For the East India Company, Debaki Bose directed
Sunehra Sansar ( Sonar Sansar in Bengali). Its central
character was an eccentric landlord Sir Shankemath and
in a serio-comic style, it touched upon many contemporary
problems, like unemployment of the educated and the
gross inequalities between life in the bungalows and the
slums. For the same company Kardar directed Baghi
Sipahi, a lavish costume picture on Hollywood lines. The
thrillers, with their own popular "stars," including trained
animals and ramshackle vehicles, continued to have their
own pull. Wadia Movietone made Jai Bharat> and many
others in the line, with a concealed nationalistic motive.
The popular star names were Nadia, John Cawas, Boman
Shroff, Sayani, Sardar Mansur, Dalpat, Manchi Thoothi, a
horse, Punjab ka Beta and a car, Rolls Royce ki Beti. The
feats, stunts and gags often brought the house down and
there were wild reactions when villain Sayani would twitch
his moustache and say "Dekha Jayega". At the same time,
J.B.H. Wadia, rendered a great cultural service with a
series of short films on the top classical artistes of India,
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which were given for free showing with the company's

features. It was a losing proposition altogether. Still,
the good work was continued till 1942, when the exhibi-
tors refused to provide screening time for the shorts. An-
other Bombay company specialising in thrillers with a
purpose was Prakash. Its Passing Show, with Jayant in
role of the masked hero, getting his image from a popular
cigarette brand, proved a great treat. Sagar's Deccan
Queen directed by Mehboob and a female bandit wearing
a mask and named after a popular tr~ of the G.I.P.
Railway. American films of the type of course provided
the main inspiration.
Mehboob directed the big hit Man Mohan for Sagar..
It adopted the "Devdas" pattern in the Bombay style of
film-making and with simple, lovable songs like Tumhi
ne mujhko prem sikhaya. Surendra played the painter
frustrated in love, Bibboo his girl and Yakub her jealous
husband. Sohrab Modi now set up his own studio Minerva
Movietone and started with Saed-e-Havas (Unbridled Steed
of Passion). It was a costume picture based on court in-
trigues, in which Modi played a cruel Negro chief, trans-
formed by a little prince. Bombay Talkies which was now
in full swing, came out with four films, from which Achhut
Kanya starring Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar was the
most successful and significant. It was a sad, sweet story
of love between an untouchable girl and a Brahmin boy,
both married off to persons of their own class and ending
in the tragic death of the girl, while preventing a train
accident. The village background, the folkish songs like
Main ban ki chidiya and the performances were the major
charms. The film earned big returns, though it had been
shot in less· than two months and at a total cost of
Rs. 72,000/- as recorded in the M.P.S.I. yearbook. Ashok
Kumar, discovered from the laboratory, had made a reluc-
tant debut in the previous film J eevan N aiya, in which he
played an accomplished youth, who finds that his newly-
married wife was the daughter of a dancing girl. She is
driven out but comes back, during his spell of blindness,
to serve as a nurse, whom he begins to love. B.T.'s Janma-
bhoomi tackled the theme of village uplift, tried by prog-
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ressive youths and opposed by the zamindar. Patriotic

fervour was injected in it with the character of a mad
woman and some songs, from which one chorus was chosen
by the B.B.C., as a signature tune, for its Indian News
Service. The fourth was a two-in-one venture consisting
of Miyan Biwi (Always Tell your Wife), a rather contrived
comedy and Mamta (Mother) a court-room drama posing
the question whether a prostitute is guilty, if she kills a
man for protecting the life of her child. The second film
did not have any songs. But the double programme idea
did not click with the Indian audience.
At Calcutta, Prafulla Ghosh made Maa, on the evils of
bigamy, with Jal Merchant in a father and son double
role. The film also utilised the nationalist song Vande
Mataram, which was then becoming a symbol of protest
against foreign rule. At Kolhapur, Winayak and his brother
Baburao Pendharkar along with cameraman Pandurang
Naik launched Huns Pictures with a sensational subject
made in Hindi and Marathi, called Chhaya (Holy Crime).
V.S. Khandekar's story told of man's beastliness to man,
leading to a climax, where a girl has to trade her virginity
to save her younger brother's life and the elder who had
been trapped by the machinations of the rich, takes his
revenge on the wrongdoer and goes behind the bars for
ever. Winayak played the hero's role but won greater
renown as a rebel director. Baburao Painter re-made his
silent epic Savkari Pash in Marathi, though not with the
same success. At Poona, Prabhat continued on its path
of glory with the Hindi Amar Jyoti (Immortal Flame) l:iy
Shantaram. Set against an ancient background of an
unjust kingdom, its purpose was to rebel against the tradi-
tional suppression of women and show the way for their
emancipation, through a female (Durga Khote) leading a
band of pirates, taking command over ·the seas and inspir-
ing others by her example. In theme as well as technique,
the film was ahead of its• times. It was sent to the fourth
Venice Festival. Another great and lasting achievement of
Prabhat was in the Marathi field-the classic and peren-
nially popular film Sant Tukaram directed by the Prabhat
partners V. Damle and S. Fatehlal. The ' life story of the
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poet saint of Maharashtra in the sixteenth century had

been pictuMsed many times before. But in this film, the
simple sincere treatment bordering on divine fervour, the
beautiful words and verses, and the ·acting-cum-singing
of Vishnupant Pagnis looking a perfect embodiment of
Tukaram were so unique as to put it on an entirely dif-
ferent level. So much was the • popular ardour that the
photographs and posters of the film were also garlanded
and worshipped by people. Unbelievable tales of adula-
tion kept coming from the remotest of villages and people
sat and wept again and again at the simple-hearted -devo-
tee's struggle with religious hypocrisy and materialism.
The film crossed .the 'language barrier and ran for a full
year in Bombay, apart from long runs in several centres.
At the Venice Festival, in the following year, it got the
honour of being declared one ·of the three best films.
With 1937 and its amazing string of achievements, the
Indian Cinema stepped into its golden age. The quantity
fell steeply compared to 1935 but the quality shone all
the more. Topping the. list was V. Shantaram's extra-
ordinary work and easily among the best films made in
India, DuniYtt na Mane (Hindi) and Kanku .(Marathi) of
Prabhat. True to its English title The Unexpected, the
film, which wa~ Shantaram's first social film based on a
novel of N.H. Apte, 'had such a revolutionary subject and
treatment that it looks unconventional even now after
'
three decades. The theme of young maidens being bar-
gained off in marriage to old men was put in a shocking
new light, of a brave girl fighting the injustice by not
accepting the man as her husband on any level, including
the conjugal one. She fights against the oppression of his
old aunt and derives solace from his grown-up daughter,
who is ironically . a social reformer. Her mission reaches
its fulfilment, with the old man accepting her as his
daughter and freeing her by committing suicide, while en-
treating her to remarry. The film's revolt and challenge
to tradition were as much amazing for the Indian film as
for the society of those times. The thrilling role was
. played gloriously by Shanta Apte, who came to be known
as the rebel star. Shantaram invested the film with many
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cinematic techniques and rich, apt symbolisms, like the

old wall clock or the self-molesting whip of the street
performer. All elements of the film were so woven as
to form a superbly cohesive whole. .
From New Theatres came Debaki Bose's Vidyapati, on
the life of the Vaishnavite poet, famous for his poems of
shringaar rasa, imbued with the spirit of divine love and
seeing Lord Krishna as the supreme lord and lover. The
director's lyrical and philosophical treatment took the film
to sublime heights, where the queen's love for the poet
and the king's resentment -o f it, gathered an ethereal
quality. The cream of N.T. talent was brought together
in it, like Pahari Sanyal as Vidyapati, Prithviraj and
Chhaya Devi as the kipg and queen and Kanan ·D evi a!':
Anuradha, a selfless devotee of the poet. The film ha:,
come to be accepted as one of the undisputed classics of
the Indian screen. Mukti directed by P.C. Barua was a
probe into an unhappy marriage, between two people
split by conflicting temperaments as well as social and
moral values. The husband (Barua) is a poor artist lost
in his painting, while the wife (Kanan) is a rich girl given
to modern fashionable living. Once again, it was the
traditional v ersus progressive conflict among typical Barua
characters. Bimal Roy · photographed the film, with some
outdoor work in the lovely jungles of Assam. Another
N.T. film Badi Bahen (President) made by Nitin Bose, pre-
sented a new image of the Indian woman as an executive,
at the helm of a big textile mill. Her machine-like and
unemotional sang-froid receive a . jolt, when she silently
begins to love a talented worker and• does her •
best to
promote him, only to realise that her own y·o unger sister
has already won his love. The triangular drama was well
woven with the main theme and its related problems
about capital versus labour. Kamlesh Kumari and Leela
Desai played the elder and younger sisters and Saigal the
man loved by both. He also sang sonie · unforgettable
songs like Ek bangla bane nyara.
The exciting
•
prospects of colour were explored again
with Imperial's Kisan Kanya, the first to be shot and pro-
cessed in India. Producer Ardeshir Irani took this
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pioneering step, by getting exclusive rights of the Cine-

color process from a Hollywood company and setting up
his own laboratory under the , guidance of Wolfe Henius,
with Rustom Irani doing the photography. Heralded as
India's first all-process-coloured picture, it had a story by
Prof. Ziauddin from Santiniketan and scenario-cum-dia- .
logue by the famous ·Urdu author S.H. Manto, depicting
the sorrows on peasant life. But the film did not win
much populax: favour. A year later, with the second and
last film in Cinecolor, called Mother India, the colour idea
was given up and nobody ventured into it for years.
Perhaps, if the bigger companies had seriously tried colour
for certain subjects, it would have got a footing much
earlier on the Indian screen. Another pioneering step ....
of shooting an Indian film abroad was taken by K. Asandas
taking some scenes of his Tamil film Modern Youth in
England. Both colour and foreign locales were to become
a craze much later. ·
Wadia Movietone made three experiments. Its Nau-
jawan was the first to be kept free from songs, as the
crime thriller set within a 24 hour span did not need any
songs. But the audience in some places raised a furore
saying that the producer had cheated the public. So a
special trailer had to be put out immediately to justify the
omission of songs. The second unusual venture was an
Indian version, synchronised with music and effects, of
the big silent hit Thief of Baghdad starring Douglas Fair-
banks, which was presented as Sulemani Shetranji. The
third was a full-fledged jungle film Toofani Tarzan, with
. an amazing use of wild beasts. Social satire on the screen
took its shape when Winayak joined hands with author
P.K. Atre in Dharmaveer, which depicted a socially well-
placed charlatan, leading a double-sided life. The wit
and punch of the original Marathi film were also rendered
in Hindi for the wider all-India audience. Baburao
Pendharkar played the hypocrite's role, . with Winayak as
the young rebel who exposes him. It was followed up by
a satirical comedy Premveer on the foibles of love. Wina-
yak as the collegian lover donned several masquerades,
which has since remained a pet cliche for screen heroes.
'
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From the Bombay Talkies crop of films, which were setting

formula traditions of their own, Jeevan Prabhat stood out
with a popular drama about a childless woman, who her-
self arranges a second marriage for her husband and then
finds herself pregnant in circumstances where she can be
easily misunderstood. There was a new hero Kishore
Sahu playing opposite Devika Rani. Ashok Kumar and
Devika appeared together as Satyavan and Savitri in the
company's first and last mythological Savitri and as a Bhil
tribe couple in its Izzat.
From Sagar Movietone's group of half a dozen films,
Jagirdar directed by Mehboob with S'ijrendra and Bibbo
proved a big success. It was a melodrama about a
clandestine marriage and the woman being left alone to
bring up a child despised as illegitimate. This story p_a ttern
has also remained a favourite of Hindi film-makers. Like
other big companies, Sagar too nurtured its own talented
b'taff of directors, actors and technicians. · Many of its films
were drawn from Gujarati literature, like: Kulvadhu by
K.M. Munshi and Kokila by Ramanlal Desai. Both vvere
directed by Sarvottam Badami and had the company's top
star Sabita Devi in the central role. The year also saw
the swan-songs of the early pioneers ... Pratibha of Baburao
Painter and Gangavataran the last film of Phalke. After
this, Phalke's eff,orts to stage a come-ba,ck were all in vain
and he died broken-hearted and poor, in 1944.
The films of 1938 included another notable Barua crea-
tion under N.T. called Adhikar, which told the stoty of
two sisters--one a legitimate heir rolling in the luxury of
her father's house and the other an illegitimate outcast
-
living in slums. When the poor girl is given a chance by
.
the kind sister to assert her rights, she grows so avaricious
as to usurp everything belonging to her, including the
lover, till realisation dawns. Though contrary to the
screen convention of the poor being always good and the .
rich bad, the film tried to show that happiness lies in being
what one is. and not by taking the place of another. Also,
that equal opportunities alone cannot raise everyone to an
equal level and it is the goodness of indixidual nature and
character that really counts. Dh:arti Mata another N.'i'.
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film by Nitin Bose, tackled the problematic conflict between

agriculture and industrialisation. It was done through two
friends holding opposite beliefs. Several problems of
Indian agriculture were touched upon and the solutions
suggested were co-operative farming with mechanised me-
thods, which would help to get the maximum out of nature's
bounty, reduce the sufferings of the partly. employed
farmers and check needless migration to cities. It was a
fervent call to go back to the land and some of its path-
finding was quite prophetic. Saigal and J agdish Sethi
appeared as the two men with Uma, K.C. Dey, Nawab in
other roles.
In contrast, N.T. ·made a lovable musical Street Singer
directed by Phani Mazumdar, with R.C. Boral giving the
music and Saigal with Kanan as the leading pair. It was
a tale of two waifs aspiring for singing fame, which she
gets while he does not, in the fickle theatre world. From·
the songs, the haunting piece BabaZ Mora .. .has almost be-
. come synonymous with the memory of Saigal as an eternal
singer. Director Winayak tried his hand at a lavish cos-
tume picture Jwala, which was like Macbeth without
the scheming wife. But it flopped and he reverted to
satirical comedies, with the Hindi-Marathi Brahmachari
that became a big success. It was a hilarious satire on
celibacy practised· as a fad. Another hit was Prabhat's
Gopal Krishna by Damle and Fatehlal, depicting the
legends of Krishna's childhood in a very sweet but mean-
ingful way, that could make ideal fare for children. The
rural atmosphere, the crowd scenes and the trick shots
were very well done and added to the film's popularity
along with Master Krishnarao's music. Love and care of
cattle was made one of the related themes and Krishna's
image was given many-sided hues . as a friend, cowherd,
lover and deity. Ram Marathe and Shanta Apte appeared
as Krishna and Radha;·There were a couple of popular films
from Sagar, like Hum Tum aur Woh (We three) by Meh-
boob, which employed the eternal triangle again and 300
Days & After by Badami, which had the offbeat idea of a
rich youth's vow to work for a living for three hundred
days. The comedy arose from the odd jobs taken up by
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the millionaire in the garb of a pauper, played by Motilal.

There were also some films on noteworthy topics and
problems. Prakash's Purnima based on a Gujarati novel
was a poignant drama about fallen women. Sohcab Modi's
Jailor and Baghbaan directed by Kardar for General Films
both had prison life as the back.ground. The first was
an unusual tale about an ugly-faced jailor and the mis-
fortune of his wife eloping with a handsome man. Modi
himself played the title role with Leela Chitnis as the
wife. The film had its paperwork and songs by Kamal
Amrohi. Baghbaan was another melodrama about an
innocent lad sent to jail_ and being redeemed by kindness
and love. Other social films made by Modi's Minerva also
drew attention. Vasanti showed an unwed mother's scuffle
with society and the law, when she tries to get rid of her
child. Meetha Zahar had a rejected suitor posing as a
friend of the couple and systematically destroying their
married life. It was written by Gajanan Jagirdar, who
also played the evil genius. Talaq (Divorce) examined the
possible effects of a divorce law on Hindu society. The
'
conflicting viewpoints were projected through the editors
of two rival publications and an objective attitude was
maintained in presenting both sides of the question. Tol-
stoy's Resurrection also provided the inspiration for film
Duniya Kya Hai, starring Lalita Pawar and Madhav Kale.
The last year of the nineteen thirties also marked the
crossing of twenty-five years by the Indian film and so the
silver jubilee celebrations were held in May, 1939. A
Motion picture Congress was convened, along with con-
ferences of different sectors and an exhibition. The in-
itiative was taken by Chandulal Shah who soon-earned the
title of Sardar. In its twenty-sixth year, the film industry
qeld the eighth rank among Indian industries and fourth
among the cinema industries of the world. Its total invest-
ment was Rs. 17 crores and it employed 40,000 people. There
were 75 producers, 250 distributors and 1,496 theatres, in-
cluding 500 touring cinemas in the entire country. One
hundred and fifty lakh rupees were paid by it annually in
taxes, one third of which was entertainment tax. The
average production figure was 200 per year and the cost, a
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lakh per each. The industry had set up its assoc_iations in

1937-38 like the IMPPA of the producers, the IMPDA of
the distributors, both in Bombay and the South Indian Film
Chamber of Commerce in Madras. They began to render
trade services, including the publication of journals.
They also .a gitated for greater representation and redress
of the problems effecting the industry. The year 1939
also marked the starting of the Second World War that was
soon to affect the industry in. many ways.
There were many cinematic achievements, to lend stature
tQ an industry that was quarter century old. One was
Prabhat's Aadmi, one of the finest achievements of Shanta-
ram as a director. For the first time, a prostitute's hopes,
sentiments and frustrations were brought out with great
sensitivity. The woman herself was a gay, lively creature
(played to perfection by the studio's discovery Mrs. Shanta
Hublikar), while her beau was a duty-conscious policeman
(Sahu . Modak) who loved her but could not uplift her
because she thought herself unworthy of a good household.
In her efforts to keep away from him, she accidentally
murders a greedy relative and gets a life sentence. Her
last message to him is not to waste his life, merely for love.
The film ends by showing him conquering his dejection
and rising high in his vocation. With its English title
going as Life's for Living, it was clearly aimed as an at-
tack on Devdas and the kind of pessimism and self-
destruction which it had introduced as a popular concept.
Aadmi gave the counter-message that man must value his
life, overcome personal frustrations and learn to live for
the many things other than love, which was after all one
aspect of man's life. Shantaram also tried new cinema-
tic techniques and novelties, like the song, with a verse
each in -six Indian languages. There was even a satire
on the filmdom of those days.
From New Theatres, there came Badi Didi directed by
Amar Mullick and adapted from Sarat Chandra's famous
story. Keeping the tradition, it attained a classic scale
in its tone and approach. A lighter effort was Nitin Bose's
Dushman, which was meant as enlightened propaganda
against the scourge of T.B. and for the measures to fight
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it. It was specially produced by B.N. Sircar at the re-

quest of the Viceroy. The economic viability was made
possible by the triangular romance of two friends and a
girl and Saigal's voice. rendering some haunting songs
tuned by Pankaj Mullick. Debaki Bose's Sapera based on
a story by the rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was a peep into
the weird world of snake charmers, with their strange
rituals and traditions. The fascinating background and the
lyrical treatment, of the dr;.ima of love and sacrifice,
along with the new images donned by Pahari Sanyal,
Kanan Devi, Prithviraj and Nawab led to the film's suc-
cess. A similar case was Phani Mazumdar's Kapal Kun-
dala. based on Bankim Chandra's
.
novel about the old tribe
of Kapaliks or head-hunters. Here again, the backdrop,
the performances of Leela. Desai, Na jam and J agdish'
Sethi and the music of Pankaj Mullick with memorable
songs like Piya milan ko jaana proved the major charms
of a serious film.
Sohrab Modi established his tradition of grand histo-
ricals with Pukar, an excellent dramatisation of some
semi-historical episodes in the life of the justice-loving
_Mughal Emperor, Jehangir. Seldom before had a filin:
captured the period atmosphere so impressively as Pukar
did, with its sets, l~ales, decor, costumes, dialogue and
performances. Kamal Amrohi's paperwork, •
especially the
rich Urdu dialogue, made a powerful drama out of Jehan-
gir's legendary sense of fairness and the clash· of person-
alities and interests which ensued from it, ranging from
a loyal Rajput warrior's son being sentenced, to Empress
Nurjehan herself becoming the accused in an accidental
killing. A significant aspect woven into it was about
Hindu-Muslim unity. _U nder Mughal rul~, a Rajput's son
and the Emperor's consort were presented as equal in the
eyes of law. When the Hindu boy escapes, he is sheltered
by a Muslim_ friend who is prepared to stake his own
life. Modi played the Rajput chief. Chandramohan and
Naseem were perfect as the royal pair. The film attained
sensational success. Another big hif of a different type
was Bombay Talkies' Kangan. Its special charms were
the new stellar pair Ashok Kumar and Leela Chitnis,
'
•
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playing their game of sweet romance in a pastoral setting,

as a zarnindar's son and a poor village girl and the en-
chanting songs by Pradeep tuned by Saraswati Devi. S.
· Mukherji, till then a recordist, collaborated on the film's
screenplay and shaped many of . the formulas, based on
coincidences and misunderstanding, that have remained
serviceable for years.
Sagar's Ek Hi flaa.sta dir_ected by Mehboob showed the
first signs of awareness about the World War, which was
then raging, by showing its three characters, a labourer,
a pick-pocket and a horse-carriage driver, joining _the
army and thereby also including some scenes of combat.
Its unusual feature. was a hefty new actor Sheikh Mukhtiar
and the image of a man with superhuman strength but a
soft heart specially created for him. Sagar's Ladies Only
was a comedy about fickleness as a prerogative of the.
fair sex and had three such bundles of. contradictions from
different provinces, who come to Bombay and get a linguist
as a cook and a handsome cheat as ·a lover. Another
Sagar film Service Ltd., told the surprising tale of a rich
girl running a secret anti-crime service with the slogan:
"Where the · police cannot help you, we can." Director
Winayak and writer Atre kept alive the ti:adition of sati-
rical comedies with the Marathi-Hindi Brandichi Batli or
Brandy ki Botal of Huns Pictures. With hilarious dialogue
and performances (Damunna in Marathi, Winayak in Hindi),
the film projected as well as spoofed the prohibition cam-
paign, launched by the Congress in the Bombay Presidency
that year. Its central character · was a bungling clerk
who joins the crusade for feeling important and winning .
the love of a female picketeer. It cleverly pointed to the
-many probable loopholes 'in the policy which were to take
a real serious form in later years. There were many funny
situations, from which the one to become controversial
was a dream scene, where the clerk looks at a photo of
Radha and Krishna and asks the Lord to enable him to
sit next to her. The' first Hindi film from Madras came
in 1939, with Prem Sagar produced by K. Subrahmanyam,
based on a Tamil folklore drama. But it did not make
any impact.
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106 7~ YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA
All in all, the nineteen-thirties proved to be the decade

when the Indian talkie took its own peculiar shape, that
has remained largely unaffected by the developments in
world cinema. The outstanding films also had these pecu-
liarities like songs, dances and other popular elements.
But they occurred in a far wor~e form in the big number
of mediocre films made in the different genres. It was
also a period of big self-sufficient institutions. The com-
panies had their own full staffs, which were looked after
like joint families, and it was the banner which counted
more than any individual names, including the producer's
own. There was hardly any free lancing among actors,
who were called upon to play all types of roles. Every-
one and everything were in thei r proper place and films
were made as they should be made. The stories tackled
a variety of social and political issues. Technical improve-
ments and experiments were constantly made. The songs
were derived from classical sources.
A. system of distribution had come into existence but
the exhibitors were in a none too happy position, as they
were made to pay out more than. fifty per cent of the
box-office collections. The theatres were seldom kept in
a good condition. The system of queues was not known
and the law of the jungle prevailed, especially in the lower
classes, the lowest t icket being priced at three annas. There
would be "zanana" shows in the _afternoons, restricted to
women and small children. Women observing purdah
crowded these shows. Even then, : eve-teasing was not
completely ruled out, as the theatre staff consisted of
males. Tricks of unfair competition were common among
exhibitors. Some in Karachi tried the unusual one of 1
giving an absolutely free show consisting ·b f lengthy

trailers and shorts, when the rival had his big new release.
By .now, film music had started taking its unique place
as people's music. The songs were pressed into discs and
the gramophone was a familiar feature of many house-
holds. On the social level the film people were looked
down upon. Obtaining a rented flat or a girl's hand in
marriage was not an easy job for a filmwallah. Degr~e
qualifications were proudly tagged on to the names of the
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few educated ones. Some, stars had a fan-following. But

the usual story of rise and fall occurred in their cases as
much as for the banners. As the decade drew to a close,
the new companies rose to the top, while the earlier
famous ones like Imperial and Madan Theatres faded out.
In 1938, the studio which had made the first talkie and
much other pioneering work was thrown open for hire
with the announcement: "We don't produce our own pic-
tures; just therefore, we can serve you better."
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6
War, Freedom and After
The Forties : 1940-1949
THE war situation brought its share of woes to the film

industry also. The major one was about raw film, for
which India depended completely on imports. A volun- ·
tary length restriction was suggested, though it was a
bitter pill to swallow at a time, when M.G.M. 's four-hour
opus Gone With The Wind was proving a sensational
success. The quick, war-time profits also led to a mush-
room growth of producers and the production · actually
rose. .
From the films of 194Q, Ranjit's Achhoot, in Hindi and
Gujarati proved quite a poignant as well as meaningful
statement on the oppression of untouchables. It boldly
said that the solution for eight crores of Harijans lies not
in conversion to Christianity but in ·a ceaseless fight for
their rights. Several related issues like temple entry,
drawing of water from the common wells, the hypocritical
priests lusting for the pretty untouchable girls, the phy-
sical belabouring of Harijans were ail touched upon. . The
romantic drama of two girls of the high and low castes,
loving the same man, soon gave way to the real drama,
of the accomplished Harijan girl leading her people to
salvati.on and employing non-violent means. Thus, irtl
was also symbolical of Gandhiji's crusade and reminded
.of the political untouchability, of which every Indian
was a victim. Chandulal Shall wrote and directed it, with
Gohar in the central role. Bombay Talkies followed up
108
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WAR, FREEDOM AND AFTER 109
the success of Kangan with Bandhan, made on the same

pattern of rural romance, except that now, it was a zamin-
dar's daughter loved by a simple schoolmaster as well as
an England-returned villain. The film did the trick again
with the clever scripting, the sylvan scene, the perform-
ances and songs like Chane jor garam babu and the
inspiring piece Chal Chal re Naujawan.
With the premature death of Himansu Rai, some orga-
nisational changes took place. Devika Rani remained the
virtual head, while the active responsibility of the pro-
ducer was taken up by S. Mukerji. Many of the German
technicians, including Franz Osten went away to their
country and Indian talent took their place. Btz.ndhan
was directed by N.R. Acharya and the other popular film
Punarmilan by Najmal Hasan Naqvi, with a new star pair
Kishore Sahu and Snehprabha and a story about a zamin-
dar's absconding son helped by a beggar girl. This rich-
poor conflict and union through love has remained a peren-
nially favourite theme. Sagaii · Movietone made its last
three films, including Civil Marriage, the story of a Hindu
couple getting married under the Civil Marriages Act, just
to fulfil the conditions of a will, with an · agreement not
to consummate the marriage and soon take a divorce. But
the marital bond also turns into an emotional one. After
Mehboob's Alibaba in Urdu and Punjabi and Madhu Bose's
Kumkum the Dancer, in Hindi and Bengali, starring.
Sadhna Bose, Sagar was amalgamated with General Films
of the Fazalbhoys. The finance was provided by the House
of Tatas and the new concer• taking its birth was National
Studios. , r
Talents from both companies came together, from among

whom Mehboob went ahead to make some of his most
notable films under the banner. The first was Aura(
(Woman), the rural saga of a brave peasant woman, her
struggles for livelihood with her children, after the bread
winner deserts them and the dilemma in her old age, be-
tween the good and the bad sons. In its span came the
whole range of a woman's existence, from a new bride
to an aged mother and also many of the eternal problems
of the farmers. Sardar Akhtar played the main role.
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Another concern to start on the same scale was CIRCO

(Cine Industries & Recording Co. Ltd.). Its films tackled
some sensational themes, like Deepak which showl:d a
young doctor (Prithviraj) who practises mercy killing.
Prakash's Ek Hi Bhool had another strange theme, _about
the transmigration of souls, which turns a scientist with a
happy family into a villain and the real evil fellow into a
reformed person. J airaj and Mehtab played the couple
with Baby Meena (later Meena Kumari) as their child.
From the Elepflant banner came Nartakee by Debaki
Bose and Zindagi by Barua, with vivid portraits of life.
Nartakee was laid in the sixteenth century, when a much-
coveted courtesan revengefully wins over a celibate from
a monastery, only to realise her own folly. The conflict
between the physical and the higher pursuits of the spirit
_ was 1:>rought out in Bose's own lyrical style. Leela Desai
and N ajam did the two roles. Pankaj Mullick played a
poet and also composed some unforgettable songs. Zindagi
portrayed an unconventional Platonic relation between an
educated, unemployed youth and a rich married woman
running away from a bad husband. They meet, part and
meet again to finally part. Barua's conception of life.
again showed it as fragile and unpredictable. Jamuna
played opposite Saigal, who sang that unfading lullaby
Soja Rajkumari soja. Haar Jeet directed by Amar Mullick
was about two stage artistes (Kanan Devi and Pahari
Sanyal) who get married but have a clash when the hus-
band wants her to leave the theatre world. In that year,
the N.T. studio suffered the tragedy of a big fire.
From the Lion banner of Minerva, there came Bharosa
which showed another unusual plot about a ·man violating
his friend's trust by seducing his wife and the offsprings of
the same father falling in love, without knowing they are
brother and sister. Chandramohan and Mazhar Khan play-
ed the · two friends, with Sardar. Akhtar as the woman
between them. Prabhat, 'in the wake of Sant Tukaram
scored a similar success with the Hindi-Marathi Sant
Gyaneshwar about the boy saint of Maharashtra, who
redeems his parents' sin of returning to conjugal life after
taking "sanyaas". The film overflowed with the simple
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WAR, FREEDOI\-I AND AFTER 111
sincerity of •directors Damle and F&tehlal. It had marvel-

lous tricks and even the earliest form of a freeze shot,
in one scene.
The year 1941, almost the last in what can be called
the golden era . was crowded with films of exceptional
merit as well as box-office pull. Bombay Talkies com-
pleted the hat-trick with Jhoola, another rural romance in
the line of Kangan and Bandhan. Some of its songs like
Main to Dilli se dulhan Zaya re became a rage. Gyan
Mukerji directed the film, with Santoshi and Shahid Lateef
collaborating in the paperwork. The formulas set by this
trio of hits have been religiously followed to this day.
But in Naya .Sansar, B.T. took a new track of champion-
ing the cause of independent journalism. Written by K.A.
Abbas, himself a journalist and author, the film for the
first time turned the limelight on the newspaper world and
showed the crusade of an upright journalist against cor-
rupt and monopolistic elements, within and without. The
film's progressive thought content was extended further
in the theme song, which boldly clamoured for the coun-
try's independence, in step with the intense national strug-
gle then being waged by the leaders. But the film also
had popular elements of romance, songs and dances. New
Theatres tried a partial, dubbing experiment on a Bengali
film and turned out the Hindi Doctor which proved very
successful. Apart from the popularity of the songs, by
Pankaj Mullick in the main role, the film also brought a
serious drama touching on reforms, like marriage with
girls of low castes and . the need for doctors to serve in
villages. Editor Subodh Mitter directed the Hindi ver-
sion. N.T.'s Lagan directed by Nitin Bose was triangular
drama of a poet, his beloved and her elderly husband,
who by becoming friendly with the lover adds to the
woman's dilemma. Saigal and Kanan Devi as the lovers,
of course sang many popular songs.
. V. Shantaram made Padosi, his last film under Prabhat.
Another gem of cinema art and craft, it made an
eIJlotional plea for communal unity, through a village-
based tale of two simple-hearted neighbours ... the Hindu
Thakur (played by Mazhar Khan, a Muslim) and the
Original from
Muslim Mirza (played by Jagirdar, a Hindu). The mis-

understandings and clashes, provoked. between them by
interested third parties, were symbolical of what was
happening in reality. Th~re were many touching scenes,
including that of the two men dying hand in hand, after
a terrible dam-bursting, done through trick work by Pra-
hlad Dutta. There were elso remarkable symbolisms, like
the favourite chess-board of the two men. Sohrab Modi
brought his second historical Sikandar, which went a step
ahead in drama and spectacle. It pertained to the invasion
of India by the Greek conqueror Alexander (known as
Sikandar) and the clash of personalities between him and
the brave Indian, king Porus whom he be£ riends and re-
names as Pcirus. Linked with it was a legendary romance
of Alexander with a Persian beauty, who also comes to
India. Young Prithviraj looked veritably a Greek king and
Modi made an imposing, Porus. The film clicked in a big
way, with its visual sweep, powerful dialogue, perform-
ances and the sincerity with which it was done.
J.B.H. Wadia brought his ambitious venture Raj
Nartaki (Court Dancer) in three languages, English, Hindi
and Bengali. The talented team of dancer and star Sadhna
Bose, her director husband Madhu Bose, composer Timir
Baran and others was engaged for the artistically made
film, laid against the kingdom of Manipur, utilising its
rich school of dancing and telling a tale of forbidden love
between the dancer and her prince charming (Prithviraj).
The English version, kept at 7,500 feet and with specially
written dialogue (by J.B.H. Wadia) and songs (by Verrier
Elwin) was the first systematic attempt to seek a break-
through in the foreign markets. C.o lumbia. Pictures took
over its world distribution and the prints were sent to
America but the difficult war situation stood in the way.
'
In Bombay, the Governor Sir Roger Lumley inaugurated
it at the Metro. . It was the first Indian film to get a release
_at the prestigious M.G.M. theatres, both in Bombay and
Calcutta. Another artistic triumph was Kidar Sharma's
Chitra~ekha, based on the famous, Hindi novel of Bhag-
wati Charan Verma about the eternal struggle between
the flesh and the soul, centering round a courtesan and
Original from ·
'
two men. Sharma's treatment and writing maintained

a classical a_n d lyrical flavour as well as ·an erotic charm,
like the famous bathing scene of Chitralekha seeming to
be in the nude. ·Mehtab led the cast composed of Nand-
rekar, Gyani · and Bharat Bhushan.
Noted author Aeharya P.K. Atre set up his own concern
and ma·d e Charnon ki Daasi, directed by J agirdar, which
portrayed in: hair-r~ising detail, the foul tradition of the
boy's mother treating the new daughter-in-law almost
like a slave. .v anmala and Durga Khote brought alive
the eternal clash in this typical female relationship.
Ranjit turned out popular films like Pardesi and Shaadi,
with the singer-actress Khurshid as the star attraction..
A fresh cycle of the family drama came into vogue with
Ghar ki Laaj of producer-director V.M. Vyas and writer
Mohanlal Dave, followed by Gha.r Sansar and many others.
These films with an undercurrent of Gujarati plays, dealt
with the countless domestic issues, including some senti-
mental ones, like the sweet relationship of the housewife
with her husband's younger brother and the misunder-
standings that it can create. But the most amazing hit
and trend-setter arrived from a totally unexpected direc-
tion-Lahore in Punjab. It was Dalsukh Pancholi's
Khazanchi directed by, Moti Gidwani, with a fresh batch
of art~stes like M. Esmail, ·Ramola, S.D. Narang and
Manorama and a new trend of light, f.olk music of Punjab,
initiated by composer Ghulam Haider and lyricist Walli.
The story drawn · from a foreign source had powerful
elements which were very well blended and have remain-
ed in currency for years.
In the documentary field, a full-length film called
Mahatma was made in Madras. The Government set up a
Film Advisory Board for · the production of war effort
shorts and J.B.H. Wadia was appointed its chairman.
Wadia Movietone itself produced some shorts like He is in
the Navy. A few other companies also did so. But the
imported films brought a real glimpse of the war to Indians.
One such film claimed as its highlights : "Actual war scenes
in the minutest detail in twelve reels~throwing of bombs
from planes:_big battleships in .action-submarine warfare
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-and Hitl-er giving orders." Wadia 1'4ovietone also pioneer-

ed with the first Sindhi film Ekta, which preached Hindu-
Muslim harmony. The first film in Rajasthani. called
Nazrana was also tried at this time. Another film with a
fervent plea for communai amity was the Calcutta-made
Bhakta Kabir, with Bharat Bhushan in the title role and
dealing with the 119 years of the poet saint's life and
teachings. Another popular saint story was Ranjit's ·
Bhakta Surdas with Saigal acting and singing as the blind
poet, his first role in Bombay. Its biggest! charm was of
course the music of Gyan Dutt and the voices of Saigal and
Khursheed rendering some haunting songs.
A different type of musical feast mingled with a trian-
gular romantic drama was provided in Jawab, often consi-
dered as the swan song of the genius Barua, who. wrote,
photographed and directed it, apart from playing the lead-
ing role of an absent-minded heir, who falls for a village
girl (Kanan), while he is engaged to a glamorous city girl
(Jamuna). Kamal Dasgupta created unforgettable melodies
which were beautifully woven with the contents, as in true
musicals. It was like Barua's "answer" to those who
thought he could never make a light-hearted romantic film.
Bombay Talkies having already perfected this genre, scored
a diamond jubilee rttn with its Basant directed by Amiya
Chakrabarty, which told of a poor girl becoming a stage
star and later being separated from her husband and child,
for whom she conducts a long search through her stage
programmes. Mumtaz Shanti and Ulhas led the cast, with
Madhubala in her first juvenile role. The theatre back-
ground helped to accommodate many songs and dances
and Santoshi's lyrics tuned by Pannalal Ghose became a
craze with cinegoers. In the film music world, an impor-
tant name to emerge was Naushad who started with Prem
Nagar and gave his first popular score in Pra\cash's Station
Master. .
The giant concerns suffered a set-back because of the war
as well as the exit of some of their best talent. Prabhat
could. only make Das Baje, a romantic tale leading to a
situation, where the lover's life in an operation, depends on
his rival who is the doctor. N.T. made Meenakshi about a
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WAR, FRE~DOM AND AFTER 115
•
playboy and a damsel on the run. But its other film Sau-
gandh directed by Hem Chander had a more serious tale, by
Benoy Chl:!,tterjee, about a dutiful elder brother sacrificing
everything for the sake of his younger brother. Pahari San-
yal and Ashit Baran played the two r.oles. But from the
other big studios, there did come some outstanding films.
National Studios scored another hit with Mehboob's Roti,
which was surprisingly outspoken and progressive about its
socialistic message to the extent of saying, that what can-
not be got by right should be snatched with might.
Through a fable-like story, about a tramp taking the place
of a lost heir, the film portrayed the depths of greed and
ruthlessness to which a man can stoop in a materialistic
set-up. The alternative was provided through the blissful
world of a mountain tribe, where there are no rich or poor,
where all work according to their capacity and share alike.
Mehboob
. created some remarkable characters, like .
the
heartless Laxmidas (Chandramohan), the sturdy bumpkin
(Sheikh Mukhtar) and his innocent belle (Sitara) and the
eccentric hobo (Ashraf Khan), who packed great sarcasm
in his words and songs. Playing the girl who hates Laxmi-
&as, after he has murdered her father, was Akhtari Faiza-
badi, better known later as the ghazal queen Begum Akh-
tar.
Debaki Bose made Apna Ghar for CIRCO. Its story about
the struggle of a humanistic girl, married to the rich owner
of a f,orest area, which he ruled by with the whip was used
as an allegory for India's non-violent fight for freedom, led
by GandhijL Its message was a change of ~eart by peaceful
means leading to the triumph of the meek. One of its
songs boldly suggested: "Let us efface slavery, attain free-
dom and raise high the country's flag." Shanta Apte played
the main role with Chandramohan as her husband. Pra-
kash's Bharat Milap in Hindi and Marathi, directed by Vijay
Bhatt, started a fresh trend of mythologicals based on
Ramayana, which were ·aglo~ with all the grandeur and
spirit of ancient India. The film gained immensely from
the art direction of Kanu Desai and the perfect casting of
Prem Adib and Sobhana Samarth as Rama and Sita, with
Shahu Modak as the loyal brother Bharat. Some other
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films also deserve to be put· on record. A.R. Kardar set

up his own banner with a talented group, composed of
Naushad, M. Sadiq, S.U. Sunny, cameraman Dwarkadas
'
Divecha and recordist Minoo Katrak. · His first was Sharda,
tackling the problem of child marriages in a light-hearted
manner.
Kishore Sahu made the comedy Kunwara Baap, about a
bachelor about to be engaged, who is compelled to father
somebody's baby. Minerva's Ulti Ganga drew the picture
of a reversed order, where all important positions are oc-
cupied by women and the men look after thP. household.
Atre Pictures' Raja Rani was a satire on a new couple
(Vanmala, Trilok Kapoor) not getting any peace or privacy
in a joint family and setting up its independent household,
only to repent and go back. The traditional system was
thus advocated as opposed to the Western concept gaining
ground in India, by asserting that breaking off was not
the solution for domestic problems. Kirti, with Lalita Pawar
as the heroine, depicted another unus1,1al situation of a
man's beloved becoming his stepmother. The year was
rounded off with Pancholi repeating his Khazanchi success
with Khandaan, a Muslim social featuring Nurjehan, Gulam
Mohammed, Manorama and Pran. Once again, a melodra-
matic story coupled with catchy songs did the trick. The
sorigs proved so popular that a disc manufacturing company
was also sponsored in. Lahore.
By 1943, the industry began to feel the full impact of
the war. Due to the acute shortage of raw stock, feature·
films had already been restricted to 11,000 feet. Now the
· Government clamped a licensing system. It also took seri-
ous note of feature films being indifferent to the war effort.
The Congress had taken the stand of not co-operating with
the anti-Nazi and anti-fascist war, unless India was allowed
to do so as a free, democratic nation. The film-makers had
toed the same line. So now the production of at least one
such film in a year was made a condition to the allocation
of raw stock. Trailers and other shorts were prohibited but
the showing of two thousand feet of "approved" films was
made compulsory, for which a rental was charged. The
Film Advisory Board was transformed into the Informa-
Original from
tion Films of India. Censorship was made much stricter.

Nationalistic songs, photos. of national leaders and all re-
ferences to Gandhiji were forbidden. All India Radio was
· even not allowed to carry a line, which referred to Mahatma
Gandhi Road. The censors became very allergic to scenes
of whipping and words suggesting struggle or victory.
So there was a swing towards light music_a ls and enter-
tainers, though the clever game of smuggling national senti-
ments into songs or dialogue was vigorously pursued
and often succeeded because of the subtlety of language'.
The inflationary boom and the general tension -of the war
period boosted up the box-office') and some films enjoyed
marathon runs, that have not been equalled since theil.
The three big ones of 1943 were Kismet, Shakuntala and
Ram Rajya. All of them were exempted from the length
restriction, on special applications. B.T.'s Kismat produced
by S. Mukerji and directed by Gyan Mukerji with music.
by Anil Biswas proved the biggest box-office smasher, re-
cording a continuous run in Calcutta of three years and
eight months. The new glamorous element of crime, in
the form of a chain-smoking, easy-speaking hero (Ashok
Kumar), the racy plot. and
.
action and above all, the eight
hit songs can partly explain the phenomenal success: More-
over, Pradeep's lyric Dur hato ai duniyawalo, Hindustan
1tamara hai" expounded fiery patriotism under the garb of
a war effort song and Dur hato became the filmic equiva-
lent of Gandhiji's 'Quit India' call. B.T. also made Hamari
Baq.t, a popular musical with the theatre backdrop, which
marked the last appearance of Devika Rani. Playing a
bit role was the B.T. clapper-boy Raj Kapoor and dancing
with the famed Mumtaz Ali in the number Tere ghar ke .
samne was Suraiya. ·
After leaving Prabhat, Shantaram had a brief tenure as
the head of the F.A.B., during which he indirectly helped
the national cause, through some unusual shorts like Gal.Zant
Effort on the Stafford Cripps' mission to India. Then, he
set up his own Rajkamal Kalamandir Studio and its very
first venture Shakuntala became a big success, though he
had to make it a popular version of Kalidasa's classic, for
firmly estabµshing his independent banner. Still, the.artistic
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•
treatment, the performances, of Jayshree and Chandra-

mohan, the music by Vasant Desai were all of a high
calibre. In Bombay, the film drew thick crowds for more
than two years. Prakash's Ram Rajya (Hindi, Marathi)
directed by Vijay Bhatt was another sensational success as
well as a model for the Ramayana films in its richness of
philosophy, visual and aesthetic appeal and apt use of
songs.
Other films with an accent on music were N.T.'s Wapas,
Kardar's Kanoon and Ranjit's Tansen. The third film direct-
ed by J ayant Desai had a superb music score by Khemchand
Prakash with Saigal appearing as the great musician of
Akbar's court. Though not authentic historically, the film
was a likable eff~rt and is remembered for songs like Diya
jalao and Barso re. Sohrab Modi made another historical
Prithvi Vallabh from K.M. Munshi's novel about the con-
flict between the gallant poet-prince Munj (played by Modi)
and the haughty princess Mrinalvati (Durga Khote). Meh-
boob took a sound stage for himself when National Studios
was converted into Central and launched his own banner,
with a hammer and sickle as its emblem and a rousing coup-
let about divine will being supreme, on the sound track.
His first film was Najma, a charming tale of Muslim, life
set in Lucknow. Ashok Kumar and Veena played the lov-
ers, with the purdah creating the complications. In his
next film Taqdeer, the child star Baby Rani blossomed
into Nargis, playing the heroine's role opposite Motilal.
Homi Wadia also set up a new banner, Basant Pictures
and made Mauj . Kishore Sahu matured into a leading
director with Rajq,, which drew attention with its intel-
lectual approach. Sahu himself played the rich, young
cynic who spurns society and leads a simple unconvention-
al life perhaps the earliest .form of the hippie, though
Barua had earlier drawn such a character outline. Ran-
jit's Vish Kanya directed by Kidar Sharma had a weirdly
juicy idea-maidens reared on poison to kill the enemies
with a mere kiss.
As the war years dragged on, the adverse effects on the
film industry became worse. Escapist entertainers and
musicals flooded
. the market in 1944. One such was Chal
Original from
Chal Re N aujawan made by Filmistan, a new Qanner set

up by S. Mukerji and Rai _B ahadur Chunilal after separat-
ing_from B.T. Prabhat also made a diverting musical call-
ed Cha'T!,d, with a new heroine Begum Para who was arme~
with a lot of oomph.- New Theatres made Meri Bahen
about a brother's magnificent obsession for his sister,
which makes him sacrifice his own ambitions. Saigal's
voice singing Pankaj Mullick's melodies formed the back-
bone. This film as well as Chand carried some scenes
about the war, showing bombardments and advocating
blood donation. Melodramas about ill-fated lovers, larded
with music and often ending in tragedy also became box-
office hits. The biggest among them was Jaimini Dewan's
Rattan directed by M. Sadiq, with Swarnalata and Karan
Dewan as the lovers and Naushad giving some of his finest
songs. Another was Daasi f ram Lahore, directed by Hiren
Bose. The amnesia theme of Random Harvest was used
successfully, though in a soft, lyrical style accompanied by
popular music by Pandit Arnarnath and good perform-
ances by Ragini, Najam, Gyani and Orn Prakash. A simi-
lar hit was Man ki Jeet made at Poona by W.Z. Ahmed,
starring Neena and Shyam. ·
The year could still claim a couple of masterpieces.
Prabhat's Ramshastri (Hindi-Marathi) directed ·by Gajanan
J agirdar who also played the main role was an impres-
sive biographical on the wise, truth-loving judge from
Maratha history, who sacrificed everything fo~ the cause
of justice. Made with an authentic historical flavour,. it
was the last great film to come out of Prabhat. Under
Rajkamal, Shantaram made Parbat pe Apna Dera, an un-
usual psychological subject penned by Dewan Sharar, about
a bigoted ascetic who falls from\ the heights of -celibacy
into the quagmire of debauchery, which does not know
any limit and turns every woman into a prey. The diffi-
cult theme was treatecl with some brilliant techniques and ·
symbolisms, so that the film gathered more universal and
deep connotations. It saw Ullhas in one of his most
memorable roles, with Vanmala as the woman who brings
him into the world of pleasure and then also guides him
to enlightenment. Rajkai:nal also produced the Hindi and
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Marathi Maali or Bhakticha Mala about the peasant saint

of Maharashtra who beli~ved that work was the only wor-
ship. It was directed by K. Date, with Master Krishna-
rao playing the main role and also composing the music.
Baburao Patel of Filmindia made Draupadi, which gave a
different interpretation to the mythological tale, by show-
ing the gambling instinct as the root cause and Dharmaraj
the prime wrongdoer. As Patel's wife Sushila Rani play-
ed the role, the blurbs carried quips like: "directed by
the one man who has the privilege to direct her."
In 1945, the last year of the war, the total production
fell to a new low of 99 films, of which 74 were in Hindi.
The trend of musicals, roma~tic melodramas, legendary
and pseudo-historical tales continued, as they were pro-
fitable and steered clear of censor troubles. Sohrab
Modi's ~k Din ka Sultan told an episode from Humayun's ·
life, about a mere water carrier being made the monarch
for twenty-four hours. And Mehboob's Humayun tried
to trace the emperor's life and preached Hindu-Muslim
unity through the 'legendary tale of his offering brotherly
protection to a Raj put princess. S. Nazir turned his Laila
Majnu into a hit, with a moving narration, fine renderings
by himself and his wife Swarnalata and apt music, in-
cluding qawalis, by Rafiq Ghaznavi and Gobindram. But
Shirin Farhad made by Pancholi on a lavish scale in
Lahore turned out a flop. Zeenat, a melodrama with a
Muslim background directed by Shaukat Hussein Rizvi,
made a deep impression -on cineg,o ers with its =story of an
unlucky woman, whose husband dies on the night of the
marriage, after once having had a physical communion
with her and who undergoes a whole life's suffering on
being accused of having an illegitimate child. Nurjehan
played the widow's role and sang some hauntingly tragic
songs. One of its famous qawalis had starlets Shyama
and Shashikala making their debut.
But r ising far above these popular efforts as well as the
general rut . that prevailed was Humrahi~ onei of the last
great films from New Theatres. The company, suffering
from an exodus of its directorial talents had given a break
to one more of its experienced cameramen, Bimal Roy, a
,
'
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· WAR, FREEDOM AND AFTER 121
year earlier with the Bengali Udayer Pathey. Its Hindi

version 'scripted, photographed and directed by Bimal Roy
turned oht to be one of the most progressive films of the
period, with an intellectual approach and solution to the
eternal problems of the haves versus have-nots, capitalist
versus labour, ·materialism versus idealism. The poor,
unemployed but talented writer Anoop, pitting himself
against the stronghold of employers, while their own young
daughter is won over by his principles stands as a unique
·c haracter, c-0mparable to the bold, young wife of Duniya
na Mane. His stinging words, unflinching faith and indomit-
able courage were truly inspiring for youths, just as the
film stirred the social conscience about the · gross inequity
in the social order. The two roles were played by Radha-
mohan Bhattacharya and Binata Bose, who were never
again seen in Hindi films. The razor-sharp dialogue was
penned by Mohanlal Bajpai, adapted from the original
story and words by Jyotirmoy Roy. Among the few
songs, there was Tagore's Jana gana mana, later to be-
come the national anthem of India. The film has not
staled, despite C•o untless repititions in different garbs.
Many would-be stars of the coming decade were in the
process of being born. Dilip Kumar had made his debut
in 1944 with B.T.'s Jwar Bhata. Raj Kapoor was .to be-
come a leading player with Neel Kamal opposite Madhu-
bala in 1947. And Dev Anand took a start in 1946 with
Prabhat's Hum Ek Hain. The film directed by Santoshi
a«vocated unity •o n the provincial and religious levels.
Other names like Meena Kumari, Kamini Kaushal, Suraiya,
Nirupa Roy were also soon to attain stellar fame. The
popular films included Mehboob's musical Anmol Ghadi
(Nurjehan, Surendra, Suraiya), Kardar's musical in the garb
of a semi-historical, Shahjehan (Saigal, Ragini), B.T.'s
Milan (Dilip Kumar, Mira Misra) directed by Nitin Bose
from a Tagore novel and Minerva's Shama (11:ehtab,
Wasti). The end of the war and the removal of all controls
led to a violent spurt in production, which jumped in a
single year, from 100 to 200 (74 to 156 in case .of Hindi
films), though most of them were of poor quality.
Three outstanding films, redeemed the situation. Dharti
Original from
ke Lal (Children of the Earth) by K.A. Abbas pre-

sented a grim picture of the great Bengal famine and
man's inhumanity to man even in such a calamity. It was
made as a cooperative venture by the Indian People Thea-
tre Association and brought a new set of artistes like
Tripti Mitra, Sombhu Mitra and Balraj Sahni. Its music
was composed by the renowned classical artist Ravi Shan-
kar. It became the first Indian film to be- regularly re-
leased in the ·Soviet Union and was shown in other coun-
tries with good critical acclaim. George Jones writing in
the New York Times said : "The film interested me greatly
-it had several powerful sequences including one, the
March to Calcutta, which reminded me greatly of Eienstein
at his best-a significant forward step in Indian Cinema
production." The second film Neecha Nagar was made
by Chetan Anand, who also came from the theatre, and
with Rafiq Anwar, Uma Anand, Rafi Peer and Kamini Kau-
shal in the cast and Ravi Shankar giving the music. It
was also treated in the realistic style characteristic of
some post-war films from abroad. . It drew an all~gorical
contrast between the high and the low, through two simi-
larly located spots-the upper town controlled by a tich
landowner and the lower slums headed by a fiery youth,
with whom the wealthy man's daughter has an emotional
attachment. It is she who proves the undoing of the
father, leading to the triumph of the proletariat over reac-
tionary forces of ,oppression. The film was sent to the first
Cannes Festival in 1947, · where it was one of the elev6'11
participating films, getting a Grand Prix each.
The third film was Shantaram's Dr. Kotnis ki Amar
Kahani, a moving, true-life story of a noble, young doctor
from Sholapur who went to war-torn China, with a medi-
cal mission, sent by the Indian National Congress and
gave his _life there in the cause of his profession. It was
inspired from a book by K .A. Abbas, who wrote the screen-
play with V.P. Sathe. Shantaram treated the subject with
his usual artistry and himself donned grease-paint after
several years to play Kotnis., supported by J ayshree as
his Chinese wife and Rajshree as their little son, with
Dewan Sharar, Baburao Pendharkar and Winayak in other
Original from
•
roles. Moreover, under the camouflage of a war back-
ground, the film actually voiced national sentiments, as in
the rousing chorus based on a Chinese war song. Con-
sidering the international appeal or the theme, an Eng-
lish version The Journey of Dr. Kotnis was also made,
which ·w ent to the Venice fete andr alsa for art theatre
showings in America. No doubt, commercial exhibition
in foreign , markets still remained a remote . proposition.
But these three films did make a strong bid for stepping
into the world filn1 scene.
Within a year, India attained her Independence and the
whole mood changed, with a renaissance and period of
bloom coming to all the arts. The year 1947 was one of
great jubilation. But there was no regular ·o rganisation of
documentary films to record the historic event. The In-
formation Films of India was folded up after it had
made some 170 documentaries, apart from News Parades.
So the IMPPA produced a film called Azadi ka Utsava. A
one-hour documentary N etaji Sub has was made with the
initiative taken by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was com-
piled from news-reel footage. For the industry, the
national government soon meant little more than stricter
censorship, and higher taxation. This year, the .Produc-
tion again marked an almost cent per cent jump with a
total of 283 films. The figure for Hindi films was 182, the
highest in its history, till now. But quality fell in direct
1>roportion to the rise in quantity and flops became com-
mon. The industry also lost on account of the partiti-on of
the country, by way of studios, theatres and a big mar-
ket that went into Pakistan, both on the West and East.
From the huge output, only a few .films were worthy of .
note. From the box-office angle, it was a fruitful period
for Filmistan which made many films. Sindoor directed
by Kishore Sahu, with himself playing opposite Shamim
was a gripping film showing the plight of a widow and
advocating remarriage. It also bagged some awards de-
clared by the Cinevoice magazine, one of the first attempts
to institute awards, after some earlier ones done by Ranjit.
Sajan (Ashok Kumar, Rehana) also done by Sahu was an
excellent entertainer about an impostor taking the place of
Original from
an heir, who has lost his memory and wanders about with
some gypsies. Shehnai directed by the Santoshi was light,
escapist fare, with a lot of sex-appeal and songs like Sunday
ke Sunday composed by C. Ramchandra. The film as well
as the music set trends which had a decisive influence on
the films of the next two decades. V. Shantaram made
yet another unusual film in Hindi and Marathi. ·Matwala
Shair Ramjoshi and Lakshahir Ramjoshi about the gay
life of a people's poet, who came from an orthodox Brah-
min family. The picture set ai vogue for the "tamasha"
films with a number of "lavanis" that has ever since
remained a deminant feature of Marathi films. Among
other good efforts, Jagirdar's Jail Yatra was based on
Hugo's Les Miserabl_es. Mehboob's Elan and B.T.'s Nateeja
were both Muslim subjects about children of the rich
going astray. The musical romance Ju.gnu was noted for
its songs and the shaping of Dilip Kumar into a matinee
idol with a big draw. Prakash's Sama; ko Badal Dalo
made a progressive plea against ill-matched marriages.
Nargis Art Concern's Romeo & Juliet (Sapru, Nargis) tried
to present the play in its original garb, without ~ndianising
it. A Hindi version of the South Indian film Meera, star-
ring the great singer M.S. Subbulakshmi, was made. :After
a couple of years, the film was sent to three festivals,
Venice, Prague and Toronto. .
In 1948, t:tie Hindi screen was truly invaded by the ·s outh,
with Gemini's blockbuster Chandralekha. Gemini Studios,
established in 1940 in Madras, had made nine .films in
South Indian languages, including the Tamil Chandr.alekha,
when E;.S. Vasan hit upon the idea of making its Hindi
version. Partly shot and partly dubbed, the film was a
spectacular and thrilling costume drama, about an evil
prince who coveted his brother's throne as well as beloved.
Its lavish sets, big dance ensembles, circus items, fight
scenes. and marathon footage as well as publicity, all went
to make it a big hit and trend-setter. The main artistes,
T.R. Rajkumari, M.K. Radha, Ranjan and others were from
the South. But for the specially shot comedy portions,
Yashodhra Katju from Bombay became the first to be
called for a Madras film -something that was to become
Original from
a status symbol of stardom in later years.

An artistic invasion of the Hindi screen was made by
young Raj Kapoor, starting his own concern and making
his first film, Aag, the story of an artist and his furtive
romances with three girls, piayed by · N argis, Kamin1
Kaushal and Nigar. Though the film was not very polished,
Raj symbolised in himself a new young generation of actor-
directors. Mahesh Kaul's directorial talent found its fulfil-
ment in Gopinath, about a naive youth (Raj Kapoor) who
spurns the love of a simple, sincere girl (Tripti Mitra) in
his blind craze for glamour and recognition, symbolised
through a lusty movie actress (Latika). Kidar Sharma's
art reached a
new high with Suhag Ra.at about a brave
mountain girl and her sacrifice in love. Shot against a
beautiful hill locale, with its clouds and mist, treated in a
poetic way and presenting a brilliant new talent in Geeta
Bali, the film provided a fascinating experience and can be
taken as one of the earliest examples of personal cinema.
Another artistic venture in an unusual field was Uday
Shanker's Kalpana, conceived in the form of a series of
dance ballets and conveying an artist's rebellion against
the reactionary forces of society. Uday and his wife Amala
appeared in the leading roles. The . lyrics were written
by Pt. Sumitranandan Pant and tuned· by Vishnudas
Shirali. But it must be said that all the above art-oriented
ventures were hardly very rewarding at the box-office.
On the contrary, the mixing of cinema with box-office
qualities paid big dividends. But then, even here, the
balance
. was well maintained and the hits were also
reasonably · good films. Wadia Films' Mela, made by
J.B.H. Wadia with the cream of artistic and technical
talents, (Nargis and Dilip Kumar, composer Naushad,
lyricist Shakeel, photographer Fali Mistry and director
S.U. Sunny) was a moving tale of village lovers, who get
united only in death. The family drama, reached its
golden hour with S.M. Yusuf's Grahasti, which showed the'
contrast between a family blessed with a good wife and
another ruined by an evil shrewish one. Lalita Pawar
and Kuldip stood out for their roles as the docile village
mother and the horrid daughter-in-law from the city.
Original from
Yakub's ad lip Khush raho pyare became a popular

catch-phrase and Pran was seen in a sympathetic role of
an aspiring lover, even singing a sad duet with his be-
loved. Famous Pictures' Pyar ki Jeet clicked because of
•Husnlal-Bhagatram's popular, new style of music and the
charm of the singer-actress Suraiya. P.N. Arora borrowed
a Hollywood story, about .a wamp who stays alternately
for six months in the palatial house of a rich businessman
and turned it into a hilarious comedy called Pugre~, with a
local twist about the exploitation of the housing problem
by landlords. Comedians Dixit and Gope were seen at their
best in this movie.
The• ebullience of the newly-won freedom had begun to
be reflected in the stories. songs, etc. Of the film made in
the period, Calcutta made Sabyasachi (Bengali-Hindi) based.
on Sarat Chandra's Pather Dabee which was once banned
by the British. _Bombay came up with Filmistan's
Shaheed, which substituted jingoism for patriotism and
made a good box-office mixture, with the story of a martyr
who fooght for fl'eed-om with violent means. Despite the
romance and other popular elements, there was some fire
found in songs like Watan ki rah mein, picturised on the
funeral procession of the hero (Dilip Kumar). In Bombay
Talkies' Majboor with which playback singer Lata Mangesh-
kar came into limelight, there was a frivolous song
Angrezi chhora chala gaya, woh gora gora (the white
English boy has been sent away). At the same time,
there were some serious songs also, which talked of trage-
dies like Mahatma Gandhi's death early that year. One.
of the best tributes was a non-film disc, Bapuji ki Amar
Kahani, running into four parts and sung by Mohammad
Rafi. The Docun1entary Films Ltd., of Madras released
a full length feature called Mahatma Gandhi. Patel India
Ltd. made another called Gandhiji compiled from news-
reel ·footage. The Government of India also set up its
Films Division, which has since been making document-
aries and Indian News Reviews, which theatres are legally
a
obliged to show and for which rental is also charged.
In 1949, the Cinematograph Act was amended to make
censorship a central subject, as per recommendations of
Original from
the 1927 Enquiry Committee. A new Film Enquiry Com-

mittee was also appointed with Mr. S.K. fatil as chairman.
There were now two classes of censor certificates, 'A' for
adults only and 'U' for universal exhibition. · The enter-
tainment tax was steeply raised in many states. As a
protest, all the cinemas in the country were kept closed
on June 30 that year. ·
·From the year's products, Mehboob's Andaz was a richly
mounted and highly gripping film that made a powerful
statement against the pitfalls of affluent Indian girls taking
blindly to Westernised ways of friendship and love. Nau-
shad's music and Faredoon Irani's camerawork provided
further adornments to the film's lustre. Its release in
Bombay coincided with the opening of Liberty, the first
luxury theatre for Indian films and the successful combi-
nation set a trend for posh, glossy pictures to be viewed
in air-conditioned comfort, that unfortunately led to a
very unhealthy development of Indian Cinema, in. the two
decades ·that followed. Another film with a freshness and
magic touch of creativity was Raj Kapoor's Barsaat. Its
story of love versus lust was set against the Kashmir
valley and adorned with superb, songs by the new compos-
ers Shanker-Jaikishen and lyricists Shailendra and Hasrat
Jaipuri. Other discoveries were writer Ramanand Sagar
and petit actress Nim.mi. Jal Mistry's off-beat photo-
graphy and Raj's new styles of treatment, especially of the
romantic erotica, made the film highly fascinating and a
box-office smash. Gemini followed up the fantastic success
of Chandralekha with Nishan, inspired from the Corsican
Brothers tale and with Ranjan doing the double role of the
twins, experiencing indentical feelings of pleasure or pain.
With superb special..:.effects and the sweep of drama and
spectacle, this Madras film also swept the Hindi audience
off its feet.
While the hits had their heyday, there were also some
simple soulful creations, made in Bengali and Hindi.
~wayam Siddha of Calcutta's I.N.A. (Indian National Art
Pictures) directed by Shyam Da:ss, glorified the fortitude
of an Indian woman, wh!) is fraudulently married to an
imbecile but who brings a miraculous transformation in
Original from
.
him. She makes him assert his rights against a greedy,

scheming step-mother and her cruel son. Shanta ~pte
played another rebellious role as the woman, with Samar
Roy as the man doped since childhood and Amarnath as the
bad brother. New Theatres' Chhota Bhai was directed by
Kartick Chatterji from Sarat Chandra's beautiful tale,
about' a mischievous boy and his doting sister-in-law.
Molina Devi and Shakoor played the roles. The film parti-
cipated in the Canadian National Exhibition of films. An-
other N.T. film, Manzoor, advocated the cause of nursing as
a noble profession. An enchanting film in a different style
was Kishore Sahu's· Sawan Aya Re, about a cynical girl
opposed . to marriage, who finds her treacherous sister
robbing her of the man she had really begun to love. The
milieu of the affluent class, the husband-hunting done for
the daughters and so on, were very well brought out and
the climax was an excellent piece of directorial skill, which
was often repeated, later.
Bombay Talkies' Mahal written and directed by Kamal
Amrohi tried a new genre, of a mystery film adapted to
Indian environments and beliefs, like reincarnation. The
suspense and grip, along with the performances of Ashok
Kumar and Madhubala, the photography of Joseph Wirsch-
ing and the music of Khemchand Prakash creating haunt-
ing songs like ;lyega anewallah : .. turned the film into a
popular hit. A totally unusual experiment to prepare a new
film, through a clever editing of scenes from fourteen old
hits of Bombay Talkies was tried in Anyava, said to be
"re-produced, re-edited and re-directed" by J.S. Casshyap,
with some additional shooting, recording and background .
music. It naturally became a film with an all-star-cast,
led by D~vika Rani, comprising footage from the days of
Achhut Kanya to Hamari Baat. But it was surely not an
easy film to swallow and moreover, due to some difficulties,
the film could not have a regular wide release. Another
experiment was there-appearance of colour, after nearly
a decade, in M. Bhavnani's Ajeet, shot in 16-mm.
•
Kodachrome and blown-up specially in America.
Among other popular and trend-setting films, the follow-
ing merit a mention. Roop K. Shorey's Ek Thi Ladki with
Original from
Meena, Motilal and the new comic pair I.S. Johar and
Majnu was a full-length comedy, except for a touch of pre-
climax melodrama. The Kashmir locales and Vinod's
breezy tunes like Lara Lappa provided extra pep. Another
sparkling comedy was Ranjit's NazarP which used trick
shots for fun and was directed by the ace, Prarlhad Dutt. ·
It had Agha and Shashikala in the leads. Verma Films'
· Patanga directed by H.S. Rawail was a light-hearted ro-
mance, with · some spicy songs . by Rajendra Krishna set
· to C. Ramchandr~•s tunes. There were also musical hits
l~ke Famous Pictures' Badi Bahen by D.D. Kashyap, with
Suraiya playing the sacrificing elder sister to Geeta Bali
and singing some of the most popular songs tuned by the
duo Husnlal-Bhagatram. Naushad scored his big personal
triumphs in Kardar's Dillagi and Dulari. Bhagwan's Bhedi
Bungla found the humble stunt picture, usually dubbed as
'C' class stuff, come up a step higher. And Filmistan's
hit Shabnam provided the crowning glory in mixing me-
lodrama, madcap antics and music (S.D. Burm&n) aided
by star performances. It was the first time that balderdash
. got accepted as ente~tainment and the trend was to conti-
nue for many years to come.
. Among the attempts of a better standard, there was V.
Shantaram's Apna Desh, a clever expose of anti-social
elements, which anticipated the large scale · corruption,
hoarding and other evils which were to become rampant in
independent India. N amoona directed by Hira Singh, from
a dramatic story by J.C. Jain· was made by a big, new
concern which emerged with its own studio, called M & T
Films. An unusual fact about an indifferent film called
Main Abla Nahin Hoon was that Shanta Apte, who played
a brave refugee woman living in male disguise, also com-
posed the music jointly with Golwalker. Another example
of musical collaboration was by C. Ramchandra and Anil
Biswas, for Girls' School, directed by Amiya Chakrabarty.
As the decade drew
•
to an end, many budding talents were
seen coming up, who were to make their impact in the
•
commg years.
The regional fili;ns also proliferated further during the
nineteen-forties. The new ones· t.o get a voice were Laila
Original from ·
Majnu (Pushtu, 1941), Nazrana (Rajasthani, 1942), Ekta

(Sindhi, 1942) and Mogacho Aundo (Konkani, 1949). None
of these regional cinemas made any further progress but
the ten started in the previous decade began to come up
with many remarkable films. In a country with such a
wide diversity of languages like India, it is physically not
possible for a single historian to see and comment on the
entire spectrum of Indian cinema. Still, some of the .note-
worthy achievements of regional films, especially those
which made an all-India or intern.a tional mark are being
noted here for record purposes. The Bengali cinema,
which has comparatively been much advanced artistically,
has produced many memorable films, while also fully ex-
ploiting the literary and cultural heritage of that region.
Most of the New Theatres films were Bengali originals,
from which the Hindi versions were simultaneously or
later made for the. all-India market. There were also
triumphs of other companies and individual directors, in
the nineteen-forties, like Debaki Bose's Sir Shankernath
and Kabi. Hemen Gupta made fiery patriotic films Bhuli
Nai and 42. Satyen Bose also started his career in Bengal.
Nitin Bose made Nauka Dubi (Milan) and Samar for
Bombay Talki~s. Assamese and Oriya films were also
made in Calcutta and carried the inspiration of the Bengali ·
•
cinema.
Gujarati and Marathi films explored the novels and
plays in· those languages. The small Gujarati cinema got a
big box-office fillip with Gunsundari in 1948 and the. films
which followed in its wake, like Nanand Bhojai and
Mangalfe:Ta. Chandulal Shah's pereanially favourite subj~
of Gunsundari films paid off again in its original lingo and
also created a new· star in Nirupa Roy. The more firmly
found.ed Marathi cinema brought forth some· exclusive
creations (not linked with Hindi .
versions), consisting
. of
satires, realistic subjects and the gay "tamasha" films. The
nineteen-forties saw such trend setting films like Master
Winayak's Lagna Pahave Karoon, Pahi_li Mangalagaur
and Sarkari Pahune. K.N. Kale's· Lapandav, G. Pendharkars
Meeth Bhakar and Ram ·Gabale's Mothi Mansen. The long
- lin~ of "tamasha" films was set off by Shantaram's Lok
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WAR, FREEDOM AND A~ER 131
Shahir Ramjoshi and the other hit called Jai Malhar. The
Punjabi cinema had its hits like Yamalci Jat, Mangti,
Pattola.
The South's production from Madras in four languages
was quantitatively the highest and there was frequent inter
dubbing among them. A few Hindi films were also
occasionally dubbed in these languages and vice versa.
Most of the South's films were mythological, legendary,
costume or fantasy subjects and the treatment bordered
heavily on the theatrical. Still, some films of social and
political significance were made in the first two decades.
K. Subrahmanyam, under the Madras United Artistes
banner, made Balyogini in 1936 (about the sufferings of
a widow and her daughter, in an orthodox society) and
Thyagabhoomi in 1939 (about the plight of untouchables).
There were also patriotic films like the ·Tamil Seva Sadan
and the Telugu Vande Mathram in 1938-39. The latter
film was made by B.N. Reddi, who also made other notable
Telugu films like Sumangali (1940) and Devata (l941).
Thus the nineteen-forties, a period of strange vicissitudes
for the Indian film, came to an end. From a high pinnacle
of serious, significant cinema, even if within a popular
national and limited range, the film by and large came
down to the level of a mass entertainer that did its · job
by hook or crook. Of the many evil legacies of the post-
War. and post-Independence periods, three of the most
corroding ones were free-lancing, formulas and fly-by-
night producers. Together they formed a vicious circle,
which the industry has still not been able to break, over
the last two dec.ades. Along with the change in audience
composition and tastes, this has led to a near total deter-
ioration in the quality of the Hindi or the all-India film
as well as much of the regional cinema, which tends to
walk in its footsteps.
Original from
7
New Audiences, New Tastes
The Fifties: 1950-1959
LOOKING back today, the films of the last two decades

' have shown a definite and almost irretrievable swing to-
wards escapist fare of a .highly fanciful variety and the
noteworthy films are limited to the individual efforts of a
few conscientious film-makers. Moreover, these films are
comparatively too recent and fresh in memory to .form a
part of history and if they afford a scope for study, it is
more in the spheres of sociology or the psychology of, the
mass audience. Of course, the nineteen-fifties marked
the advent of Satyajit Ray in the Bengali cinema, which
at last gave a truly artistic and international stature to
Indian cinema. But ironically, Ray's films have been more
intµnately known to his native Bengal and the outside world
than to the majority audience all over India. Moreover,
profoundly beautiful works like Ray's require an intensive
evaluation, which is not possible within the limited scope
of this historical survey. So in the following pages, we
shall briefly note some.of the notable achievements of Hindi
and regional films, which stood out from the' plethora of
mass entertainers and melodramas, laden with music.
In 1950, a successful as well as thought-provoking film
was V. Shantaram's Dahej, which made a powerful tirade
against the dowry evil, through the plight of a gentle,
hopeful daughter-in-law (Jayshree) and her poor but self-
respecting father (Prithviraj) suffering great humiliation
at the hands of a vicious mother-in-law (Lalita Pawar),
132
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NEW AUDIENCES, NEW TASTES 133
while the young husband (Karan Dewan) is nearly help-

less-a picture that could be largely true of many Indian
households. The drama ending in tragedy was sharp
enough to lead to some reform on individual and social
levels. Ranjit's Jogan directed by Kidar Sharma was an un-
usual venture in a higher realm. Drawing a love-hate rela-
tionship between a female ascetic (seeking peace of mind
viith devotional service in a village) and a young atheist
(tryina to draw her with his personal devotion to her),
with the two roles played by Nargis and Dilip Kumar,
the film was rich with esoteric content and lyrical treat-
ment. Bulo C. Rani's music wove enchanting patterns with
Meerabai's famous bhajans and other folk melodies. Nemai
Ghosh's Bengali Chhinnamul was another unus.ual creation.
Kidar Sharma earned for himself the reputation of
creating art for art's sake (or rather "for artist's sake," as
some critics put it), with his films, like Neki aur Badi in
which he himself acted, and Bawre N ain in which the
talented composer Roshan came to the fore. Many other
new talents, like Meena Kumari (who played in mytho-
logicals and fantasies), Usha Kiron, Nutan, composer Madan
Mohan and film-makers like Devendra Goel also began to
emerge in this period. The Bengali school of dignified,
sentimental films found an echo again in Mashal, directed
by Nitin Bose for Bombay Talkie·s. Aadhi Raat written
by K.A. Abbas and directed by S.K. Ojha made a tirade
against the drinking evil among the poor classes, which led
to much suffering for the wives. A progressive element
was the character of a helpful widower who tries to change
·one such wife's destiny. Paul Zils made a star-studded but
documentary style feature called Hindustan Hamara (Our
India in the English version) under the banner of Docu-
mentary Unit of India. New Theatres' Pahela Aadmi
directe~ by Bimal Roy portrayed a phase of Subhas Chan-
dra Bose's life and the work of I.N.A. in Singapore. But
Filmistan's Samadhi did the same in filmic style, with the
popular type of romance and songs. A mythological that
clicked in a big way was Jayant Desai's Har Har Mahadeva.
Dev Anand's own concern Navketan took a start with
Afsar, adapted from Inspector General. Shaheed Lateef's
Original from
Arroo. was an Enoch Arden type -of romance with some

haunting music by Anil Biswas. A big come-down· for
. · Bombay Talkies was Sangram, which tried to adapt the sex-
laden crime thriller of American cinema and was promptly
awarded an 'A' certificate. The busiest actresses of the
period were Suraiya, Nargis and Kamini Kaushal, with
six to seven films of each often playing at the same time.
And a dance number by Cuckoo was a formula, eagerly
demanded by distributors and expected by cinegoers.
By 1951, trashy fil~s flooded the market, many of which
also flopped. Unashamed plagiarism of foreign films and
plots became common. The formulas took a _rigid absurd
form, that could not be shaken, as they were often paying.
Filmkar's star-studded Deedar was a glaring example of
the successful formula film, at its worst. At such a tim:e
Raj Kapoor's Awara with its superior and novel qualities
in many respects, easily stood out as a landmark. With
the socialistic message of its plot (penned by K.A. Abbas),
the picaresque charm of its treatment having shades of
Chaplin, the visual razzle-dazzle and the draw of its music
and performances, Awara became a big entertainer as well
as a big grosser. The picture won great popularity in the
Soviet Union also, under the title Brodiyagaa and the song
A wara hoon became a craze in many countries of the tradi-
tional markets. The influence of Raj's youthful image was
also immense on the growing generation. Even an "Awara
cloth" began to be manufactured .
.A film done in a visually realistic and arresting style
was Ranjit's Hum Log directed by Zia Sarhady, dwelling
on the frustrations of the lower middle class and having a
strong proletarian motive. Though somewhat watered down
by songs, this ·was still one of the most grim and real-look-
ing films to emerge in the new decade. Balraj Sahni gave
an awe-inspiring portrayal ·of the unemployed youth, full
of bitterness against the prevailing order. On the popular
front, Madras made a fresh invasion of the "social" genre,
with A.V.M.'s Bahar (marking the debut of Vyjayantimala)
and . Gemini's Sansar, both of which ·proved big hits. Dal,.
sukh Pancholi started his Bomba~r career with the mystery
thriller.Nagina. Guru Dutt made his directorial debut with
Original from
Dev Anand's Baazi, a gripping drama on the underworld.

B.R. Chopra scored his success with :Afsana, a tale of
vendetta revolving round twin brothers of opposite tem-
peraments. Kardar's Naujawan directed by Mahesh Kaul
treated the poor-boy-rich.:.girl theme with a very enjoyable
farcical slant. Bhagwan's Albela, about a little man's
struggle in show business, aided by a lot of catchy songs,
proved a runaway hit. An off-beat feature on the history
of India and its freedom struggle was directed by Phani
Mazumdar for Motwani Ltd., which had made many shorts
on political events. Called And.olan (Our Struggle), it com-
bined newsreel footage with a fictional story about a family
of patriots, one of them played by a young Kishore Kumar.
From the Bengali screen came Babla, about a boy's strug-
gle for livelihood, which won a prize at Karlovy Vary for
"fight for social progress". Shantaram's Amar · Bhoopali
made in Marathi was another brilliant musical on the life
of poet Honaji (played by Panditrao N agarkar) and his
love for a songstress (Sandhya) against the historical back-
drop of the British trying to overthrow the Peshwas.
Vasant Desai composed its music. The film won an award
for its sound recording • at Cannes. Datta Dharmadhikari's
Bala Jo Jo Re set the trend for tear-jerkers about the
suffering of women. The first Nepali film Harishchandra
was made this year.
'
In 1952, the industry got itself into a severe economic
slump, as a cumulative result of its several problems, like
poor quality of films, rise in costs, the star system, unlimited
increase in the number of producers~ shortage of theatres,
steep rise in taxes etc. Only a year back the industry had
set up its own apex ·body, Film Federation of India, which
in later years was to prove quite ineffective in uniting the
industry and its different organisations. The Central Board
of Fjlm Censors had also ·started functioning, thus re-
placing the province-wise _system. Cine Technicians' Con-
ferences were being held . in different centres to increase
technical awareness about cinema. And the Patil Enquiry
Committee had given thirty-five recommendatibns, many
of which were to be adopted in later years. But all these
could not help the industry thro.ugh its depression, of box-
I
Original from
office flops and financial disasters. This was done only by

good films made economically and based on substantial
subject-matter.
One
.. was Datta Dharmadhikari's Nannhe Mu.nne, a Hindi
version of his own Marathi hit Chimani Pankharen. Its
tale of four sweet orphans struggling for an honest living
and played by talented juvenile artistes forming the main
cast was an effort in a new. direction. Bimal Roy, who
had migrated to Bombay, directed Maa for Bombay Talkies.
This too banked upon its sentimental drama rather than
Ol) stars or spectacle. The Bengal tradition continued with
H.M. Films' Chhoti Maa dire(:ted by Hem Chunder from
Sarat Chandra's Bindu.r Chheley (also made in Bengali).
It told of two brothers and the childless wife of the youn-
ger doting upon the little son of the elder couple and lead-
ing to psycho-emotional problems. New Theatres tried an
unusual subject of a writer's tour of the holy pilgrimages,
in Yatrik (Mah·a prasthaner Pathey in Bengali), directed by
Kartick Chatterji. Prabodh Kumar Sanyal's novel had al-
ready won acclaim from quarters, as high as Tago~e and
Subhash Bose. But the film partly suffered from the lack
of a dramatic narrative and some studio sets to represent
the famous pilgrim spots. Debaki Bose's Ratnadeep (Hindi-
Bengali) was yet another lyrical and philosophical work
from the master, about an imposter's bid to take the place
of a lost heir and the transformation he undergoes. M.P.
Productions made a biographical Vidyasagar, on the educa-
tionist reformer of 19th century Bengal, with Pahari San-
yal playing the role.
New horizons were also opened up by the first Inter-
national Film Festival of India, held in early 1952. For
•the first time, the industry and the filmgoers saw what a
vibrant cinema existed, outside of Hollywood and British
industries. Films like Bicycle Thief and Yu.kiwarisoo be-
came eye-openers and tre_n d-setters. Yet, despite this as-
sertion of the little film's power, it was only the success of
the few big films, that laid down the future pattern. Meh-.
boob's Aan, shot in 16 mm. Kodachrome and blown up
abroad with print by Technicolor, became a money-spin-
ner in India and the traditional markets. despite its hatch-
:
Original from
NEW AUDIENCES, NEW TAS~ 137
'
potch of a Ruritanian drama (about a commoner's love for
a haughty princess) mixed with other popular elements.
But as a colour film, it was the first to be accepted on a
wide scale. Another hit was Prakash's pseudo-historical
Baiju. Bawra, about a legendary rival of Tansen in Akbar's
court, which succeeded mainly because of Naushad's bril-
liant, popular adaptation of classical music. Otherwise, it
was like a routine tale of a lover, tossed between a child-
hood mate and a female dacoit.
Another unsatisfactory film to succeed was Amiya Chak-
rabarty's Daag. It was mainly on the strength of music and
Dilip Kumar's popular rendering as an alcoholic. A bet-
ter effort was found in Anhonee made by K.A. Abbas,
starting his own banner Naya Sansar. The Marxist con-
flict of birth versus environment was given the popular
shape of twin sisters, one good and the other bad, through
a double. role, played by Nargis. Filmistan's Anand Math
directed by Hemen Gupta was based on Bankim Chandra's
novel about a group of militant Sanyasis of the 18th cen-
tury who revolted against the British. Gemini's Mr Sam-
pat, based on R.K. Narayan's story and with Motilal. in
the title role, became an entertaining satire on the social
wolves in sheep's clothing. The song~ and dances were
made to project some of the day-to-day grievances of the
common man. A joint collaboration venture Jungle was
tried by T.R. Sundaram of Modern Theatres (Salem) with
the American producer William Berke. It was made in
English and Tamil, with Rod Cameron, .Cesor Romero and
Marie Windsor in the cast. Two notable films on the
Marathi screen were Dharmadhikari's Stree Janam Hi Tu.zi
Kahani and Raja Paranjpe's Pedgaonche Shahane, both
later re-made into Hindi.
In 1953, the films that created the biggest impact were
Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin and Parineeta. The first, made
as the maiden venture of his own banner, bore a clear
influence of Italian neo-realism but wedded to typically
Indian content. The maker of Hu.mrahi again stirred the
social conscience with the heart-rending tale 'of a poor, illi-
terate farmer, at grips with a cruel zamindar as well as
fate and struggling to colleect the required amount, within
• Digitized by Google Original from

•
the legally prescribed time, to save his two acres of land.

Ii brought to light the untold woes and manifold problems
of the Indian peasantry and the causes which drove them
to the crowded, heartless cities, to become almost beasts of
burden, like rickshaw-pullers. The film gained its realism
!Tom a major portion being shot on the village locales and
the streets of Calcutta. The message was clearly leftist
oriented. The film was done with novel, cinematic styles and
the songs were out to a bare minimum of four relevant
ones, so that the overall effort though not devoid of melo-
drama, became a highly unusual Hindi film. The earthly
characters, dialogue and performances, especially of Balraj
· Sahani and Nana Palsikar went to create an unforgettable
impression. The film also received an international award
at Cannes. . '
Parineeta directecl and scripted by Bimal Roy for Ashok

Kumar Productions became a superb ada'ptation of Sarat
Chandra's lovable domestic tale, with memorable perfor-
mances by Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumari, Ashit Baran and
Nazir Hussein. Here, the lyrical and realistic streams were
blended in a delightfully unique creation. There was also
a crop of serious, intelligent films to overcome the slump,
like Amiya Chakrabarty's Patita about a raped girl and
her uplift by the scion of a big family, Ramesh Saigal's
Shikast about a lover returning to find his former. beloved
undergoing widowhood, Devendra Goel's Aas about a
widower's remarriage and the new wife being misunder-
stood in the matter of children, Mahesh Kaul's Jeevan Jyoti -
(remade from Marathi) about a young couple ruined by·
the tyranny of the mother-in-law and Raj Kapoor's roman-
tic tragedy Aah about a T.B. struck youth trying to alie-
nate his own beloved. Shantaram's Teen Batti Char
Rasta on inter-regional harmony and Su.rang on the work-
er-employer conflict tackled their unusual subjects, with-
out any conspicuous success.
N, eorealism, colour and English language versions
. were
three salient developments. Colour got a stronger foothold
when Sohral1 Modi launchd his Jhansi ki Rani, in Tech-
nicolor, on a marathon · scale and got the equipment as
well .as technical associates from abroad, led by Ernest
•
Original from
Haller as director of photography. General Cariappa had

performed its muhurat in 1951 and resources were blindly
lavishe·d· on the grand historical, dealing with the life of the
valiant queen Laxmibai, who was among the first to revolt
against · British rule. An. English version Tiger and The
Flame was also made. But the box-office fate of the film
proved very disappointing. Moreover, the costly Techni-
color process was also a wrong , choice for the time. Sim-
pler and cheaper colour processes, that could be shot and
processed locally, were just then being introduced. This
pioneering was done 'by Ambalal J. Patel, who brought
Gevacolor, by setting up a laboratory. He also launched
a film Pamposh, directed by Ezra Mir in Hindi, English and
German, with the backdrop of Kashmir and its people
· and telling the sad story of a dumb Cinderella. Soon, Geva-
color was seen in G.P. Sippy's Shahenshah (Queen of Araby
in English) and other releases.
English versions were made for colour films as well as
some serious, realistic works. One was K.A. Abbas' Rahi ·
based on Mulk Raj Anand's novel about the tea-planta-
tion workers of Assam. Another was Datta Dharmadhikari's
Mahatma (Hindi-Marathi) about an ordinary junk-seller
who became a great soul with his goodness. J agirdar and •
David played the main roles in it. But the Marathi film
which bagged the first President's Gold Medal in the an-
nual awards, started by the Government of India in 1954,
· was Acharya P .K. Atre's Shyamchi Aai. The first docu-
mentary, getting the "best" award was Mahabalipuram
directed by Jagat Murari for Films Division. On the Tamil
screen, Gemini's Avvaiyar about a female, _poet~saint be-
came an unprecedented hit. The big Hindi hit of the year
was Filmistan's Anarkali, another re-make of the popular
legend with a lot of catc}:ly music by C. Ramchandra.
The box-office graph in 1954 made colour! and English
versions go out of currency, both for domestic an~ the
coveted foreign markets. But the partly-coloured film, a
typically Indian innovation, proved more successful, as in
hits like Filmistan's Nagin and Homi Wadia's Alibaba and
40 Thieves. Other successful films bringing forth some
new _talents were Aar Paar made by Guru Dutt. under his
Original from
own banner with hot music by O.P. Nayyar, Taxi-Driver

of Chetan and Dev Anand and A ulad of Mohan Sehgal
penned by Mukhram Sharma. There were also films of a
more serious nature, which were not shaped for the box-
office. Bimal Roy came up with another superb adaptation
of Sarat Chandra in Biraj Bahu produced by Hiten Chou-
dhry. Kamini Kaushal and Abhi Bhattacharya gave memo-
rable performances as the deeply attached rural couple,
whose happy life is torn asunder, when she is abducted.
Satyen Bose, who had started with Bengali films, directed
Parichay, starring Pranoti Ghosh and Abhi, which told of
a man who discovers after marriage, t}:iat a deaf pnd dumb
woman has been palmed off to him. Debaki Bose made
Kavi, his last Hindi film in Bombay, about a struggling
poet who preaches love and equality. Baadbaan about an
adopted youth going back to his hereditary life of fisher-
folk was directed by Phani Majumdar for the Cooperative
Society formed by the workers of Bombay Talkies, after
its closure. Many popular stars had also joined the cast to
help the cause. But the efforts to keep the banner alive
failed and the once famous studio got turned into a fac-
tory.
•
After the debacle of Jhansi ki Rani, Sohrab Modi conti-
nued to make simpler films. His Mirza Ghalib, though
not an historically authentic biography of the great Urdu
poet, became the first Hindi film to . get the. President's
Gold Medal. S.K. Ojha's Naaz was the first Hindi film
to have location work done abroad, in London and Cairo.
In response to a lot of talk about films for children, some
film makers came up with plots revolving round juvenile
characters. Munna made by K.A. Abbas was about a for-
lorn child who comes into contact with a cross-section of
people and unconsciously brings about a change in them.
The film, won acclaim not only for being realistic ·and
starless but also songless, the second film to be so in
twenty-three years of song-filled talkies. Soon, the Tamil
Antha Naal also claimed the same credit. But these re-
mained isolated instances, never emulated by the rest. A
song-studded hit about two honest waif~ was Raj Kapoor's
Boot Polish. The film was not realistic or clear in its ideal-
Original from
istic stances. Nor was it really wholesome fare for children,

considering the several seamy characters, whom the two
shoeshines come across. Another film which was about and
not for children was H.S. Rawail's Mastana inspired from
Chaplin's The Kid. But Bimay Roy in Baap Beti provid-
ed engaging fare for grownups and children, with his
adaptation of Maupassant's Simon's Papa, shc,wing a school-
girl (Baby Tabassum) in search of a father and the trans-
formation she brings in a drunkard (Ranjan) who agrees
to be her papa. On the Malayalam screen, P. Bhaskaran's
Neelakuyil, a realistic film on the deeper evils of caste-
ism made a mark, while the Bengali cinema gave rise to '
, talents like Ritwick Ghatak and Tapan Sinha.
The big .turning point came in 1955 with the arrival
of Satyajit Ray and his classic Pather Panchali. To tell
the story of Ray's struggles for making a total rejection
of compromises and revolutionising the entire concept of
Indian Cinema and to make an evaluative analysis of all
his works would fill a separate volume Suffice is to say,
here, that Pather Panchali opened up a n~w path, which
led the Indian film to the world film scene, in a glorious
and long-lasting way. While others before hiin had .at-
tempted higher manifestations cif the· entertainment or the
national film, Ray had delved deep for the pure and uni-
versal art film, the roots of which he sought in his own ·
native Bengal.
.
Taking Bibhuti
.
Bhushan Banerji's novel
as the base, Ray, working with a non-professional team,
presented a picture of the village, a family's struggle for
existence and the growth of one boy Apu, in a style that
blended rich poetry with throbbing realism. International
recognition came to it with the Cannes award for "the best
human document", folJowed by an unprecedented crop
of six foreign awards and the top national one, apart from
high critical acclaim all over the world. The film also ac-
quired release engagements in markets, which had hitherto
remained forbidding, if not for bidden.
I~ Bombay, V. Shantaram scored a new triumph with
Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, a Technicolor film made
wholly by Indian technicians. The dazzling and colour-
ful film, on the life of dancers and their emotional-cum-
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artistic conflicts, became like a show-window of Indian

art and culture. The music by Vasant Desai, the gorgeous
dance ensembles on a variety of ancient themes and the
sweeping visuals, both on the sets and the outdoor locations
turned the film into a rich show as well as a hit. And
colour was at least established on a footing so firm, that it
later turned into a near craze and a must for all kinds of
films. Other films of the year which mixed pleasure with
purpose were Mohan Sehgal's Adhikar, Raj Kapoor's Shree
420, Guru Dutt's Mr. and Mrs. 1955, Bimal Roy's Naukri,
Satyen Bose's Bandish and Devendra Goel's Vachan. Amiya
Chakrabarty's Seema tackled the unusual theme of a girl
embittered by social injustice being reformed by a man
with sy,npathetic understanding. Nutan and Balraj Sahni
played the two roles in a noteworthy way. Filmistan's
Jagriti directed by Satyen Bose probed the world of school-
children and advocated progressive methods of education,
through the character of an ideal teacher, who is opposed
by the orthodox elements. Abhi Bhattacharya portrayed
an Indian image of Mr. Chips, while the boys led by Rat-
•
tan Kumar stole many scenes. In this year, New Theatres
rel.e ased its last film Bakul. The Sangeet N atak Akademy
arranged a big seminar on films in Delhi, which was
inaugurated by Pandit Nehru and presided over by B.N.
Sircar.
In 1956, the Indian talkie. completed twenty-five years
and the event was celebrated by the industry, as a silve~
jubilee. The year's ' crop contained the usual quota of hits,
having popular dramas mixed with catchy music. Still,
despite songs and all, some films did stand out for their
intrinsic worth. B.R. Chopra's Ek Hi Rasta was· about a
woman who losses her husband and has to remarry but
whose precocious child refuses ·to accept the new father.
Mohan Sehgal's New Delhi was an entertaining satire on
narrow provincialism, which advocated inter-regional mar-
riages as a step towards national integration. Bimal Roy
carnet up with an excellent re-make of Devdas, the New
Theatres version of which had been photographed by him.
Dilip Kumar appeared in the role which was once made
memotable by Saigal and Suchitra Sen and Vyjayantimala
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played the two women, Parvati and Chandra. The new

version, made with more advanced techniques, created
fresh interest in the new generation for the classic. Bimal
Roy also produced for Films Division a feature documen-
tary Gautam.a the Buddha directed by Rajbans Khanna.
It was based on ancient sculpture and painting an_d won
the top national award as well as a special mention at
Cannes.
A Bombay film made a big dent in world cinema, when
Ek Din Raatre, Bengali version of Raj K·a poor's Jagte Raho,
walked away with the Grand Prix at Karlovy Vary's com-
petitive fete. The meritorious film, written and directed
by Shambhu Mitra and Amit Maitra, told the story of one
night in an urban colony, where an· unkempt rustic (Raj
Kapoor) in search of water is taken for a thief, whereas
he innocently uncovers a ~hole lot of the real thieves,
going under the cloak of social status. The cinematic style,
the variety of characters, the biting dialogue and Raj's
performance gave the film its unusual quality. More out-
standing world success was achieved by Satyajit Ray's
Aparajito, made as a sequel to Pather Panchali, showing the
boy Apu's growth to adolescence. It won the highest Venice
Festiv~l honour, the Golden Lion of St. Mark, apart from
the best director's plaque at San Francisco, the Golden
Laurel award as the best non-American film and the Selz-
nick Golden trophy. Tapan Sinha's Kabuliwala was an-
other Bengali film that won some acclaim. B.N. Sircar
made .
two more Hindi . films under Sircar. Productions.
Amar Saigal was an unusual first attempt to make a bio-
graphical on a film personality. But it was not well made
and mustered little more than nostalgia. Bandhan was a
better conceived sentimental drama, which won some ac-
claim as well as success.
In 1957, Guru Dutt, who had till then made breezy films
with some significant elements, sprang a surprise with his
Pyaasa, a deeply moving and realistic film on a poet's thirst
for love and recognition and his struggles against a grossly
mercenary world_ around him, which included his own
brothers. Done in a sombre key and cinematic style,
with Guru himself playing the role, the film _was one
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of the best examples of popular cinema reaching its high-

est level. It had songs, corned~ etc. but well integrated
into the structure. These taken with the overall Devdas
pattern of the plot turned the film into a big hit also. V.
Shantaram's Do Aankhen Barah Haath tackled a new, so-
cially significant theme of jail reform and the need to treat
convicts through kindness and putting in them a sense
of obligation mixed with responsibility. Shantaram him-
self played the idealistic jailor, who undertakes to reform
six dangerous prisoners, with love and non-violence, in an
open-air jail though there were superfluous aspects like
songs and dances of a female toy-seller, the film's theme
and treatment got for it national and international awards,
including the Silver Bear at Berlin, a prize of the Catholic
Bureau, the Hollywood Press Association's citation as the
best foreign film and the Samuel Goldwyn award.
Another unconventional film was editor Hrishikesh
Mukerji's <first directorial venture, Musafir, a three-tier
story, with the segments linked by a common bond, of a
house, symbolically standing for human life passing
through its vital stages of marriage, birth and death. Each
of the three plots had leading stars doing the roles. The
indefatigable K.A. Abbas made yet another grand experi- •
ment, this time on an international scale. It was Pardesi,
an Inda-Russian co-production between Naya Sansar and
Mosfilm Studios, with talents from both countries colla-
borating in each department. This was a unique pioneer-
. ing attempt at cultural integration of two widely divided
countries, through the story of a Russian traveller, Afanasi
Nikitin's visit to India of yore. The \film also brought scoP.e
and colour, both Soviet, to the Indian screen. But th~ box-
office response at home was not so heartening. Some child-
ren's films now made a mark. The Children's Film Society's
J aldeep directed by Kidar Sharma won the first prize at
a Venice exhibition. But the real goal was scored by
Hum Panchhi Ek Daal Ke, produced for A.V.M. by Sada-
shiv Row Kavi and directed · by Santoshi, which won the
first National Award in this category. It provided really
sumptuous fare for child audiences. Among other films,
B.R. Chopra's Naya Daur treated the man-versus-machine
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conflict in an entertaining way. L.V. Prasad's Sharda was

a tragic drama of a youth who finds his beloved becoming
his stepmother. Mehboob's Mother India, a spectacular and
moving, though unrealistic, re-make •Of Au-rat brought
the best actress award for Nargis at Karlovy Vary. In
the same year, hits of the predominantly escapist variety,
like Nau Do Gyarah, Paying Guest and Tumsa N ahin
Dekha, set some new trends that were to affect most of
the films in the following decade.
In 1958, amidst a maze of remakes, hardly a few films
could make the quality grade. B.R. Chopra's Sadhna with
Vyjayantimala in the central role of a fallen woman who
hungers for a home, was quite a poignant film, though cast
in the same mould as Shantaram's Aadmi. Sone ki Chidiya
directed by Shaheed Lateef was a fairly good attempt at
having a close look at the unhappy private life of a film
star surrounded by parasites. Ramesh Saigal's Phir Subah
H.ogi was based on Crime and Punishment. A big budget
production was Savak Vachha's Yahudi directed by Bimal
Roy from the same old drama of Agha Hashar. But it did
not come off as expected and had other quickies pre-
ceding it, like Yahu.di ki. Beti and Yahudi ki Lo.dki. On
the Bengali screen, many new directors emerged with
fresh works, following the movement set afoot by Ray.
He himself made Paresh Pathar, a satirical comedy about
a touchstone turning everything into gold and Jalsaghar, a
deep sombre study of the slow decline of a feudal land-
lord, pitted against a changing and nouveau riche society.
Chhabi Bis\va~ gave a masterly portrayal as the aristocrat
and the film won a silver medal at Moscow for its music
(by Wilayat Khan). The other Bengali directors to earn
a name were Rajen Tarafdar, Ajay Kar and Mrinal Sen,
while Ritwick Ghatak and Tapan Sinha continued their
earlier good work. Debaki Bose's second last film Sagar
Sangame (in Bengali) won the country's highest award.
On the Kannada screen, School Master made a good impres-
sion and was also remade in Hindi.
In 1959, Satyajit Ray completed the famed Apu trilogy
with Apur Sansar, produced by himself and with his own
discoveries Soumitra Chatterji and Sharmila Tagore in the
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roles. The story, developed by Ray himself on the lines

suggested in the novel, showed Apu's life as a poor young
man in Calcutta, his sudden marriage to a beautiful village
girl, her death in pregnancy, Apu's hatred and neglect of
the child and the final reconciliation between father and
son. Technically polished and dramatically rich in the
popular sense, too, Apur Sansar became the most favoured
segment of the trilogy, which has itself come to occupy
an immortal place in world cinema. Apur Sansar was
once again awarded richly at home and abroad. Music for
the entire trilogy was composed by the famed Ravi Shan-
ker. The Tamil film figured in foreign awards when Sivaji
Ganesan, (one of the two top idols of the South, the other
being M.G. Ramchandran) got the best actor award for
his role as the patriot king in Veerapandiya Kattabomman
at Cairo. In Bengal, Uttam Kumar remained the top mati-
nee idol and several films have b·e en made with him, year
after year. In Marathi cinema, the great success of Sang-
te Aika strengthened the position of the song and dance
filled Tamasha film.
Within the confines of a colourful, dance-based film,
Shantaram's Navrang also presented a brilliant idea, of a
poet with a simple wife, who creates her imaginery split
counterpart, which inspires him. This made it an attrac-
tively different film. Guru Dutt tried to follow the triumph
of Pyaasa with a still more gloomy film Kaagaz ke Phool
on the frustrations of a film director and the utter in-
stability of everything pertaining to the film world. It
was the first Indian film to be made in Cinemascope
(black and white) and was shot very lovingly. But the
subject and the treatment made it a dismal failure. The
extraneous elements of comedy, songs etc. hardly suited
it and went to affect its stature for posterity. Bimal Roy's
Sujata tackled the problem of untouchability in the mod-
em context, about the unwritten codes, preventing the
marriage of a Harijan girl brought up in a higher caste
family, to a boy selected for the family's own daughter.
Krishan Chopra's Heera Moti was a realistic depiction of
Premchand's short story about two bullocks and it won
a special mention at Karlovy Vary. Char Dil Char Rahen
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was another unusual experiment by K.A. Abbas, to link

the ruptured romances of three couples, at symbolic cross-
roads. Other films to make an impression were B.R.
Chopra's Dhool ka Phool, Goel's Chirag Kahan Roshni
Kahan, Gemini's Paigham and L.B. Films' Anari directed
by Hrishikesh Mukerji. But the trend-setter for the
nineteen-sixties was Dil Deke Dekho, a merry mixture of
comedy, music, romance and acting capers, which hit off
in a big way. Produced by S. Mukerji under his new
Filmalaya banner and directed by Nasir Hussein,. the film
featured Shammi Kapoor, who had proved his he-man
prowess earlier with Tu.msa Nahin Dekha and debutante
Asha Parekh, who provided a new image of the mod, bold
Indian screen heroine, for the new decade.
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8
Back to Adolescence ?
The Sixties and After: 1960-1975
THE last decade and a half of the Indian cinema present

a largely dismal picture, except for a few individual
achievements, among which, also, the level varies from
the tolerably good to the truly excellent. The average
Indian film, meant for mass consumption, has worsened
to an extent which is unimaginable, in ,the stereotyped
nature of stories and situations, the rigid, witless and art-
less pursuance of formulas, the blatant flouting of all
rational attitudes, the shallow gloss and glamour as a
facade for technical progress and so on. It is as if, after
sixty years, the Indian film and audience are back to the
stage of adolescence and moving further backward to a
worse stage.
A quick look at the nineteen-sixties and the opening
years of the 'seventies' till the time of writing, shows, how
few are the films that can rank as being noteworthy for
posterit}J. In 1960, the big event was of course the · release
of K. Asif's opus Mughal-e-Azam. For more than fifteen
years under production, during which it underwent many
changes and finally completed at a reported cost of more
than a crore, the film presented the same old Anarkali tale
but in a way that combined poetry with the nostalgia
of history and on a scale that .had never been attempted
before. Eveything about the film was in grand style. It
had a star cast led by Dilip Kumar, -Madhubala and
Prithviraj in the three pivotal roles, four renowned writers
148
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BACK TO ADOLESCENCE? 149
contributing its rich Urdu dialogue, huge sets like the

glass palace (Sheesh Mahal), sweeping battle scenes and
some highly appealing songs penned· by Shakeel and
tuned by Naushad. It had also English and Tamil versions,
the latter being called 'Akbar' and a few of its sequences
were in colour. It was the popular Indian film at its finest
and has perpetually remained a good box-office proposition,
as films like Gone with the Wind have been on the foreign
screen.
On a simpler level, Hrishikesh Mukerji's ;Anuradha,
about the neglected wife of a busy husband, losing her
budding talents to domestic drudgery and being tempted
to escape by, a former lover, became quite a pertinent re-
flection of the more intelligent Indian housewife's predi-
cament. It won the President's Gold Medal as the year's
best film. Bimal Roy's Parakh, about a millionaire posing
as a nobody in a/ village was a fairly good satire on the
human weakness of greed. But the cream of cinema, as
before, came from Bengal. Satyajit Ray's Devi attacked
religious superstition through the tragedy of an innocent,
young .d aughter-in-law, on whom is forced the mantle of a
goddess. Sharmila Tagore played the role with Soumitra
Chatterji as the bewildered husband and Chhabi Biswas
as the orthodox father-in-law. The music was done by Ali
Akbar Khan. There were also other outstanding Bengali
films, like Ritwick Ghatak's Meghe Dhake Tara, Mrinal
Sen's Baishey Shravan, Rajen Tarafdar's Ganga and Tapan
Sinha's Kshudhita Pashan based on Tagore's Hungry
Stones.
Tagore's birth centenary fell in 196t and the celluloid
homage to the great poet was led by Satyajit Ray, mak-
ing a beautiful one-hour documentary for F.D. called
Rabindranath Tagore and himself producing Teen Kanya,
based on three different Tagore stories, Postmaster, Moni-
hara and Samapti, each having a different facet •Of Indian
womanhood but all combining the pathos of life with its
humour. Ray's cinematic vision lent new charms to the
tales, making them stand as artistic works in their own
right. Postmaster and Samapti, clubbed together as Two
Daughters, once again became
•
winners of international
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•
•
•
awards and acclaim, including the Golden Trophy at Mel-

bourne and the Selmick Award at Berlin as a film "best
serving international understanding." The segment prov-
ing the most popular was Samapti, with its tale of a pre-
maturely married tomboy growil!g into a woman, the role
played by Aparna Dasgupta, another discovery of Ray.
An experimental Bengali film called lngeet was made
without the use of words. Ritwick Ghatak's Komal Gan-
dhar, Mrinal Sen's Punascha and Ajay Kar's Saptapadi
were other notable films made in the year, though they
were restricted to their own region. In the Hindi field,
two po~ularly made dacoit dramas clicked, . namely Dilip
Kumar's Ganga Jamna, for which he also won some
honours abroad and Raj Kapoor's Jis Desh mein Ganga
Behti Hai. But Subodh Mukerji's Junglee, in slick East-
maricolor, turned the tide very strongly, in favour of
colour films, of the escapist variety, with beautiful locales
and heroines, plus a lot of music and monkey tricks. Still,
the m-o re demanding cinegoers also had their fill in B.R.
Chopra's songless, suspense drama Kanoon, Hrishikesh
Mukerji's Memdidi, a comedy about an old governess and
two goondas, with character artists Lalita Pawar, J ayant
and David leading the cast and Bimal Roy's Tagore-based
Kabuliwala directed by Hemen Gupta. V. Shantaram re-
made the Kalidasa classic Shakuntala very painstakingly
as Stree. But it did not get half the success of his earlier
popular version. He also produced a children's film, Phool
aur Kaliyan directed by Ram Gabale, which won the
Prime, Minister's Gold Medal but faced difficulties of a
wide release for child audiences. Thai Information Service
produced Angulimala directed by Vijay Bhatt, about a
dacoit transformed under Lord Buddha's inspiration. The
second international film : festival was held late in this
year.
In 1962, there was again a handful of good and unusual
films. Guru Dutt made quite an impressive adaptation
of the Bengali novel Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, bringing out
its melancholy mood but also adding some popular frills.
A surprise packet was Shobhana Pictures' Soorat aur
Seerat, directed by Bahl, which was a very artistic depic-
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tion of an ugly girl's emotional relation with a man who

hankered for mere physical beauty. B.R. Chopra's Dharam-
putra based on a Hindi novel, made a very significant
statement on the futility of communalism, through the
•
character of a chaste Hindu, · who at the height of his
parochial tirade, discovers himself to be a Muslim by birth.
The last two films had the freedom struggle as their back-
ground. Both of them were also flops at the box-office.
Other films which went somewhat off the beat were
Sautela Bhai directed by Mahesh Kaul and based on
Sarat Chandra's Baikunther Will, Bunal Roy's Prem Patra
and Kidar Sharma's Hamari Yaad Ayegi. A new box-office
vogue, of shock-filled mystery thrillers was set by Hemant
Kumar's runaway hit Bees Saal Baad.
Two other peculiar developments were the emergence of
wrestler Dara Singh as a popular hero of thrillers and
the deluge of Bhojpuri and other Hindi dialect films, let
loose by the amazing success of Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari
Chadhaibo. Both held out the mirage of success and were
hotly pursued for some time, as is typical of the film in-
dustry. But the real artistic flavour was again to be
found in Bengali films, like Tapan Sinha's Hansuli Banker
Upakatha based on a folk tale and Ghatak's Suvarnarekha,
a tragic story of the partition refugees. Satyajit Ray made
A bhijaan, based on Tarashanker Banerji's story about a
proud Rajput reduced to the level of a cab driver, in which
Ray featured, for the first time, a top star ·of Hindi cinema,
· Waheeda.Rehman, in a role needing a semblance of Hindi
speech: _Ray's Kanchanjungha, his first in colour, had an
anti-narrative structure, where the private problems of
an affluent family ~ere brought out through their talks,
during their last day's stay at Darjeeling.
In 1963, cel~brated as the industry's Golden Jubilee
year, the Hindi film had again nothing sensationally new
or creative to offer. The few good films were topped by
K.A. Abbas' award-winning Shahar aur Sapna about a
poor young couple's unfulfilled search for a little house of
their own, in a big city (Bombay). Bimal Roy's Bandini
was about a female prisoner in the days of terrorist move-
ment in British-ruled Bengal. A dacoit drama, in the
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real sense, with all its robust and rugged realism was at
last brought to the screen in Mujhe Jeene Do by Sunil
\
Dutt. It was shot on actual dacoit-infested areas in Madhya

Pradesh. B.R. Chopra's Gumrah carried a story, unusual
for the Hindi screen, about an ultra-modern wife of an
elderly man, having a clandestine affair/ with a former
lover. But it was treated more as a suspense drama! and
the moralistic stance was in any case maintained. Then,
_ there were some pseudo-off-beat ventures, like Sridhar's
Dil Ek Mandir, a triangular drama about a woman bring-
ing her cancer-ridden husband to a doctor who was once
her lover and Yeh Raste Hain Pyar ke, an unrealistic pre-
sentation of a real-life case, about _the husband of ari un-
faithful woman shooting down her lover. Both these films
became jubilee hits. Bu1i the prestige of the country's
cinema was .again gloriously upheld by Satyajit Ray's
Mahanagar, a superbly realistic depiction of middle-class
life, through the central character of a docile housewife
going out to become a career girl, . with Madhabi Mukerji
providing the perfect image. The film won for Ray the best
director's award at Berlin. At Moscow, Suchitra Sen got
the best actress honour for her work in Sat Pake Bandha.
V. Shantaram produced a successful Bengali film Palatak
and there were also some others like Mrinal Sen's Proti-
nidhi and Asit Sen's Uttar Falguni. The Tamil screen had
a spectacular mythological in colour, Kaman, starring
Sivaji Ganesan.
In 1964, Ray won the same Berlin award again for
Charulata, which is often ranked among his best works.
Based on Tagore's Nashta Needa, it was like a poet's prose
transformed into a film-maker's poetry. It became like a
beautiful elegy on a neglected wife in a wealthy Bengali
household of the previous century. The tale of the lonely
wife of a busy editor, developing an obsession for his
young, jovial cousin was played against the political back-
drop of those times. Madhabi Mukerji excelled herself in
the main role. The film also won the Roman Catholic office
prize for "best serving spiritual progress" and the Pre-
sident's Gold Medal in the national awards. Another step
in a new direction was Ismail Merchant and James Ivory
'
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BACK TO ADOLESCENCE ? 153
joining hands to make an English-Hindi film The House-

holder (Gharbaar ). Despite its Anglicised approach, this
was a good experiment to project the Indian seen~ abroad.
'\
Director N. Lakshminarayan's Naandi on the rehabili-
tation of deaf-mutes became the· first Kannada film to win
acclaim abroad. On the Tamil screen, an unusual experi-
ment tried for the first time was Jaykanthan's Unnaipol
Oru.van, while Narthansala (Telugu) got for Ranga Rao a
best actor award from the Afro-Asian fete at Djakarta
Raja Paranjpe's Maratthi film Pathlag showed an interest-
ing new path for suspense dramas. The first Kashmiri film
Mainz Raat was made this year. In Hindi, Chetan
Anand's Haqeeqat was the first acceptable war film, built
around the India-China border conflict. Sunil Dutt made
an interesting experiment in Yaadein to make a film with
a single actor on a single set. It failed commercially but
made its place in history. Later, it. also won a prize at
Frankfurt. K.A. Abbas' children's film Hamara Ghar won
prizes at two foreign fetes of such films. Comedian-singer
Kishore Kumar showed a new facet as a sensitive film-
make1' in Door Gagan ki Chhaon mein. Raj Kapoor's
Sangam with extensive location shooting in foreign coun-
tries, proved a big grosser but was only a triangular love
drama treated in the old, implausible way, with a number
of songs.
In 1965, Abbas again scored with his Aasman Mahal, the
tale of a feuc;lal aristocrat on his last legs, which was shot
completely in Hyderabad and got for Prithviraj a special
honot1r at Karlovy Vary. Motilal's Chhoti Chhoti Baaten,
the Madras-made Oonche Log directed by Phani Mazumdar
from a famous Tamil play and Kewal Kashyap's Shaheed
based on martyr Bhagat Singh's life were also comparati-
vely unusual ventures. Dev Anand's Guide based on R.K.
Narayan's novel had a separate English version made jointly
with Pearl Buck and director Tad Danielewski. . The
longer Hindi version with songs was directed by Vijay
Anand. It got for Waheeda Rehman a best actress award
fr.o m Chicago. Madhur .Jaffrey got the same at Berlin for
Merchant and Ivory's English Shakespearewallah, a wist-
ful film on an English stage troupe in India leading a pathe-
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•
tic existence. Ray made a two-in-one film Kapuru.sh-

0-Mahapuru.sh, about a cowardly lover meeting his beloved
after her marriage and a hypocritical saint who gets ex-
posed. It wa~ also dubbed in Hindi. Tapan Sinha's Atithi
adapted from Tagore was another lovely creation. The
Marathi film Saadhi Mansen, the Telugu Antasthalu and
the Konkani Ninnon showed some signs of the regional
film's natural feel for realistic milieu. The Malayalam
colour film Chemmeen, (directed by Ramu Kariat for pro-
ducer Babu) filled with the atmospheric colour of the
novel about the life of Kerala's fisherfolk won sizable
renown at home and abroad.
In 1966, Satyajit Ray's Nayak about the personal dilem-
ma of a top film star, with Bengal's real-life matinee idol
Uttam Kumar playing the role, became another big
achievement, bringing honours from Berlin, in the form of
an international critics' prize and a special award for Ray
for his high artistic eminence in the sphere of films. Other
regional films making a mark were Tarun Majumdar's
Balika Badhu, Arundhuti Mukerji's Chhuti and .Ja~annath
Chatterji's Paari (with top Hindi stars Dilio Kumar and
Dharmendra) all in Bengali, Mrinal SPn'~ Ma •ira Manisha
in Oriya and P. Bhaskaran's Irutti11de Athmavu in Malaya-
lam. In Hindi, too, there were a few unusual ventures,
from which Teesri Kasam directed by Basu Bhattacharya
for poet Shailendra stood out for its rural Bihar milieu and
the superb folksy score of Shanker-Jaikishen. It won
the President's Gold Medal. Us ki Kahani another film
directed by Basu was shot wholly on real locales, with
make-shift devices and new talents. It failed to get a
regular release but was among the first to indicate new,
inexpensive methods of film making. Hrishikesh Muker-
ji's Anupama portrayed the emotional plight of a mother-
less girl who was hated by her father. Krishan Chopra's
Gaban completed by Hrishikesh Mukerji was quite an
effective adaptation of Premchand's famous novel Chetan
Anand's Acikhiri Khat revolved round a tiny tot, left all
alone in big city but became artificial in its telling.
In 1967, there were hardly a few films meriting notice.
Bambai Raat ki Baahon mein of K.A. Abbas was a cine-
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Digi tized by Google UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
,.
matic as well as realistically done tale of an upright

journalist who is up in arms against reactionary forces and
vested interests. Hrishikesh Mukerji made quite an authen-
tic and moving Hindi version of Sarat's Majhli Didi.
Manoj Kumar's Upkar presented some worthwhile ideas
in a colourful; entertaining garb. The 70mm. format
through blowing up was tried for the first time in Pachhi's
Around the World. Nargis won the first Urvashi (national
award for acting) for her role in her last starrer Raat aur
Din and Uttam Kumar got the Bharat award for his wotk
in Antony Firingee as well as Satyajit Ray's Chiriyakhana,
a crime detection drama, not quite in step with Ray's
calibre.
In 1968, Ray took up an entirely different genre, of
music-based fantasy aimed mainly at children but not
unmixed with subtle political satire, in Gopi Gayne Bagha
Bayne, based on his grandfather's story. It proved a big
box-office hit in Bengal and won the President's Gold
Medal as well as foreign awards at the Adelaide and
Auckland festivals. Tapan Sinha's Apan Jan was an ex-
cellent comment on youth unrest in the country. Other
regional achievements included the Marathi Ektee direct-
ed by.Raja Thakur and the Malayalam Thulabharam direct-
ed by A. Vincent. The few Hindi films which avoided the
common rut _ were Asit . Sen's Anokht Raat, Hrishikesh
Mukerji's Ashirwad, Govind Saraiya's Saraswatichandra
and H.S. Rawail's Sunghursh. But none was free from
shortcomings and overall inadequacies. A marathon five·-
and-a-half hour documentary compilation on Gandhiji,
Mahatma, was made by Vithalbhai Jhaveri.
In 1969, a fresh awakening about the efficacy of a simple
low-budget, non-star, film shot completely on locales was
brought to the Hindi cinema by Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan
Shome, based on Banphool's Bengali novelette about a
stiff railway official thawing under the influence of an in-
nocent village belle. The venture, aided by the Film
Finance Corporation under the chairmanship of Mr. Himmat
Singh, became the forerunner of a series of similarly made
films which came to be grouped under the name of "new
cinema movement". Bhuvan Shome, released later, mostly
Original from
through morning shows, had a surprisingly good run.

Though not a perfect film, it won the President's Gold
Medal and ·one of the gold medals, for participation, at
the non-competitive Venice festival A truly evocative,
realistic and subtle creation in the same year was Kanti-
lal Rathod's Kanku. Because of being in Gujarati, it could
not score all-India showing or acclaim. But it was shown
abroad and won the best actress award at Chicago for
Pallavi Mehta, who played the leading role of the brave
village woman, who gets widowed, falls from grace at a
weak moment and is honourably remarried through the
efforts of the wise villagers.
Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Raatri, a study of four youths
spending some days away from city life, again won renown
and had a long commercial run in London. N. Lakshmi-
narayan's Kannada film Uyyale telling about the extra-
marital love affair of a woman and made on real locales was
also shown abroad and earned some acclaim. Hindi films
from the regular sources included some outstanding ones,
like Hrishikesh Mukerji's Satyakam about a high-princi-
pled man's fight against falling values and K.A. Abbas'
Saat Hindustani which made a plea for national integration,
through the tale of seven people from different regions and
communities, joining hands in the fight for the liberation
of the Portuguese colony of Goa. Vasant Joglekar's Pra.r-
thana, Tarun Majumdar's Rahgeer, Asit Sen's Khamoshi
and B.R. Chopra's songless lttefaq were also attempts to
break away from the common run of Hindi mass enter-
tainers.
The last few years have similarly seen a few bold and
different ventures, trying to make up for the mass medio-
crity of a huge annual output, that reached the peak figure
of 451 films in 1973, thus keeping India the world's biggest
film producing country. The period 1971-73 also found the
industry reaching the Platinum Jubilee year of film exhi-
bition and the Diamond Jubilee year of the Indian Feature
film. In 1970, it was the Kannada film Samskara, produced
and directed by T. Pattabhirama Reddy and written and
acted by Girish Karnad, which created a sensation with a
daring exposure of Brahmin orthodoxy and its hypocritical
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stances. It was first banned by the censors and later be-

came not only successful and popular but was also awarded
the President's Gold Medal. At the same time, the con-
temporary scene of unemployment and discontent among
youths and the general crash of values was laid bare by
Satyajit Ray through a very inventive and deeply shaded
film, Pratidwandi, shot in Calcutta, with all his character-
istic feel for reality. His later Seemabaddha, about the
conflict of values and rat race among the smugly well-
placed has won the President's Gold Meedal for 1971.
The F.F.C. under the chairmanship of Mr. B.K. Karanjia
got a fresh fillip and the corporation now made it a set
policy to back low-budget and off-beat ventures. A series
of such Hindi films now began to emerge every year in the
wake of Bhuvan Shome and Sara Akash. In 1970, writer
Rajinder Singh Bedi's Dastak, about the dilemma of a
Muslim couple getting accommodation in a place previous-
ly occupied by a woman of easy virtue, made quite an in-
telligent blend, of new styles with the popular· cinema's
old requirements. Newcomer ' Rehana Sultan, trained at
the Government of India's Film Institute and star Sanjeev
Kumar both won the National Award for their acting in
the film. Some independent film makers like producer-
editor I.M. Kunnu and director-writer B.R. Ishara- also
ventured out into making low-budget films cheaply; with
new talents, outside the studios and within an amazing
shooting period of a month or so. Their Chetna paid rich
dividends at the box-office. It was about a brutally frank
call-girl, whom a young man marries after much per-
suasion but who finds herself pregnant from one of the
~revious relationships and finally commits suicide. As
the subject involved erotic show-cum-talk arid lead player
Rehana Sultan was ready to break the Hindi film heroine's
smug prudery of a good "image", the film contained some
daring s~enes. But the dangers inherent in bankin·g on
sex and sensation for commercialised movie-making, soon
became manifest in the sa~e director's other films which
followed, like Zaroorat in 1972 as well as in similar films
tried by others. ·
Some established film makers who had already done
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their bit towards fostering a new kind of cinema, also

found themselves in the freshly flowing stream. Hrishi-
kesh Mukerji's Anand, though based on popular and not so
realistic premises and with the phenomenal new screen
idol Rajesh Khanna, playing a cancer patient facing
death with bright optimism, still amounted to an unsual
effort in many ways. The same was the case with Asit
Sen's Safar, made earlier and also having Rajesh Khanna
as a youth struck with a fatal disease. It was remade
from a still earlier Bengali hit. The Marathi comedy
Mumbaicha Jawai directed by Raja Thakur and the
Kannada Mukti directed by N. Lakshminarayan were other
praiseworthy ventures in the new direction. Some big
colour films in Hindi also sho,ved germs of good cinema,
like Chetan Anand's Heer Ranjha with its dialogue in verse
form, the Madras made Darpan directed by A Subba Rao
and Raj Kapoor's Mera Naam Joker. The third1 film made
on a huge scale and with the participation of a Russian
ballerina and other circus artists was marred by other
elements and its box-office failure came as a shock to the
industry, though it did not mean a set-back for other big
commercial ventures, which were proving to be grand
money-makers at the same time.
The start of the 'seventies saw the same trends continu-
ing. The "little" off-beat films, trying to get a break-
through in a field, almost monopolised by powerful com-
mercial interests, in all its three sectors of production,
distribution and exhibition. And the "big" box-office
oriented films remain deep down in the hit or flop gamble.
The "New Cinema" group has come up with some com-
mendable though not completely original and off-beat films,
like Basu Bhattacharya's _ Anubhav, Shivendra Sinha's
Phir Bhi, Satyadev Dubey's Shantata! Court Chalu Ahe (in
Marathi) based on Vijay Tendulkar's play and to some ex-
tent Prem Kapoor's Badnam Basti and Mrinal Sen's Ek
Adhuri Kahani. But it has also tilted to the wrong extreme
of inarticulate or non-communicative personal styles, seen
at their worst in Mani Kaul's two films Us ki Roti antl
Ashadh ka Ek Din, and Kumar Sahani's Maya Darpan.
The regular industry has come up with the better kind of
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fllms like Bijay Anand's Tere Mere Sapne, Sunil Dutt's

Reshma aur Shera, Hrishikesh Mukerji's Guddi, Kishore
Kumar's Door ka Rahi, Kamal Amrohi's Pakeezah, K.A.
Abbas's Do Boond Paani and V. Shantaram's Marathi
Pinjra, which partly, at least relieve the tedium of a mass
production, which still revels in and thrives on repetition,
exaggeration, dream-peddling and all the rest.
That completes, in brief, a survey of about 75 years of
the cinema in India. Much has happened over this long
stretch of time. The industry has faced many ups and
downs and yet survived, mainly by individual enterprise
and mass audience patronage, despite its own acute pro-
blems, like unlimited number of producers, cut-throat
competition, free-lancing among star talents, lack of pro-
per planning, finance and ·know-how, shortage of theatres
and above all, total disunity, apart from the heavy external
burden of grossly unreasonable taxation. The Government
has done its bit by way of starting the Films Division
(1948), instituting National Awards (1953), setting up the
F.F.C. (1960), the Film Institute at Poona (1961), the ex-
port corporation IMPEC (1963) and the National Film
Archive (1964)-with a National Film Development Cor-
poration just on the way.
But the main bulk of Indian cinema still remains far
away from reality, topicality and genuine cinematic art,
whether with or without social purpose. The huge, glossy,
dazzling frame is there but the soul is missing. A giant
of a medium lies inert and bound, in golden shackles. The
mass audience mind remains equally dormant and unres-
ponsive to change, due to the deadweight of tradition-cum-
habit as well as the extraneous socio-economic factors, like
illiteracy, poverty, shortages, high prices, the black eco-
nomy, social inequality and lack of opportunity, which
have all made bare reality simply unbearable on the
screen. The future . hope of Indian Cinema lies as much
with a gradual change in the mass mind, commensurate
with the progress in living standards, as with · sincere, de-
dicated, talented new film-makers, who, like Satyajit Ray,
will blaze a new trail and then remain firmly rooted to it,
despite all obstructions and temptations on the way.
•
Original from
INDEX OF FILM TITLES
AADHI RAAT 133 Anokhi Raat 155

Aadmi 103, 145 Antasthulu 154
Aag 125 Antha Naal 140
Aah 138 Antony Firingee 155
Aakhiri Khat 154 Anubhav 158
Aan 136 Anupama 154
Aar Paar 139 Anuradha 149
Aas 138 Anyaya 128
Aasman Mahal 153 Apan Jan 155
Abhijan 151 Aparadhi 71
Achhoot 108 Aparajito 143
Achhut Kanya 95, 128 Apna Desh 129
Adhikar 100, 142 Apna Ghar 115
Afsana 135 Apur Sansar 145
Afsar 133 Aranyer Din Raatri · 156
After the Death 71 Around the World 155
After the Earthquake 90 Arrival of a Train 10
Ahilya Uddhar 40 Arzoo 134
A jeet 128 Ashad ka Ek Din 158
Alam Ara 76, 77, 78 Ashirwad 155
Albela 135 Atash Behram 17
Al-Hilal 92 Atithi 154
Alibaba 17, 18, 19, 21, 63, J09 Aulad 140
Allbaba and 40 Thieves 19, 139 Aurat 145
Alladin 21, 63 Avatar 44
Alladin and the Avvaiyar 139
Wonderful Lamp 19 Awara 134
Amar Bhoopali 135. Awara Shahzada 85
Amar Jyoti 96 Azadi 93
Amar Saigal 143 Azadi ka Utsava 123
Amir of Kabul's
Procession 21 BAADBAAN 140
Amrit Manthan 86, 87, 89 Baag-e-Misar 88
Anand 158 Baaghi Sipahi 94
Anand Math 137 Baap Beti 141
Anari 147 Baap Kamai 59
Anar kali 64, 65, 93, 139 Baaz Bahadur 74
Andaz 127 Baazi 135
Andhare Alo 52 Babla 135
Andolan 135 Baby's Dinner 10
Angulimala 150 Baccha-i-Sakka 73
Anhonee 137 Badi Bahen 98, 129
Anmol Ghadi 121 Badi Didi 103
160
Original from
INDEX 161
Badnam Basti 158 Bahon mein 154

Baghbaan 102 Boot Polish 140
Bahar 134 Brahmachari 101
Baiju Bawra 137 Brandichi Batli 105
Baishey Shravan 149 Brandy ki Botal 105
Baji Deshpande 67 Brodiyagaa 134
Bajirao Mastani 59 Bulbule Paristan 62
Bakul 142 · .
Bala Jo Jo Re 135 CABINET OF DR.
Balan 88 CALIGARI 53
Balee Yagna 56 Call on the London
Balika Badhu 154 Fire Brigade 18
Balyogini 131 Camille 27
Bandhan 109, 111, 143 Can-can Dance 11
Bandin! 151 Carmen 27
Bandish 142 Chal Chal Re
Bank Note, The 27 Naujawan 118-119
Barer Bazar 52 Chaloo Zamana 59
Barrister's Wife 93 Champraj Hada 54
Barsaat 127 Chand 119
Basant 114 Chandidas 66, 85, 88
Bathing Ghat of Howrah 20 Chandralekha 124, 127
Bawre Nain 133 Chandramukhi · 67
Bees Saal Baad 151 Chandranath~
Beeswin Sadi 55 Chandrasena , 90
Benaras or Kashi 25 Char Darve 84
Ben Hur 27 Char Dil Char Rahen 146
Bhagyawan Bhisti 73 Charkha 60
Bhakta Kabir 114 Charitraheen 71
• Bhakta Prahlad 79 Charnon ki Daasi 113
Bhakta Shiromani 52 Charulata 152
Bhakta Surdas 114 Chasar Meye 71
Bhakta Vidur 48 Chatra Bakavali 82
Bhakticha Mala 120 Check to the King 60
Bharat Milap 115 Chernmeen 154
Bharati Balak 79 Chetna 157
Bharosa 110 Chhaya 96 •
Bhedi Bungla 129 Chhinnamul 133
Bhishma Pratigya 51 Chhota Bhai 128
Bhuli Nai 130 Chhoti Chhotl Baten 153
Bhuvan Shome 155, 157 Chhoti Maa 136
Bicharak 67 Chhuti 154
Bicycle Thief 136 Chldiyakhana 155
Bijoy and Basanta 55 Child Widow 59
Bilat Ferat 49 Chimani Pankharen 136
Bilwamangal 41, 81 Chiragh Kahan
Bindur Chheley 136 Roshni Kahan 147
Biraj Bahu 140 Chitralekha 112
Birth of Shree Krishna 51 Chorekanta 71
Birth, Life and Death Chun Chun ka Murabba 77
of a Plant 33 Cinderella 27
Bisarjan 63 Cinema Queen 61
Bisha Briksha 52 Civil Marriage 109
Black Box, The 39 Cleopatra 27
Blind Fate, The 38 Coconut Fair 12
Blood for Blood 68 Congress Girl 78
Bomb, The 72 Coronation of Maharaja
Bombai ki Mohini 86 Holker at Indore 25
Bombai Raat kl Cotton Fire at Colaba 25
Original from
162 INDEX
Crazy Lovers 89 Door Gagan kl Chhaon

Crorepati 94 mein 153
Door ka Rahi 159
DAAG 137 Draupadi 120
Daasi 119 Dr. Kotnis ki Amar Kahani 12'l
Dabboo's Plight 50 Dr. Madhurika 92
Dahej 132 Dr. R . P . Paranjpye 16
Daku ki Ladki 84 Dukhtare Loor 85
Daku Mansoor 88 Dulari 129
Damaji 53 Duniya Kya Hai 102
Dana Pratap 58 Duniya na Mane 97, 121
Dancer of Shiva 25, 30, 36 Dushman 103
Dancing of Indian
Nautch Girls 20 EDUCATED WIFE 63
Darpan 158 Ek Adhuri Kahani 158
Dasavtar 66 Ek Din ka Sultan 120
Das Baje 114 Ek Din Raatre 143
Dastak 157 Ek Hi Bhool 110
Daughters of Today 68 Ek Hi Raasta 105, 142
Daulat ka Nasha 79 Ekta 114, 130
David Copperfield 27 Ektee 155
Dead Man's Child, A 28 Ek Thi Ladki 128
Death of Narayanrao Elan 124
Peshwa 37 Emerald of East 68
Death of Nelson, The 12, 18 Enoch Arden 44 ·
Deccan Queen 95 Entry of Cinematographe 10
Deedar 134 Episode from Ramayana, An
Deepak 110 29
Demolition, A 10 Excuse 'Me, Sir 89
Desh Dasi 93 Exposition of St. Francis
Desire 68 Xavier at Goa 54
Devata 131
Devdas 66, 88, 89, 90, 103, 142, FAITH OF A CHILD 44
144 Fall of Troy 27
Devdasi 70 Farebi Jaal 79
Devi 149 Father 31
11evi Devyani 79 Father India 73
Dharma Patni 68 Fatima, an Indian Dance 15
Dharmaputra 151 Flames of Flesh 71
Dharmatma 90 Flower of Persia 12, 17
Dharmaveer 99 Forty-two (42) 130
Dharti ke Lal 121-122 Fugitive Dalal Lama 22
Dhartimata 100 Funeral of Late Hon.
Dhool ka Phool 147 Mr. G . K. Gokhaie 38
Dhoop Chhaon 90
Dhruva Charitra 49 GABAN 154
Dhruva Kumar 87 Gallant Effort 117
Dil Deke Dekho 147 Gandhi ji 126
Dil Ek Mandir 152 Ganga 149
Di! Farosh 63 Ganga Jamna 150
Dillagi 129 Ganga Maiya Tobe
Dimitry Donskos 27· Piyari Chadhaibo 151
Diver, The 10 Gangavataran 100
Do Ankhen Barah Haath 144 Ganimi Kawa 65
Do Badmash 82 Ganpati Festival 25
Do Bigha Zamin 137 Gao Mata 56
Do Boond Paani 159 Garden Party to Sir
· Doctor 111 Shapur jee Broacha 25
Don Juan 27 Ghar kl Laaj 113
Original from
INDEX 163
Ghar ki Laxmi 78 Humayun 120

Ghar Sansar 113 Hum Ek Hain 121
Giribala 71 Hum Log 134
Girls' School 129 Hum Panchhi Ek Daal Ke 144
Gnana Sundari 68 Humrahi 120, 137
Goat Sacrifice at Hum Tum aur Woh 101
Kalighat 20 Hunterwali 93
Godavery Views 35
God of the Sun 30 INCARNATION 63, 66
Gone with the Wind 108, 149 Indian Justice 26
Gopal Krishna 68 Indian Life and Scenes 17- 18
Gopi Gayne Bagha Bayne 155 Indira 66
Gopinath 125 Indrasabha 82
Gori Bala 72 Ingeet 150
Gautama the Buddha 143 Inquilab 90
Grahasti 125 Insaan ya Shaitan 85
Grand Masonic Procession Intolerance 46
20 Iron-works at Donetskiy 27
Grand Pareshnath Iruttinde Athmavu 154
Procession 20 Ishke Pun :ab 87
Great Bengal Partition Ittefaq 156
Movement 19 Izzat 100
Great Bonfire of Foreign
Clothes 48 JACK AND THE BEAN
Great Congress at STALK 27
Ahmedabad, The 54 Jagirdar 100
Great Cricket Match 25 Jagran 78
Great Train Robbery, The 27 Jagriti 142
Grihadaha 94 Jagte Raho 143
Growth of a Plant 33 Jai Bharat 94
Guddi 159 Jailor 102
Guide 153 Jail Yatra 124
Gulliver 18 Jai Malhar 131
Gulru Zareena 82 Jaimini 39
Gumraha 152 Jaldeep 144
Gunsundarl 63, 130 Jalsaghar 145
Jalti Nishani 80
HAMARA GHM 153 Jamal Sasthi 78
Hamari Baat 117, 128 Jambu Kaka 89
Hamari Yaad Ayegi 151 Janmabhoomi 95
Hamlet 27, 92 Jawab 114
Hand Prints 35 Jawani ki Hawa 91
Handsome Blackguard 59 Jayleyr Meye 60
Hansuli Banker Upakatha 151 Jeevan Jyoti 138
Haqeeqat 153 Jeevan Nalya 95
Har Har Mahadev 133 Jeevan Natak 92
Harishchandra 31, 32, 79, 135 Jeevan Prabhat 100
Har Jeet 110 Jhanak Jhanak Payal
Hatimtai 69, 85 Baa ;e 141
Heera Moti 146 Jhansi ki Rani 138, 140
Heer Ran iha 82, 158 Jhoola 111
He is in the Navy 113 J is Desh Mein Ganga
Hell Harbour 76 Bahti Hai 150
Hell's Paradise 72 Joan of Arc 18
Henpecked Husband 59 Jogan 133
Hind Kesari 93 John Milton 27
H industan Hamara 133 Joshe Jawani 73
Householder, The 153 Journey of Dr. Kotnis, The 12J
How Films Are Prepared 42 Joydev 62, 66
Original from
164 INDEX
Joyomati 87 Kunj Kishori 65

Jubilee Procession, The 11 Kunwara Baap 116
Jugalanguria 66 LADIES & SOLDIERS ON
Juggler or Jadunath 52 WHEELS 10
Jugnu 124 Ladies Only 105
Julius Caesar 27 Lady Teacher 52
Jungle 137 • Lafanga Langoor 89
Junglee 150 Lagan 111
Justice 58 Lagna Paha·v e Karoon 130
Jwala 101 Laila Majnu 52, 79, 120, 129-130
Jwar Bhata 121 Laila, Star of Mingrelia 72
KAAGAZ KE PHOOL 146 Lal-e-Yaman 82
Kabi 130 Lanka Dahan 38, 39
Kabir Kamal 41 Lapandav 130
Kabuliwala 143, 150 Last Days of Pompeii 56
Kacha Devayani 41 La Tosca 27
Kala Naag 55 Life of Christ 21, 32
Kalia Mardan 40 · Life of Lord Buddha 54
Kalidasa 79 Life of Shriyal 37
Kalpana 125 Light of Asia, The 60, 64
Kalyan Khajana 57 Lion of Mewar 62
Kamara 27 Local Scenes, 13
Kanchanjungha 151 Loksh.air Ramjoshi 124
Kangan 104, 109, 111 Lore of Faith 49
Kanku 97, 156 Love Immortal 74
Kanoon 118, 150 Loves of a Mughal Prince 64
Kanya Vikraya ni Kahani 56 MAA 96; 136
Kapal Kundala 66, 104 Maali 120
Kapurush-0-Mahapurush 154 Macbeth 27
Karma 83 Madhuri 64, 76, 82
Karnan 152 Magic Flute 67
Karwan-e-Hayat 90 Mahabalipuram 139
Kataryu Gap 62 Mahal 128
Kavi 140 Mahalaxmi Races 25
Keechaka Vadham 40 Mahanagar 152
Khamoshi 156 Mahananda 54
Khandaan 116 Maharani 89
. Khazanchi 113, 116 Mahatma 113, 139, 155
Khooda ki Shaan 72 Mahatma at Juhu 58
Khoon ka Khoon 92 Mahatma Gandhi 126
Kid, The 53, 141 Mahatma's Miracle 58
King Henry VIII 27 Main Abla Nahin Hoon 129
King of Ayodhya 80 Mainz Raat 153
King Shriyala 39, 43 Majboor 126
Kirti 116 Majhli Didi 155
K isan Kanya 98 Mamta 96
Kismet 117 Man Bhanjan 55
Kismet ka Shikar 86 Mangalfera 130
Kokila 100 Mangti 131
Komal Gandhar 150 Manj ki Jeet 119
Kovalan 66 Man Mohan 95
Krishna Janma 40 Manzil 93, 94
Krishnakanta's Will 63 Manzoor 128
Krishna Sudama 48 Marriage of a Maharaja 25
Kshudhita Pashan 149 Mashal 133
Kulin Kanta 59 Mastana 141
Kulvadhu 100 Master Liar 71
Kumkum the Dancer 109 Match at Cards, A 10
Original from
•
INDEX· 1&5
Matira Manisha l54 Nanand Bhojai 130 · · .·

Matwala Shair Ramjoshi 124 Nanhe Munne 136
Mauj 118 Nanook of the North 53
Maya 93, 94 Napoleon 27
Maya Bazar 53 Narsinh Mehta 47, 87
Maya Darpan 158 Nartakee 110
Maya Machhindra 80 Narthansala 153
Mazdoor 86 l'Tateeja 124
Meenakshi 114 Nau Do Gyarah 145
Meera 124 Nau jawan 99, 135
Meetha Zahar 102 Nauka Dubi 130
Meeth Bhakar 130 Naukri 142
Meghe Dhake Tara 149 Navalsha Hirjee 59
Mela 125 Naveen Bharat 56
Melody of Love 69 Navi Sethani 56
Memdidi 150 Navrang 146
Mera Naam Joker 158 Naya Daur 144
Merchant of Venice 27, 63 Nayak 154
Meri Bahen 119 Naya Sansar 111
Messallina 56 Nazare 129
Milan 121, 130 Nazrana 114, 130
Millionaire 94 Neecha Nagar 122
Mirza Ghalib 140 Needle's Eye 71
Miss Kamala 93 Neelakuyil 141
Miss 1933 84 Neel Kamal 121
Mr. and Mrs. 1955 142 Neera 62
Mr. Gladstone's Funeral 12 Neki aur Badi 133
Mr. Sampat 137 Nero 27
1"Iiyan Biwi 96 Neta ii Palker 63
Modern Youth 99 Netaji Subhas 123
Mogacho Aundo 130 New Delhi 142
Mohini Bhasmasur 35 Nigahe Nafrat 92
Money Makes What Not 71 Night Bird 87
Mother India 65, 99, 145 Nirmon 154
Mothi Mansen 130 Nishan 127
Mrichha Katika 47 Nishir Dak 71, 79 .
Mughal-e-Azam 148 Nisiddha Phal 66
Muhabbat ke Ansoo 81 Noah's Ark 14, 18
Mujhe Jeene Do 152 Non-cooperation 60
Mukti 98, 158 Noor Jahan 79
Mulraj Solanki 58 Nurjehan 54
Mumbaicha Jawai 158
Mumbai ni Sethani 78 ON A MOONLIT NIGHT 89
Municipal Election 55 Oonche Log 153
Munna 140 Orphan Daughter 72
Musaflr 144 Orpheus 27
Mysterious Eagle 68 Othello 27
My Wife 59 Our India 133
Our Indian Empire 12
NAANDI 153 PAARi 154
Naaz 140 Padosi 111
Nagin 139 Pahela Aadmi 133
Nagina 134 Pahili Manglagaur 130
Nagin ki Raagni 84 Paigham 147
Nai Duniya 86 Pakeezah 159
Najma 118 Palatak 152
Nakli Tansen 76 Pampered Youth 60
Nala Damayanti 49 Pamposh 139
Namoona 129 Panchasar 71 •
Original from
..
166 INDEX
Panorama of Indian Rahgeer 156

Scenes. A 12 Rahi 139
Papeyr Parinam 56 Raja . 118
Parakh 149 Raja Bhoj 62
Parbat pe Apna Dera 119 Raja Harischandra 29, 30, 33.
Pardesi 113 35, 38
Paresh Pathar 145 Rajani 66
Parichay 140 Ra ja Rani 116
Parineeta 137, 138 Rajba 65
Passing Show 95 Raj Nartaki 112
Patanga 129 Ra irani Meera 85
Pather Panchali 141, 143 Ramayana 52, 87
Pathlag 1S3 Ram Banavas 39
Pati Bhakti 55 Ram or Maya 47
Pati Patni 67 Ram Rahim 72
Patita 138 Ram Rajya 117, 118
Patni Pratap 55 Ramshastri 119
Pattola 131 Random Harvest 119
Paying Guest 145 Rangabhoomi 40
Pearl of the Ganges 44 Rani Saheba 73
Pedgaonche Shahane 137 Rape of the Sabines 27
Perils of Pauline 38 . Ratnadeep 136
Phir Bhi 158 Ratnakar 50
Phir Subah Hogi 145 RatnavaU 52
Phool aur Kaliyan 150 Rattan 119
Pinjra 159 Razia Begum 58
Pithache Panje 35 · Rejoicing in the Market
Poona Races '98 13 Place of Paris 10
Poona Raided 57 Reshma aur Shera 159
Power of the Press 27 Return of Kala Naag 63
Prahlad Charitra 39 Romance of a Youth 73
Prarthana 156 Romantic Prince 79
Pratibha 100 Romeo & Juliet 27, 124
Pratidwandi 157 Rooplekha 88
Preman jali 60 Roti 115
Prem Nagar 114
Prem Patra 151 SAADHI MANSEN 154
Prem Sagar 105 Saat Hindustani 156
Premveer 99 Saat Pake Bandha 152
Princess Budar 52 Sabyasachi 126
Prithvirai Chauhan 57 Sacrifice 63
Prithvi Vallabh 57, 118 Sadhna 145
Protinfdhi 152 Saed-e-Hawas 95
Pugree 126 Safar 158
Pukar 104 Sagar Sangame 145
Punarmilan 109 Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam 150
Punascha 150 Sairandhri 46, 82
Pundalik 27, 28. 29, 30, 33, 34 Sa 'an 123
Punishment of the Samurai 27 Samadhi 133
Pun iab Mail 67 Sama i ko Badal Dalo 124
Puran Bhagat 65, 85 Samar 130
Purnima 102 Samskara 156
Pyaasa 143, 146 Sangam 153
Pyar ki .Teet 126 Sangram 134
QUEEN ELIZABETH 29 Sangte Aika 146
Quo Vadis 56 Sansar · 134
dansar Leela 86
RAAT AUR DIN 155 Sant Gyaneshwar 110
-. Rabindranath Tagore 149 Sant Tukaram 96, 110
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Digiti zed by Google UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
INDEX 167
Sanyasis 137 Sindoor 123

Sapera 104 Sinhgadh 57
Saptapadl 150 Sir Shankernath 130
Sara Akash 157 Siruthonda Nayanar 43.
Saraswatlchandra 155 Sitar Bibah 88
Sarkari Pahune 130 Sleeping Beauty, The 19
Sati Padmini 57 Social Evil 69
Sati Parvati 48 Social Pirates 59
Sati Sardarba 58 Society Butterfly 62
Satyabadi Raia Sonar Sansar 94
Harishchandra 38 Sone ki Chidiya 145
Satyakam 156 Soorat aur Seerat 150
Satyawan Savitri 36 Soul of a Slave 55
1'auitandh 115 Spanish Bull-fight, A 12
Sautela Bhai 151 Splendid New Views of
Saviour. The 69 · Bombay 16
Savitri 29, 37, 87, 100 Station Master 114
Savkari Pash 60. 96 St. Francis Xavier at Goa,
Sawan Aya Re 128 Exposition of 54
Scenes of Native Life Stree 150
. in India 20 Stree Janma Hi Tuzi Kahani
School Master 145 137
Sea Bath, The 10 Street Dancers of London.
Secret of the East 67 The 10
Seema 142 Street Singer 101
Seemabaddha 157 Subaha ka Sitara 81
Seeta 87 Suhag Raat 125
Serpentine Dance 12 Sujata 146
Service Ltd. 105 Sulemani Shetran 'i 99
Setu Bandhan 79 Sulochna f4
Seva Sadan 86, 131 Sultana 87
Shaadi 113 Sumangali 131
(;:habnam 129 Sunehra Sansar !?4
Shahar aur Sapna 151 Sunghuri:h 155
Shaheed 126. 153 Surang 131!
Shahenrhah 139 Surekha Haran 53
Shahiehan 121 Suvarna 5A
Shakespearewallah 153 Suvarnarekha 151
Shakuntala 46. 47. 79. 117, 150 Swaraiya Toran 7:!
ShakuntaJa Janma 41 Swayam Siddha 127
Shama 121 .
Shankaracharya 63 T ABOOT PROCESSION 16
Shant.ata ! Court Chalu Abe 158 Tagore Talkie 78
Sharda 55. 116, 145 Talaq 102
Sharif Badmash 55 Talash-e-Huq 93
Shehnai 124 Tale of Two Cities, A 27
Shlkari Ill Taming of the Shrew 92
Shikast 138 Tansen 118
Shiraz 68 Taqdeer 118
Shirin Farhad 62, 78. 120 Tawangar ni Talwar 60
Shiv Ratri 49 Taxi Driver 140
Show Boat 69 Teen Batti Char Raasta 138
Shree 420 142 Teen Kanya 149
Shrikanta 71 Teesri Kasam 154
Shyam Sunder 81 Tehmuras and Tehmul jee 50
Shvamchi Aal 139 Telephc,ne Girl 61
~il!n nf the Cross 27 Tere Mere Sapne 159
Sikander 112 Theodara 56
~Pent Curse 54 Thief of Baghdad 99
Original from
168 INDEX·
37th Congress at Gaya 54 · Veer Abhimanyu 53

Three Devils 47 Veerapandiya Kattabomman 146
300 Days & After 101 Veer Bala 59
Three Musketeers 53 Veer Durgadas 58
Throw of Dice, A 70-71 Vendetta 26
Thulabharam 155 Vidyapati 98
Thyagabhoomi 131 Vidyasagar 136
Tiger and the Flame 139 View of Bombay 21
Toofan Mail 73, 88 Vikram Charitra 58
Toofani Tarzan 99 Vilasi Ishwar 92
Train Ariving at Bombay Vish Kanya 118
Station 12-13 Vishwamitra-Menaka 41
Trip to the Moon, A 18 Vishwamohini 66
Tumsa Nahin Dekha 145, 147 Vranti 66
Turki Hoor 60
Turning the Soup-plate by WAPAS 118
Trewey 10 Web, The 73
Two Daughters 149 Wedding Night 68
Two Untouchables 58 Whirling the Worl9s 27
Typist Girl 61 Whose Fault 72
Wild Cat of Bombay 63
UDAYER PATHEY 121 Workers Leaving the Factory 10
Udaykal 73 Wrath 72
Ulti Ganga 116 · Wrestlers, The 13
Uncle Tom's Cabin 27
Unexpected, The 97 YAADEIN 153
Unnaipol Oruvan 153 Yahudi 145
Upkar 155 Yahudi ki Beti 145
Usha Swapna 40 Yahudi ki Ladki 85, 145
Us ki Kahani 154 Yamala Jaat 131
Us ki Roti 158 Yashoda Nandan 50
Uttar Falguni 152 Yatrik 136
Uyyale 156. Yeh Raste Hain Pyar ke 152
Young India 69
VACHAN 142 Yukiwarisoo 136
Valli's Wedding 51
Vandemataram Ashram 63 ZARINA 82
Vande Mathram 131 Zaroorat 157
Vasant Leela 65 Zeenat 120
Vasanti 102 Zindagl 110
Vasantsena 70 Zinda Laash 81
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I

INDIAN BOOK COMPANY

© Firoze Rangoonwalla, 1975

Published by Indian Book Company, 36 C, Connaught Place, New

. Digitized by Google Original from

IT was a rainy day in Bombay, Tuesday the seventh of

photographic pictures' and had held the first public exhi-

items were shown again in Bombay at the Platinum Jubilee

spectacular event in England. The motion picture camera

Bombay Station and Poona Races '98, showing the start

Thus, within four years of its birth at the Watson's Hotel,

and so apologise for the same. Imported films were now

IT· was the dawn of a new century in human history and

later took the three broad forms of newsreels, documen-

& Scenes. It was projected on a new machine which was

India also frequently saw the narrative films coming from

first announced as being a long film in twelve scenes. But

But in India, the production remained restricted to short,

20 "15 YEARS OF INl>IAN CINEMA

dominated by the Elphinstone Company. The first was a

fully exploited with the camera capturing 'the grand pro-

the Excelsior came• out victorious by showing the films on

in the beginning of the year 1912. Though the Delhi Durbar

titles like Indian Justice obviously referring to Red Indians.

New cinemas had also sprung up by now, along with old

revenge, Whirling the Worlds, a science-fiction film and

Thus, the audience in India was already accustomed to

dhurst Road in Bombay. The film, based on the legend of

their roles and taking up a half of the bill· of fare was a

Ravana, followed by a grand procession of elephants,

out in contrast to the first one given by the theatre on the

run at the Alexandra (near Crawford Market). It is also

Phalke's saga of struggle and achievement would go to

2. Devika Rani io Karma (1931)

J. Sohrab Modi and Nasum io

s. Pr ithviraj, Sadha na Bo5c in fim

6. V. Shantara m in hit own fi lm

10. Famous Kannada star Kal-

I I. The 'new cinema' io Bombay

12. Raj Kapoor and Nacgii in

I,. Mehtiib in Sohrab Modi's

14. Kamini Kaushal and Abhi

15. Jo AmiyaCbakrabar1y'1 Suma

16. Tamil Film Amardetpam

17. Meena Kumari and Raj

Indian film and thus setting up a Swadeshi film industry.

wife and children and a small band of followers who were

the doubting Thomases but Phalke himselt.

After Raja Harishchandra, Phalke shifted his studio

give him a monthly fee of three hundred pounds with a

musicians, illusionists, wrestlers and sandows, apart, of

titles in English. It was also released in Bombay close on

Its first film Krishna Janma (Birth of Shree Krishna)

ing crowded houses. It was shown through the Elphinstone

the silent film as a popularly accepted mode of _story

rical items on typical Indian characters.

Jn the first decade, the feature films were shown by tums

Private Press previews were often held, where journal-

AFTER stepping into 1920, the Indian cinema gradually

The new decade saw the arrival of many new companies

the Maharashtra Film Company at Kolhapur. Being a

like the other mediocre Indian, films. But he must have

But the show must go on and so it did, with many other

In 1921, Kohinoor presented Bhakta Vidur with Sampat