Yes folks! The fascinating world of Indian cinema is stepping into its 100th year of existence! Time to rejoice and be proud, right! India’s first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra, was first released to the public on this very day, May 3rd, in 1913.
Indian cinema has come a long way from the silent movie Raja Harishchandra, to adopting all the current trends in world cinema, including 3D, motion capture, and also complete digitisation in movies.
Indian cinema has produced many stalwarts of the likes of Dadasaheb Phalke, Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, A.V Meyyappa Chettiar and many other actors and filmmakers who were and are renowned, the world over!
Indian cinema has gone through many testing times, but has come out only being better than it earlier was. We can proudly go on to state that many Indian movies are catching the eyes and the fascination of audiences the world over!
Today, marks the beginning of the centenary year of Indian Cinema, and we are sure that the future only has much more wonderful things to offer for the development of Indian cinema.
We at SouthDreamz.com take immense pride in stating that we are also a part of this vibrant, thriving canvas, called Indian cinema!
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Sing Happy Birthday to Indian Cinema!
It’s a six letter word that spells dreams. A word that paints the canvas with moving pictures transporting viewers to sometimes a make believe world. At others it holds up a mirror to our world, yours and mine, showing a not so pretty picture. It gives us a story, a story we believe in. It gives us idols, demi-gods whom we revere and kneel before. It’s a movement that consumes us. It’s an obsession that we cannot do without!
On 21st April, Indian Cinema entered its centenary. 100 glorious years of giving us the most magical moments on celluloid, entertaining and educating generations of movie lovers since 1913. But really, the story of what is today a national passion goes back 20 years further. On July 7th, 1896 Lumiere Brothers’ Cinematographe unveiled six silent short films at the Watson Hotel in Bombay. A year later an unknown photographer shot two short films called Our Indian Empire and Coconut Fair. In 1898 two Italians organised film shows in a tent in Bombay’s Azad Maidan. The same year Hiralal Sen made India’s first short film, shooting a scene from a musical and calling it The Flower of Persia. At the turn of the century JF Madan and Abdoolah Esoofally opened the first chain of cinema theatres in India. And exactly a century ago on this day a scholar called Bhundiraj Govind Phalke also known as Dadasaheb Phalke showcased India’s first work of cinema. Deriving from his knowledge of history and Indian epics he based his film on Raja Harishchandra, a King who could not lie.That evening at Olympia Theatre, at the roots of the Swadeshi movement, this full length feature film made without any foreign hand was really the birth of Indian cinema. Weeks later, on May 3rd the film was officially released with English and Hindi subtitles at the Coronation Cinema and thus began the cartwheel of Indian cinema, the biggest film producing industry in the world!
The Father of Indian Cinema went on to produce the industry’s first ‘box office hit’ 4 years later with Lanka Dahan in 1917. By 1920, Indian cinema had picked up steam and soon there were more film makers joining the ranks of India’s first generation. Dhiren Ganguly, Baburao Painter, Suchet Singh, Chandulal Shah, V Shantaram and Ardershir Irani were some of the pioneers of the silent era way back in the 1920’s. Dhiren Ganguly’s Bilet Pherot (England Returned) in 1921 was this industry’s first ‘love story’. Fatima Begum became perhaps the first woman producer and director in the industry as she released her 1926 film Bulbul-e-Parastan. By the mid 1920’s, Bombay had seated herself as the capital of Indian cinema and by 1931 film makers had graduated. Silent movies made way for the talkies with Ardershir Irani’s Alam Ara being the first 124 minute feature film made by the Imperial Film Company. Primitive in use and rudimentary in execution song and music was always a ‘live’ experience for the cine goer. It was the first time sound, music and dance entered the domain of story telling , never to leave cinema ever again!
1930’s became the decade of social protest in Indian cinema. Studios like V Shantaram led Prabhat Film Company, Himanshu Rai’s Bombay Talkies and BN Sircar’s New Theatres in Kolkata were the leading houses of that era released a series of films talking about social injustice. V Shantaram’s 1936 film Amar Jyoti was the first film to talk about women’ liberation and was the first film to cross borders and be screened at the International Film Festival in Venice. PC Barua’s Devdas in 1935 was remade in Hindi making KL Saigal an overnight sensation. This early blockbuster was followed by several other movies, for instance Bombay Talkies produced and directed by Franz Osten in 1936, the Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar starrer Achut Kanya. This social joined hands with V Shantaram’s Duniya Na Mane, Aadmi and Padosi to loudly raise a voice against social evils. Sohrab Modi grew up with a dislike for history and truly the irony behind it rings loud as he is remembered as one of India’s finest historical film makers. Under his banner Minerva Movietone, Modi churned out one smashing historical after another. Similarly, Wadia Movieton led by Jamshed Boman Homi Wadia and his brother Homi Wadia were the pioneers of stunt movies in India. Australian actress Mary Evans made India her home and adopted the sobriquet Fearless Nadia as she became the industry’s first stunt woman. Together with the Wadias, this Fearless Nadia starred in a string of action films.
While Bombay became the crux of popular Hindi cinema and leading film studios, regional cinema too was slowly spreading its wings. From Bengali, to Assamese, Malayalam, Tamil, Telegu, Oriya, Punjabi and Bhojpuri the Indian film industry today is as varied as the country itself. With the Indian diaspora spread across continents and the largeness of Indian cinema’s reach, the audience today is vast and widespread. From bagging international awards, to foreign films being produced in India, to international film studios entering the Indian film market, India the largest producer of films in the world. The only indigenous industry that has survived the presence of Hollywood films, our films today are released world wide and are sending the cash registers ringing high!
Our film icons from KL Saigal to Sonu Nigam, Dilip Kumar to Amitabh Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor, film makers Yash Chopra to Rajkumar Hirani, actresses Devika Rani to Vidya Balan, everyone is revered, idolised and given a demi-God status. It is for nothing that they are called the merchants of dreams. Every decade of cinema was symptomatic of the country’s growth, the struggle of the 40’s to the hopeful 50’s that became the Golden Era of Indian cinema, the flamboyant 60’s to the irreverent 70’s, the kitschy 80’s and the growing up years in the 90’s to the new century when the vocabulary of cinema is being rewritten all over again! The story of cinema is really in many ways, the story of India.There’s a reason to celebrate and sing Happy Birthday to cinema, so pick up your popcorn, take a swig from your chilled cola, curl up on the sofa and watch your favorite film as a mark of celebration.
CINEMA THOSE DAYS…
My father was a movie buff when we were young. Because of his interest, our entire family used to go to movies. Those were the days of 50s to 60s when he often used to get transferred from one place to other during his service days in Madhya Pradesh. This gave us a chance to see the cinema theatres of many towns and even small villages in M.P. We all brothers and sisters used to eagerly wait for Sunday when my father used to call me to announce that we are all going to a particular movie that day.
There were no twin theatres or multiplexes. All were simple, ordinary looking non- air conditioned single screen theatres which more or less looked like present day FCI Godowns with asbestos sheet roofing. Before the commencement of the show, songs were played over a speaker so that entire town used to know that its time for the film to start. Normally the first song used to be some devotional song. There was no dearth of devotional/ religious songs as majority of the movies used to be either Religious movie or Historical movie. Later on AVM & Gemini film companies started making family movies all of which became hit with the masses. People used to throng the theatre well in advance to see the photos of the movie. Those days, photos of several scenes from the film used to be displayed on a specially made poster board outside the theatre hall in the foyer. During intermission, I used to revisit those photos just to know what all scenes have come before the interval and wait for the scenes which are yet to come after the interval. Songs of the movie printed on small foldable sheets used to be sold for a paisa or two. Even while going to the school by walk, the cinema posters here and there used to fascinate me.
During interval, gate pass used to be given to those going out of the hall to be collected back on their return. This was to ensure that no ticket less person gets in to the hall. I remember, once when I was in my college, went to watch a movie bunking the class and without telling anybody at home. In the interval, I took the pass and came back home with the idea that I will watch the remaining part later as I had the pass. After few days when I went to the theatre after the interval, I was denied entry by the gate keeper because they were using different colour pass for different days and the one I had was not being used that day! I had to cut a very sorry figure before the gate keeper and returned home without watching the remaining film after interval.
Being a gazetted officer, my father used to command high respect in small towns. At some places, the film used to start on our arrival to the theatre. We used to watch the movie from highest enclosure called ‘Box’. As the name suggest, all the theatres used to have two boxes like cabins on both side of the projection room. It was one class higher than the balcony. Boxes used to have limited seats. While watching the movie, we also used to hear the whirling sound of the projector from balcony or box class. There used to be a separate class for ladies only. During interval, the ladies class used to be covered with a screen so that no one could peep in. The lowest class used to be just ground in front of the screen where villagers used to watch movies squatting on the ground. Smoking ‘beedies’, eating groundnuts, chewing ‘Paan’ during the show and spiting all over the place were common sight in all the theatres and no body used to complain or object.
The film publicity was normally used to be done by hand push carts and the man pushing the cart used to shout to announce the name of film and their cast. I remember, at one place Sagar, one of the theatres used another novel way of publicity. They had an old Austin car with a carrier (normally used for to keeping luggage) fitted on the top. Film posters used to be mounted on the carrier on all the four sides and during night times used to be lit with tube lights. This car used to go round the town during night times with full illumination and announcement made over a mike. Sometimes, the sound of generator set fitted on the back side of the car will be so loud that we used to run out of the house to find out which new movie has come.
While recollecting about cinema theatres, I particularly remember a unique theatre of those days called ‘Starlit’ at Indore. From outside it looked like a domed shape godown made of asbestos sheets. Inside, the ceiling was covered with steel rods in a pattern. At each joint of those rods were small blue coloured bulbs like stars. There were no bright lights inside except one in the middle to give a look of moon. The theatre from inside used to look blue (à la Leela Bansali’s ‘Saawariya’) because of the glow of several small blue lights. The slide projector was also a unique one as the projected slide advertisement used to traverse from floor up to the screen and thereafter from screen to ceiling and again back to projection room. I have never seen such a theatre elsewhere. Probably, it was a concept well ahead of its time. Alas, that theatre does not exist now.
After experiencing all the comforts and fun of present day hi-fi theatres, Dolby sound system and several screen multiplexes, it was still a thrill to wait for Sundays to watch a movie those days.
NOSTALGIC BOLLYWOOD…
It has become a trend in Bollywood to keep the titles of movies in English now a day. Even the songs will have some English lines here and there. But do you know, as far back as 1960, Sunil Dutt starrer Hindi film ‘Ek phool char kante’ had a full fledged English song by Iqbal Singh-‘Beautiful Baby Broadway’ .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiBpTrpgyCs
Subsequently, music director Shankar Jaikishan made singer Vivin Lobo (voice similar to Mahendra kapoor) to sing an English-German song ‘ Ich Liebe dich, I love you’ for Raj Kapoor’s film ‘Sangam’ in 1964.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLs1LOelnSo
Many of the films made by students from Film Institute, Pune were tagged as ‘Art Movie’ or ‘Experimental Movie’ during 70s.But long before this; Sunil Dutt had made an out & out experimental film in 60s called ‘Yadein’ featuring himself all alone. Yes, no other artists or extras featured in the film. Only the voices of Nargis dutt and children were used to depict conversation. Unfortunately, no mention of this film is made by any film writer, critic or artist while discussing trend setting movies. B.R.Chopra was another director who made a full fledged court room drama in a song less movie some time in 60s called ‘Kanoon’. The film had only a ballet dance sequence.
If you think animation is new to Bollywood and is still in its primitive stage as compared to Hollywood, here is some good news. In 1957 came a children film called ‘Aab Dilli door nahi ‘ which had a song ‘Chun Chun karti Aayi chidia’ sung by Mohammad Rafi and in this song, animal characters were show in animation!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfCJRxooOyE&feature=related
Never herd of these films or songs? Well, check out at YouTube and search for these songs/videos to enjoy the once upon a time songs!