VEER KUNAL

1925 St 7235 ft b&w

d/s Manilal Joshi pc Kohinoor Film c D.D. Dabke

lp Raja Sandow, Yakbal, Miss Moti, K.B. Athavale, Bachubabu

This legend drawn from the Asokavadana stories is set at the time of the Maurya empire (3rd C. B.C.). Kunal (Sandow), son of Emperor Ashoka (Athavale) and Queen Padmavati, has beautiful eyes but a prediction says he will go blind. The villainous Tishyaraksha (Yakbal) gains Ashoka’s confidence and plots to have Kunal blinded and killed. The official executioners spare Kunal and he becomes a wandering singer accompanied by his favourite wife Kanchanmala (Moti). In Pataliputra, Ashoka hears Kunal’s song, realises that Kunal’s misfortune may have been a punishment for some past sin of the emperor himself and condemns Tishyaraksha to death, restoring Kunal to the court. The film acquired an avant-garde reputation for breaking with convention using close shots and with Dabke’s camera deploying a sophisticated range of grey tones. It can be seen as a distant ancestor to the psycho-historicals of Mehboob: one concrete connecting link was R.S. Choudhury, apprenticed to Joshi for this film.

BHAKTA PRAHLAD

1926 St 7447 ft b&w

d/sc Dadasaheb Phalke pc Hindustan Cinema st V.H. Palnitkar c Anna Salunke

lp Bhaurao Datar, Bachu Pawar, Gangaram Nhavi, Yamuna Gole

Drawn from the Vishnu Purana, this legend tells of Prahlad (Gangaram), the son of the demon tyrant Hiranyakashapu (Bachu). Prahlad disobeys his father by worshipping the latter’s hated enemy, Vishnu (Datar). He undergoes tortures, including being burnt in oil, trampled beneath an elephant and poisoning, until, finally, Vishnu appears from a pillar in his Narasimha guise to overwhelm the demon. Available footage: 519 ft.

BULBUL-E-PARISTAN

1926 St 9427 ft b&w

d/s Fatma Begum pc Fatma Film c Rustom Irani, Ardeshir Irani

lp Zubeida, Sultana, Putli, Madame Tosca, Madanrai Vakil, Athavale

Probably the first Indian feature directed by a woman. Available information suggests it was a big-budget fantasy abounding with special effects set in a Parastan or fairyland. Ardeshir Irani may have helped with the trick photography.

NEERA

aka Beautiful Snake of Aravalli

1926 St 9217 ft b&w

co-d/s R.S. Choudhury co-d R.G. Torney pc Lakshmi Film c Pandurang Naik

lp Raja Sandow, Putli, Baba Vyas, Ghory, Dabir, K.B. Athavale, Takle

Choudhury’s influential directorial debut breaks new generic ground, depicting tribals and presenting mysticism and sexuality as primal powers. Neera (Putli), a temple priest’s daughter, lives amongst tribals. A Kapalik (Sandow), i.e. a devotee of Kali said to possess mystical powers, uses them to acquire tribal lands. The conflict is between his powers and the shield of innocence around Neera, leading to the villain’s destruction. Conflict over land rights was later used extensively by Choudhury’s apprentice, Mehboob (e.g. Roti, 1942).

SUVARNA KAMAL

aka Kalika Murti aka Golden Lotus

1926 St 10176 ft b&w

d/s K.P. Bhave pc Sharda Film c Naval P. Bhatt

lp Master Vithal, Mary, Shiraz Ali, Janibabu, Heera, Miss Rosy

Typical Vithal-Sharda stunt film featuring a masked adventurer in quest of a golden lotus, which involves placating the terrible goddess Mahakali. The film teemed with Bhatt’ special effects (e.g. giant genies) and showed the influence of Douglas Fairbanks’s work as well as of folk-fantasies (Gul-e-Bakavali, 1924; Indrasabha, 1932) while continuing in the vein of the studio’s earlier successes, Ratan Manjari and Madan Kala, both 1926.

TELEPHONE NI TARUNI

aka The Telephone Girl

1926 St 8427 ft b&w

d Homi Master pc Kohinoor Film st Mohanlal G. Dave c Narayan G. Devare

lp Sulochana, Gohar, Khalil, Raja Sandow, Jamna

Sulochana’s most famous silent film sees her as a telephone operator, a job she used to do in real life, who becomes the love object of a leading lawyer (Sandow). The problems of inter-community marriage are highlighted, as is the value of patriotism through the character of Peter, the heroine’s brother (Khalil). The film also refers to a collectivisation movement among farmers (inspired by events in the USSR). Writer Dave was commended for his ability to entwine disparate narrative strands while introducing contemporary references. For his debut as cameraman, Devare pioneered the use of real locations, shooting in the Grant Road telephone exchange in Bombay.

VANDE MATARAM ASHRAM

1926 St 6590 ft b&w

d/s/co-p Bhalji Pendharkar co-p Baburao Pendharkar pc Vande Mataram Film c D.D. Dabke

lp Yamunadevi, P.Y. Altekar, Baburao Pendharkar, Master Vithal

Independently produced by Bhalji and his brother Baburao Pendharkar in between leaving Maharashtra Film and joining Prabhat, this was a major silent political film influenced by the Hindu ideals of the nationalist leaders Lala Lajpat Rai and Madan Mohan Malaviya (the founder of Benares Hindu University). It criticises the British education policies and counterposed a defence of ‘traditional’ Indian teaching systems. The film was repeatedly censored, even banned briefly, and eventually released in a mutilated version.

BALIDAN

aka Bisarjan aka Sacrifice

1927 St 8282 ft b&w

d Naval Gandhi pc Orient Pics st Rabindranath Tagore’s play sc Jamshed Ratnagar c Naval P. Bhatt

lp Sulochana, Zubeida, Master Vithal, Jal Khambatta, J. Makhijani, Janibabu

The Indian Cinematograph Committee of 1928 used Balidan and Janjirne Jankare (1927) to show how ‘serious’ Indian cinema could match Western standards. Based on Tagore’s play of 1887, the film’s advertising emphasised the high literary quality of its source. The plot of this quasi-historical is set in the fictional land of Tippera and features Queen Gunavati (Sulochana), King Govinda, Aparna the beggar girl (Zubeida) and the priest Raghupati who runs a Kali temple. The story addresses the conflict between reformist enlightenment and obsolete, inhuman ritual, questioning the contemporary validity of traditional rituals. The dramatic pivot is the conflict between the king who has banned animal sacrifice, and the priest who calls for the king’s own blood. Emotionally, the film revolves around the childless queen and a beggar girl whose pet goat has been taken for the sacrifice and who loves a servant in the temple. Except for the temple scenes, much of the film was shot on location in Rajasthan.

BHANELI BHAMINI

aka Educated Wife

1927 St 9882 ft b&w

d Homi Master pc Kohinoor Film s Mohanlal G. Dave c Narayan G. Devare

lp Gohar, Raja Sandow, R.N. Vaidya, Master Kishore

Advertised in the Bombay Chronicle as ‘an excellent warning to the younger generation to beware of venereal disease and take necessary precautions. [I]t not only brings ruin to himself but to the innocent members of his family.’ This didactic Gohar-Sandow production set the tone for the message-oriented socials for which the duo became famous. It was also an important predecessor of Gunsundari (1927).

GAMDENI GORI

aka Village Girl

1927 St 10128 ft b&w

d Mohan Bhavnani pc Imperial Film st Nanubhai Desai c Rustom Irani

lp Sulochana, Madanrai Vakil, Bhatia Sandow, Jamshedji

This important film in Sulochana’s career at the Imperial Studio cast her as Sundari, the innocent village beauty with an ineffectual father, adrift in the big, bad city where she is preyed upon by lustful men seeking to force her into prostitution. The hero, Navichand, is a film actor and the film milieu is represented by a studio boss and a comedian, Gazdar, nicknamed Charlie Chaplin. Other features of the urban landscape, besides ‘electric trains, motor cars and buses, the giant wheel, cinemas and theatres’, as the publicity pamphlet claims, include a corrupt policeman, a racecourse and the fictional Bachelors’ Club whose members see Sundari and promptly postpone their collective pledge never to marry. The film was part of Imperial’s calculated and successful effort to manufacture a star image for the actress.

GUNSUNDARI

aka Why Husbands Go Astray

1927 St 9452 ft b&w

d Chandulal Shah pc Kohinoor Film st Dayaram Shah c Narayan G. Devare

lp Gohar, Raja Sandow, Rampiary, Jamna, R.N. Vaidya

Shah’s best-known silent film established the core unit of the Ranjit Studio and the signature role of its lead star, Gohar. She plays a dutiful wife whose husband refuses to take his share of the domestic responsibilities, claiming that he has enough problems at the office. Frustrated with his housewifely spouse, he takes up with a dancing-girl. The wife is spurred into an active social life, discovering a world beyond the confines of the home. The tale sought to tell modern women that they owed it to their husbands to be more than domestic drudges. Ranjit believed the story to be commercially infallible, it was remade by Shah himself in 1934 and again by Punatar in 1948 when the studio was branching out into Gujarati.

JANJIRNE JANKARE

aka At the Clang of Fetters

1927 St 13496 ft b&w

d Harshadrai Mehta pc Krishna Film st Champsi Udeshi sc/c Chimanlal Luhar

lp Gulab, Hydershah, P.R. Joshi, Nandram, Gangaram, Sultan Alam

Together with Balidan (1927), this Rajput romance was often cited by the I.C.C as an example of the Indian cinema’s technical achievements matching those of the West. Commander Ambar of Ajaygarh triumphs over neighbouring Ramgarh capturing its king and the beautiful Princess Rama (Gulab). Ambar falls for her but problems arise when the king of Ajaygarh wants to give his own daughter in marriage to the victorious commander. Ambar covertly helps Rama and her father escape but he is killed in the process and dies in Rama’s arms. The major portion of the film deals with Ambar’s imprisonment at the hands of his own patron, remaining seven days without food. Drawn from Udeshi’s story serialised a year earlier in the popular journal Navchetan, highlights included spectacular battle scenes.

NANAND BHOJAI

aka The Victim of Society

1927 St 9370 ft b&w

d/s Manilal Joshi pc Excelsior Film c D.D. Dabke

lp Thatte, S. Nazir, Zubeida, Udvadia, Takle, Miss Mani, Nargis, Gangaram

After his successful Mojili Mumbai (1925), Joshi again used a real-life incident as the basis for a typical melodramatic plot locating reformist concerns in large joint families riven by tensions between in-laws. A greedy brother forces his educated sister to marry a rich old man. She rebels, goes to court and succeeds in preventing the marriage. The film was shot in Surat, where the original incident took place. A reviewer of the period noted that ‘this is one of the few films to show Western women as not all bad’. Nanubhai Vakil remade the film in 1934, again casting Zubeida.

WILDCAT OF BOMBAY

aka Mumbai Ni Biladi, Uthavgir Abala

1927 St 9724 ft b&w

d Mohan Bhavnani pc Imperial Film st Desai?

lp Sulochana, D. Bilimoria, Jamshedji

One of the best-known hits of Imperial’s top-selling duo. Sulochana said in an interview (Screen, 1951) that she had eight separate roles in this film: a gardener, a policeman, a Hyderabadi gentleman, a street urchin, a European blonde, an old banana-seller and an expert pickpocket who gives her money to charity. Remade as a sound film, Bambai Ki Billi (1936), also with Sulochana.

DEVDAS

1928 St c.8000 ft b&w

d Naresh Chandra Mitra pc Eastern Films Syndicate st Saratchandra Chattopadhyay c Nitin Bose

lp Phani Burma, Naresh Mitra, Mani Ghosh, Tinkari Chakraborty, Kanaknarayan Bhup, Tarakbala (aka Miss Light), Niharbala, Rama Devi

First version of Saratchandra’s novel later filmed by New Theatres (1935). A review in the Bengali journal Nachghar said that despite its ‘theatrical ruggedness’, the film was well scripted and showed a distinct Bengali touch as against the Madan style. Mitra was praised for his attempt to express character through mise en scene.

KELOR KIRTI

1928 St 10665 ft b&w

d Sudhangshu Mustafi pc Aurora Film st Bhupen Bannerjee c Debi Ghosh

lp Lalu Bose, Belarani, Niharbala

Calcutta’s Aurora Studio embarked on its first feature, Ratnakar (1921) when Madan Theatres started Bilwamangal (1919), the latter sometimes being presented as the first Bengali feature. The comedy Kelor Kirti, roughly meaning A Scandal, tells of Kalbhairab Bose aka Kelo, part clown part idiot and an incorrigible romantic. He rescues the heroine Manukumari from drowning and falls in love with her. Her father allows the marriage if Kelo first earns Rs 5000, triggering a series of adventures. He wins the money at the races but loses it when he swallows his winning ticket; he tries to have an accident to collect the insurance but is knocked down by a car driven by his future brother-in-law. He eventually gets the insurance and marries Manukumari. The film continues the efforts by locally owned Calcutta studios to create an indigenous cinematic idiom distinct from the idiom of Bilet Pherat (1921) or of Taj Mahal’s Andhare Alo (1922).

LOVES OF A MUGHAL PRINCE, THE

aka Anarkali, Rajmahal Ni Ramani

1928 St 9525 ft b&w

co-d Prafulla Roy, Charu Roy pc Great Eastern Film Corp. st Imtiaz Ali Taj’s play Anarkali sc Hakim Ahmed Shuja c V.B. Joshi

lp Charu Roy, Seeta Devi, Maya Devi, Rajkumari, Sawan Singh, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Dewan Sharar, Shakuntala Tembe

Punjabi capital’s first major bid for the national market used the seminal Urdu historical play of 1922, with the author himself playing the 16th-C. Mughal emperor Akbar. It recounts the love story between Prince Salim (Singh), Akbar’s son, and the slave girl Anarkali (Seeta). Following on from the Osten-Rai Orientalist dramas, and produced by the Indian partners responsible for Prem Sanyas (1925), it also features Seeta Devi as the heroine and is the directorial debut of Prem Sanyas art director and the lead actor of Shiraz (1928), Charu Roy. The big-budget picture was beaten to the screen that same year by the rival and more successful Imperial version starring Sulochana and directed by R.S. Choudhury (Anarkali, 1928), who remade it in 1935. Jaswantlal made it again in 1953 but the most famous version remains K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (1960).

SHIRAZ

aka Das Grabmal einer groszen Liebe

1928 St 9308 ft b&w

d Franz Osten pc British Instructional Films/Ufa/Himansu Rai Film st Niranjan Pal’s play sc W.A. Burton m Arthur Guttmann c Emil Schunemann, H. Harris

lp Himansu Rai, Charu Roy, Seeta Devi, Enakshi Rama Rao, Maya Devi, Profulla Kumar

After Prem Sanyas and some German films, Osten returned to India for his second collaboration with Rai, a historical romance set in the Mughal Empire, subtitled, like Prapancha Pash (1929), A Romance of India. Selima (Enakshi) is a princess-foundling raised by a potter and loved by her brother, Shiraz (Rai). She is abducted and sold as a slave to Prince Khurram, later Emperor Shah Jehan (Roy), who also falls for her, to the chagrin of the wily Dalia (Seeta Devi). When Selima is caught with Shiraz, the young man is condemned to be trampled to death by an elephant. A pendant reveals Selima’s royal status and she saves her brother, marries the prince and becomes Empress Mumtaz Mahal while Dalia is banned for her machinations against Selima. When Selima dies (1629), the emperor builds her a monument to the design of the now old and blind Shiraz, the Taj Mahal. The film contains a number of passionate kissing scenes. The cinematography received favourable comment, introducing a baroque camera style that became inescapably linked with the genre of Mughal romances (e.g. Charu Roy’s Loves of a Mughal Prince and Choudhury’s Anarkali, both also 1928). The art direction was by Promode Nath. The German release had a music score by Arthur Guttmann. It was a slightly shorter version, at 8402 ft. The US release credited the assistant director V. Peers as co-director of an 80’ version in 1929. The surviving print at the NFAI is 7778 ft.

VIGATHAKUMARAN

1928 St ? b&w

d/p/sc J.C. Daniel

lp J.C. Daniel

Hailed as the first Malayalam film, released in November 1928 in Trivandrum. Its lack of success ruined the director and no literature about, or footage from, the film appear to have survived.

GOPAL KRISHNA

1929 St 9557 ft b&w

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film s Shivram Vashikar c S. Fattelal

lp Suresh, Kamaladevi, Anant Apte, Sakribai, G.R. Mane

Shantaram’s successful debut as a solo director (Netaji Palkar, 1927, had been co-directed with K. Dhaiber) signalled the first appearance of the famous Prabhat emblem, the profile of a woman (Kamaladevi) playing the tutari, the Indian equivalent of MGM’s Leo The Lion. In his autobiography (1986) Shantaram said that he wove topical allusions into this Pauranic tale about the antics of Krishna as a child. The conflict between Krishna and the evil Kamsa, king of Mathura, was to be seen as representing the conflict between the Indian people and the British rulers in a manner enabling him to avoid censorship. The playful family film’s highlight, apparently, is when the loin cloth of a little boy playing on the swing with Krishna came loose and revealed his penis. This, Shantaram says, went unnoticed in the shooting but was applauded for its bold realism and became seen as his unique directorial ‘touch’.

HATIMTAI

1929 St 35891 ft b&w

d Prafulla Ghosh pc Krishna Film c Chaturbhai Patel.

lp Rampiary, A.R. Pahelwan, Gulab, Hydershah, Haridas, Durga, Gangaram, Rosy, Leslie, Miss Hormez

After Patankar Friends’ Ram Vanvas (1918), this was the second big-budget, four-part serial. The Krishna Studio’s production was based on The Arabian Nights with sets designed by Mohanlal D. Shah. It tells of the traveller Hatim and his encounters with the fairy Gulnar, a popular Parsee theatre story.

KONO VANK?

aka Whose Fault?

1929 St 12861 ft b&w

d Kanjibhai Rathod pc Krishna Film st K.M. Munshi c Gordhanbhai Patel

lp Gulab, Bapurao Apte

Based on a K.M. Munshi story, this typical transformation of a reform novel into a social substantially determined Rathod’s authorial signature. It tells of Mani (Gulab), a child bride widowed aged eight and treated as a slave by her in-laws until she is cast out for bearing an illegitimate child. Her destitution is alleviated by a young lawyer, Muchkund, who nevertheless is forced to marry his father’s choice, Kashi. Mani devotes herself to Muchkund, even sacrificing her own child, and finally marries the lawyer after Kashi’s death. Gulab’s performance made her a star.

PITRU PREM

aka Father’s Love

1929 St 9868 ft b&w

d/s Harilal M. Bhatt pc Mahavir Photoplays

lp Miss Mani, Gaby Hill, Mr Dave, Mr Yusuf, Y.L. Chichulkar, S.P. Niphadkar, Madanlal

Arguing for communal harmony and filial piety, the film tells of Madhumal (Dave), a rich zamindar, his beloved son Shashibhushan (Yusuf), his loving daughter Annapurna (Mani) and his adopted son Madhav (Chichenkar). When Madhumal picks up a wounded child swathed in bandages, a title says ‘nay - Hindus and Mohammedans are but the children of one loving father - God’. In close-up, Madhumal is shown donating equally to the Aligarh Muslim and Benares Hindu universities. In contrast, his dissolute son Shashibhushan falls into the clutches of the villain Gadbaddas and the courtesan Nurjehan (Hill). 1262 ft survives with the NFAI.

PRAPANCHA PASH

aka A Throw of Dice aka Schicksalswurfel

1929 St 7630 ft b&w

d Franz Osten pc British Instructional Film/Himansu Rai Film/Ufa st Niranjan Pal sc W.A. Burton, Max Jungk m Willy Schmidt-Gentner c Emil Schunemann

lp Seeta Devi, Himansu Rai, Charu Roy, Modhu Bose, Sarada Gupta, Lala Bijoykishen, Tinkari Chakraborty

The third Osten-Rai collaboration (Prem Sanyas, 1925; Shiraz, 1928, the latter also subtitled ‘A Romance of India’) no longer used existing legends but proposed a new one: two rival kings addicted to gambling, Ranjit (Roy) and the evil Sohan (Rai), also vie for the same woman, Sunita (Seeta Devi), Kanwa the hermit’s (Gupta) daughter. Ranjit loses his kingdom and his love and becomes Sohan’s slave through a crooked game of dice. The conflict is eventually resolved when the trickery is exposed and Sohan plunges to his death from a cliff after the people, led by Ranjit, revolt. The happy ending is sealed by a passionate kiss between the lovers. The lavish production with art direction by Promode Nath uses over 10,000 extras, a thousand horses and fifty elephants, benefiting from the largesse of the Royal houses of Jaipur, Udaipur amd Mysore. Unusually, star and producer Rai played the villain. The German release was longer, at 8277 ft. The print at the NFAI is 6694 ft.

CINEMA GIRL

1930 St 10925 ft b&w

d/s B.P. Mishra pc Imperial Film c Rustom Irani.

lp Ermeline, Prithviraj Kapoor, Mazhar Khan, Baburao Sansare, Baby Devi

In contrast to Cinema Queen’s (1925) exploitation of voyeurism or Daily Mail’s (1930) kiss-and-tell approach to the cinema, this film presented a fictionalised biography of its maker. One of the major characters is a producer modelled on Kohinoor’s proprietor, D.N. Sampat, including a reference to the real-life occasion when the studio, on the verge of bankruptcy, survived only because its employees donated money and gold ornaments to keep it afloat. Another character referred to a financier at the Imperial Studio. The plot also touched on the way a producer can curtail the freedom of a director.

Seeta Devi and Charu Roy (atop camel) in Prapancha Pash

DAILY MAIL

1930 St 11925 ft b&w

d Narayan G. Devare pc Kohinoor United Artists st A.S. Desai

lp Kumudini, Jamna, Khalil, Thomas, Alawali, Bhopatkar

By the mid-20s, satirical prose and journalism had merged to create popular film gossip columns in most Marathi and Gujarati papers. KUA, an independent, employee-run group, produced this controversial film about the daily Hindustan thinly disguised as the fictional Daily Mail, edited by a character constructed as a composite portrait of Hindustan’s owner Lotwala and editor Indulal Yagnik. It also lampooned the patron of the Ranjit Studio, Jamsaheb of Jamnagar, and his studio boss Chandulal Shah in a plot designed as a scabrous expose of the film industry’s ethics.

GIRIBALA

1930 St c.8000 ft b&w

d Modhu Bose pc Madan Theatres

st Rabindranath Tagore c Jatin Das

lp Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Naresh Mitra, Tinkari Chakraborty, Lilabati, Shanti Gupta, Lalita Devi

Renamed after the lead character, this was Madan Theatres’ remake of Taj Mahal Film’s Maanbhanjan (1923). The rich Gopinath ignores his beautiful wife Giribala, preferring the company of the stage actress Labanga. Tired of her only pastime, dressing up in narcissistic solitude, Giribala one night follows her husband to the theatre where a new world opens up for her. When Gopinath runs off with Labanga, Giribala joins the stage in Labanga’s place and becomes famous. The hypocrisy of men’s moral double standards is revealed when Gopinath recognises his wife on stage when her veil drops. Tagore was apparently closely involved with the making of the film and may have written the inter-titles.

UDAYKAL

aka Thunder of The Hills, Swarajyacha Toran

1930 St 10804 ft b&w

d V. Shantaram, K. Dhaiber pc Prabhat Film s Baburao Pendharkar c S. Fattelal, V. Damle

lp V. Shantaram, Baburao Pendharkar, Kamaladevi, Anant Apte, G.R. Mane, Ibrahim, Rahim Miya, K. Dhaiber, Vaghya the Dog

According to Shantaram (1986) this was the first film which explicitly politicised the figure of the enormously popular 17th-C. Maratha emperor Shivaji (Shantaram), a staple figure of the Marathi historical. Bhalji Pendharkar, whose sound films would confirm Shivaji as a contemporary icon, worked as a scenarist at Prabhat at this time but his brother Baburao received the script credit for this effort in addition to a starring role. Shantaram played the lead himself, a pattern he would often repeat. The film was originally titled Swarajyacha Toran (The Garland of Freedom) but the censors objected to the use of the word ‘freedom’ and forced many additional changes after the premiere screening. Key scenes included Shivaji’s invocation of the goddess Bhawani who blesses his sword, and Shivaji putting up the saffron flag on the Sinhagad fort at the film’s climax, another point objected to by the censors. Many of the battle scenes were shot with two cameras.

ALAM ARA

1931 124’ b&w Hindi-Urdu

d/co-s Ardeshir Irani pc Imperial Movietone co-s Joseph David c Adi M. Irani m Ferozshah M. Mistri, B. Irani

lp Master Vithal, Zubeida, Jilloo, Sushila, Prithviraj Kapoor, Elizer, Wazir Mohammed Khan, Jagdish Sethi, L.V. Prasad

India’s first sound film, released on 14 March 1931 at the Majestic Theatre, Bombay, narrowly beating Shirin Farhad (1931) to the screens. It established the use of music, song and dance as the mainstay of Indian cinema. The film is a period fantasy based on Joseph David’s popular Parsee theatre play and told of the ageing king of Kumarpur, his two queens, Navbahar and Dilbahar, and their rivalry when a fakir predicts that Navbahar will bear the king’s heir. Dilbahar unsuccessfully tries to seduce the army chief Adil (Vithal) and vengefully destroys his family, leaving his daughter Alam Ara (Zubeida) to be raised by nomads. Eventually, Alam Ara’s nomad friends invade the palace, expose Dilbahar’s schemes, release Adil from the dungeon and she marries the prince of the realm. The film was made on the Tanar single-system camera, recording image and sound simultaneously, which was difficult esp. for the seven songs which were its highlights. Wazir Mohammed Khan’s rendering of a wandering minstrel’s number, De de khuda ke naamparpyare, was particularly popular and pioneered the use of a commentating chorus, a device adopted in several later films. Although Mehboob was scheduled to play the lead, Master Vithal from the Sharda Studio got the part. Nanubhai Vakil remade the film in 1956 and 73. Playwright David was later known for his Wadia Movietone scripts, including Hunterwali (1935). A key technician associated with this film, and with several others in Bombay and Calcutta, was the American Wilford Deming. Often mentioned in early cinema histories, recent research suggests that he was employed by a company called Radio Installation Corp. and was imported by M.L. Mistry &Co. when they bought Western Indian rights to Tanar equipment. He set up sound equipment at Krishna and Imperial and went thereafter to Calcutta where his name features in the credits of some early New Theatres sound productions (also cf American Cinematographer, March 1932).

BHAKTA PRAHLADA

1931 108’ b&w Telugu

d H.M. Reddy pc Bharat Movietone s/lyr Surabhi Nataka c Gordhanbhai Patel m H.R. Padmanabha Sastry

lp Surabhi Kamalabai, L.V. Prasad, Munipalle Subbaiah, B.V. Subba Rao, Darasami Naidu, Master Kishore

The first sound film in Telugu is a classic mythological drawn from the Vishnu Purana. Prahlada, the son of the demon Hiranyakashapu (Subbaiah), defies his father and worships Vishnu. He is imprisoned but Vishnu protects him. The film adapts a stage production by one of the Surabhi Theatre troupes, which was taken to Bombay’s Krishna Studio to shoot the film. The verses and the dialogue were left intact. Its success prompted many more adaptations from plays e.g. Badami’s Paduka Pattabhisekham and Shakuntala (both 1932). Rathod did the Hindi version of the film with actors Neelam, Hydershah and Kumar Mukund.

DEVI DEVAYANI

1931 150’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone s Narayan Prasad Betaab c Pandurang Naik m Jhande Khan

lp Gohar, Miss Kamala, D. Bilimoria, M. Bhagwandas, Keki Adajania, S. Baburao, Baba Vyas, Mr Thatte

Shah’s first sound hit, a mythological, inaugurated the famous Ranjit Studio productions and the use of Audio-Camex sound equipment. A cosmic battle between gods and demons reaches stalemate when the sage Shukracharya (Adajania) instantly restores every fallen demon to life. The god Indra (Baburao), on advice from Brahaspati (Vyas), sends Kacha (Bhagwandas) to the sage to learn his magic secret. Shukracharya’s daughter, Devayani (Gohar) likes Kacha and the latter is accepted as the sage’s disciple. The demon Vrisha Parva (Thatte) tries to kill Kacha but the youth is rescued by Devayani until the demons succeed in dissolving Kacha’s body in alcohol and make Shukracharya drink the brew. Shukracharya then teaches Kacha the secret chant so that when he dies and Kacha emerges from his stomach, Kacha may bring him back to life again. Kacha’s duties now conflict with a love-triangle, as Devayani marries Yayati who loves Sharmistha (Kamala).

DILER JIGAR

aka Gallant Hearts

1931 St 9632 ft b&w

d/s G.P. Pawar pc Agarwal Film c/p Shyam Sundar Agarwal

lp Ambu (Lalita Pawar), Hamir, Ezak Daniel, Gopinath

Along with Ghulami Nu Patan (1931), also made by the Pune-based Agarwal Film, this is one of the few surviving silent films. It opens with shots of a hand distributing charity from a silver plate to a waiting crowd and tells of the good king of Magadh’s fight with his evil ministers. The king is poisoned by his brother, the evil Kalsen and the infant prince Chandrapratab, smuggled out by the loyal sardar Satyapal, grows up in a forest to become the acrobat Hamir (Hamir) in love with his partner, the beautiful Saranga (Pawar, credited as ‘Ambu’). Saranga is kidnapped by Kalsen’s son Ramanaraj, described as ‘the perfect libertine’, but Kalsen takes her away from his son and attempts to seduce Saranga with promises of wealth. The fearless Hamir fights dozens of soldiers, in amateurishly staged fights, trying to liberate her. In the end Saranga, rejected by her lover for having been tempted by Kalsen’s promises of wealth, dons a mask and turns into a Zorro-type avenger. Hamir is eventually recognised by the royal tattoo on his shoulder and restored to the throne as well as reunited with Saranga. A dramatic moment in the film is Hamir’s assumption that Saranga has fallen for Kalsen’s wiles. The threatening seduction (rape) attempt is shown through a series of dissolves from the villain’s face to that of the heroine. Other dissolves are effectively used to convey fantasies and desires, although the use of fades-to-black are used erratically, even within action scenes. One of the more technically elaborate scenes is Saranga’s kidnapping, involving a trick bed descending through a trapdoor. The surviving version with NFAI is 8672 ft.

DRAUPADI

1931 124’ b&w Hindi

d/s B.P. Mishra pc Imperial Movietone

c Adi M. Irani

lp Khalil, Ermeline, Jilloo, Jagdish, Hadi, Elizer, Rustom Irani, Prithviraj Kapoor

After its success with Alam Ara (1931), the studio made this big-budget Mahabharata adaptation starting with Duryodhana’s (Jagdish) scheme to appropriate the kingdom of Hastinapur by eliminating his Pandava cousins. When the Pandavas return from banishment with Draupadi (Ermeline), won by Arjuna (Kapoor) in a tournament, they establish their capital at Indraprastha. The film shows the Rajasuya Yagna ceremony and culminates in the famous dice game in which Duryodhan, backed by his scheming Uncle Shakuni (Hadi), wins the Pandavas’ kingdom and then Draupadi herself, whom Yudhishthira (Elizer) then wagers and loses. Duryodhan commands that Draupadi be stripped naked in open court but Krishna (Khalil) saves her honour with a miracle. Irani plays Bhim and Jilloo is Kunti.

GHULAMI NU PATAN

aka The Fall of Slavery

1931 St 10627 ft b&w

d/sc/c/p Shyam Sundar Agarwal pc Agarwal Film st Baburao Thatte

lp Vatsala, Ezak Daniel

With Diler Jigar (also 1931), this is the second silent film by the Pune-based Agarwal Film to have survived. More ambitious than the former, it is set in the Marwar region in 1818 and addresses the notorious ‘Gola’ system of slavery. The fantasy adventure, leavened with realistic scenes showing the slaves’ working conditions, tells of Kumar Umedhsingh of Kadeempur (Daniel) who institutes a usurious tax mainly to obtain power over the beautiful peasant girl Kamalbala (Vatsala). However, she is protected by Kartarsingh of Amargarh, whom she once nursed to health and who has vowed to liberate all slaves. Kartarsingh is imprisoned but eventually defeats the villain and rescues the heroine. A (presumably Rajput) emperor arrives, censures the villain and lets the lovers marry. Extensive chase sequences on horseback and complicated plotting show that, by the end of the silent era, the Indian cinema had achieved considerable narrative dexterity. The surviving print at the NFAI is 9545 ft.

JAMAIBABU

1931 St 3000’ b&w

d/s Kalipada Das pc Hira Film c D.R. Barodkar

lp Kalipada Das, Pravat Coomar, Sivapada Bhowmick, Radharani, Amulya Bandyopadhyay, Rajen Baruah, Sadhana Devi

The only surviving silent Bengali film was accidentally discovered by Mrinal Sen’s film unit while shooting on location in 1980. The comedy has a country bumpkin hero Gobardhan (Das) visiting his parents-in-law in Calcutta. Mistaking a ‘No Nuisance’ sign for an address, he gets lost trying to find his friend Amal’s (Baruah) room. His subsequent adventures take him to famous locations including Howrah Bridge, the Victoria Memorial and the Maidan. These scenes are intercut with fast-paced shots of life in the city and of crowds, evidently gathered to watch the shooting. Gobardhan eventually finds his in-laws, feigns illness to prolong his stay, is beaten up when he tries to sneak into his wife’s (Radharani) room and gets mistaken for a thief. The sequence of Gobardhan kissing his wife, somewhat abruptly introduced, probably evokes a tradition of pre-censorship pornographic film using Anglo-Indian actresses. As director and lead actor, Das mostly restricts his gags to stumbling in various ways. The erratic cinematography and editing betrays a general lack of technical control. The surviving print at the NFAI is 2110 ft.

KALIDAS

1931 c.10000 ft b&w Tamil

d H.M. Reddy pc Sagar, Select Pics lyr Bhaskara Das

lp T.P Rajalakshmi, Thevaram Rajambal, T. Sushila Devi, J. Sushila, P.G. Venkatesan, M.S. Santhanalakshmi, L.V. Prasad

The first Tamil sound feature, made by the director of Bhakta Prahlada (1931), was released in Madras on 31 October 1931, but shot in Bombay like most Tamil films between 1931 and ‘34. It tells the familiar tale of Kalidas, the legendary 3rd-C. Sanskrit poet and playwright. A minister at the court of King Vijayavarman of Thejavathi wants Princess Vidhyadhari (Rajalakshmi) to marry his son. She refuses and the minister tricks her into marrying a cowhand. The duped princess invokes the help of Kali, who appears to the couple and endows the cowhand with literary talent, allowing him to become Kalidas (Venkatesan). Although mostly in Tamil, including its 50 or so songs, some characters, incl. the male lead, spoke in Telugu, to accommodate actors from Surabhi Theatres, and in Urdu. The use of Telugu is partially in the context of its classical proximity to Sanskrit, as well as the later domestication of the Kalidas tradition (in the 1966 version Mahakavi Kalidas he was presented as belonging to the local Konar caste). Rajalakshmi sang some numbers she had made popular on the stage as well as two nationalist songs unconnected with the plot, linking the film to the Civil Disobedience Movement of the period: one song called for national unity, the other was in praise of the spinning wheel. The film was released with what is probably the first Tamil sound film, a four-reel short called Korathi Dance and Songs, starring Rajalakshmi with the gypsy dancer Jhansi Bai.

KHUDA KI SHAAN

aka Wrath

1931 St 10540 ft b&w

d/s R.S. Choudhury pc Imperial Film c Adi M. Irani

lp Sulochana, Raghunath, R.B. Jagtap, Makanda, Salvi, Elizer, Sushila

Ramaki (Sulochana), a poor scheduled caste girl, has an illegitimate daughter by Manekchand, the son of the wealthy Krishnadas. She seeks refuge with a nautch girl. Krishnadas, who also wants to possess Ramaki, dies trying to kill her. Ramaki then seeks shelter with a young Muslim but they perish in a fire. Her daughter, along with the Muslim’s son (Jagtap), is raised by a nomad, Garibdas Sadhu (Makanda), a character made to look like Gandhi. The youngsters are hired as factory hands by Manekchand who unwittingly falls in love with his own daughter and appropriates land belonging to Garibdas. When the latter finally curses the greedy Manekchand, a dam bursts, wiping out Manekchand and his property. Although the film focused on the evils of the caste system, censorship troubles arose from Garibdas’ deliberate resemblance to Gandhi.

MARTANDA VARMA

1931 St 11905 ft b&w

d/s P.V. Rao pc Shri Rajeshwari Films, Nagercoil, R. Sunderraj st C.V. Raman Pillai’s novel (1891) c P.E. Naik

lp Jaidev, A.V.P. Menon, V. Naik, V.C. Kutty, S.V. Nath, Devaki, Padmini, Sundaram Iyer

The second Malayalam feature, based on the novel that effectively launched the prose tradition in Travancore. It was the first of a series by Raman Pillai (followed by Dharmaraja, 1913; Premamritam, 1915; Ramaraja Bahadur, 1920) dealing with Travancore’s royalty in a style that Ayyappa Panicker claims (1987) drew directly on Walter Scott’s Waverly novels. It features Jaidev as Martanda Varma (1706–58), the legendary founder of the Travancore State (now Kerala), telling the story of the love between Anantha Padmanabham (Menon) and Parukutty (Padmini), the political conspiracy of Padmanabha Thampi (Naik) and the heads of the eight Nair Houses against Martanda Varma. It opens with newsreel coverage of the aarattu procession of the Travancore maharaja Chitta Thirunal, including elephants, cavalry and the Nair Brigade before embarking on the story of the king’s ancestor. Scenes from the young Martanda Varma’s youth are intercut with well-known episodes from the novel. The Malayalam intertitles, taken from the novel, are also translated into high-flown English. The opening title proclaims: ‘Most Puissant Sovereign, born to carve a State Anew, and rid it clean of Marshalled Hate, released by Fractious Chiefs with Heartless Swords to seize thy realm’. The film may have included references to the contemporary Congress-led nationalism in e.g. titles like ‘Enough of this age-long tyranny. Ye! Freedom-loving sons of the soil! Gird up your loins and fight for your birthright. Rise up from your slumber. Awake, arise and stop not, till the goal is reached.’ There was a copyright dispute with the publishers of the original novel, so that the film was never released and the producer went bankrupt. This also prevented the novel from being filmed later. The available version, minus one reel, was salvaged by the NFAI, and the surviving print is only 7915 ft.

PREMI JOGAN

aka Drums of Love

1931 St 13477 ft b&w

d Nandlal Jaswantlal pc Ranjit Film s Mohanlal G. Dave c Pandurang Naik

lp Shantakumari, D. Bilimoria, Thatte, Putli, Ishwarlal

Amar (Bilimoria) and Ila’s (Shantakumari) love is disrupted by the dashing Samar (Ishwarlal). The rivals get embroiled in the Kashmir war and Samar dies in Amar’s arms. Amar returns to find that Ila has become an ascetic but they eventually get married. This is an early Jaswantlal-Naik collaboration which elaborated the use of the close-up, esp. in melodramas. Naik, who had begun his career as a carpenter at Kohinoor, went on to assist cameramen Gajanan S. Devare and Dabke and turned cameraman with Neera (1926). He later toured Europe with Jaswantlal (1933). They went on to make some classic Imperial sound films together.

SHIRIN FARHAD

1931 120’(11000 ft) b&w Hindi

d J.J. Madan pc Madan Theatres lyr Aga Hashr Kashmiri m Vrijlal Verma

lp Master Nissar, Jehanara Kajjan, Mohammed Hussain, Abdur Rehman Kabuli, Mohan, Miss Sharifa

Narrowly beaten to the screen by Alam Ara (1931) as India’s first sound feature, this is a big-budget musical narrating a legend from the Shahnama. The Persian sculptor Farhad falls in love with Queen Shirin. The shah Khusro, who had promised Farhad a reward for having built a canal, agrees to let him marry Shirin provided he first single-handedly demolishes the Besutun mountain. Shirin and Farhad are finally united in death as Farhad’s tomb miraculously opens to accept Shirin. The film proved a bigger hit than Alam Ara and, unlike the Tanar single-system camera used by Irani, recorded sound and image separately, a technique widely adopted later because it offered greater aesthetic flexibility.

AYODHYECHA RAJA/AYODHYA KA RAJA

aka King of Ayodhya

1932 146’[M]/152’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d/ed V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film st/co-dial [M] N.V. Kulkarni co-dial[H] Munshi Ismail Farooque c Keshavrao Dhaiber lyr/m Govindrao Tembe

lp Govindrao Tembe, Durga Khote, Baburao Pendharkar, Master Vinayak, Nimbalkar, Shankarrao Bhosle, Digambar

Shantaram’s and Prabhat’s first sound film may also have been the first Marathi talkie, although Sant Tukaram by Babajirao Rane was was censored 11 days earlier (on 26 January 1932). A big-budget mythological, it tells a famous Ramayana tale. The truth-loving Harishchandra (Tembe), king of Ayodhya, is tested when the sage Vishwamitra challenges him to sacrifice his kingdom and offer alms of a thousand coins earned through his own labour. After many hardships, Harishchandra, Taramati (Khote) and their son Rohileshwara (Digambar) earn the money when the king and queen are sold as slaves in the city of Kashi. When the queen’s new owner, Ganganath (Pendharkar), tries to assault her, her son intervenes and is killed. Taramati is accused of the killing and is sentenced to be executed by her husband. The Kashi-Vishveshwara deity intervenes, brings the boy back to life, declares the king to have proved himself and returns him to his throne. Shantaram cast the untrained actress and singer Khote when it was still controversial in Marathi theatre to use actresses. Shot on elaborate plaster sets designed by Fattelal, the film had some bravura shots like a burning forest and a tree falling to the ground barely missing the hero. Despite its occasional ‘miracle’ scenes and its stage-derived frontal compositions, there was an attempt at a realist idiom, esp. in the scenes where the king and queen are shown trying to earn their money. Shantaram’s characteristic use of extended pauses and elaborate gesture may here still be due to the technical limitations of the sound equipment (Damle was the sound man), although he later elaborated this acting style into an expressionist technique. Tembe sang most of the songs while Khote performed the hit Bala ka jhop yeyina.

Govindrao Tembe (centre) and Durga Khote (right) in Ayodhyecha Raja

CHANDIDAS

1932 133’(118’) b&w Bengali

d/s Debaki Bose pc New Theatres c Nitin Bose m Rai Chand Boral

lp Durgadas Bannerjee, K.C. Dey, Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Amar Mullick, Dhirendra Bandyopadhyay, Chani Dutta, Umasashi, Sunila

Classic New Theatres saint film about Chandidas, a legendary 15th-C. Bengali Vaishnavite poet whose biography remains obscure but was an influence on the better documented Chaitanya (1486–1533), a school teacher who promoted the Vaishnavite ideology in Bengal, mostly through hymns about the Radha-Krishna legend. Chandidas may have been one of three possible poets: Badu Chandidas, who wrote the Shri Krishna Keertan adapted mainly from the Geet Govind (13th C); Dwija Chandidas or Deena Chandidas. The film mainly adapted Aparesh Chandra Mukherjee’s successful stage musical of the same title, performed first at the Star Theatre in Calcutta (1926), and stressed the poet’s teachings through the love story between Chandidas (Bannerjee) and a low-caste washerwoman, Rami (Umasashi). The conventional villain of the saint film genre, who represents the established order threatened by the outsider’s revolutionary influence on common people, is the rapacious upper-caste merchant Bijoynarayan. When Rami rejects his advances, he persuades the high priest to insist that Chandidas must repent or be punished for associating with a low-caste woman. Chandidas agrees to repent but when he sees the injuries Rami has suffered at the hands of the merchant’s goons, he rejects institutionalised religion in favour of the higher Vaishnavite call for a more democratic god and leaves the village with Rami. Stylistically, the film broke new ground for the studio, distancing itself from the theatre by stressing the poet’s ever popular lyrics. However, the acting remained stilted and used more straight frontal shots than e.g. Debaki Bose’s later films at New Theatres (Bidyapati, 1937). It was the studio’s first major hit. There were several more versions of the story, including Hiren Bose’s Rami Dhoban (1953), told from a woman’s point of view. The film is also noted for its breakthroughs in recording sound with Mukul Bose overcoming the problems of an optical track with varying densities by spacing out dialogue and modulating frequencies.

INDRASABHA

1932 211’ b&w Hindi

d J.J. Madan pc Madan Theatres st Sayed Aga

Hasan Amanat’s play (1853) c T. Marconi m Nagardas Nayak

lp Nissar, Jehanara Kajjan, A.R. Kabuli, Mukhtar Begum

Big-budget adaptation of Sayed Aga Hasan Amanat’s Indrasabha written in 1853 for the Lucknow court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. The often staged play had elaborated the Rahas style, adapted from the Ras-Lila form of Hindi folk theatre and brought specific music and dance conventions into Urdu prose theatre. This new style gradually amalgamated, says Somnath Gupta (1969), ‘The Hindi Devmala [Hindi Pantheon] with the Islami Ravaiyat’ and crystallised into a plot structure revolving around a benevolent king whose moral fibre is tested by celestial powers as they cause an apsara (a fairy) to appear before him as a fallen woman begging for mercy. The language assimilated the Urdu ghazal, Hindustani, Brajbhasa and dialects usually spoken by women (zanana boli). As performed in the Parsee theatre, this performance style also absorbed aspects of European opera, esp. its neo-classical visuals which already contained a measure of baroque Orientalism. The 69 songs, familiar from the stage productions, suggested an Indian equivalent of the Ziegfield Follies. Madan also drew on his Italian connections (Savitri, 1923) and asked his Italian cinematographer to model the complex choral mise en scene on the venerable Italian epics. The film repeated the popular singing duo of Nissar and Kajjan from Shirin Farhad (1931). Marconi later shot and probably directed the Tamil feature Vimochanam (1939).

JALTI NISHANI/AGNIKANKAN

aka The Branded Oath

1932 129’[M]/136’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film dial/lyr/m Govindrao Tembe c Keshavrao Dhaiber

lp Shankarrao Bhosle, Kamaladevi, Master Vinayak, Budasaheb, Nimbalkar, Leela, Baburao Pendharkar

Shantaram followed Ayodhyecha Raja (1932) with this adventure movie about a king (Bhosle) who is overthrown by the perfidy of his villainous Commander (Pendharkar). The young prince (Vinayak) eventually defeats the villain, reclaims the throne and restores his father’s honour. Shot on Shantaram’s (and set designer Fattelal’s) trademark sets of large palaces and neoclassical decor, the film has more sophisticated lighting than its predecessor but the stodgy, static acting style dominates despite Vinayak’s acrobatic swordplay in his first important film role. Shantaram returned to the story for his ambitious Amritmanthan (1934).

MADHURI

1932 155’ b&w Hindi

d R.S. Choudhury pc Imperial Film

s Mohanlal Dave c Adi M. Irani m Pransukh M. Nayak

lp Sulochana, Ghulam Mohammed, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Jamshedji, Hadi, Chanda

Adventure spectacular set in the 4th-C. Gupta period during the battles between the kingdoms of Ujjain and Kanauj. Features the heroic Amber (Patwardhan) and the craven Prince Tikka (Mohammed), both from the Malwa, and the scheming commander of Kanauj, Mahasamant (Jamshedji). Highlights include extensive swordplay by the heroine, Madhuri (Sulochana), who defeats Mahasamant in a duel and later dresses as a male soldier to rescue Amber. Many songs by classical singer Patwardhan.

MAYA MACHHINDRA

aka Illusion, aka Triya Rajya

1932 154’[M]/158’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film st Mani Shankar Trivedi’s play Siddhasansar dial N.V. Kulkarni, Govindrao Tembe[M], Narbada Prasad ‘Aasi’[H] m Govindrao Tembe c Keshavrao Dhaiber

lp Govindrao Tembe, Durga Khote, Master Vinayak, Leela Chandragiri, Rajarambapu Purohit, Bazarbattoo, Nimbalkar, Baburao Pendharkar, Tanibai, Hirabai

Shantaram’s 3rd collaboration with actor-musician Tembe was based on an often-filmed Tantric legend about the guru Machhindranath (Tembe) and his disciple Gorakh (Master Vinayak) on the subject of ‘maya’ (belief in the illusory nature of worldly temptations). The guru appears to his student to have entered the kingdom of man-hating women, married the queen (Khote) and abandoned his commitment to celibacy and pure thoughts. Gorakh sets out to rescue him but the entire experience turns out to be an ‘illusion’ set up by the master. There are many special effects, including the classic shot of Gorakh’s beheading with his head rolling back and rejoining his body. In addition to the conventional use of dissolves and travelling matte effects for ‘miracle’ scenes, Shantaram attempted optical superimpositions for the first time, with animated sparks of fire coming out of swords, or when enemy troops are encircled by flames and lightning. The film includes a spectacular celebration of Vasantotsav (spring festival).

NARASINH MEHTA

1932 139’ b&w Gujarati

d Nanubhai Vakil pc Sagar Movietone

s Chaturbhuj Doshi c Faredoon Irani m Rane

lp Mohanlala, Marutirao, Master Manhar, Master Bachu, Umakant Desai, Trikam Das, Miss Jamna, Miss Mehtab, Miss Khatun, Miss Devi

The first Gujarati feature is a saint film about the life of Narasinh Mehta (1408–75), played by Master Manhar. Known for his evocative Prabhatiyan (morning hymns) and especially for his composition Vaishnava jana to (‘The Vaishnav is he who knows the pain of others’) made popular by Gandhi, who also adapted the poet’s term Harijan (children of god) for the nation’s Untouchables. According to the writer Anandashankar Dhruv, Vakil’s film adhered to the Gandhian interpretation of Narasinh Mehta’s work, avoiding e.g. miracle scenes. The quasi-realistic sets were designed by Ravishankar Rawal. Mohanlala played Ra Mandlik, Khatun was Kunwarbai and Bachu her husband, Janma played Manekbai, Mehtab was Rukmini, and Desai played the god Krishna.

NATIR PUJA

1932 117’ b&w Bengali

d/s Rabindranath Tagore pc New Theatres c Nitin Bose m Dinendranath Tagore

lp Students of Shantiniketan

Widely advertised as a film directed by Tagore, this was, according to B. Jha (1990), a simple recording of Tagore’s 1926 dance drama based on a Buddhist legend, staged on his 70th birthday at the New Empire, Calcutta. Sound recorded by Mukul Bose. Two long shots from the film on 16 mm have recently been restored, although these were probably by a second unit. They feature as part of Arunkumar Roy’s documentary Of Tagore and Cinema (1994).

RADHA RANI

aka Divine Lady

1932 176’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Film s Narayan Prasad Betaab c Pandurang Naik m Jhande Khan

lp Gohar, Bhagwandas, Keki Adajania, S. Baburao

Betaab’s best-known script tells of Radha (Gohar), a carefree rural belle who is supposed to marry childhood friend Gopal, but instead falls in love with a stranger who turns out to be the missing Prince Vijaysingh. When the king despatches soldiers to recover the prince, Vijaysingh discards the pregnant Radha. She is attacked by the villagers for her immorality and eventually appears before the prince, her former lover, in court where she refuses to denounce him. Her child dies, she becomes a prostitute and eventually dies in the arms of the prince.

SATI SAVITRI

1932 153’ b&w Gujarati/Hindi

d/st Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone sc Chaturbhuj Doshi c Pandurang Naik m Jhande Khan

lp Bhagwandas, Ghori, Keki Adajania, Alladdin, S. Baburao, Gohar, Shanta, Kamal, Tara

Ranjit’s debut in Gujarati uses the Mahabharata tale of how Savitri (Gohar) saves her husband Satyavan (Bhagwandas) from the clutches of Yama, the god of death. The film opened up a lucrative regional market for the producers, consolidated by the films of e.g. Ratibhai Punatar and V.M. Vyas.

SATI SONE

aka Champraj Hado, aka Sone Rani

1932 134’ b&w Hindi

d Madanrai Vakil pc Imperial Film s Joseph David c Rustom Irani

lp Jamshedji, Boman Shah, Hadi, Jilloo, Mushtari

Champraj, king of Bundi (Jamshedji), boasts in the court of the maharaja Karansingh of his wife Sone’s (Jilloo) purity and fidelity. The villainous Sher Singh (Hadi) claims to prove otherwise and, through trickery, appropriates a dagger and a handkerchief by which Sone had said she would remember her husband in his absence. Champraj, who stakes his life on his wife’s fidelity, is about to be beheaded when Sone herself, dressed as a dancing-girl, exposes the truth. Based on a script by David, a Parsee theatre playwright, author of Alam Ara (1931) and future Wadia Movietone stunt movies, the film remade Homi Master’s 1924 version.

SHYAM SUNDAR

1932 136’[M]/121’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d/s/lyr Bhalji Pendharkar pc Saraswati Cinetone c D.G. Gune m Bapurao Ketkar

lp Shahu Modak, Shanta Apte, Bandopant Sohoni, Bapurao Ketkar, Sandow, Bapurao Apte

Children’s mythological drawn from the Vishnu Purana telling of the child Krishna (Modak). The film intercuts Krishna’s rural escapades with Pendya and other childhood friends with palace intrigues in Mathura, where Kans receives a divine warning that the boy Krishna shall be the cause of his death. Although the film follows the style of the Gopal Krishna (1929 and ‘38) versions by Prabhat, it was a breakthrough in other ways: it was the first film made in Pune, apparently the first Indian film with a continuous run of more than 25 weeks (at the New West End, Bombay) and the first to introduce the marketing technique of adding a new sequence after the release to attract a repeat audience (the sequence in which Kans is killed). It is also the screen debut of Prabhat stars Apte and Modak as child actors. Pendharkar continued the story’s motifs in his next film, Akashwani (1934).

ZALIM JAWANI

aka The Youth aka Chandraprabha

1932 139’ b&w Hindi

d/s B.P. Mishra pc Imperial Cinetone c Adi M. Irani

lp Master Vithal, Ermeline, Jamshedji, Rustom Poonawala, Hadi, Saku

Mishra, who died in 1932, followed his Draupadi (1931) with this historical fantasy establishing the studio’s trademark genre. The story is drawn from the Rajput war sagas and features the despotic Jaisingh (Poonawala) who usurps the throne of Achalgarh. The court intrigues involve the good Pratap (Vithal), lover of Princess Chandraprabha (Ermeline), hidden testaments from the dead King Udaybhanu, fortune tellers and a swayamvar (a public contest) to claim the princess as a bride. The film’s treatment of sexuality receives an unusual twist when the misogynist Sher Singh (Hadi), a friend of Pratap, is forced to impersonate a woman to protect Chandraprabha from the villain Ranamal (Jamshedji). The main highlights are Master Vithal’s swordplay.

KARMA/NAGAN KI RAGINI

aka Fate aka Song of Serpent

1933 76’[H]/73’(68’)[E] b&w Hindi/English

d J.L. Freer-Hunt pc Indian & British Film Prods p Himansu Rai s Diwan Sharar m Ernest Broadhurst

lp Devika Rani, Himansu Rai, Abraham Sofaer, Sudharani, Diwan Sharar

Himansu Rai continued addressing the European markets with this effort directed by an ex-Royal Navy captain better known for Navy propaganda and training films. The simple plot has the maharani (Devika Rani) fall in love with the neighbouring prince (Rai) despite her father’s disapproval. Shot and synchronised at Stoll Studios in London, it is presented as an Orientalist fantasy with a by Indian standards scandalously prolonged kiss. Devika Rani’s melodious English was a major selling point, with songs like Now The Moon Her Light Has Shed and an advertising blurb quoting the London Star. ‘You will never hear a lovelier voice or diction or see a lovelier face’. Variety (30 May 1933) described it as ‘a sort of modern American romance done against an Indian background.’ The film flopped, encouraging Rai to concentrate on Bombay Talkies.

LAL-E-YAMAN

aka Parviz Parizad

1933 158’ b&w Hindi

d/sc J.B.H. Wadia pc Wadia Movietone st/co-lyr/m Joseph David dial/co-lyr Munshi Ashik co-dial Munshi Sefta m Master Mohammed c Vasant B. Jagtap, Homi Wadia

lp Jal Khambatta, Karimja, Padma, Feroze Dastur, Master Mohammed, Sayani, Nazir, B. Khan, Boman Shroff, Mohini, Kamala, Mayuri, Lola

Classic Parsee theatre-derived Oriental fantasy. The heir to the Yemeni throne, Prince Parviz (Karimja), is falsely imprisoned by his stepmother (Mohini) who claims power. Parviz receives a magic dagger from a mystic sufi fakir (Mohammed) to liberate himself and his people. The dagger makes him invisible. He kills the Apeman (Shroff) and the genii (Khan), rescues the captive Princess Parizad (Padma) and, finally, overwhelms the soldiers sent to recapture him. The king (Khambatta) learns the truth and repents. Lalarukh (Kamala), Parviz’ wife who dresses in male clothes to rescue her husband, sacrifices her life so that he may marry the princess.

MEERABAI/RAJRANI MEERA

1933 131’[B]/154’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/s[H] Debaki Bose pc New Theatres co-s[B] Hiren Bose, Basanta Chatterjee c Nitin Bose m Rai Chand Boral

lp Pahadi Sanyal, Molina Devi, Durgadas Bannerjee[B]/Prithviraj Kapoor[H], Amar Mullick[B], Manoranjan Bhattacharya[B], Sailen Pal[B], Chandrabati Devi[B]/Durga Khote[H], Nibhanani Devi[B], K.L. Saiga[H], Ansari[H]

Big-budget saint film on the life of Meera (Chandrabati Devi/Khote), a princess of the Rajput kingdom of Chittor married to the king of Mewad (Bannerjee/Kapoor). She is persecuted by her husband and her brother-in-law when she abandons worldly possessions to become a devotee of Krishna. She undertakes a journey of penance and performs a miracle which the king attributes to the machinations of the evil army chief Abhiram. After being imprisoned, vilified and accused of infidelity, she dies and is united with her god. The film launches Chandrabati Devi (1903–92) as a major Bengali star, while Khote, already established at Prabhat, went to Calcutta to do the Hindi version (cf. Meera, 1945).

MISS 1933

1933 176’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone c Pandurang Naik m Jhande Khan

lp Gohar, Mehtab, E. Bilimoria, Keki Adajania, Dixit, Ghory, Yakub

Gohar in a classic modernisation melodrama exploring the consequences of female autonomy. Kusum (Gohar) rejects her avaricious uncle’s decision to marry/sell her to a rich man and is adopted by Seth Kisandas (Adajania). She meets his urbanised son Jayant (E. Bilimoria) and his friends Ramesh (Yakub) and Kishori (Mehtab). The love story of Kusum and Jayant explores the complications ensuing from a woman’s freedom to choose. The issue is resolved only after Ramesh molests her: she defends herself and is tried for attempted murder.

PRITHVI PUTRA

1933 154’ b&w Telugu

d Potina Srinivasa Rao pc Saraswati Cinetone

lp K. Raghuramaiah, Parepalli Satyanarayana, Surabhi Kamalabai

The Pauranic story of Narakasura, the demon who, when slayed by Krishna, asks that the day of his death be celebrated by mankind and that he be allowed to descend to earth every year to witness the festivity. Financed by an AP exhibitor, the film, made at the Saraswati Cinetone, was probably the first locally financed Telugu film.

PURAN BHAKT

1933 159’ b&w Hindi

d Debaki Bose pc New Theatres c Nitin Bose m Rai Chand Boral

lp Choudhury Mohammed Rafiq, Kumar, Anwari, K.C. Dey, Umasashi, Kapoor, Tara, K.L. Saigal, Molina Devi, Ansari

The legend of Prince Puran, born under King Silwan of Sialkot’s curse which binds his parents never to set eyes on him until he is 16. Accused of leading a debauched life by an evil general and by the king’s second wife, Puran is sentenced to death. Rescued by the mystic Gorakhnath, he becomes an ascetic. When the king is overthrown, Puran rises from his meditations to depose the general who has seized power, before returning to his life of renunciation. Saigal only appears during his own song sequences.

SAVITHRI

1933 125’ b&w Telugu

d C. Pullaiah pc East India Film

lp Ramatilakam, Vemuri Gaggaiah, Nidumukkala Subba Rao, Surabhi Kamalabai

Mahabharata legend in which Princess Savitri marries Satyavan despite a curse that foretells his death within a year. She manages to get Yama (Gaggaiah), the god of death, to restore her husband to life. With this film the Calcutta-based studio tried to compete with the entry of Bombay studios into the nascent Telugu cinema, inaugurated by H.M. Reddy’s Bhakta Prahlada (1931) using actors from the Surabhi theatres troupe. Pullaiah’s version introduces the star Gaggaiah.

SINHAGAD

1933 134’ b&w Marathi

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film st Hari Narayan Apte’s novel Gad Aala Pan Sinha Gela sc/dial/m Govindrao Tembe c Keshavrao Dhaiber, V. Avadhoot

lp Keshavrao Dhaiber, Shinde, Shankarrao Bhosle, Bazarbattoo, Baburao Pendharkar, Budasaheb, Master Vinayak, Leela Chandragiri, Prabhavati

Based on a Marathi literary classic, but more immediately on Baburao Painter’s 1923 silent version, the film focuses on the 17th-C. Maratha emperor Shivaji’s lieutenant (and folk hero) Tanaji Malusare (Bhosle). Here Kamalkumari, about to commit sati (self-immolation), is captured by Udaybhanu (Pendharkar) and taken to his fort at Kondana. Tanaji dies during his successful attack on the fort with only 50 soldiers. This scene, although not a great piece of action choreography, is imaginatively lit with torches in the background, followed by remarkable shots of Shivaji’s (Shinde) ascent up the hill on horseback. The music was memorable for the songs in the militant Powada form: Mard maratha mawalcha and Tanaji’s strident defence of his king as representing ‘Hindu’ ideals, Jyachi kirti saarya jagaat. Dhaiber had acted in B. Painter’s version (1923) as well.

Nawab (beared, in white), Tara (centre) and K.L. Saigal (foreground, right) in Yahudi Ki Ladki

YAHUDI KI LADKI

1933 137’ b&w Hindi-Urdu

d Premankur Atorthy pc New Theatres sc Aga Hashr Kashmiri from his play Misarkumari c Nitin Bose m Pankaj Mullick, Rai Chand Boral

lp K.L. Saigal, Pahadi Sanyal, Rattan Bai, Gul Hamid, Nawab, Nemo, Ghulam Mohammed, Radharani, Tara

Costume epic and the most faithful adaptation of Kashmiri’s Parsee theatre classic also filmed by Bimal Roy (Yahudi, 1958). The play was written by Kashmiri in 1915, but the movie’s immediate formal ancestor was the Bengali stage version of Kashmiri’s play, Baradaprasanna Dasgupta’s Misarkumari (1919). The familiar story features the rivalry between the Roman priest Brutus and the oppressed Jewish merchant, Prince Ezra. Brutus sentences Ezra’s son to death and Ezra in turn kidnaps and raises Brutus’ only daughter, Decia. When the daughter, renamed Hannah (Rattan Bai), grows up, the Roman Prince Marcus (Saigal) falls in love with her. To court her, he disguises his Roman identity. When his religion is discovered, he is ejected from Ezra’s house. Marcus then agrees to marry Princess Octavia (Tara) as arranged, but Hannah denounces him in open court and he is sentenced to death by his own father, the emperor. When Hannah and Ezra respond to Octavia’s pleas and retract their accusations, they in turn are sentenced to death by Brutus. Ezra reveals to Brutus that Hannah, who is about to be killed, is in fact Brutus’ own daughter. The costumed spectacular was one of the early New Theatres’ most elaborate productions, with 19 songs including Saigal’s Ghalib number Nuktanchi hai gham-e-dil usko sunaye na bane.

ZEHARI SAAP

1933 156’ b&w Hindi

d J.J. Madan pc Madan Theatres s/lyr Narayan Prasad Betaab from his play c T. Marconi m Vrijlal Verma

lp Patience Cooper, Kajjan, Sorabji Kerawala, Sheela, Rosy, A.R. Kabuli, Ghulam Hussain

Typical Cooper vehicle about a medieval chieftain’s revolt against the good Nawab Bakar Malik. The nawab’s outlaw son vows revenge and the adventures end with the royal family reunited. The dramatic pivot is the chieftain’s demand to marry the princess whom he had raised as his own daughter. The theme of incestuous aggression, present in many stories (e.g. Khuda Ki Shaan, 1931), is prevalent in Parsee historicals (as it was in the Elizabethan theatre which fed into that form) and culminated in Mehboob’s Humayun (1945). Cooper provided the matrix for roles later associated with Nargis, evoking an uneasily innocent sexualitv upon which competing males, representing conflicting social-historical forces, make proprietorial claims.

AKASHWANI

1934 151’[M]/149’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d/s/lyr Bhalji Pendharkar pc Kolhapur Cinetone c V.B. Joshi m Gundopant Walavalkar

lp Leela, Nanasaheb Phatak, Master Vinayak, Dr Sathe, Baburao Pendharkar, Master Vasant, Shirodkar, Bhadre

Pendharkar’s anti-imperialist version of the Vishnu Purana legend tells of the villainous Kans (Phatak) plotting to marry Devaki (Leela) to Dikpal (Pendharkar), commander of Magadh’s army. The people of Mathura fear that Magadh will destroy their city-state and foil Kans’ scheme as Devaki marries the beggar Vasudev (Vinayak). The heavens forecast, accurately, that Devaki’s eighth son Krishna (Shirodkar) shall cause Kans’ death. This is the debut production of Kolhapur Cinetone, launched as a rival to Prabhat and featuring Phatak, Pendharkar and Vinayak in roles evoking their screen images established at Prabhat.

AMRITMANTHAN

aka The Churning of the Oceans

1934 155’ b&w Marathi/Hindi

d/dial V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film s Narayan Hari Apte from his novel Bhagyashree lyr Shantaram Athavale c Keshavrao Dhaiber m Keshavrao Bhole

lp Chandramohan[H]/Keshavrao Date[M], Nalini Tarkhad, Sureshbabu Mane, Shanta Apte, Kelkar, Kulkarni, Varde, Budasaheb, Desai

Shantaram’s classic opens with a sensational low-angle circular track movement as Chandika cult followers meet in a dungeon of flickering lights and deep shadow. As the more rationalist King Krantivarma (Varde) banned human or animal sacrifices from the increasingly fanatical festivals dedicated to the goddess, the cult’s high priest (Chandramohan/Date) orders the hapless Vishwasgupta (Kelkar) to kill the king. He obeys but is then betrayed by the perfidious priest and caught. His son Madhavgupta (Mane) and daughter Sumitra (Apte) together with the princess (Tarkhad) and the people finally overthrow the priest. There are several famous scenes, including the twice-told legend of the churning of the seas, once by the priest to show how evil must be exorcised, and again by a good general to show how demons often appear disguised as gods. Although invoking divine intervention when Madhavgupta is about to be sacrificed, the film’s strongly political thrust has the people rise in revolt. Shantaram had just returned from Germany and used several techniques from that expressionist cinema, including the systematic recourse to artificial light, even bleaching the film in places, and, in its most famous shot, the telephoto lens focused on the priest’s right eye in his opening declaration. Prabhat’s first all-India hit introduced names later associated with several of the studio’s productions, with screen debuts from both Date in the Marathi version and Chandramohan in the Hindi. Date perhaps gives his best performance ever, while Apte plays her first adult role. It is composer Bhole’s first professional film. Fattelal and Damle are responsible for the art direction and the sound.

BHAKTA DHRUVA

1934 142’ b&w Kannada

d P.Y. Altekar pc Jayavanti Talkies s/lyr from a play by the Ratnavali Natak Co. m Harmonium Sheshgiri Rao

lp Master Muthu, T. Dwarkanath, H.S. Krishnamurthy Iyengar, G. Nagesh, M.G. Mari Rao, T. Kanakalakshamma

Regarded as the first Kannada feature, though Sati Sulochana (1934) was released earlier. Pauranic mythological about the child Dhruva (Muthu) who eventually finds solace when he becomes a star in the heavens. The film was made by the Marathi stage and film director Altekar, of the Natyamanwantar group, as a tribute to the Kannada theatre personality A.V. Varadachar who died in 1933. Varadachar’s grandson played the lead, surrounded by several actors from his grandfather’s Ratnavali company.

CHANDIDAS

1934 128’ b&w Hindi

d/c Nitin Bose pc New Theatres dial/lyr Aga Hashr Kashmiri m Rai Chand Boral

lp K.L. Saigal, Umasashi, Pahadi Sanyal, Nawab, M. Ansari, H. Siddiqui, Parvati, Ansaribai

Hindi remake of Debaki Bose’s 1932 film by its cameraman. The film stars Saigal as Chandidas and Umasashi as Rami, featuring several of their popular duets (e.g. Prem nagar mein banaongi ghar main) and other songs with Sanyal. Released at Chitra and New Cinema, Calcutta, it became the studio’s first Hindi success.

GUL SANOBAR

1934 154’ b&w Hindi

d/st Homi Master pc Imperial Film sc Mohanlal G. Dave c Rustom Irani m Pransukh M. Nayak

lp Sulochana, D. Bilimoria, Zubeida (?), Jilloo, Chanda, Lakshmi, Ghulam Mohammed, Peerjan, Hadi, Abdul Kader, Syed Ahmed

Adventure drama based on a Persian legend. Mubarak (Kader) kidnaps Sanobar (Mohammed), the son of the king of Yemen (Peerjan) and raises him in the forest. Prompted by Mubarak, Sanobar attacks the king returning from a hunt, but is caught, condemned to be locked in a box and thrown into the sea. A fakir teaches the king the language of the animals, warning him not to pass on the skill to any other humans. Listening to two birds, the king realises that Sanobar is his own son. The queen (Jilloo), learning that the king has special linguistic powers, forces him to teach them to her as well. He does so and becomes paralysed. Only a flower from the mouth of Meherangez, the princess of Sistan (Sulochana) can save him. Umar (Bilimoria), the good prince, attempts the task. Zubeida may have acted in the film as the helpful fairy, Gul. Remake of Master’s 1928 silent film.

GUNSUNDARI

1934 185’ b&w Hindi

d/s Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone c Pandurang Naik m Rewashankar Marwadi, Gangaprasad Pathak

lp E. Bilimoria, Gohar, Keki Bawa, Gangaprasad Pathak, Dixit, Ghory, Ram Apte, Shanta, Charubala, Rampiary, Kamala

Shah’s first remake of his silent hit Gunsundari (1927) presents a more traditional, though complicated, version of the original plot. A joint family headed by Seth Shyamaldas (Bawa) includes two sons Chandrakant (Bilimoria) and Vinu (Apte) and daughter Kusum (Shanta). The stories of the father and each of the three children unfold and in each Gunsundari (Gohar), Chandrakant’s dutiful wife, appears as the saviour. Shyamaldas (Bawa) is a drunkard, accused of fathering an illegitimate child. Chandrakant becomes a drunk falling into the clutches of both the villain Madanrai (Gangaprasad) and the prostitute Bansari (Rampiary) who try to steal his property. Sister-in-law Sushila (Kamala) is unhappily married to Vasantrai (Ghory) who pawns her necklace. Gunsundari gives her some money and later gets into trouble because she is sworn to secrecy and cannot account for the money. As in the silent version, Gunsundari tries to entice her husband back from Bansari, but eventually finds herself on the streets, destitute. She finally meets Chandrakant, who is also on the streets. Eventually all ends happily when they discover, through coincidence, that the dead Shyamaldas has left all his property to his estranged son.

INDIRA M A

1934 158’ b&w Hindi

d Nandlal Jaswantlal pc Imperial Films s Mohanlal G. Dave lyr Dhani Ram ‘Prem’ c Pandurang Naik m Pransukh M. Naik

lp Sulochana, D. Bilimoria, Raja Sandow, Jamshedji, Jilloo, Hadi

Imperial production presenting an East-West conflict in the form of a love triangle. Indira (Sulochana), with an MA from Oxford, rejects the ‘idiot’ Kishore (Sandow) chosen for her by her alcoholic father, the leading lawyer Bansilal (Jamshedji), and falls for the playboy Pyarelal (Bilimoria). However, Pyarelal is a philanderer and the marriage ends in divorce while Kishore remains devoted to his beloved, proving that parents instinctively choose the right man for their daughters. The climactic scene has the father defending the innocent Kishore in court and publicly accusing himself for his daughter’s misfortune, blaming alcohol and his decision to have her educated abroad. Apparently inspired by the play College Ni Kanya and Clarence Brown’s film Free Soul (1931).

LAVAKUSA

1934 c.165’ b&w Telugu/Tamil

d C. Pullaiah pc East India Film s Ramanamurthy lyr Balijepalli Lakshmikanta Kavi m Prabhala Satyanarayana

lp Parepalli Subba Rao, Sriranjani Sr., Master Bhimarao, Malleshwara Rao, Parepalli Satyanarayana, Bhushana Sastry

Made apparently on the used sets of Debaki Bose’s Seeta (1934). It is the Ramayana story of Seeta (Sriranjani) who retires to the forest and gives birth to twin boys, Lava (Bhimarao) and Kusa (M. Rao), who later take on the might of Rama (Subba Rao) unaware that he is their father. Probably the first film to receive a wide release in the AP countryside, it was singer Sriranjani’s film debut and a major hit running in some theatres for over a year. Pullaiah remade the film (1963) with N.T. Rama Rao and Anjali Devi.

MAZDOOR

aka The Mill

1934 142’ b&w Hindi

d/sc Mohan Bhavnani pc Ajanta Cinetone s Munshi Premchand c B.C. Mitra m B.S. Hoogan

lp Bibbo, S.B. Nayampalli, P. Jairaj, Tarabai, Khalil Aftab, Amina, S.L. Puri

One of the first realistic treatments of industrial working-class conditions and the only engagement with cinema of the best-known 20th-C. Urdu and Hindi novelist, Munshi Premchand. In his biography, Premchand: A Life (1982), Amrit Rai noted that Premchand had to accept Bhavnani’s offer for financial reasons after the closure of his journal Jagran. In Bombay for a year, Premchand wrote: ‘What they want are thrilling and sensational films. Without endangering my reputation I shall try and go along with the directors as far as I can, for that I shall be obliged to do. [I]dealism demands a high price and one is occasionally obliged to suppress it.’ Premchand later elaborated his position on the film industry in his essay Cinema Aur Sahitya (publ. in Lekhak, Allahabad, 1935). Shot on location in a Bombay textile mill, the schematic plot opens with the death of a benevolent mill owner whose good daughter Padma (Bibbo) and drunken playboy son Vinodh (Nayampalli) must now run the business jointly. Vinodh’s ruthlessly exploitative management prompts Padma and her protege Kailash (Jairaj) to lead a strike against her brother. Vinodh turns violent, goes to prison and the mill closes. With the workers’ support and a providential order, Padma restarts the business in a humanitarian way and marries Kailash. The president of the Mill Owners Association was a member of the censor board in Bombay and tried to get the film banned. The Punjab Board cleared the film initially, but following near-riots after it was released in Lahore, banned it. The Delhi ban was followed by a Central government decree that the film had an inflammatory influence on workers. The film was a commercial failure, sinking the Ajanta Studio.

PIYA PYARE

aka My Man

1934 144’ b&w Hindi

d R.S. Choudhury pc Imperial Film sc Ardeshir Irani st Mohanlal G. Dave c Adi M. Irani m Pransukh M. Nayak

lp Sulochana, D. Bilimoria, Jilloo, Lakshmi, Chanda, Jamshedji, Ghaznavi

Classic R.S. Choudhury adventure fantasy setting the studio’s top box office duo in an unnamed Rajput-style court. The king’s younger wife Taramati (Jilloo) is condemned to death for infidelity and her son Chandrakumar (Ghaznavi) is brought up by a distant uncle. The elder wife has twins, the lovely Princess Chanda (Sulochana) and the nasty Jaisingh, who turns out not to be their son after all. Rohil (Bilimoria) is the romantic outlaw who is revealed to be the long lost son of the good chief Sajjan Singh (Jamshedji). Rohil helps restore order in the kingdom to Princess Chanda’s delight. Elaborately filmed scenes of a tiger hunt, the cheetah who takes away Rohil when still an infant and lavish palace scenes contributed to its success.

RASHK-E-LAILA

aka Jaaneman

1934 153’ b&w Hindi

d/s Nanubhai Vakil pc Mahalakshmi Cinetone dial G.K. Mehta c V.V. Date m Master Dinkar

lp Zubeida, Bhai Desa, Master Gulab, Hiroji, Pawar, Master Yusuf, Master Joshi

One of the best-known films of Mahalakshmi, a sound film studio set up jointly by star Zubeida and director Vakil. The costumed love fantasy derived from the Arabian Nights and tells of Laila (Zubeida), a gypsy dancer who falls in love with the Persian soldier Asghar (Desa). The villain, who lusts after Laila, is Sardar Sagi (Gulab), right-hand man to the grand vizir (Joshi) who has political ambitions of his own.

SAMAJ KI BHOOL

1934 143’ b&w Hindi

d Homi Master pc Imperial Film st/dial Munshi Zameer c Adi M. Irani m Pransukh M. Nayak

lp Ghaznavi, Dulari, Jamshedji, Syed Ahmed, Abdul Kader, Inayat, Jilloo, Lalita

Unusually violent film for its time advocating widows’ right to remarry. The crooked Daulatram (Jamshedji) sells his daughter Chandramukhi (Dulari) in marriage to Banwarilal. Distraught, her mother commits suicide. Banwarilal is poisoned by his nephew who fears the new wife might produce an heir, and Chandramukhi is forced into prostitution. Her father, now a beggar, chances to see his daughter in this condition and he too commits suicide. The nephew then kills Chandramukhi’s brother Dayaram (Kader) in an argument and Chandramukhi is arrested for the murder. The sorry tale ends happily when the good lawyer Raghuvir (Ghaznavi), Chandramukhi’s original suitor, rescues her in court. The film ends with debates for and against widow remarriage and with Raghuvir marrying Chandramukhi.

SATI SULOCHANA

1934 c.170’ b&w Kannada

d Y.V. Rao pc South India Movietone st a play by Shri Sahitya Samrajya Nataka Mandali sc Bellave Narahari Sastry m R. Nagendra Rao

lp R. Nagendra Rao, M.V. Subbaiah Naidu, Lakshmibai, Tripuramba, C.T. Sheshachalam, Y.V. Rao

First major Kannada film, released before though made after Bhakta Dhruva (1934). Based on a play by R. Nagendra Rao and Subbaiah Naidu’s theatre group, the first of many the duo translated to the screen, it is a Ramayana mythological told from the viewpoint of Sulochana, daughter-in-law of the villain Ravana. Her husband Indrajit, who wounds Lakshman, is eventually killed by Rama, leaving her a widow. According to M.V. Ramakrishnaiah (1992), the film was made in a Kolhapur studio with 2000 extras and spectacular war sequences were shot with two cameras.

SEETA BIBAHA

1934 ?’ b&w Oriya

d/p Mohan Sunder Dev Goswami dial Advaitacharan Mohanty m Haricharan Mohanty

lp Makhanlal Bannerjee, Mohan Sunder Dev Goswami, Krishnachandra Singh, Prabhavati, Buddhimati, Radharani

Oriya cinema’s first feature is a Ramayana mythological telling of Rama’s wedding to Seeta. Made on the initiative of an amateur theatre group in Puri, it was sponsored by Priyanath Ganguly’s Kali Film Studio in Calcutta and cost Rs 30,000. Director Goswami apparently ran a Rasadala group (boys specialising in performing the Krishna Leela). Although the film did well at the box office, the next Oriya film, Lalita, was released only in 1949.

SEETA KALYANAM

1934 c.133’ b&w Telugu

d Ch. Narasimha Rao pc Vel Pics c K. Ramnoth lyr/m Master Penchaiah

lp Master Kalyani, Benzwada Rajarathnam, Madavapeddi Venkatramaiah, T. Venkateshwarulu

The Vel Studio’s debut production is a Telugu adaptation of Prabhat’s Tamil mythological, Seeta Kalyanam (1933). Believed to be the first Telugu film to use outdoor sequences, it is the first independent production of cameraman Ramnoth and art director A.K. Sekhar, later crucial to the Vauhini and Gemini Studios.

SHAHER KA JADOO

aka Lure of the City

1934 136’ b&w Hindi

d/s Kaliprasad Ghosh pc Sagar Movietone c Ambalal Patel m K.C. Dey

lp Sabita Devi, M. Kumar, Motilal, K.C. Dey, Kamalabai, Sitara Devi

After some silent successes ((Nishiddha Phal, 1928; Kanthahaar, 1930), this is Kaliprasad Ghosh’s sound debut during his brief stint at the Sagar Studio. A seminal Sabita Devi social critiquing decadent urban values, it tells of Sundarlal (Kumar) who leaves his wife Lalita (Kamalabai) and children to make a living in the city where he succumbs to depravity and vice. His son dies and his beautiful daughter Sarju (Sabita Devi) defends her virtue and tries to support her mother in conditions of extreme misery. Dressed as a man and accompanied by the blind Baldev (Dey), she scours the city in search of her father, encountering difficulties, including a drunken millionaire she rescues and with whom she falls in love even though he mistakes her for a boy. Dey, a New Theatres singer, moved to Bombay to act in and score this film which saw Motilal’s debut. Ghosh later became better known for 40s/50s Bengali films such as Vidyasagar (1950) and Kar Papey (1952).

SITAMGARH

aka The Tyrant

1934 160’ b&w Hindi

d/co-s Jayant Desai pc Ranjit Movietone co-s/dial/lyr Narayan Prasad Betaab co-s Chaturbhuj Doshi c G.G. Gogate m Banne Khan, Rewashankar Marwadi

lp E. Bilimoria, Keki Bawa, Ghory, Charlie, Dixit, Ishwarlal, Bhupatrai, Ram Apte, Madhuri, Khatun

The tyrant Jabbar (Bawa) attacks the village where lives the famously devout Sayyed (Bhupatrai) and kidnaps his son Iqbal (Bilimoria). Iqbal grows up to become the commander of Jabbar’s army and is as tyrannical as his mentor, campaigning to force the people to accept Jabbar as the true god. He comes upon a camp of ‘true’ religious believers led by Sadiq, his daughter Sadika (Madhuri) and a Princess Hamida (Khatun). The latter falls in love with him, much to the chagrin of Shaddad (Ishwarlal), her suitor. Eventually Iqbal learns of his real ancestry and joins the true believers. He then proceeds to attack those who do not share his religion, nor his belief in Jabbar. When Jabbar realises that his own family now opposes him, he commits suicide. The Ranjit Studio hit evokes the successful Amritmanthan of the same year.

VEER BABRUWAHAN

1934 144’ b&w Hindi

d Jayant Desai pc Ranjit Movietone st Dayaram Shah, Narayan Prasad Betaab c G.G. Gogate m Jhande Khan, Rewashankar Marwadi, Gangaprasad Pathak

lp E. Bilimoria, Madhuri, Bhagwandas, Khatun, Keki Adajania, Ghory, Ishwarlal, Dikshit, Tarabai

Bilimoria’s best-known mythological. Babruwahan (Bilimoria), son of Arjuna (Adajania) and Chitrangada (Tarabai), fights heroically in the Mahabharata war and returns to his mother who despairs at the strife between her son and her husband. He stops a horse that belongs to Arjuna’s army, which is a sign of defiance that leads to further bloodshed. Babruwahan defeats and beheads his own father and is about to follow his mother in an act of ritual suicide when Krishna (Bhagwandas) descends to earth and instructs him to go to the land of the serpents and fetch the mythical Sanjivani Mani to bring Arjuna back to life. This pits Babruwahan against Ullupi (Khatun), daughter of the serpent king and a former wife of Arjuna. After another battle she is forced to surrender the sanjivani mani, but instead she captures the dead Arjuna’s head. Krishna has to intervene again to resolve matters. One of the most adventure-laden of the epics, this tale is popular among producers of mythologicals. It was first made by Phalke (Babruwahan, 1923), then by Nanabhai Bhatt in Hindi (1950) and most recently by Hunsur Krishnamurthy, starring Kannada superstar Rajkumar (Babruvahana, 1977).

BARRISTER’S WIFE

aka Barrister Ki Bibi

1935 158’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone dial/lyr Narayan Prasad Betaab c G.G. Gogate m Rewashankar Marwadi, Banne Khan

lp Gohar, E. Bilimoria, Keki Bawa, Raja Sandow, Ram Apte, Ishwarlal, Bhanumathi, Charlie, Dixit, Bhupatrai, Khatun, Kamala, Shanta

Lily (Gohar) and her college lover Vasant (Bilimoria) vow to commit suicide should circumstances prevent their marriage. Lily’s father forces her to marry a barrister (Bawa) but she persuades Vasant not to kill himself. When Vasant becomes an invalid, she looks after him, causing her husband to disown and ban her from meeting their daughter. Years later, Lily becomes a servant while her daughter Indu (Gohar again) returns from England having become a lawyer. Lily meets Vasant again, who coincidentally is painting a portrait of her daughter. Their encounter leads to a renewal of their death pact but only Vasant dies while Lily is arrested for his murder. In the long trial scenes, Indu defends Lily, the prosecutor is Indu’s boyfriend (Sandow) and the judge is Lily’s ex-husband and Indu’s father.

BHIKHARAN

aka Song of Life

1935 143’ b&w Hindi

d/s Premankur Atorthy pc Kolhapur Cinetone c V.B. Joshi m H.C. Bali

lp Rattan Bai, Master Vinayak, I.A. Hafizji, Pramila, Raja Pandit, Pheroze Bai, Pawar, Gundopant Walavalkar

After quitting New Theatres and moving to Western India, the noted Bengali writer-director Atorthy’s first Hindi film was this bid by Kolhapur Cinetone to enter the Hindi mainstream. It is a four-handed melodrama: Kedar (Hafizji) asks Madhavi (R. Bai) to leave home so that he may marry the rich Chandra (Pramila). But Chandra is only obeying her parents: in fact she loves the painter Kumar (Vinayak). Madhavi, now a beggar singing for alms, becomes Kumar’s model and lover while Chandra tries to get away from Kedar. She enlists Kumar’s help, pushing Madhavi out again. The latter becomes a stage actress while the distraught Kumar becomes a mad street singer. Eventually, Madhavi and Kumar get married. The film belongs mainly to Rattan Bai, a New Theatres singing star recruited to the cinema by Atorthy in Yahudi Ki Ladki (1933).

Bibbo and S.B. Nayampalli in Mazdoor Chandrasena

CHANDRASENA

1935 136’ b&w Marathi/Hindi/Tamil

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film s/dial Shivram Vashikar lyr K. Narayan Kale c Keshavrao Dhaiber m Keshavrao Bhole

lp Nalini Tarkhad, Rajani, Sureshbabu Mane, Kulkarni, Mane Pahelwan, Kelkar, Manajirao, Budasaheb, Shantabai, Azoorie

After his epochal Amritmanthan (1934), Shantaram returned to familiar territory with this special-effects-laden episode from the Ramayana. Indrajit, son of Ravana, initiates an attack on Rama (Mane) and Lakshmana (Kulkarni) in which they are captured by Mahi (Kelkar). They escape with the assistance of Rama’s disciple, the monkey-god Hanuman (Manajirao). The narrative foregrounds Chandrasena (Tarkhad), wife of Mahi, who reveres Rama but disapproves of the bacchanalian orgies and the celebration of liquor that is the norm in his kingdom. She helps resolve the stalemate of the battle when Mahi (who can duplicate himself and his dead soldiers) proves invincible, by revealing the secret formula that will kill her husband. In addition to the usual flying figures and magic arrows mandatory for a Ramayana mythological, there is an effective scene of a gigantic Hanuman picking up a miniaturised human figure. A Tamil version was also made alongside the Marathi and Hindi ones.

DESH DASI

1935 167’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone c G.G. Gogate

lp Gohar, E. Bilimoria, Raja Sandow, Keki Bawa, Dixit, Ghory, Charlie, Ishwarlal, Khatun, Shanta, Ram Apte, Baby Bhanumathi

Shah gave this melodramatic Gohar/Bilimoria/Sandow love triangle a nationalistic twist. Leading a life of boredom typical of the colonised leisure class, Vinakumari (Gohar) and her lover Dr Rasik (Bilimoria) suddenly come across a Gandhian ashram run by Dilip Kumar (Sandow) and other social workers. Vinakumari dedicates herself to the cause of the poor while the ashram faces problems: an entertainment carnival set up by urban businessmen leads the villagers into temptation, a famine breaks out and rapacious landlords, including Bakshiji (Bawa), Vinakumari’s guardian, demand money. Eventually Dr Rasik too joins the group, providing much-needed medical assistance to the workers in the disease-stricken countryside.

DESH DEEPAK

aka Josh-e-watan

1935 160’ b&w Hindi

d/sc J.B.H. Wadia pc Wadia Bros, st/lyr/co-dial Joseph David co-dial Munshi Sarfaraz c Vasant B. Jagtap m Master Mohammed

lp Sharifa, Iqbal, Sardar Mansoor, Sayani, Fearless Nadia, Parsee Charlie, Husn Bano, Puri, Master Mohammed, Boman Shroff, John Cawas, Master Jaidev, Bashir Qawal

Unusual Parsee theatre-influenced costume thriller written by noted stage and film writer Joseph David (Alam Ara, 1931). Two sisters vie for power in a kingdom. The elder one (Iqbal), though hampered by a perfidious general (Sayani), wins and persecutes the younger one (Sharifa) who has the support of the elder one’s husband (Sardar Mansoor). She captures her brother-in-law but he refuses to abandon his patriotic ideals. The nasty general’s daughter (Bano), having lost her lover (Puri) in the war, mobilises the army for a pacifist campaign with the support of an adventurous duo (Nadia and Parsee Charlie) who penetrate the enemy fortress disguised as dancers. Director J.B.H. Wadia saw this film as representing anti-war propaganda and included, in his directorial credit, another one for the ‘pacifistic incidents in the scenario’.

DEVDAS

1935 141’[H]/139’[B] b&w Hindi/Bengali

d/sc P.C. Barua pc New Theatres st Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s novel (1917) c Bimal Roy[H]/Yusuf Mulji, Sudhin Majumdar, Dilip Gupta[B] dial/lyr[H] Kidar Sharma m Rai Chand Boral, Pankaj Mullick[H]/Timir Baran[B]

lp K.L. Saigal[H]/P.C. Barua[B], Jamuna, K.C. Dey, Kshetrabala, Rajkumari[H], A.H. Shore[H], Nemo[H], Biswanath Bhaduri[H], Ramkumari[H], Pahadi Sanyal[H], Kidar Sharma[H], Bikram Kapoor[H], Amar Mullick[B], Dinesh Das[B], Manoranjan Bhattacharya[B], Nirmal Bannerjee[B], Sailen Pal[B], Ahi Sanyal[B], Chandrabati Devi[B], Lila[B], Kishori[B], Prabhavati[B]

Devdas (Saigal/Barua), son of a zamindar, and Parvati (aka Paro) (Jamuna), his poor neighbour’s daughter, are childhood sweethearts. Status and caste differences prevent their marriage and Devdas is sent to Calcutta while Paro is married off to an aged but rich widower. In Calcutta the hero meets the prostitute Chandramukhi (Rajkumari/Chandrabati Devi) but remorse drives him to alcohol and (after a long train journey in which he attempts to run away from himself) he comes to die in front of his true love’s house. Saratchandra’s classic novel, which touched a sensitive nerve with its implied criticism of the spinelessness of the feudal elite, later became a favourite source for films after Saigal’s influential performance. The weak and narcissistic hero, esp. as played by Saigal (confirmed by his major hit song Dukh ke din ab beetat nahin), later grew into a Werther- type cult figure as the story, first filmed in the silent period by Naresh Mitra (1928), was extensively remade in many languages. Saigal apparently sang two songs in P.V. Rao’s Tamil version (1936) also produced by New Theatres. Thereafter the story was remade in Hindi by Bimal Roy with Dilip Kumar (1955) and twice in Telugu (by Vedantam Raghavaiah in 1953 with A. Nageshwara Rao; and by Vijayanirmala in 1974 starring Krishna). The film has become a mythological reference point for Hindi melodrama: in Ramesh Saigal’s realist Phir Subah Hogi (1958), Raj Kapoor is taunted for ‘being a Devdas’ and Guru Dutt used the story as an undercurrent for both Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959). Bimal Roy’s hyperactive camera and sophisticated lighting techniques (e.g. the use of green filters to create a negative effect of black sky above white bushes and grass) contrasts with the static acting style, generating an uncanny emotional resonance reinforced by the dynamic, even distorted editing. Barua’s Hindi version is strictly a remake of the original Bengali in which Barua played the lead. This version was believed lost until a print was recently discovered in Bangladesh. Saigal, who plays Devdas in the Hindi version, had a sensational walk-on part in the Bengali film as one of the visitors to a brothel, singing Kahare jejodathe chai and Golab huey uthuk phutey. This was his Bengali debut and the producers, unsure of his accent and whether a non-Bengali singing Bengali songs would be acceptable to the audience, got the author Saratchandra’s personal approval (his argument in favour was apparently that Bengalis were not the only people who frequented brothels). Saigal later acted in several Bengali films at New Theatres. Most contemporary critics mention the use of parallel cutting, suggesting this technique had a startling impact at the time. The montage of Devdas crying out in delirium, Parvati stumbling and then Devdas falling from his berth in the train, was described as a ‘telepathic’ sequence, sometimes commended for its essential ‘Indianness’ in conveying fate’s dominion over individual destiny. Ritwik Ghatak admired the film greatly and often used it to teach film students about cinematography.

DHARMATMA

1935 144’[M]/152’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film s K. Narayan Kale dial/lyr[H] Narottam Vyas c V. Avadhoot m Master Krishnarao

lp Bal Gandharva, Ratnaprabha, K. Narayan Kale, Master Chhotu, Chandramohan[H]/Kelkar[M], Vasanti

Playing the only male role of his career, the Marathi stage legend Bal Gandharva’s film debut in one of Prabhat’s elite Shantaram-directed releases made this saint film one of the most eagerly awaited productions of the year. He acted Sant Eknath (1533–99), a major Marathi poet, author of the Eknathi Bhagavata and of numerous abhangas evoking folk poetry, esp. the bharuda form of solo performances. The film focuses on Eknath’s humanitarian defence of the ‘untouchable’ castes. Opposed by the evil Mahant (Kelkar/Chandramohan), Eknath becomes a social outcast when he arranges to have the lower-caste people fed before the Brahmins during a prayer meeting at his house, compounding the offence by going to eat in one of their houses. The drama is heightened by Eknath’s son Hari Pandit (Kale) who joins the ranks of the opposition. The happy ending occurs when the film transcends the food motif and Eknath defends himself by reading his poems to the Pradyananda Shastri of Kashi. The ambitious film enjoyed a larger budget than e.g. Sant Tukaram (1936). Its key author was Kale who intended it as a political film and played down the mandatory ‘miracle’ scenes while drawing an explicit analogy between Eknath and Gandhi. The film was originally titled Mahatma but the title was changed after the censor objected. Shantaram’s direction brought it into the Hindi mainstream, making e.g. the Mahant into an ordinary film villain with a nervous tic in one eye, while continuing on another level his expressionist preoccupations with several high-angle close-ups. The only character contrasting Gandharva’s bland performance, extended into most of the other ‘goodies’, is the wisecracking Shrikhandya (Chhotu).

DHOOP CHHAON/BHAGYA CHAKRA

1935 129’[H]/125’[B] b&w Hindi/Bengali

d/sc/c Nitin Bose pc New Theatres st/lyr Sudarshan m Rai Chand Boral

lp Biswanath Bhaduri, Bikram Kapoor[H]/Durgadas Bannerjee[B], K.C. Dey, Ajmat Bibi, Nawab, Kidar Sharma, Pahadi Sanyal, Umasashi, Devbana, Nagendra Bala, Girdharilal Vaid, Indu Mukherjee, Shyam Laha, Sardar Akhtar, Amar Mullick[B], Boken Chatterjee[B], Ahi Sanyal[B]

Shyamlal (Bhaduri) kidnaps Deepak (P. Sanyal), the son of his elder brother Hiralal (Kapoor/Bannerjee), to get a larger share in Hiralal’s will. Deepak is raised by the blind singer and stage performer Surdas (Dey). Deepak grows up and falls in love with Rupkumari (Umasashi). Plagued by the uncertainty of his parentage, they decide to elope and are chased by detectives (Mukherjee and Laha) employed by Hiralal. Following an accident, Deepak loses his memory, only to regain it when he sees Surdas on the stage. The film is dominated by Dey’s powerful singing and the Umasashi-Sanyal love interest. It was the first Indian film to introduce systematically the technique of playback singing (Nitin Bose later claimed it to be one of the first films in the world to do so).

DR MADHURIKA

aka Modern Wife

1935 174’ b&w Hindi

d Sarvottam Badami pc Sagar Film st K.M. Munshi dial/lyr Waqif c Faredoon Irani m Pransukh M. Nayak, Ashok Ghosh

lp Sabita Devi, Motilal, Padma Shaligram, Pesi Patel, Gulzar, Baby Indira, Pande, Bhudo Advani

Dr Madhurika (Sabita) is a ‘modern’ young woman dedicated to her profession who advocates birth control to limit population growth. She marries Narendra (Motilal) on condition that he foregoes children, and does not interfere with her practice or with her choice of friends. The film then presents her as neglecting her home and provoking her husband’s jealousy with her relationship with a smarmy colleague, Dr Gaurish (Patel). When Narendra attends to Dr Gaurish’s suffering wife and then to a starving stranger, Indu (Shaligram), Madhurika gets jealous and agrees to become a dutifully domesticated wife. Using one of Munshi’s rare original scripts, the film exemplifies the Sagar Studio’s commitment to the morality tale disguised as a reformist social.

DO GHADI KI MAUJ

1935 153’ b&w Hindi

d/st Homi Master pc Imperial Film sc Mohanlal G. Dave dial Munshi Zameer c Adi M. Irani

lp Sulochana, D. Bilimoria, Jilloo, Jamshedji, Lalita, Baby Mayuri, Syed Ahmed, Gani, Sohrab, Gulam Rasool

Master’s remake of Kohinoor’s silent-era hit Be Ghadi Mouj (1927) starred Imperial’s top star duo. Hero Kishenprasad (Bilimoria) is an upright engineer with a large family, including his wife Lakshmi (Sulochana), mother Valibai (Jilloo), sister Asha (Lalita) and son Bachoo (Mayuri). He gambles away his happiness and is about to be jailed for embezzlement when he is saved by an honest fellow employee, Hamid (Jamshedji), who takes the blame. The villains are his secretary Kassum (Ahmed) and Sukhlal (Gani), a rich man who wants to marry Asha. When his advances are spurned, he alleges that he had an affair with Kishenprasad’s wife, Lakshmi.

FASHIONABLE INDIA

1935 169’ b&w Hindi

d/s/lyr Mohan Sinha pc Krishna Film c Haribhai K. Patel, Sadashiv J. Vyas m Badriprasad

lp Pushpa, R.D. Shukla, O.K. Dhar (aka Jeevan), Wadilal, B.L. Ganju, Badriprasad, Bhusharan Sharma, Dhanjit Shah

Big-budget drama with ‘special photographic tricks, story, dialogues, songs and the entire production idealised’ by the director. The idealistic Kusum (Pushpa) believes in the ‘fashionable way of modern civilisation’ and writes a play extolling the virtues of modernisation. It is produced by her lover and fellow university student, Ramesh (Shukla), bringing him into conflict with the villainous Madhav (Dhar). The other major character is a local Raja (Wadilal) who also loves Kusum and plans to marry her by settling her father’s debts. This leads to kidnappings and murders before the happy end. Known mainly as a musical spectacular containing English ditties like Daisy, Daisy and Jolly Good Fellow and the film that sank the Krishna Film Studio. Well-known Hindi screen villain Jeevan acts under the name O.K. Dhar, retaining the name for the sequel, Romantic India (1936).

GHAR JAMAl

1935 177’[G]/155’[H] b&w Gujarati/Hindi

d/sc Homi Master pc Premier Cinetone st Mohanlal G. Dave dial[H] Munshi Sagar Hussainc Rustom Irani

lp Heera, Jamna, Baby Nurjehan, Amoo, Alimiya, Jamshedji, Syed Ahmed, Gulam Rasool, Chemist

Master’s big hit was an unusual slapstick remake of his own 1925 film. Mafatlal (Alimiya) is an unemployed adventurer thrown out of his home and told not to return until he has made some money. He responds to an ad for a ‘resident son-in-law for wealthy heiress’, tries to earn commission from a lawyer by instigating lawsuits, impersonates a station-master to dodge the fare, gets chased by cops and a fisherwoman, and gets robbed. Eventually, he is chosen by the original advertiser, Heeralaxmi (Heera), a woman with ‘advanced views’ on everything. Other characters include a phalanx of women standing for election on outlandish platforms. The socially conservative comedy betrayed the anxieties of sexually insecure men when faced with the possibility of the emancipation of women.

Hl ND KESARI

1935 141’ b&w Hindi

d Homi Wadia pc Wadia Movietone st H.E. Khatib sc J.B.H. Wadia lyr Joseph David c M.A. Rehman m Master Mohammed

lp Husn Bano, Sardar Mansoor, Dilawar, Gulshan, Jal Khambatta, Tarapore

The Wadias’ remake of Homi Master’s 1932 silent film is a Ruritanian drama mainly featuring the stunts of the horse Punjab-Ka-Beta. Good King Mansingh (Tarapore) is dethroned by evil minister Zalim Singh (Khambatta). Princess Hansa (Husn Banu) transforms lover Prince Randhir (Sardar Mansoor) from an easy-going youth into the masked Hind Kesari, saviour of the poor.

HUNTERWAL

aka The Lady with the Whip

1935 164’ b&w Hindi

d/sc Homi Wadia pc Wadia Movietone st J.B.H. Wadia dial/lyr Joseph David c Balwant Dave m Master Mohammed

lp Fearless Nadia, Sharifa, Gulshan, Boman Shroff, John Cawas, Master Mohammed, Sayani, Atish, Jaidev

The stunt movie that established the Wadias and Fearless Nadia. Preceded by a legend describing its heroine as a ‘Brave Indian girl who sacrificed royal luxuries to the cause of her people and her country’, the story opens with a prologue showing Krishnavati (Sharifa) and her infant son being thrown out of the house in a thunderstorm by the wicked Prime Minister Ranamal who also killed her brother. 20 years later the now adult son, Jaswant (Schroff), is hit by a royal motor car and given a bag of gold in compensation. His refusal of the gift attracts the admiration of Princess Madhuri (Nadia). When the nasty Ranamal, who wants to many her, imprisons her father the king (Mohammed), she becomes the masked Hunterwali, ‘protector of the poor and punisher of evildoers’, and performer of stunts like jumping over a moving cart and fighting 20 soldiers at once. She steals Jaswant’s prize horse, Punjab, but returns it later. Jaswant chances upon a nude Hunterwali bathing in the river (a rare sequence for Nadia) and after a long duel captures her and takes her to Ranamal to claim his reward. She escapes, but later they join forces and triumph over the villain. There are several bhajans by Govind Gopal, one of them (Hunterwali hai bhali duniya ki sudh leth) in praise of its masked star. Jaidev, later a noted composer, appears here as her sidekick, Chunnoo. J.B.H. Wadia’s original scenario was developed by Joseph David, also known for India’s sound debut Alam Ara (1931).

INQUILAB

aka After the Earthquake

1935 144’ b&w Hindi

d/s Dehaki Bose pc New Theatres lyr Kidar Sharma c Krishna Gopal m Rai Chand Boral

lp Durga Khote, Prithviraj Kapoor, Syed Mohammed, Nawab, K.C. Dey, H. Siddiqui, Mehera, Kidar Sharma, Surama, Malina, Nirmal Bannerjee

Prabhat star Durga Khote’s foray into Calcutta’s New Theatres is a drama set amid an earthquake in Bihar. Miss Renee (Khote) looks after the victims while her lover, the businessman Sardar (Mohammed), wants to make money from the disaster. She comes under the spell of the blind itinerant Musafir (Dey in his usual persona) whose low opinion of the depravity of the wealthy provides the film’s moral backbone. She eventually discovers that as a child she had been promised to Musafir but had been rejected by his family for being of a lower caste. In a dramatic finale, fighting the villainous Sardar’s henchmen, she dies in the itinerant’s arms.

JAWANI KI HAWA

aka Leichtsinn der Jugend

1935 148’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies s Niranjan Pal dial J.S. Casshyap, S.I. Hassan co-lyr/co-m Saraswati Devi, J.S. Casshyap, Najmul Hussain, Bare Agha co-lyr Dhansukhlal K. Mehta c Josef Wirsching

lp Devika Rani, Najmul Hussain, Chandraprabha, Kamta Prasad, J.S. Casshyap, P.F. Pithawala, Talpade, Bhaskar Dev, Mukherjee, Azoorie, Sunita Devi, Solanki, Masiha, Khosla

Osten’s first Hindi sound film was the debut production of Bombay Talkies. It is a romantic crime thriller. Kamala (Rani) elopes on her wedding day with her childhood friend Ratanlaf (Hussain). Her father Maganlal chases the couple and catches them on a train. His furious exchanges with Ratanlal are interrupted by gunfire and in the mysterious gloom of the evening a body is thrown off the train. The suspects are Ratanlal, who cannot furnish an alibi, Kamala, who insists on being the murderess, ex-convict Sukhdev (Dev), who confesses to the murder claiming robbery to be the motive, and the lunatic Tarachand, who also admits his guilt. The film caused a major scandal by employing two sisters from the conservative Parsee community: composer Saraswati Devi and actress Chandraprabha. The Parsee Federal Council tried to ban it and organised demonstrations at the Imperial cinema. Eventually the predominantly Parsee board of Bombay Talkies’ trustees mediated with the leaders of the community and got the film released without censorship.

JEEVAN NATAK

aka Life is a Stage

1935 139’ b&w Hindi

d/s Debaki Bose pc Jayant Pics dial/lyr Narottam Vyas c Y.D. Sarpotdar, Haribhai Patel m Harishchandra Bali

lp Durga Khote, Rampiary, Alaknanda, Shivrani, Lavji Lavangia, Nirmal Bannerjee, Nandkishore Mehra, Trikamlal, Gulam Jilani Sham, Pahelwan

The plot is set in two historical epochs, 1735 and 1935. The spirited Miss Queen (Khote), performing in a period play, recalls a previous incarnation when she was the actual person she is now acting on the stage. She inherited the throne because the state of Ranigarh had no constitutional male heirs and her horoscope was deemed auspicious. Instead of being merely a figurehead, she opposes the corrupt minister Jairaj and army commander Mubarak and, following the advice of the court poet (Pahelwan), she makes sure the royal court is accessible to the suffering people.

JOYMATI

1935 c.14,000 ft b&w Assamese

d/s/m/lyr Jyotiprasad Agarwala pc Chitralekha Movietone st Lakshminath Bezbaruah’s play Joymati Kunwari c Bhopal Shankar Mehta

lp Phanu Barua, Asaideo Handige, Mohini Rajkumari, Swargajyoti Datta, Phani Sarma, Manabhiram Barua, Sneha Chandra Barua, Naren Bordoloi, Rana Barua, Shamshul Haque, Gajen Barua, Putul Haque, Pratap Barua, Rajkumari Gohain, Lalit Mohan Choudhury, Banamali Das, Prafulla Chandra Barua, Kamale Prasad Agarwala

The Assamese cinema debut feature made in an improvised studio built by Jyotiprasad Agarwala on the Bholaguri tea estate. Set in 17th-C. Assam, it tells of the sacrifice of Joymati, a medieval princess who is tortured and killed by the evil prime minister for refusing to betray her husband. The event is interpreted in contemporary patriotic terms and calls for a greater harmony between the people of the hills and the plains (the former represented by Dalimi, a Naga tribesman who shelters the fugitive Prince Gadapani). Available footage was used in Bhupen Hazarika’s commemorative film Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Aru Joymati (1976) devoted to Agarwala.

JUDGEMENT OF ALLAH

aka Al Hilal

1935 158’ b&w Urdu

d/s Mehboob pc Sagar Movietone dial/lyr Munshi Ehsan Lucknowi c Faredoon Irani m Pransukh M. Nayak

lp Kumar, Indira, Yakub, Sitara Devi, Pande, Wallace, Asooji, Razak, Kayamali, Azoorie

Mehboob’s directorial debut was one of Sagar’s classic period movies, better known until then for its reformist socials. It is set in the Ottoman empire where Caesar’s (Pande) Roman armies clash with the Muslim kingdoms. Ziyad (Kumar), the son of the sultan (Asooji), is captured by the Romans. Rahil (Indira), a Roman princess, falls in love with him and asks the Muslim woman Leila (Sitara) to guard him. Leila smuggles a message written in her blood to the sultan. Ziyad eventually escapes with Rahil’s help and the film culminates in an elaborate chase sequence. The film probably drew from the influential style of K.M. Munshi (cf. Prithvi Vallabb, 1924), combining historical fantasies with a reformist sensibility. Apparently inspired by DeMille’s The Sign of the Cross (1932).

KARWAN-E-HAYAT

1935 122’ b&w Urdu

d Premankur Atorthy, Hemchandra Chunder pc New Theatres dial Hakim Ahmed Shuja c Krishna Gopal m Mihirkiran Bhattacharya, Rai Chand Boral

lp K.L. Saigal, Rajkumari, Pahadi Sanyal, Shyama Zutshi, Nawab, Hamid, Rana, Rattan Bai

Adventure movie featuring Saigal as the wild Pervez, heir to the throne of Kascand. In protest at the marriage with the princess (Rajkumari) of neighbouring Bijapore arranged by his mother (Zutshi) and the vizir (Hamid), he leaves and joins a band of travelling gypsies where Zarina (Rattan Bai) falls in love with him. The bad Tikkim, who wants to marry the princess himself, has her kidnapped by the gypsies. In the gypsy camp, Pervez sees her as a dancing girl. They fall in love and defeat the villain while Zarina resigns herself to the class difference between her and the prince.

KEEMTI AANSOO

1935 154’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone sc/lyr Narayan Prasaad Betaab m Rewashankar Marwadi, Banne Khan

lp Gohar, E. Bilimoria, Ishwarlal, Khatun, Ram Apte, Bhanumathi, Charubala

A tearful melodrama about a progressive writer, Pushpa (Gohar), and her weak husband, Kulin (Bilimoria). She has to fight her domineering mother-in-law and the tyrannies of a conservative household. When falsely accused of theft and infidelity by her wayward sister-in-law Gulab, Pushpa is forced out of the house. In her final state of penury, she recalls the examples of the great female Saint-Poets of Indian history, like Meerabai. Secondary characters are used to caricature Bombay’s merchant class e.g. Mahatma Ramanand Adambar, a fortune-teller who suspects his wife of infidelity, and a gold collector called Prof. Pyarelal.

KHOON KA KHOON

aka Hamlet

1935 122’ b&w Urdu

d Sohrab Modi pc Stage Film s Mehdi Ahsan from his Urdu adaptation of Hamlet m Kanhaiya Pawar

lp Sohrab Modi, Naseem Banu, Shamshadbai, Ghulam Hussain, Obali Mai, Fazal Karim, Eruch Tarapore, Ghulam Mohiyuddin, Shamshad, Rampiary, Gauhar, B. Pawar

Modi’s debut featured him as Hamlet in the film version of his highly popular stage performance surrounded by the same principal cast: Banu as Ophelia, Shamshadbai as Gertrude, etc. The play had been made popular by the Parsee Theatre actor and producer Cowasji Khatau. Modi’s film won acclaim mostly for the qualities of the play, esp. the Urdu dialogue. A Times of India review (10.1.1936) noted that Modi’s performance so dominated the film ‘that the other characters do not matter very much’ and criticised the ‘protracted clowning with which the director has attempted to provide relief from the tragic atmosphere’.

MANMOYEE GIRLS’ SCHOOL

1935 152’ b&w Bengali

d Jyotish Bannerjee pc Radha Films Co st Rabindranath Maitra’s play c D.G. Gune m Anath Basu, Mrinal Ghosh, Kumar Mitra

lp Tulsi Chakraborty, Radharani, Jahar Ganguly, Kanan Devi, Jyotsna Gupta, Kumar Mitra

Veteran Madan Theatres director Bannerjee’s comedy adapting a major Bengali stage success, staged originally by Star Theatres (1932). The zamindar Damodar Chakraborty (Chakraborty) starts a school named after his wife and recruits a married couple as teachers. Manas (Ganguly in the role which had made him a stage star) and Niharika (Kanan Devi) pretend to be married in order to get the jobs. Their imposture, together with the fact that he is Hindu while she is Christian, produces complications. Eventually the couple fall in love and get married. The film is remembered mainly as an acting tour de force with Kanan Devi matching Tulsi Chakraborty’s comic talent. The introduction of various small-town stereotypes gives the film an appealing sense of a village populated by laid-back, slightly crazy but basically benevolent denizens. The film was a hit and was remade several times: in Bengali by Hemchandra Chunder (1958), and then, with a partially altered plot, by L.V. Prasad in Tamil (Missiamma, 1955), Telugu (Missamma, 1955) and Hindi (Miss Mary, 1957). Anant Mane also made a Marathi version, Jhakli Mooth (1957).

SHRI KRISHNA LEELALU

1935 199’ b&w Telugu

d Ch. Narasimha Rao pc Vel Pics s A.T. Raghavachari m Galipenchala Narasimha Rao

lp Vemuri Gaggaiah, Sriranjani Sr., Ramatilakam, Saluri Rajeshwara Rao, Parepalli Satyanarayana, Parepalli Subba Rao, Master Avadhani, Lakshmirajyam

Playful mythological featuring the antics of the child Krishna (Rajeshwara Rao) from his birth to his victory over the evil Kamsa (Gaggaiah). It is the film debut of future composer Rajeshwara Rao and one of Gaggaiah’s best-known films.

SILVER KING

1935 161’ b&w Hindi

d/s Chimanlal Luhar pc Sagar Film dial Waqif c Faredoon Irani m Pransukh Nayak

lp Sabita Devi, Motilal, Asooji, Yakub, Tara, Jamoo Patel

One of the best-known costumed stunt movies made at Sagar, in the Mehta-Luhar silent tradition. The king of the idyllic royal state of Jayanagar is kidnapped by his wily commander (Yakub). Ajit, aka the Silver King (Motilal), who leads a band of patriots, frees the king with the aid of the Princess Krishna (Sabita). In the end Ajit is revealed as the crown prince of the kingdom.

THAKICHA LAGNA

1935 52’ b&w Marathi

co-d/co-p/sc Vishram Bedekar co-d/co-p V.N. Bhatt st Ram Ganesh Gadkari’s play dial P.K. Atre c Nana Ponkshe, Anant Marathe

lp Damuanna Malvankar, Balwantrao Pethe, Shankarrao Majumdar, Vithu, Balkoba Gokhale

The noted reformist Marathi playwright Gadkari is known mainly for his classic tragedy on alcoholism, Ekach Pyala (1919), and less so for the humourous prose which he often wrote under assumed names. This film version of his play fields a variety of Maharashtrian rural comedy stereotypes: Nana, Balkya and Balakram use a number of ploys to arrange the marriage of Thaki, the virtually unmarriageable daughter of Timbunana. Scripted by Atre and featuring Marathi comedian Malvankar in his first major screen role, the film pioneered a tradition in Marathi comedy later associated with Vinayak, Atre, and the Hans /Navyug production companies.

USHA

1935 122’ b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Baburao Painter pc Shalini Cinetone c K.V. Machwe m Govindrao Tembe

lp Usha Mantri, Govindrao Tembe, Ratnaprabha, K. Vasudeo, D. Dudhale, Sushila Devi, Karnakar, Kale

The film with which Baburao Painter re-established himself after the closure of Maharashtra Film is a fiction film deploying aspects of the mythological. The demonic King Banasur (Dudhale), a devout disciple of Shiva, wants to eliminate Vishnu and his followers in the guise of Krishna (Tembe), king of Dwarka and an incarnation of Vishnu. Krishna overcomes Banasur’s designs by getting his daughter Usha (Mantri) to fall in love with Aniruddha (Vasudeo). Painter was also responsible for the art direction.

VILASI ISHWAR/NIGAH-E-NAFRAT

aka Orphans of the Storm

1935 140’[M]/148’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Master Vinayak pc Kolhapur Cinetone st Mama Warerkar sc R.S. Junnarkar c V.B. Joshi m Gundopant Walavalkar

lp Master Vinayak, Baburao Pendharkar, Bal Dhavale, Shobhana Samarth, Indira Wadkar, Gundopant Walavalkar, Manohar Mainkar

Master Vinayak’s directorial debut was scripted by Warerkar, noted Marathi playwright and film-maker (Poona Raided, 1924). It is a melodrama about the rich and callous Vilas (Pendharkar), who abandons girlfriend Shama (Wadkar) when he discovers that she is pregnant. She raises her son Nandu (Mainkar) with the help of her younger brother and the film’s hero, Sanjeev (Vinayak). When Vilas re-enters their lives, it is with a new name, Ishwar, and with the intention of seducing the rich Princess Indira (Samarth) who loves Sanjeev. Ishwar has a bad accident and an attack of amnesia that also leads to a confession of his past deeds. The film, which was also actress Shobhana Samarth’s debut, includes an English song, Puff Puff the Engine Said and is apparently the Marathi cinema’s first full-length social (two years before Kunku/Duniya Na Mane, 1937). The Hindi version contained 12 songs.

YASMIN

aka Bewafa Ashq

1935 119’ b&w Hindi

d H.K. Shivdasani pc Eastern Arts dial/lyr Gauri Shankarlal Akhtar c Gordhanbhai Patel m Chandiram

lp Rattan Bai, Amirbai Karnataki, H. Siddiqui, Gope Kamlani, M. Mirza, D. Manek, Hamid, Alexander

Parsee Theatre-derived adventure fantasy about an old man, Gias Baig (Manek) who wants his daughter Zubeida (Karnataki) to marry the rich merchant Shaukat (Mirza) although she loves Rashid (Siddiqui). Zubeida and Rashid plan to elope but are intercepted by Gias Baig who promptly dies of heart failure. Accused by Shaukat of murder, Rashid escapes to a gypsy camp where the beautiful Yasmin (Rattan Bai) entertains him, much to the envy of the gypsy chief Behram (Hamid). When Rashid is arrested, Yasmin’s men rescue him and make him the new clan chief. Hamid (Alexander), a nomad who belongs to Yasmin’s group, rescues Zubeida from Shaukat’s clutches by killing the villain and bringing her to the camp. This creates a love triangle solved only when Yasmin sacrifices her life to save Rashid. Writer-director Atorthy was credited with the ‘personal supervision’ of the film.

ACHHUT KANYA

aka The Untouchable Girl

1936 142’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies s Niranjan Pal dial/lyr J.S. Casshyap c Josef Wirsching m Saraswati Devi

lp Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, P.F. Pithawala, Kamta Prasad, Kishori Lai, Kusum Kumari, Pramila, Anwar, Ishrat

A circular story, told in flashback, in which eternal repetition is only interrupted by death in the form of a relentlessly linear railway engine. The film opens at a railway crossing where a man is about to kill his wife when the narrative spins into the past via a song. The central story is of the unhappy love affair between Kasturi (Devika Rani), the Harijan (Untouchable) daughter of the railway level-crossing guard Dukhia (Prasad), and Pratap (Kumar), the Brahmin son of the grocer Mohan (Pithawala). At first, rumour and mob violence are deployed to lethal effect in order to maintain a ‘traditional’, oppressive morality. Later, when the main protagonists are about to conform and marry selected partners, rumour and maliciousness again intervene to trigger renewed violence until the on-rushing train of fate stops the strife. Enhanced by Wirsching’s contrasted imagery, the plot suggests that both conformity and nonconformity are equally impossible options, the latter being punished by society, the former unable to suppress what it oppresses. The standard formal conflict between circular/traditional time and linear/modernising time is undercut by the suggestion that social-ethical change is as untenable as social stasis. Even fate, associated with the archetypal symbol of modernity and progress, is denied its ultimate victory: the spirit of the defeated lingers, haunting the crossroads, testifying to the ineradicability of desire. The film’s narrative structure and its eruptions into visual stylisation can be seen as a more intelligently complex way of addressing the encounter between Indian and European notions of history than many an attempt to take East-West differences as an explicit theme. With this film, Bombay Talkies also invented its Anglicised fantasy of an Indian village which became a studio stereotype (Janmabhoomi, 1936; Durga and Kangan, both 1939; Bandhan, 1940), resisting the generic shifts in the formula initiated by S. Mukherjee and Amiya Chakravarty. Hero Ashok Kumar later said that he felt his acting in this film to be ‘babyish’.

AMAR JYOTI

aka The Immortal Flame

1936 166’ b&w Hindi

Durga Khote and Chandramohan in Amar Jyoti

d V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Cinetone sc K. Narayan Kale dial/lyr Narottam Vyas c V. Avadhoot m Master Krishnarao

lp Durga Khote, Shanta Apte, Vasanti, Aruna Devi, Chandramohan, K. Narayan Kale, B. Nandrekar

Remarkable Prabhat adventure classic featuring Durga Khote’s most memorable role as the pirate Queen Saudamini. Faced with extreme patriarchal laws in an ancient seaport kingdom and denied the legal custody of her infant son Sudhir, Saudamini becomes a pirate declaring war on the state and especially on its tyrannical minister of justice, Durjaya (Chandramohan). She attacks a royal ship and captures Durjaya, inadvertently also taking Princess Nandini (Apte). In captivity, Durjaya declares his love for Nandini but she falls for a shepherd boy (Nandrekar) who turns out to be Saudamini’s long-lost son Sudhir. Durjaya’s men then capture Saudamini and a palace intrigue ensues marked by her emancipatory rhetoric and the universal humanist arguments of her adviser Shekhar (Kale). The swordplay and stunt action distinguish this film from Prabhat’s other work although Kale’s story bears some resemblance to the plot of e.g. Amritmanthan (1934), with Chandramohan replaying some of his role in the earlier film.

ANSUYA

1936 100’ b&w Telugu

d C. Pullaiah pc East India Film s Balijepalli Lakshmikanta Kavi m Prabhala Satyanarayana

lp C. Krishnaveni, Prakash Rao, Suryanarayana, Narayanarao, P. Sundaramma, R. Balasaraswathi

Ansuya was made and released by Pullaiah as a double bill with Dhruva (1936)(65’), two mythologicals made exclusively with children and telling the stories of Sati Ansuya and Bhakta Dhruva. The films were commended by reviews for their realism in script and casting.

BALAYOGINI

aka Child Saint

1936 c.210’ b&w Tamil/Telugu

d/p/s K. Subramanyam pc Madras United Artistes Corp[Ta]/Mahalakshmi Studios[Te] dial/lyr Papanasam Sivan[Ta], B.T. Raghavacharyar[Te] c Kamal Ghosh m Moti Babu, Maruthi Seetaramayya

lp K. Vishwanathan (aka Vathsal)[Ta], Bharath[Ta], Mani Bhagavathar[Ta], V.R. Chellam[Ta], C.V.V. Panthulu[Ta], K.N. Rajalakshmi[Ta], Baby Saroja, R. Balasaraswathi[Ta], Rukmini[Ta], Brahadambal[Ta], Arani Satyanarayana[Te], Vangara[Te], Kamala Kumari[Te], Thilakam[Te], S. Varalakshmi[Te]

Although there had been some films with a ‘contemporary’ setting (Dambachari, 1935, a Dhiren Ganguly-type story about a playboy being especially influential, being later remade with M.R. Radha as Ratha Kanneer, 1954), this was one of Tamil cinema’s first reformist socials with an original script. A Brahmin widow (Chellam) and her daughter (Saroja) are cast out by wealthy relatives. She seeks shelter in the house of a low-caste servant, causing the enraged Brahmins of the village to set the servant’s house on fire. The film, made by Brahmins, launched Baby Saroja as a legendary star and infringed many caste taboos, including the casting of an actual Brahmin widow in the lead. A group of Brahmins met in Thanjavur and declared the director an outcast. He replied with Bhakta Cheta (1940), glorifying a Harijan saint. In Seva Sadan (1938) he defended the cause of women’s equality and went on to make the classic reformist social Thyagabhoomi (1939). However, in the context of Periyar E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker’s strident anti-Brahminism, Subramanyam’s humanist attack on the irrationality of caste prejudices was very moderate. The lead role was played by the director’s brother, K. Vishwanathan.

BAMBAI KI BILLI

aka Wildcat

1936 170’ b&w Hindi

d Nandlal Jaswantlal pc Imperial Film m Pransukh M. Nayak

lp Sulochana, D. Bilimoria, Jilloo, Lakshmi, Pramila, Abdul Kader, Ali Dadan, Syed Ahmed

A remake of Bhavnani’s silent Sulochana hit crime melodrama, Wildcat of Bombay (1927), again featuring Sulochana as the mysterious criminal nicknamed the Wildcat who is pitted against police Inspector Suresh (Bilimoria). She masquerades as Usha, a medical student, and in this guise falls in love with Suresh. Eventually the Wildcat, after cleaning up the nefarious activities of Pratap and getting arrested for the murder of his henchman Kapoor (Kader), turns out to be the daughter of Judge Biharilal, kidnapped years ago in an effort to blackmail the judge in a murder case.

BANGALEE

1936 142’ b&w Bengali

d Charu Roy pc Shri Bharatlaxmi Pics st Bhupendranath Bannerjee c Bibhuti Das m Tulsi Lahiri

lp Manoranjan Bhattacharya, Nirmalendu Lahiri, Tulsi Lahiri, Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Sarat Chatterjee, Mani Ghosh, Kartick Roy, Bhanu Roy, Manorama, Meera Dutta, Charuvala, Kamala Jharia

One of the first Bengali films to attempt a realist idiom with a story about a lower-middle-class family, praised by Satyajit Ray for its ability to ‘steer clear from Hollywood’. The family consists of Dinadas the father, a mother and some sons, only one of whom earns money. It opens with a series of dissolves presenting each son: one is smoking a cigar and trains for an acting career reciting Michael Madhusudhan Dutt; the next is an aspirant writer smoking a hukka (a bubble-pipe); the third wants to be a dancer and smokes a bidi (reed). The mother complains that there is no peace in the house; the father returns from the market to find everything in a mess; the earning brother prefers to spend his money buying expensive cosmetics. The story shows a rivalry with the family of Sukhadas, first over who Dinadas’s only daughter will marry, and then, more seriously, over the Anglo-Indian prostitute Flora, with whom the sons of both patriarchs fall in love. In an interview reprinted along with excerpts of Bangaleés script in Chitravas (1987), Charu Roy claimed that this was the first film using source lighting as a shooting principle, deploying a tonal range as practised by Osten’s German crew. Tulsi Lahiri, who acted in and scored this film, was also a prominent Bengali film-maker (Happy Club, 1936) and became a key figure in the film industry’s assimilation of the IPTA-influenced realist idiom (e.g. via his acting in Sushil Majumdar’s Dukhir Iman, 1954).

CHHAYA

aka Holy Crime

1936 150’[M]/152’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Master Vinayak pc Huns Pics st/dial/lyr[M] V.S. Khandekar sc R.S. Junnarkar dial/lyr[H] Pandit Indra c Pandurang Naik m Annasaheb Mainkar, Dhamman Khan

lp Master Vinayak, Leela Chitnis, Indira Wadkar, Baburao Pendharkar, Hardikar, Ratnaprabha, Vaishampayan, N.G. Pandit Rao, Anant Marathe

Vinayak’s second film, which was also his regular scenarist Khandekar’s debut with a celebrated melodrama, launched Huns Pictures. A bank employee who steals money to buy medicine for his dying wife is caught, jailed and dies of shame. His eldest son Prakash (Vinayak) publishes a poem in the very newspaper that publicised his father’s crime. The judge (Hardikar) who convicted Prakash’s father gives him a poetry prize and the judge’s daughter Chhaya (Chitnis) happens to fall in love with him. But when she learns of Prakash’s family history, Chhaya allows her father and her suitor, Dr Atul (Pendharkar), to accuse Prakash of molesting her and sends him to prison. Prakash’s destitute sister Kala (Ratnaprabha) becomes a prostitute to pay for the younger brother Suman’s (Marathe) medical bills levied by the ambitious Dr Atul. Kala bears a child and has to kill it. Prakash escapes from jail and works as a porter in a small town. His anonymous existence ends when his autobiographical novel is published. The police eventually catch up with both Prakash and Kala and the two are sent back to jail.

DECCAN QUEEN

1936 158’ b&w Hindi

d Mehboob pc Sagar Movietone lyr Zia Sarhadi c Faredoon Irani m Pransukh Nayak, Ashok Ghosh

lp Surendra, Aruna Devi, Ramchandra, Pande, Pesi Patel, M.A. Mani, Kayamali, Bhudo Advani, Mehdi Raza, Gulzar, Kamala

Mehboob’s only full-scale stunt movie, made presumably after Luhar introduced the genre at Sagar Studio. The crooked trustees of Lala Niranjanmal’s estate try to eliminate its two heirs: the daughter (Aruna Devi) is jailed and the son becomes a penniless wanderer. When released, the daughter becomes the mysterious Deccan Queen, nemesis of evildoers. The plot gets complicated when a clerk in an insurance company, Vrinda (Aruna Devi again), turns out to be the wanted woman’s double. Vrinda falls in love with Inspector Suresh (Surendra), but then later so does the Deccan Queen. The triangle takes unusual turns when the queen impersonates Vrinda and demands that Suresh marry her at once. Apart from the fast-paced stunt action, Aruna Devi’s dual role is the film’s major attraction. It is also the debut of Surendra, a well-known Mehboob singing star (e.g. Anmol Ghadi, 1946).

DO DIWANE/BE KHARAB JAN

aka Gay Birds

1936 171’[H]/153’[G] b&w Hindi/Gujarati

d Chimanlal Luhar pc Sagar Film s K.M. Munshi lyr Raghunath Brahmbhatt c Keki Mistry m Pransukh Nayak

lp Shobhana Samarth, Motilal, Yakub, Rama Devi, Aruna Devi, Kamalabai, Kayamali, Pande, Temuras, Pesi Patel, Raza, Kantilal Nayak, Kamla, Sankatha

The noted Gujarati writer Munshi’s acclaimed comedy, adapted from a popular play, contrasts contemporary culture with the values prevailing 50 years earlier. Dr Mohanlal (Motilal) and Miss Rambha (Shobhana) see themselves as revolutionaries handicapped by being born into conservative families. On the other hand, the millionaire Ramdas opposes his culture although experiencing some discomfort with the adoption of Western values. The film was the first featuring the celebrated star pair of Motilal and Shobhana.

DRAUPAD1 MANASAMRAKSHANAM

1936 159’ b&w Telugu

co-d S. Jagannath, Ramanamurthy pc Lakshmi Films m Papatla Kantaiah

lp Bellari Raghava, S. Rangaswamy, Sivarakrishna Rao, H.N. Choudhury, Daita Gopalam, Jandhyala Gaurinatha Sastry, Banda Kakalingeshwara Rao, Surabhi Kamalabai, Padmavati Devi, Shrihari, Leela

Lakshmi Films’ owner Kavali Gupta signed noted stage actor Raghava to play Duryodhana. At Saraswati Talkies, H.V. Babu was making Draupadi Vastrapaharanam at the same time, although on a smaller budget. Both films told the same Mahabharata episode in which Draupadi is publicly humiliated by the Kauravas and rescued by Krishna. In spite of Raghava’s star presence, the film was not as successful as its rival.

DRAUPADI VASTRAPAHARANAM

1936 185’ b&w Telugu

d/sc H.V. Babu pc Saraswati Talkies s Malladi Achutha Ramana Sastry m B. Narasimha Rao

lp Yadavalli Suryanarayana, C.S.R. Anjaneyulu, Dommeti Suryanarayana, Dommeti Satyanarayana, Nelluri Nagaraja Rao, Arani Satyanarayana, Nagabhushanam, Vemuri Gaggaiah, Parabrahma Sastry, P. Kannamba, Ramatilakam, Katari Shakuntala, Puvvula Nagarajakumari, Puvvula Nagabhushanam

Made in competition with Draupadi Manasamrakshanam (1936), this Mahabharata mythological is the debut feature of Saraswati Talkies, a partnership between Parepalli Sheshaiah, K. Subba Rao and director Ramabrahmam. The film was a hit, noted especially for Anjaneyulu’s performance as Krishna, and for a new generation of Telugu stars, including Kannamba and Gaggaiah, who collectively overshadowed Bellari Raghava’s star draw in the rival production. Y. Suryanarayana plays Duryodhana and D. Suryanarayana plays Bhima.

GRAMA KANYA

aka Village Girl

1936 167’ b&w Hindi

d Sarvottam Badami pc Sagar Film st Jayant Shyam dial Waqif c Faredoon Irani m Rao

lp Sabita Devi, Aruna, Surendra, Yakub, Jamoo Patel, Kayamali, Gulzar, Sankatha, Baby Indira, Pande

Well-known Sagar social with a coincidence-ridden plot structured around the studio’s star Sabita Devi. Hero Kumar (Surendra) studies at university with money borrowed by his poor father from Dinanath (Kayamali) who in return expects Kumar to marry his daughter Bansari (Sabita). Although he makes a city girl, Vilas (Aruna), pregnant, Kumar is forced to wed Bansari, which leaves Vilas at the mercy of the villainous Vinod (Yakub). Then Kumar accidentally kills his father in a car crash and Vilas’s father commits suicide after driving his pregnant daughter out of his house. Bansari, the staunchly faithful village girl, then goes to the city to recover her husband. The film claimed to modernise traditional Hindu ideals.

GRIHADAH/MANZIL

1936 144’[B]/151’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d P.C. Barua New Theatres st Saratchandra Chattopadhyay dial/lyr Arzoo Lucknowi, A.H. Shore[H] c Bimal Roy m Rai Chand Boral, Pankaj Mullick

lp P.C. Barua, Prithviraj Kapoor, K.C. Dey, Boken Chatto, Jamuna, Molina Devi, Ahi Sanyal

The poor but educated Mahim and his childhood friend, the rich but conservative Suresh, both fall in love with the same woman, the liberated Achala. Mahim marries her and they move to a village but she cannot forget Suresh. Her smouldering unhappiness takes the form of a resentment towards the orphaned Mrinal, raised by Mahim’s father, and receives a dramatically visual embodiment when their house burns down. Mahim falls ill, is rescued by Suresh and nursed back to health by Achala. On a train (a metaphor for the irreversibly linear course of life) to a health-resort where Mahim is supposed to convalesce, Suresh on a rainswept night gives in to temptation and elopes with Achala. At the end of the film, there is a dubious reconciliation as Achala is shown following Mahim down a dark road. Much of the film contrasts Mahim’s ‘good’ traditionalism with Saratchandra’s barely concealed hostility towards Achala’s liberated Brahmo Samaj upbringing, which is eventually punished.

HAMARI BETIYAN

aka Our Darling Daughters

1936 154’ b&w Hindi

d/s R.S. Choudhury pc Imperial Film c Adi M. Irani m Annasaheb Mainkar

lp Rose, Kumar, Jilloo, Pramila, Mubarak, Baby Shri, Baba Vyas

An epic drama idealising Indian womanhood. Prince Madan (Kumar) loves university colleague Radha (Rose). The villain Lalsingh (Mubarak) and his sister Vasanthi (Pramila) get him banned from the realm by the king (Vyas), but he marries his beloved anyway. Radha’s estranged mother (Jilloo) becomes a priestess distributing free grain. When Radha goes blind, she is abandoned by her husband and unknowingly meets her mother. An earthquake restores Radha’s sight and allows her to find a buried treasure. Masquerading as the wealthy Princess Chandni, Radha teaches a lesson to all her tormentors, including the king, the prince and the villain.

P.C. Barua (left), Molina Devi (centre) and Jamuna (second from right) in Grihadah

IRU SAHODARARGAL

aka Two Brothers

1936 144’ b&w Tamil

d Ellis R. Duncan p Ramasamy pc Parameshwar Sound, Coimbatore sc S.D.S. Yogi

lp K.P. Kesavan, K.K. Perumal, T.S. Balaiah, S.N. Kannaman, M.M. Radhabai, M.G. Chakrapani, S.N. Vijayalakshmi, M.G. Ramachandran

Shot in Bombay at Sagar Movietone by the American expatriate Duncan, who also edited it, this film was billed as only the 2nd social (cf. Balayogini, 1936) in a Tamil industry dominated by my hologicals. The plot addresses the joint family system: two brothers, Sabapathi and Parupathi, and their wives fight over the family property. The happy resolution requires the introduction of an angel in the shape of a maid. The most interesting aspect of the film is its depiction of the world of commercial drama, the most popular form of urban mass entertainment in 30s Tamil Nadu. Duncan reduced the envisaged 30–5 songs to 13, tightened the editing and integrated the comedy into the narrative rather than leaving it as an autonomous sub-plot. He also endeavoured to get the actors to adopt the rhythms of everyday speech. The producer was a Congress Party sympathiser responsible for the nationalist flavouring of the songs. The film received the blessing of nationalist leaders like S. Satyamurthy and C. Rajagopalachari.

JAGRAN

aka The Awakening

1936 152’ b&w Hindi

d/p Mohan Bhavnani s/lyr Narottam Vyas m S.P. Mukherji, Walter Kaufmann

lp Enakshi Rama Rao, Navin Yagnik, S.B. Nayampalli, Prabha, Narottam Vyas, S.L. Puri, N.N. Tuli, A.S. Gyani, Abu Baker, Shiv Rani Ghosh

Bhavnani’s sequel to the Premchand-scripted Mazdoor (1934) is a melodrama about unemployment. Blackmailer Rasik (Nayampalli) is pitted against the good deeds of Prof. Ramanand, who opens an ashram for the unemployed. The struggles of hero Narayan (Yagnik) and heroine Kokila (Rama Rau) and their tales of sacrifice and starvation before they are united in the ashram, make up the bulk of the narrative. Written by Vyas, an admirer of Premchand, the title evokes the journal Jagran Premchand edited (1932–4). Produced independently by Bhavnani, the film was made at the Wadia Movietone Studio.

JANMABHOOMI

1936 139’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies sc Niranjan Pal dial/lyr J.S. Casshyap c Joseph Wirsching m Saraswati Devi

lp Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Pramila, Khosla, Chandraprabha, N.M. Joshi, Kamta Prasad, H.S. Naik, Jhaverbhai Kaiser, P.F. Pithawala

Following on from Jeevan Naiya (1936) with the same starring duo, this was a nationalist rural drama by Osten who had just joined the Nazi Party in India. The plot has Ajay (Kumar) and his girlfriend Protima (Devika Rani) working on behalf of Indian villagers, incurring the enmity of the local zamindar (Kaiser) and the villainous Sanatan (Pithawala). Ajay’s relentless goodness eventually persuades the zamindar to bequeath his property to the hero, and general well-being reigns as class conflict is transmuted into class collaboration. The film includes the nationalist song Jai jai janani janmabhoomi and other choruses with a similar thrust.

JEEVAN NAIYA

1936 140’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies s Niranjan Pal dial/lyr J.S. Casshyap c Josef Wirsching m Saraswati Devi

lp Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Kamta Prasad, Anwari Begum, Kusum Kumari, K.J. Joshi, S.N. Tripathi

Lata (Devika Rani), daughter of a dancing girl, is brought up by social worker Mathuradas (Prasad) and is engaged to marry the rich Ranjit (Ashok Kumar) when the villain Chand (S.N. Tripathi) arrives to blackmail her with her undisclosed ancestry. Lata is forced to disclose the truth to Ranjit and the assembled wedding guests. Ranjit disowns her but they are reunited when Ranjit, blinded by an explosion, is nursed back to health by a devoted woman who turns out to be his wife. This was Ashok Kumar’s screen debut.

LAGNA BANDHAN

aka Achhuta Daman aka Forbidden Bride

1936 157’ b&w Hindi

d/s Kaliprasad Ghosh pc Sagar Film dial Munshi Ahsan c Faredoon Irani m Pransukh Nayak

lp Sabita Devi, Motilal, Aruna Devi, Leelavati, Azoorie, Gulzar, Sankatha, Ansari, Pesi Patel

A period adventure with Motilal in a famous dual role. Judhajit (Sankatha), the outlawed brother of the king of Udayanagar, wants revenge on the royal family. He had left the palace with one of the king’s twin sons who grew up as Indrajit, the twin of the drunken and debauched Prince Shatrujit (both Motilal) due to marry Princess Chanda (Sabita Devi). Indrajit is sent to kidnap her as part of the vendetta but the two fall in love. Shatrujit is too drunk to go through the marriage procedure and the dewan (Ansari) asks Indrajit to impersonate his brother. Indrajit is now torn between his love for Chanda and his promise to the dewan, but the story ends happily.

MANMOHAN

1936 147’ b&w Hindi

d Mehboob pc Sagar Film s/lyr Zia Sarhadi c Faredoon Irani m Ashok Ghosh

lp Bibbo, Surendra, Yakub, Ashalata, Ramchandra, Bhudo Advani, Pande, Pesi Patel, Kayamali, Mehdi Raza, Zia Sarhadi

The first of Mehboob’s socials at Sagar (e.g. Jagirdar, 1937) using Bibbo in an early example of his woman-centred films interrogating aspects of feudal patriarchy. The painter Ashok (Surendra) who loves the orphaned Vimala (Bibbo) is distressed to learn that she is due to marry Jagdish (Yakub). He paints Vimala’s portraits with a frenzied obsession and becomes a famous artist. Jagdish tries to get Ashok killed. Paralleling this love story is the decline in Ashok’s family fortunes, which eventually leaves him homeless and penniless with only the rich Shanti (Ashalata) who stands by him. Mehboob often liberates his characters from feudal ties by making them orphans (Deccan Queen, 1936; Ek Hi Raasta, 1939), later extending this into the format of structuring the guilt of the woman into a love triangle (Jagirdar, Hum Turn Aur Woh, 1938), transforming his melodramas into social parables (cf. also R.S. Choudhury’s Hamari Betiyan, 1936).

MAYA

1936 122’[B]/132’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/sc P.C. Barua pc New Theatres st Sukumar Dasgupta lyr[H] A.H. Shore c Bimal Roy m Rai Chand Boral, Pankaj Mullick

lp Pahadi Sanyal, Jamuna, K.C. Dey, Azoorie, Boken Chatto[B], Ahi Sanyal[B], Nawab[H], Nemo[H], Vaid[H], Jagdish Sethi[H]

Maya (Jamuna) is the poor cousin of rich socialite Shanta (Azoorie). Shanta is supposed to marry the equally rich Pratap (P. Sanyal), but he falls in love with Maya and fathers her child before going abroad. Shanta causes a separation by intercepting Pratap’s letters to Maya. When he returns, a successful lawyer, he is unable to trace her, while her efforts to meet him are foiled. Later, Maya is accused of murder and is prosecuted in court by Pratap, before the dramatic reconciliation in the courtroom.

MISS FRONTIER MAIL

1936 161’ b&w Hindi

d Homi Wadia pc Wadia Movietone s J.B.H. Wadia c Vasant Jagtap m Master Mohammed

lp Fearless Nadia, Gulshan, Sardar Mansoor, Master Mohammed, Sayani, John Cawas, Jal Khambatta, Jaidev, Minoo The Mystic

This follow-up of Hunterwali (1935) was Nadia’s best-known train movie’. Savita (Nadia), aka Miss 1936, is an amateur hunter while her brother Jayant (Jaidev, later a noted composer) is an amateur film-maker. Their father, Maganlal (Mohammed), arrested for the murder of a station-master, is defended by their uncle Shyamlal (Sayani), who is in fact the mysterious Signal X. Shyamlal causes a major train smash-up (convincingly shot with miniatures) so as to promote his new airline. He then implicates hero Sundar (Mansoor), son of the railway president, in the crime. Savita overcomes the nasty Signal X, whose henchmen are caught on film by Jayant as they sabotage a bridge. Nadia indulges in extensive fist-fights, set to heavy sound effects, and a famous battle alongside Sundar atop a moving train. The film evokes Walter Forde’s British hit The Ghost Train (1931), combined with Feuillade-type deserted houses and mysterious radio messages.

PRABHU KA PYARA

aka God’s Beloved

1936 149’ b&w Hindi

d Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone dial/lyr Narayan Prasad Betaab c G.G. Gogate, D.K. Ambre m Jhande Khan, Banne Khan

lp Gohar, Raja Sandow, E. Bilimoria, Khatun, Charubala, Kamala, Keki Bawa

A melodrama suggesting that atheism is not a desirable option. Heroine Kusum (Gohar), the daughter of atheist millionaire Gumanchand (Bawa), is forced on to the streets when her father is jailed for fraud. She eventually meets the rich Rasiklal (E. Bilimoria), joins the stage and encounters her father once more when he tries to save her from a fire. The atheist father invokes the Almighty to save his daughter, but although she is saved she loses her eyesight. Other characters include the God-fearing but crooked tutor Indulal (Sandow) who later turns into a nice man after all, and Padma (Khatun), who exploits Rasiklal’s alcoholism to the benefit of her lover, Pyarelal.

PREMAVIJAYAM

1936 c.133’ b&w Telugu

d/s Krithiventi Nageshwara Rao pc Indian Art Cinetone lyr Vedula Satyanarayana Sastry m Munuvanty Venkata Rao

lp P. Krishnamurthy, P.S. Sharma, P. Rama Rao, K. Ranga Rao, M. Ramchandramurthy, Bhanumathi, Nookaraju, Rajyam, B. Rajalakshma Bhagavathar

Based on the director’s original stage play and regarded as the first non-mythological Telugu film, the melodrama tells of two lovers who have to overcome parental obstruction to their eventual union. The film is sometimes seen as an early ancestor of the Rohini and Vauhini Telugu melodramas.

PUJARIN

1936 137’ b&w Hindi

d Prafulla Roy pc International Filmcraft, New Theatres st Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s novel Dena Paona c Yusuf Mulji m Timir Baran

lp K.L. Saigal, Chandra, Pahadi Sanyal, Rajkumari, Nawab, Babulal, Kailash, Jagdish, Kidar Sharma, Shyam Laha, K.C. Dey

The Hindi remake of Atorthy’s Dena Paona (1931), New Theatres’ first sound film. The wastrel Jibanananda (Saigal) marries Alaknanda (Chandra) for her money, but ends up falling in love with her. Wanted by the police, he has to abandon her only to reappear years later a wealthy man. He soon turns into an oppressive landlord and comes into conflict with the pujarin (priestess) of the local temple who leads a popular revolt against him. She turns out to be his wife. Eventually Jibanananda has a change of heart and the couple are reunited. Dey plays his usual role of a blind beggar.

RAJPUT RAMANI

1936 138’ b&w Hindi

d Keshavrao Dhaiber pc Prabhat Film st Narayan Hari Apte dial/lyr Narottam Vyas c V. Avadhoot m Keshavrao Bhole

lp Nalini Tarkhad, Nanasaheb Phatak, Shanta Apte, Kelkar, Sureshbabu Mane, Budasaheb, Master Chhotu

Prabhat’s adventure movie, set in a medieval Rajput court, mainly addresses Rajput notions of chivalry. The legendary warrior Mansingh (Phatak) is the nation’s strong man but he is cordially hated even by his own people. Claiming to have been offended by Taramati (Tarkhad), he insists to her eminent father that only a marriage (on terms insulting to her) can placate him. He becomes a tyrant imprisoning large numbers of people, and eventually Taramati’s father, also in prison, leads a popular revolt, threatening to kill his son-in-law. Only Taramati’s decision to protect her husband resolves the conflict. The film has a rare appearance of the Marathi stage legend, Nanasaheb Phatak. Apte played the heroine’s sidekick, Kesar, repeating the two stars’ earlier screen relationship in Amritmanthan (1934). This is ex-cameraman Dhaiber’s best-known directorial effort.

ROMANTIC INDIA

aka Romance

1936 161’ b&w Hindi

d Mohan Sinha pc Rajputana Films m Badriprasad

lp Nurjehan, Radharani, Snehalata, Lily, O.K. Dhar (aka Jeevan), Prem, Shyamsundar, D.P. Bhargava, Badriprasad, Munshi Ratanlal Khanjar, S. Gulab

Exotic adventure drama juxtaposing feudal pleasures with a new world imagery represented by American modernity. Heroine Chandrakala (Nurjehan), daughter of the dewan of a native king, is educated in England and lives in America. She refuses to marry the prince of her ancestral state, an insult that causes her father to be dismissed. She makes amends by disguising herself as a man and becoming the prince’s secretary. A noted sequence set in America features an Indian pilot, Premsingh, who loves Chandrakala and offers to fly her entourage back to India in a Zeppelin, but a mid-flight drama forces the passengers to parachute to safety.

SAMPOORNA RAMAYANAM

1936 c.200’ b&w Telugu

co-d E. Nagabhushanam, S.B. Narayana pc Nidamarthy Bros, Durga Cinetone

lp Pushpavalli, Kadaru Raju

Made locally in AP by a Rajahmundhry-based producer, this mythological features tales from the Ramayana. The film later acquired curiosity value for its primitive technique: workers from the Godavari canals were recruited to play Rama’s (Kadaru Raju) monkey brigade; a train comes into a shot of Rama, Seeta and Lakshmana during their exile in the forest. Kadaru Raju may be Kadaru Nagabhushanam in his days as a major theatre personality.

SAMSARA NAUKA

1936 c.185’ b&w Kannada

d/s H.L.N. Simha pc Devi Films c D.T. Telang, D.B. Chauhan m M. Madhava Rao

lp B.R. Panthulu, M.V. Rajamma, Dikki Madhava Rao, S.K. Padmadevi, M.S. Madhava Rao

Simha’s melodrama, adapted from his successful Chandrakala Natak Mandali play (1933), introduces the theatre group’s emphasis on reformist realism into Kannada cinema. Hero Sundar (Panthulu) marries Sarala against the wishes of his grandfather and is disowned by his family. His troubles, which include harsh treatment by his in-laws and the loss of his job, climax when he is accused of having murdered Sushila, the woman his grandfather originally wanted him to marry. The actor Panthulu later became the most influential Kannada film director in the reformist tradition.

SANT TUKARAM

1936 131’ b&w Marathi

d V. Damle, S. Fattelal pc Prabhat Film s Shivram Vashikar lyr Shantaram Athavale c V. Avadhoot m Keshavrao Bhole

lp Vishnupant Pagnis, Gauri, Bhagwat, B. Nandrekar, Shankar Kulkarni, Kusum Bhagwat, Shanta Majumdar, Master Chhotu, Pandit Damle

This classic film chronicles the life of Tukaram (17th C.), one of Maharashtra’s most popular saint poets, activating the 20th-C. resonances of his turning away from courtly Sanskrit towards vernacular rhythms of religious poetry which constituted the first major emancipatory movement against brahminical caste domination. The episodic plot pits Tukaram (Pagnis) against the Brahmin Salomalo (Bhagwat), who pretends to be the true author of Tukaram’s songs while calling for his ostracisation. In showing Tukaram’s growing popularity and his willing acceptance of the suffering heaped on him and his family by his oppressors, the movie binds song, gesture, rhythm and camera together with character and crowd behaviour denoting the spiritual connection between the poet and the people while separating off the members of the brahminical caste. One of the studio’s cheaper productions, it adheres to most of the conventions of the genre, including numerous ‘miracle’ scenes in which the poet’s god intervenes to demonstrate the truth of Tukaram’s teachings. However, it endows these conventions with an unusual degree of conviction, as in the song Adhi beej ekale, written for the scene in which Tukaram celebrates the fertility of nature and composed in the poet’s own ovi form of 3–1/2 beats, paralleling the work rhythm of women churning a grindstone. Scholars mistook it for an original, hitherto unknown Tukaram composition. The film breaks new ground with Gauri’s earthy portrayal of Tukaram’s wife, Jijai, who energetically squeezes cow-dung cakes for fuel and refuses to ascend to heaven, preferring to stay on earth and look after the children. Other innovations include the extraordinary tracking shot introducing Rameshwar Shastri to the town, showing the people working to the cadence of a song. Gauri, a familiar figure in Prabhat films mainly in walk-on roles, had her first major break in the film and went on to several fine performances in e.g. Manoos/Admi (1939) and Sant Sakhu (1941). Kumar Shahani (1981) pointed to erotic elements in the devotional fervour e.g. in the scenes of the prostitute who is converted by the saint and in Pagnis’s own performance. Art historian Geeta Kapur wrote (1987): ‘[It] belongs [t]o a sub-genre of special significance. The saints’ lives are, as legends, quasi-biographical material [e]xpressly adaptable to historical ends’ in the light of their manifest commitment to spiritual equality and their validation of demotic speech patterns.

SARALA

1936 157’ b&w Hindi

d/sc Premankur Atorthy pc Imperial Film st I.A. Hafizji c Rustom Irani m H.C. Bali

lp Rattan Bai, Kumar, I.A. Hafizji, Jilloo, Pramila, Anant Marathe, Chemist, Asooji, Ahindra Choudhury

Melodrama warning women to be dutifully subordinated wives and not to be tempted by modernising trends towards individual emancipation. The orphaned Sarala (Rattan Bai) is estranged from her loving husband Ramdas (Kumar) by the wiles of villain Avilash (Hafizji). She runs away and, following divine intervention in the form of an earthquake, escapes the villain’s clutches. Living as a beggar, she finally dies in the arms of her husband begging forgiveness.

SIPAHI KI SAJNI/SIPAHINI SAJNI

aka Soldier’s Sweetheart

1936 134’ b&w Hindi/Gujarati

d/s Chandulal Shah pc Ranjit Movietone dial/lyr Narayan Prasad Betaab c G.G. Gogate m Rewashankar Marwadi, Banne Khan

lp Gohar, E. Bilimoria, Ram Apte, Keki Bawa, Ishwarlal, Dixit, Charlie, Ghory, Kesari, Bhupatrai

Gohar-centred adventure movie. She is the ruthless Princess Hansa determined to acquire a treasure map from rival King Sujansingh (Bawa). She daringly steals the map but the king’s misogynist son, Dilipsingh (Bilimoria), manages to get it back. Together they are caught by the outlaw Vijay (Ishwarlal) who also wants the treasure. The film was replete with sword fights, tribal magic and a horse battle at the end when Sujansingh attacks his former friend Vijay to find his imprisoned son.

SONAR SANSAR/SUNEHRA SANSAR

1936 156’[B]/167’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/s Debaki Bose pc East India Film dial N.K. Mehra[H] lyr Vijay Kumar[H] c Sailen Bose m K.C. Dey

lp Menaka Devi, Azoorie, Ahindra Choudhury[B], Dhiraj Bhattacharya[B], Chhaya Devi[B], Bhumen Roy[B], Jahar Ganguly[B], Rampiary[H], Kamala Jharia[H], Gul Hamid[H], Mazhar Khan[H], Vijay Kumar[H], Nandkishore[H], Vedi[H], K.N. Singh[H]

A parable about human suffering and capitalist enterprise. The village headman has bandits attack the house of Ramesh to settle a feud. They kidnap the man’s wife Roma, and abandon their infant son in the forest. Years later, Roma works as the nurse of a kind millionaire while the boy Raghunath shares a neighbourhood house with other unemployed youths who collectively dream of starting a soap factory. The father is a beggar on the streets. None of them know of each other’s existence until circumstances bring the family together and the millionaire eventually funds the soap factory.

ALIBABA

1937 133’ b&w Bengali

d Modhu Bose pc Shri Bharatlaxmi Pics st Khirode Prasad Vidyavinode’s play c Bibhuti Das, Geeta Ghosh m Franco Polo, Nagardas Nayak

lp Modhu Bose, Sadhona Bose, Suprava Mukherjee, Indira Roy, Bibhuti Ganguly, Preeti Majumdar

Dancer Sadhona Bose made her feature debut in Modhu Bose’s acclaimed Arabian Nights musical. Vidyavinode’s play, first staged in 1897 by the Classic Theatre with Nripen Basu and Kusum Kumari, remained one of the most popular pre-WWl Bengali plays. It tells of the Baghdadi woodcutter Alibaba (M. Bose) and his magic ‘Open Sesame’ formula; of the hero’s jealous brother Kasim and of the slave girl Marjina (S. Bose). The film adapts the Calcutta Art Players’ orientalist stage version, giving it a Hollywood-derived exotic flavour. An improvised ‘modern’ dance is inserted, Sadhona Bose’s trademark due to her theatrical work with composer Timir Baran. The slow, mannered acting and the frontally framed tableau shots are enlivened by the dance scenes, esp. the Marjina-Abdallah sequence which long set the standard for film musicals (cf. Lila Desai’s dance in Bidyapati, 1937). The surviving copy is probably incomplete.

AMBIKAPATHY

1937 c.210’ b&w Tamil

d/ed Ellis R. Duncan pc Salem Shankar Films st/dial Elangovan sc T.P.S. Mani c Paul Bricke, Krishna Gopal lyr/co-m Papanasam Sivan co-m K.C. Dey

lp M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, Serukalathur Sama, P.B. Rangachari, T.S. Balaiah, N.S. Krishnan, M.S. Santhanalakshmi, T.A. Mathuram, P.G. Venkatesan, P.R. Mangalam

After Raja Desingu (1936), this is the 2nd major South Indian historical. Set in the year 1083 AD it tells of the poet Kambar (Sama) who wrote the Kambaramayana in Tamil at Karikala Chola’s court and draws on George Cukor’s Romeo and Juliet (1936), including the balcony scene, for the love story between the poet’s son, Ambikapathy (Bhagavathar) and the Princess Amaravathy (Santhanalakshmi). However, class distinctions are maintained as the young lover fails the test of will imposed by the king as a precondition for the marriage. Shot at the East India Studio in Calcutta, the background music was by the blind singer-composer K.C. Dey, and the film was a landmark in the careers of Bhagavathar (esp. the song Bajanai seivay maname), Santhanalakshmi and Balaiah, who played the army commander Rudrasenan. Duncan was fond of ‘return’ scenes: this film opened with the victorious return of Kulothunga Chola to the city of Woriur; in his Shakuntalai (1940) there was the Sage Kanwar’s return from pilgrimage and in Manthiri Kumari (1950) he staged the return home of a marriage party. The scenarist Elangovan, making his debut here, initiated the trend of privileging dialogue over songs.

ANATH ASHRAM

1937 136’ b&w Hindi

d/s Hemchandra Chunder pc New Theatres dial/lyr Kidar Sharma c Yusuf Mulji m Rai Chand Boral

lp Umasashi, Najmul Hussain, Jagdish Sethi, Prithviraj Kapoor, Nawab, Master Satu, Trilok Kapoor, Nemo, Manorama

New Theatres’ reformist melodrama about widow-remarriage. Jai Narain (Sethi), owner of a colliery, forms a happy family with his wife (Manorama), his daughter Saroj (Umasashi), son-in-law Kailash (T. Kapoor), an engineer at the colliery, and their son Nannha (Satu). Kailash dies in a colliery accident caused by Jai Narain. Nannha is sent to an orphanage and Saroj marries Ramesh, who loves her but is unaware of her previous marriage or of being a stepfather, while Saroj misses her dead husband and longs for her absent son. A former suitor, Ranjit (P. Kapoor) appears, knowing her past history. Repeated scenes show Nannha pining for his mother. The problem is finally resolved when Ramesh, who discovers the truth, saves the lonely child’s life in a train accident.

BIDYAPATI/VIDYAPATI

1937 141’[B]/152[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/co-s/dial[H] Debaki Bose pc New Theatres co-s Kazi Nazrul Islam[H] lyr[H] Kidar Sharma c Yusuf Mulji m Rai Chand Boral

lp Pahadi Sanyal, Chhaya Devi, Kanan Devi, K.C. Dey, Lila Desai, Durgadas Bannerjee[B]/Prithviraj Kapoor[H], Amar Mullick[B], Devbala[B], Ahi Sanyal[B], Sailen Pal[B], K.N. Singh[H], Nemo[H], Kidar Sharma[H], Rampiary[H], Mohammed Ishaq[H]

New Theatres’ classic celebration of Mithila’s King Shiva Singha’s (Bannerjee/Kapoor) love for his wife while chronicling the influence of the pacifist court poet Bidyapati (Sanyal). Invited to the royal court by the king, Bidyapati arrives with his faithful follower Anuradha (Kanan Devi). Queen Laxmi (Chhaya Devi) falls in love with the poet, much to the distress of the king. The king falls ill and starts neglecting his royal duties until Anuradha persuades him that true love does not need reciprocation. The queen, equally distressed by her divided loyalties, contemplates suicide, encouraged by the prime minister who is worried by the nefarious impact of Bidyapati’s poetry on the king. Both the king and queen sacrifice their lives before the statue of the god Vishnu who appears to weep at the tragedy. Kanan Devi’s unusually intense performance dominates the film, aided by a fast-moving script that broke with the convention of the static, frontal camera style of Indian film-devotionals (cf. the move from the opening Dhol celebrations to the miracle scenes and the witches’ dance, as well as the complicated climactic sequence). The sustained use of filmic close-ups allows Bidyapati’s poetry to take on an autonomous motivational function in the plot, almost as though his art, rather than he himself, is the story’s true protagonist.

DHARMAVEER

1937 156’ b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Master Vinayak pc Huns Pics st/dial[M]/lyr[M] P.K. Atre sc R.S. Junnarkar c Pandurang Naik m Annasaheb Mainkar

lp Ratnaprabha, Master Vinayak, Baburao Pendharkar, Indira Wadkar, Javdekar, Datar

Atre’s comedy launched a long collaboration with Master Vinayak (e.g. Brahmachari, 1938; Brandichi Batli/Brandy Ki Botal, 1939). The hypocritically pious philanthropist Dinanath (Pendharkar) drinks alcohol claiming it to be holy water, womanises and swindles people in private. He is contrasted with common man Jagadish (Vinayak), abused by all for having failed his matriculation exam eight times and who is loved by the poor flower-girl Kasturi (Ratnaprabha). Jagadish eventually becomes the instrument for the public exposure of Dinanath which makes him a popular hero. He remains unaffected by this turn of events and remains Kasturi’s faithful admirer.

DIDI/PRESIDENT

aka Badi Bahen

1937 140’[B]/153[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/s/c Nitin Bose pc New Theatres m Rai Chand Boral, Pankaj Mullick

lp K.L. Saigal, Lila Desai, Devbala, Durgadas Bannerjee[B]/Prithviraj Kapoor[H], Amar Mullick[B], Bhanu Bannerjee[B], Indu Mukherjee[B], Chandrabati Devi[B]/Kamlesh Kumari[H], Prabha[B], Nawab[H], Jagdish Sethi[H], Bikram Kapoor[H], Shabbir Ali[H]

A famous Saigal musical narrating a strange love story set against 1930s industrialisation and worker-management relations. The 16-year-old Prabhavati (Chandrabati Devi/Kumari) inherits a mill and turns it into an extremely profitable enterprise. Prakash (Saigal) is a worker who designs a more efficient machine for the factory for which he first gets sacked and then is re-employed. He falls in love with Prabhavati’s sister Sheila (Desai), who later makes way for Prabhavati who is also in love with Prakash. Her withdrawal distresses Prakash, causing her to bully the workers who then go on strike. Prabhavati realises the problem and presumably commits suicide (she disappears into an office and locks the door) for the good of her sister and of the business. The unmistakable thrust of the story is that the ‘personal’ (i.e. relations with women) should not be allowed to interfere in male pursuits like business or management, equated with social good. The film has Saigal’s classic number Ek bangla bane nyara. The plot echoes the Guru Dutt script for the unfinished Baharain Phir Bhi Ayengi.

DUNIYA KYA HAI

aka Resurrection

1937 149’ b&w Hindi

d/s G.P. Pawar pc Diamond Pics st Lev Tolstoy’s Resurrection lyr Munshi Aziz c Kukde, Ahmedullah m Annasaheb Mainkar, Kikubhai Yagnik

lp Lalita Pawar, Madhav Kale, Bulbule, Ghanshyam, Indira Wadkar, Fatma Begum, Mankame, Bipin Mehta

An independent production by Lalita Pawar starring herself as a mistreated orphan called Lalita in this rare example of a melodrama drawn from a non-Indian literary source. Madhav (Kale), the son of the family, impregnates Lalita and promises to marry her on his return from Bombay. Years later, Madhav returns married, and refuses to recognise her. To feed her son, Lalita becomes a prostitute and is accused of a murder that takes place in the brothel. The prosecutor turns out to be Madhav.

(From left) Bikram Kapoor, Kamlesh Kumari and K.L. Saigal in President

GANGAVATARAN

aka The Descent of Ganga

1937 142’[M]/134’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d/s/dial/lyr D.G. Phalke co-d Madhukar Bavdekar pc Kolhapur Cinetone c Vasudev Karnataki m Vishwanathbua Jadhav

lp Chitnis, Suresh Pardesi, Kusum Deshpande, Bhagwat, Shankarrao Bhosle, Pathan, Ibrahim, Gawli, Dongre, Barchi Bahadur, Mahananda, Leela Mishra, Ansuyabai

Nearly 70 years old and ailing, Phalke came out of retirement in 1934 to make this, his only sound film, at the invitation of Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur. With a massive budget and two years’ shooting, Phalke made the Pauranic tale which, by all accounts, was a grand mythological spectacle full of miracles and fantasy scenes with special effects credited to Phalke’s son, Babaraya Phalke. Narayan Hari Apte, fresh from his success with Amritmanthan (1934), was hired for the script but he is not credited on screen. The film failed at the box-office and took the studio down with it. Chitnis played the god Shankar, and Suresh played Narada.

HURRICANE HANSA

1937 145’ b&w Hindi

d R.N. Vaidya pc Wadia Movietone s J.B.H. Wadia dial Dunyan c R.A. Rehman m Master Mohammed

lp Fearless Nadia, Husn Banu, Sardar Mansoor, Sayani Atish, Master Mohammed, Minoo The Mystic, John Cawas, Master Chhotu

Hansa (Nadia), daughter of Veer Singh (Mohammed), escapes an attack on her family by the villain Zalim Singh (Sayani) in which her mother is killed, her father injured and her sister Padma (Husn Banu) abducted. Growing up as a Harijan (an untouchable) she transforms the word to ‘Hurricane’, dons a mask and overthrows Zalim. She falls in love with Zalim’s good son Diler (Mansoor). The horse Punjab-Ka-Beta features in its usual key role, rescuing Hansa when she hangs from a cliff, leaping over a wall of fire and aiding the love angle by nudging Diler into the pond where Hansa is having a bath.

JAGIRDAR

aka Landlord

1937 166’ b&w Hindi

d Mehboob Khan pc Sagar Film st Babubhai A. Mehta dial/lyr Zia Sarhadi c Keki N. Mistry m Anil Biswas

lp Surendra, Motilal, Yakub, Zia Sarhadi, Pesi Patel, Bhudo Advani, Bibbo, Maya, Pande

The follow-up to Manmohan (1936) again starred Surendra and Bibbo. She is Neela, he plays Jagirdar Surendra. They secretly marry and have a child. When Jagirdar is presumed dead in a shipwreck, the child is considered illegitimate. The poor peasant Shripat (Pande) helps Neela by marrying her and raising her son Ramesh (Motilal). The husband eventually returns and violently quarrels with Shripat about who ‘owns’ Neela. When the villain Banwarilal kills Shripat, the husband is framed for the killing. The real problem, however, is the son’s rejection of his father, solved when together they face the gangsters in Narayanlal’s (Yakub) den. The orphan motif, repeated from Manmohan, contrasts with the woman’s apparent state of ‘illegitimacy’ and both are used to elaborate a narrative able to question feudal patriarchy (cf. also Hum Turn Aur Woh, 1938) in contrast with e.g. Shantaram’s Kunku (1937), Manoos (1939) or the later Dahej (1950), all of which strongly affirm feudal patriarchy.

JEEVAN PRABHAT

1937 144’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies s Niranjan Pal dial/lyr J.S. Casshyap c Josef Wirsching m Saraswati Devi

lp Devika Rani, Mumtaz Ali, Kishore Sahu, Renuka Devi, Chandraprabha, Maya Devi, Vimala Devi, Aloka, Tarabai Solanki, Saroj Baokar, Kamta Prasad, P.F. Pithawala, M. Nazir, N.M. Joshi, G.S. Vaishampayan

Osten returns to the familiar terrain of rural caste divisions (Achhut Kanya, 1936), adding polygamy to the theme in this story of Uma (Devika Rani), born in an orthodox Brahmin family. To the despair of her parents she values her friendship with low-caste potters, esp. with Ramu (Sahu). When she marries Nandlal (Ali), a man from her own caste, her potter friends are happy for her - until they learn that Nandlal is taking a second wife, Padma, with Uma’s consent. The problem is that Uma is thought to be infertile. Uma returns to her parents’ home mainly because Nandlal is paying no attention to his new wife, and when she returns she meets Ramu again. Nandlal overhears a conversation between Ramu and Uma and, when Uma suddenly discovers that she is pregnant after all, he doubts her fidelity. The problem is only solved by Padma’s generous withdrawal from the scene.

KANHOPATRA

1937 147’ b&w Marathi

d/s/lyr Bhalji Pendharkar pc Shalini Cinetone c K.V. Machwe, S.P. Shinde m Balaji Chougule

lp Leela Chandragiri, Chintamanrao Kolhatkar, Indubala, Sunubai, Gangadharpant Londhe, Jaishankar Danve, Raja Paranjpe, Dinkar Kamanna, Vidyadhar Joshi, Shanta Hublikar

Pendharkar’s social deals with a prostitute who decides to rebel against tradition and the individuals who oppress her. Society, represented by encounters with a variety of males, makes it virtually impossible for her to maintain any dignity. The film was admired for its use of colloquial language.

KISAN KANYA

1937 130’ col Hindi

d Moti B. Gidwani pc Imperial Film st M. Ziauddin sc/dial Sadat Hasan Manto c Rustom M. Irani m Ram Gopal Pandey

lp Padmadevi, Jilloo, Ghulam Mohammed, Nissar, Syed Ahmed, Gani

Rural crime drama featuring an exploitative landlord (Gani) and a good peasant Ramu (Nissar) who is accused of murdering the landlord. Remembered mainly for being one of India’s first colour films, using the Cinecolour process imported by Imperial.

KUNKU/DUNIYA NA MANE

aka The Unexpected

1937 162’[M]/166’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d. V. Shantaram pc Prabhat Film s Narayan Hari Apte from his Marathi novel Na Patnari Goshta lyr[M] Shantaram Athavale dial/lyr[H] Munshi Aziz c V. Avadhoot m Keshavrao Bhole

lp Shanta Apte, Keshavrao Date, Raja Nene, Vimala Vasisth, Shakuntala Paranjpye, Vasanti, Gauri, Master Chhotu, Karmarkar

Neera[M]/Nirmala[H] (Apte) is trapped into marrying the old widower Kakasaheb (Date). He is a progressive lawyer with a son and a daughter of Neera’s age. She refuses to consummate the union, claiming repeatedly that while suffering can be borne, injustice cannot. After facing many hurdles including an aunt (Vasishta), her mother-in-law, and a lascivious stepson Pandit[M]/Jugal[H]) (Nene), her husband has a change of heart and magnanimously commits suicide, enjoining Neera to marry someone more suitable. The change occurs mainly through his widowed daughter Chitra[M]/Sushila[H] (Paranjpye, a noted social worker off screen) who provides a forcefully feminist moment in a speech to the young bride. Apte sings the combative song In the world’s broad field of battle…Be not like dumb, driven cattle written by Longfellow. The original novel was a landmark in Maharashtra’s social reform movement denouncing arranged and venal marriages that ignore women’s rights. Shantaram’s version stresses melodramatic overtones while indulging in some bravura visual stylisations, e.g. in the editing (he edited his own films) of the brief marriage sequence or the shattered mirror scene returning multiple laughing faces to the distraught old man gazing into the mirror, the leitmotif of the ticking clock, etc., many of these stylised images referring obliquely to the old man’s sexual impotence. Apte’s performance in her first leading role displays a modern freshness ahead of its time which established her as India’s foremost singing star of the 30s. The veterans Fattelal and Damle did the art direction and the sound respectively. The Hindi title translates literally as ‘The world will not accept…’ while the Marathi title refers to the vermilion mark adorning the forehead of a married woman.

MINNALKODI

aka Bolt of Lightning

1937 158’ b&w Tamil

d K. Amarnath pc Mohan Pics

lp K.T. Rukmini, B. Srinivasa Rao, Coco, Gogia Pasha

The Tamil debut of Bombay-based producers making cheaper versions of Wadia Movietone stunt films such as C. Parekh’s Jungle Ka Jawan (1938) or Amarnath’s Chashmawali (1939). Left fatherless and swindled by a nasty uncle, young Mohini (Anglo-Indian actress Rukmini) and her servant (Coco, aka Pasubulti Ramulu Naidu, a circus artiste turned comedian) come across the injured dacoit Minnalkodi. When he dies, Mohini takes on his identity and becomes a feared Robin Hood-type figure pursued by Inspector Jayakumar (Srinivasa Rao) who falls in love with her, reforms and marries her. The accent is on Mohini imitating Fearless Nadia as a dacoit: fighting, riding horses and, unusually for the genre, motorcycles. Rukmini models herself on the Hindi cinema’s Gohar, even draping her sari in the Gujarati style.

MOHINI RUGMANGADA

1937 c.165’ b&w Telugu

d Ch. Narasimha Rao pc National Movietone s/lyr Tapi Dharma Rao c Boman D. Irani m B. Narasimha Rao

lp Vemuri Gaggaiah, T. Suryanarayana, Ramatilakam, Pulipati, Vemuri Parabrahma Sastry, Saraswathi, Pushpa, Hemavathi, Kumpatla Subba Rao, Krithiventi Subba Rao, T. Ramakrishna Sastry, Susarla Ramchandra Rao, C. Krishnaveni

Proselytising mythological advocating the ekadashi ‘vrat’ (a ritual fast on the 11th day of the lunar month). Strongly promoted, it claimed to bring a new variety to Telugu cinema, featuring scenes from heaven (Brahmalok) and hell (Yamalok), ‘moulded strictly according to ancient traditions’ (ad in the Andhra Patrika). T. Ramakrishna Sastry, playing Narada, sings his musical forte, Tarangini, with the numbers Ehi mudam dehi and Veekshe kada devadevam in the traditional style.

MUKTI

aka The Liberation of the Soul, A Tale of a Broken Heart

1937 139’[B]/155’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/sc P.C. Barua pc New Theatres st/dial/co-lyr[B] Sajanikanta Das co-lyr[b] Rabindranath Tagore, Ajoy Bhattacharya dial/co-lyr[H] A.H. Shore co-lyr[H] Arzoo c Bimal Roy m Pankaj Mullick

lp P.C. Barua, Kanan Devi, Menaka, Nawab[H]/Amar Mullick[B], Sailen Choudhury[B], Ahi Sanyal[B], Jagdish Sethi[H], Bikram Kapoor[H], Pankaj Mullick[B], Indu Mukherjee[B]

Barua’s classic adultery story tells of an artist, Prasanta (Barua) presented in the stereotypically romantic image: dedicated to his vocation, paying no heed to his scandalous reputation (he paints nude models) and with a cavalier attitude to his conservative father-in-law’s (Choudhury) demands for good social behaviour. He is married to the rich Chitra (Kanan Devi). The couple are in love but neither partner is prepared to compromise their ideals. The marriage falls apart. Prasanta concedes his wife’s demand for a divorce and goes to the jungles of Assam, where for many years his closest associates are a wild elephant and Jharna (Menaka), the wife of an innkeeper named Pahari (P. Mullick). He also makes a sworn enemy of a local trader (Nawab/A. Mullick). Chitra marries the millionaire Bipul (Mukherjee) and they go on an elephant hunt. They kill Prasanta’s pet elephant. Since Chitra believes Prasanta to be dead he avoids meeting her, but he is forced to rescue her from the villainous trader. Prasanta succeeds but dies at Chitra’s feet. The film interprets his death as Chitra’s final achievement of the freedom she had craved. Barua contrasts the regressive story presented as static and unresolved, both as narrative and as performance, with a hyperactive environment that overwhelms the trivial nature of the lead couple’s desires. There are many sequence shots tracking through walls - including the justly celebrated ‘psychological’ opening shot as Prasanta walks through one door after another until he reaches his studio, and from interior to exterior, while nature is exemplified by mountains, trees, wind and charging elephants. This was one of the first elaborate filmic uses of Tagore’s lyrics, with the poet’s original tunes (Sabar range rang, Mesa te hobe, Tar biday belar malakhani), but one of the film’s big hits, Diner sheshe ghumer deshe, was composed originally for the film by Mullick.

PRATIBHA

1937 124’ b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Baburao Painter pc Shalini Cinetone st/co-dial[M] Narayan Hari Apte, from his novel Hridayachi Shrimanti co-dial/co-lyr[H] Pandit Anand Kumar m/co-lyr[M] Govindrao Tembe c K.V. Machwe

lp Durga Khote, Keshavrao Date, Miss Heera, Hirabai Badodekar, Nanasaheb Phatak, Master Shyam, Vishnupant Aundhkar, S.D. Danve, V.S. Jog, Raja Paranjpe, V.B. Date

The poet Prasad (K. Date) lives far from the city in a forest, enjoying only the company of his wife Pratibha (Khote). The court poet Kaveeshwar (Phatak) of a neighbouring kingdom discovers Prasad’s poetry and, more importantly, his beautiful wife, and invites them to his palace, promising fame and glory. Against Pratibha’s advice, Prasad succumbs to temptation, only to see his work plagiarised and his wife harassed. One of Painter’s biggest films at Shalini (and one of the few to have been preserved) shows his control over big sets, lighting and crowd scenes, cf. the princess’s birthday scene with Prasad amid the crowd outside while his poetry is being recited inside, and the film’s emotional highlight when a distressed Prasad and Pratibha leave the palace in a raging storm. The well-known classical singer Hirabai Badodekar sings three songs.

RAJAMOHAN

1937 c.210’ b&w Tamil

d Fram Sethna pc National Movietone s V.M. Kothainayaki Ammal c Boman D. Irani m Yanai Vaidhyanatha Iyer, H.H. Sharma

lp K.P. Kesavan, P.U. Chinnappa, A.K. Rajalakshmi, M.M. Radhabai, Kali N. Rathnam

Stagey musical reform melodrama adapting a well-known novel by the female novelist Kothainayaki Ammal. When his poor mother, a vegetable vendor, becomes too frail to work, the hero, Mohan (Kesavan), drops out of school and becomes a proofreader of a popular journal. Mohan falls in love with the proprietor’s daughter, Rajam, and ends up as editor. When the proprietor is killed Mohan is accused, but he eventually clears himself. The noted actor-singer of stage mythologicals P.U. Chinnappa makes a rare appearance in a contemporary setting as Krishnan, the proprietor’s villainous son. The music was mainly Carnatic and, following the stage convention, Kali N. Rathnam provided comedy relief. In keeping with convention, the film opens with a song in praise of the producers and asks Ganesh to make the venture a success.

SAVITRI

1937 136’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies s Niranjan Pal dial/lyr J.S. Casshyap c Josef Wirsching m Saraswati Devi

lp Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Chandraprabha, Sunita Devi, Vimala Devi, Maya Devi, Sushila, Aloka, Madhurika Devi, Tarabai Solanki, Kamta Prasad, Mumtaz Ali, P.F. Pithawala, M. Nazir

Unusual mythological from the unit best known for ruralist reform dramas. The love story from the Mahabharata, already told as a silent film in the Italian co-production Savitri (1923), features Devika Rani as the heroine born through divine benediction to Ashwapati, and Ashok Kumar as Satyavan, son of an exiled and blinded hermit. Although Satyavan is scheduled to die soon, Savitri marries him and eventually propitiates Yama, the god of death, to return Satyavan’s life and to restore her father-in-law’s sight.

TALKIE OF TALKIES

aka Dasturmoto Talkie

1937 139’ b&w Bengali

d/co-s Sisir Bhaduri pc Kali Films co-s Jaladhar Chattopadhyay’s play Reetimata Natak (1936) c Suresh Das

lp Sisir Bhaduri, Ahindra Choudhury, Jahar Ganguly; Kankabati, Ranibala, Sailen Choudhury, Surabala

A film derived from a play about life imitating art. Prof. Digambar Majumdar’s (Bhaduri) sister Shanta defies her brother’s wishes and marries Biren, whom she nursed to health after knocking him down in her car. Shanta and Biren join the stage, to the consternation of her brother, and come to a tragic end when it is revealed that Biren already has a wife and son. Shanta dies trying to save Biren from committing suicide. Bhaduri’s film version, which follows the old Taj Mahal film style, ignores all the developments in film technique and provides a straight stage adaptation using painted backdrops.

WAHAN

aka Beyond the Horizon

1937 130’ b&w Hindi

d/s K. Narayan Kale pc Prabhat Cinetone dial/lyr Narottam Vyas c V. Avadhoot m Master Krishnarao

lp Shanta Apte, Leela Chitnis, Prahlad, Aruna Devi, Chandramohan, Ulhas, Master Chhotu, Vasant Desai

Kale’s debut direction mixes Prabhat’s baroque period movie style (cf. Amritmanthan, 1934) with the primitivist iconography of Hollywood’s biblical epics. The setting vaguely evokes an ancient Aryan society ruled by Kodandavarma (Chandramohan), a dictator committed to the ideals of Aryan justice. A stone statue of Justice collapses, threatening to crush many slaves. The situation is saved by the youthful Jeevan (Prahlad), the king of an aboriginal tribe. Jeevan then falls in love with Princess Jayanti (Chitnis). Although mainly a romance, the film also addresses ideals of justice and morality. Its key characters include the villainous vice boss Madhuvrat (Chhotu) who plots against Kodandavarma and entraps Uttam (Ulhas), the designated heir to the throne, and the dancing girl Lata (Apte) who is forced to seduce Uttam so as to alleviate the slaves’ suffering. The film was known even at the time of its release for Kale’s innovative screenplay and esp. for the nonsense rhymes of the drinkers at Madhuvrat’s bar.

ABHIGYAN/ABHAGIN

1938 143’[B]/151’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d Prafulla Roy pc New Theatres st Upendranath Ganguly sc Phani Majumdar dial[H] A.H. Shore lyr Ajoy Bhattacharya[B]/Munshi Arzoo[H] c Bimal Roy m Rai Chand Boral

lp Molina Devi, Prithviraj Kapoor[H]/Jiban Ganguly[B], Vijay Kumar[H]/Sailen Choudhury[B], Nemo[H]/Manoranjan Bhattacharya[B], Bikram Kapoor[H]/Bhanu Bannerjee[B], Devbala, Manorama, Hashmat, Menaka, Rajalakshmi, Pankaj Mullick

A tenant attacks the villainous landlord Jawaharlal Choudhury (Nemo/Bhattacharya), injures his son Priyalal (Kumar/Choudhury) and abducts his daughter-in-law Sandhya (Molina Devi). Sandhya escapes unharmed to her relative, the engineer Prakash (B. Kapoor/Bannerjee), but her father-in-law refuses to take her back, believing her to be ‘damaged goods’. Sheltered by the kindly Promode (P. Kapoor/Ganguly), her husband eventually accepts her back although she feels torn between affection for her saviour and her marital obligations. Based on a story by Bengali novelist Upendranath Ganguly (1881–1960), who was a follower of the best-known novelist of the reformist Bengali social, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay, Majumdar’s script is the high point of the film, working with a literary authenticity often attempted but not always achieved by New Theatres.

ABHILASHA

aka Postman

1938 134’ b&w Hindi

co-d/s/lyr Zia Sarhadi co-d Mahendra Thakore pc Sagar Film c Rajnikant Pandya m Anil Biswas

lp Kumar, Bibbo, Maya, Yakub, Bhudo Advani, Sankatha

Sarhadi’s directorial debut constituted a move towards a didactic cinema, following e.g. R.S. Choudhury’s Hamari Betiyan (1936), later extended by Mehboob. Postman Shishir (Kumar) is obsessed by the desire to own a car. He meets the crook Vinod (Yakub) who promises him a car if he will become his accomplice. The film includes a character named Devdas (Advani) obsessed with violins, who provokes the failure of Vinod’s plot to have Shishir framed for the murder of Sushila (Bibbo).

ADHIKAR

1938 133’[B]/132[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/s P.C. Barua pc New Theatres dial/lyr[B] Ajoy Bhattacharya lyr[H] Munshi Arzoo, Rashid c Yusuf Mulji m Timir Baran

lp P.C. Barua, Jamuna, Pahadi Sanyal, Pankaj Mullick, Rajalakshmi, Menaka Devi, Sailen Choudhury[B], Indu Mukherjee[B], Molina Devi[B], Chitralekha[B], Ushabati[B], Jagdish Sethi[H], Bikram Kapoor[H]

Melodrama about lineage and property questions. Nikhilesh (Barua) loves heiress Indira (Jamuna). A poor orphan girl, Radha (Menaka Devi), arrives claiming to be Indira’s stepsister and therefore part inheritor of the family estate. Indira agrees to share her inheritance but then Radha makes a play for Nikhilesh. Ultimately, Radha turns out to be the real and sole heir. Love proves to be stronger than material possession as Indira and Nikhilesh get married and Radha finds happiness with Ratan, a man she had known and loved during her days of poverty. As each character returns to the class of his/her birth, the message hammered home is a warning to people never to transcend their social status. Barua continues his emphasis on the contrast between poverty and wealth, stylising the opulence of the wealthy interiors. Radha becomes ‘unnatural’ away from the realism of her slum while Indira’s problem, threatened with the potential loss of her property, is seen mainly as one of alienation. The film also continues Barua’s fascination with showing the urban-rural (read modern-traditional) split through the contrasting personalities of two women, a device inaugurated in Devdas (1935) and repeated even in his last major film Shesh Uttar/Jawab (1942), although Adhikar is probably the most confused and cynical of its many versions.

BAGHBAN

1938 159’ b&w Hindi

d/sc/dial A.R. Kardar pc General Films st Begum Ansari lyr Mirza Musharraf c Kukde m Mushtaq Hussain

lp Bimala Kumari, B. Nandrekar, Sitara Devi, Yasmin, Putlibai, Ashraf Khan, Nazir, Lala Yakub, K.N. Singh, R. Wasti, Mirza Musharraf

The naive Saroop (Nandrekar) romantically renounces earthly pleasures under the influence of a sadhu (Ashraf Khan). Arrested at a fairground and jailed, fellow convicts change his view of the world. Working in the prison’s garden, he meets the superintendent Sohanlal’s (Nazir) daughter Durga (Kumari), who was married as a child to a boy now believed dead. Ranjit (Singh) covets her and on her wedding day to the nasty Ranjit, it is discovered that Saroop was her child-husband. Kardar’s fascination with sexually deviant behaviour and the violence just below the surface of reformism (cf. Pagal, Pooja, both 1940) is manifest in one of his first Bombay films.

BALAN

1938 180’(16,235 ft) b&w Malayalam

d S. Nottani p T.R. Sundaram pc Modern Theatres st/co-dial A. Sundaram sc/co-dial/lyr Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai c Bado Gushwalkar

lp K.N. Laxmikutty, A.K. Kamalam, K.K. Aroor, Alleppey Vincent, A.B. Pious, Master Madan, Gopal, Miss Malathy, C.O.N. Nambiar, M.V. Sanku, Gopinathan Nair, Parukutty

Described as the first Malayalam sound film, made at the Modern Theatres, Salem. The story features the struggles of two orphaned children, Balan and his younger sister, oppressed and exploited by an evil stepmother until they are rescued by a kindly lawyer. The film ends with Balan sacrificing his happiness for that of his sister. Many of the stereotypes, esp. the wicked stepmother taking over the ancestral property of her spineless husband, and the helpless children, dominated the early Malayalam cinema for some time after they were introduced there. Apparently initiated by a Nagercoil resident, A. Sundaram, who got the Modern Theatres to back his project of filming his story Mrs Nair and Fate, was later eased out by the studio who recommissioned the script to playwright Pillai. Director Nottani also directed the next attempt in the campaign by Tamil producers to capture a Malayalam market, with Gnanambika (1940).

BHAKTA JAYADEVA

1938 c.155’ b&w Telugu

d Hiren Bose pc Andhra Cinetone

lp Rentachintala Satyanarayana, Surabhi Kamalabai, Shantakumari, V. Venkateshwarulu

Big-budget but unsuccessful saint film about Jayadeva (12th C.), the author of the Geet Govind. The story shows the enmity between Jayadeva and Taranatha, who first burns down Jayadeva’s house and then imprisons his wife. Help comes in the form of bandits who rob the villain’s house and blind him.

BHUKAILASA

1938 189’ b&w Tamil

d/p Sundarrao Nadkarni pc Sundaram Sound Studios st Ramayana dial Ayyulu Somayajulu lyr Yanai Vaidyanatha Iyer

lp Hansa Damayanti, S. Santhanam, Mahadeva Iyer, Master Mani, Azoorie

The first film version of this celebrated Ramayana episode features Ravana (Santhanam) and his wife Mandodhari (Damayanti). Although a hit, it was eclipsed by Meiyappan’s multilingual 1940 version of the same story. For the plot, cf. Bhukailasa, 1958.

BRAHMACHARI

1938 152’[M]/156’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Master Vinayak pc Huns Pics s/lyr[M] P.K. Atre dial/lyr[H] Pandit Indra c Pandurang Naik m Dada Chandekar

lp Master Vinayak, Meenakshi, V.G. Jog, Salvi, Damuanna Malvankar, Javdekar

Vinayak’s Atre-scripted film initiated his best-known series of political satires (Brandichi Batli/Brandy Ki Botal 1939; Sarkari Pahune, 1942). The title means ‘The Celibate’ and addresses the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu organisation emphasising celibacy and discipline, which became the power base of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). An ordinary young man Audumbar (Vinayak), inspired by a militant lecture on bachelorhood and nationalism by the Deshbhakta Jatashankar (Javdekar), renounces sexual desire, throws away his collection of movie star posters, starts exercising his muscles in the tradition of Hanuman’s disciples and joins the Self-Help Institute of the Acharya Chandiram (Malvankar). All his discipline comes to nought in the face of Kishori (Meenakshi). The film was the first to feature actors most associated with Vinayak’s brand of satire: V.G. Jog and Damuanna Malvankar (the duo in the film-maker’s legendary Chimanrao series). Malvankar’s tremendously popular role in the film was his first big success. Meenakshi also makes her first appearance in a Vinayak film and here she sings, dressed in a bathing costume in a pool, the sensational seduction number Yamuna jali khelu khela.

DESHER MATI/DHARTI MATA

aka The Motherland

1938 163’[B]/165’[H] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d/sc/c/co-st/co-dial Nitin Bose co-st/dial[B] Binoy Chatterjee, Sailajananda Mukherjee, Sudhir Sen lyr[H] Sudarshan m Pankaj Mullick

lp K.L. Saigal, K.C. Dey, Umasashi, Pankaj Mullick, Shyam Laha, Durgadas Bannerjee[B], Indu Mukherjee[B], Amar Mullick[B], Kanu Bannerjee[B], Chandrabati Devi[B], Ahi Sanyal[B], Kamlesh Kumari[H], Nemo[H], Nawab[H], Prithviraj Kapoor[H], Jagdish Sethi[H]

Inspired apparently by Dovzhenko’s cinema, Nitin Bose’s call for a technological revolution in the agrarian sector through collective farming is presented in the guise of a love story. Ashok (Saigal) goes to a village, mobilises the peasants, fights the oppression of the village headman and achieves bumper crops. Childhood friend Ajoy (Sethi) goes to England to study mining technology and is determined to make a success of a mining project in the rural area where Ashok is working. Each has radically different ideas about what is best for an independent nation. Ajoy’s sister Protibha (Kumari), who loves Ashok, secretly finances Ajoy’s rural modernisation endeavours. Ajoy, unaware of this, falls in love with Gauri (Umasashi), daughter of the social outcast Kunja (Dey). When Ajoy returns from England, he discovers that the best coalfields lie directly beneath Ashok’s land. The crisis is manifested in a drought that threatens to destroy Ashok’s work and prove Ajoy’s contentions right. Ajoy starts buying up the land but the rains arrive just in time to resurrect Ashok’s rural-socialist dreams. The music credit is shared by Pankaj Mullick, Umasashi and K.C. Dey, but Saigal dominates the film in spite of singing only two songs, Kisneyeh sab khel rachaya and A main ka karun kith jaoon.

DOUBLE CROSS

1938 142’ b&w Hindi

d/s/p Mohan Bhavnani dial Rai Mohan c F. Berko, Dara R. Mistry m Badriprasad

lp Bimala Kumari, S.B. Nayampally, Fatty Prasad, Amina, David, Kishore, A.S. Gyani, R. Dilawar, Master Hussain, Rai Mohan

Bhavnani moved away from his reformist ambitions (Mazdoor, 1934; Jagran, 1936) when he turned independent producer with this film. This modernisation drama tells of Prof. Mukherjee (David), the inventor of a diamond manufacturing process. His uncle, the stockbroker Romesh Chandra (Gyani) who invests in diamond mines, faces bankruptcy because Sardar Mulkraj (Nayampally) plots to ruin the mine owner Rangnath (Mohan) and take power in the feudal state of Panipur. The invention can alter the power struggle if either of the factions gets hold of it. The conflict is eventually solved by a masked stranger who turns out to be a policeman.

DUSHMAN/JIBAN MARAN

aka The Enemy

1938 144’ b&w Hindi/Bengali

d/sc/c Nitin Bose st/co-dial[B] Sailajananda Mukherjee, Binoy Chatterjee, co-dial[H] Sudarshan lyr Munshi Arzoo m Pankaj Mullick

lp K.L. Saigal, Lia Desai, Najam, Shiraz Farooque, Nemo, Devbala, Manorama, Elias Chowla, Jagdish Sethi, Dhumi Khan, Boken Chatto, Bhanu Bannerjee, Indu Mukherjee

Made at the invitation of the governmental Tuberculosis Fund in the context of Lady Linlithgow’s immunisation programme. Mohan (Saigal), a radio singer, and Kedar (Najam), a doctor, both love Geeta (Desai). Mohan falls ill and makes way for Kedar, who eventually marries Geeta. After wandering in a delirium, Mohan is admitted to a sanatorium where he is cured of TB. He is then employed in the same institution. In a campaign to set up more sanatoria, Mohan agrees to sing on the radio (the film’s song hit Pankhi aaj kon katha koi) to raise funds while Kedar persuades Geeta to give a dance recital. Geeta hears Mohan’s broadcast and rushes to him followed by Kedar. To heighten the emotions for the climax of the story, Geeta has a bad accident and is admitted to the very sanatorium where Mohan works. The Hindi version was a major hit and led to a virtually identical Bengali remake. Seen today, however, it appears hopelessly dated, stringing together shots of carefully lit individual figures but indicating no control over its rambling narration.

GOPAL KRISHNA

1938 132’ b&w Marathi/Hindi

d V. Damle, S. Fattelal pc Prabhat Film s/dial Shivram Vashikar lyr Shantaram Athavale c V. Avadhoot m Master Krishnarao

lp Ram Marathe, Shanta Apte, Parashuram, Shankar, Ganpatrao, Haribhau, Manajirao, Sophia

Damle and Fattelal followed up their hit Sant Tukaram (1936) with this remake of Shantaram’s silent mythological Gopal Krishna (1929). It tells of the playful child Krishna (Marathe) and his battle against the evil King Kamsa (Ganpatrao) who rules the city of Gokul. The stories, mainly from the popular Bhagvat and Vishnu Purana, also show Krishna vanquishing Keshi (Haribhau), Kamsa’s general who arrives in disguise to capture him. Finally, when Kamsa unleashes rain and flood over the city (in a departure from the original legend where Indra caused the natural disaster), Krishna raises the mountain Govardhan over the people to protect them. From its opening sequences showing the cows and cowherds returning at sunset, the milking of the animals and the churning of the milk, the film develops a strongly materialist flavour, playing down ‘miracle’ scenes until the climactic storm and the raising of the mountain. The fast-paced dialogue and esp. the antics of Krishna’s sidekick Pendya (Parashuram) help to make this a family favourite which made the child actor (and later noted classical musician) Ram Marathe famous.

GRAMOPHONE SINGER

1938 148’ b&w Hindi

co-d/s Ramchandra Thakur co-d V.C. Desai pc Sagar Film st/co-lyr Sudarshan dial/co-lyr Zia Sarhadi c Keki Mistry m Anil Biswas

lp Surendra, Bibbo, Prabha, Bhudo Advani, Sankantha, Pande, Jamoo Patel, Pesi Patel, Kayamali, Sawant, Kanhaiyalal, Gulzar, Durga, Agashe, Master Devdas, Naval

Thakur’s music-dominated debut tells of a love triangle involving the famous gramophone singer Sundardas (Surendra) who is happily married to Mohini (Prabha), and the even more popular singer Tilottama (Bibbo), who falls in love with Sundardas’s voice and wants them to sing a duet and have an affair. Ghosh Babu (Advani) is the manager of the record label.

GRIHALAKSHMI

1938 184’ b&w Telugu

d H.M. Reddy pc Rohini Pics s/lyr Samudrala Raghavacharya c K. Ramnoth m Prabhala Satyanarayana

lp Chittor V. Nagaiah, Gauripathy Sastry, Ramanujachari, Govindrajulu Subbarao, P. Kannamba, Kanchanmala, Sarala, Mohini

Debut production of Vauhini’s predecessor, Rohini Pics, launching a local, Madras-based Telugu film industry with the first Telugu reformist social made in the same year as the equally influential Raitu Bidda (1939). The film tells of a decadent dancer, Madhuri (Kanchanmala), who seduces the upright Dr Krishna Rao (Ramanujachari) into leaving his good wife Radha (Kannamba). The doctor becomes an alcoholic and is framed for the murder of Vishwasa Rao, the trustee of his father’s estate. Krishna Rao’s brother-in-law Gopinath (Nagaiah) helps the hero and later offers shelter to a destitute Radha. Radha has a scuffle with Madhuri, falls down the stairs and becomes mentally unbalanced, ending up walking the streets of Madras denouncing god, truth and justice. Nagaiah’s sensational debut included the two hits Kallu manandoyi (Leave this drinking) and the upbeat nationalist Lendu bharata veerulara (Arise, soldiers of India). The film’s narrative style became a key model for Vauhini’s sprawling melodramas, among the best-known Indian films in the genre. The film was apparently adapted from the popular stage play Rangoon Rowdy.

HUM TUM AUR WOH

aka We Three

1938 157’ b&w Hindi-Urdu

d Mehboob Khan pc Sagar Movietone s/co-lyr Wajahat Mirza co-lyr Zia Sarhadi c Faredoon Irani m Anil Biswas

lp Motilal, Maya, Rose, Yakub, Bhudo Advani, Harish, Sankantha, Pande, Sunalini Devi

Mehboob presents the autonomous passion of Leela (Rose) for Moti (Motilal) who is promised to another woman, Bina (Maya). Leela is portrayed as irresponsible and impulsive as she acknowledges her desire for Moti and has a child by him. Bina then releases Moti from his promise. Moti suffers when he is told by Bina’s father (Sankantha) that she is dead, while Leela’s father (Pande) enjoins his daughter to commit suicide if Moti does not marry her. In spite of the film’s endorsement of ‘traditional’, lethally oppressive patriarchal mores, incarnated by the women’s fathers, Mehboob’s narrative at least dares to depict a woman who refuses to feel guilty about her desire.

JAILOR

1938 150’ b&w Hindi-Urdu

d Sohrab Modi pc Minerva Movietone st/lyr Ameer Haider Kamal [Kamal Amrohi] sc J.K. Nanda c Y.D. Sarpotdar m Mir Sahib

lp Sohrab Modi, Leela Chitnis, Sadiq Ali, Eruch Tarapore, Abu Baker, Sheila, Sharifa, Kumari Kamala, Kusum Deshpande

Modi’s first psychodramatic role as a liberal man becoming a tyrannical jailer (remade with Geeta Bali in 1958). He loses his wife to a lover who then goes blind. The jailer locks up his wife, Kanwal, in their own home, forbidding any contact with their child, Bali. Later the jailer himself falls in love with a blind woman, Chhaya, only to lose her as well.

JWALA

1938 161’[M]/165’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Master Vinayak pc Huns Pics s/dial/lyr[M] V.S. Khandekar dial[H] Pandit Indra c Pandurang Naik m Dhamman Khan, Dada Chandekar

lp Chandramohan, Ratnaprabha, Ashalata, Master Vinayak, Chandrakant, Rajani, Dhavale, Bulbule

Vinayak changes from his usual melodramas to a period fantasy with this tale of a good general Angar (Chandramohan) who is corrupted by ambition. Echoing Macbeth, the loyal Angar is told by the witch Kuntala (Ashalata) that his king (Bulbule) shall die and that he shall be king instead. Angar then kills the king and seizes power. Departing from Macbeth, Angar’s wife Mangala (Ratnaprabha) and his friend Tarang (Chandrakant) do not approve and they eventually join forces with the people against Angar. The dying Angar is seen crawling towards the throne which lies just beyond his reach. A rare Marathi film by the Hindi actor Chandramohan who seems ill at ease with the language. The big-budget film was a major flop from which Huns Pics never recovered, despite the success of their next production, Brahmachari (1938).

KAMBAR

1938 177’ b&w Tamil

d C.S.U. Sankar pc Vel Pics, Madan Theatres

lp S.V. Subbaiah Bhagavathar, C.S. Swarnambal, Narayan Rao, R.P. Yagneshwaran, Devuluri, Venkataraju

Vel Pics’ Saint Film on the legend of Kamban, the 9th-C. Tamil poet who left the Chola court to became a wanderer and composed the Tamil classic Kambaramayana. The film’s major attraction was the starring actor Bhagavathar’s music.

MALAPILLA

aka The Outcast Girl

1938 c.175’ b&w Telugu

d Gudavalli Ramabrahmam pc Sarathi Studio co-s Gudipati Venkatachalam co-s/co-lyr Tapi Dharma Rao co-lyr Basavaraju Apparao c Sailen Bose m B. Narasimha Rao

lp Govindrajulu Subbarao, Kanchanmala, Sundaramma, Suribabu, Gali Venkateshwara Rao, Venkatasubbaiah, M.C. Raghavan, Hemalathamma Rao, Gangarathnam, P. Laxmikantamma, Teku Ansuya, Puvvula Ansuya, Bhanumathi

Radical director Ramabrahmam’s debut feature tells of a Harijan woman (Kanchanmala) who falls in love with a Brahmin Nagaraju (Gali Venkateshwara Rao) in a direct critique of exploitative Brahmin rituals. The musical hit including songs like Nallavade golla pillavade and Aa mubbu ee mubbu established the poet Basavaraju Apparao as a film lyricist. Addressing the problem of caste, a major issue in South Indian politics, it was dedicated to the maharajah of Travancore who had passed a law allowing members of all castes to enter temples. On its release, the film caused a sensation, rejecting the stage-derived mythological genre dominating 1930s Telugu cinema.

MAZHA MULGA/MERA LADKA

aka My Son

1938 161’ b&w Marathi/Hindi

d K. Narayan Kale pc Prabhat Film s Y.G. Joshi lyr Shantaram Athavale[M], Sampatlal Srivastava ‘Anuj’[H] c V. Avadhoot m Keshavrao Bhole

lp Shanta Hublikar, Shahu Modak[M], Ulhas[H], Mama Bhatt, Vasant Thengadi, Vatsalabai Joshi, Balakram, Master Chhotu, Sundarabai

Radical journalist Diwakar (Modak) runs a printing press and edits a newspaper, much to the disapproval of his authoritarian middle-class father who believes that all respectable youths should get a job and settle down. Diwakar’s scheming politician friend Vithalrao (Thengadi) incites a strike and acquires the press and the paper with the help of Diwakar’s father, causing Diwakar to leave home in disgust. His rich girlfriend Nalini (Hublikar) also enters politics, first on the side of the corrupt Vithalrao, then campaigning for Diwakar who represents the slum-dwellers for the municipal elections. Although Diwakar’s father campaigns on behalf of Nalini, she tells people not to vote for her but to elect Diwakar instead. Although Nalini wins, the film presents Diwakar’s loss as a moral victory. Director Kale, himself a former radical journalist, made his first contemporary story as a critique of Maharashtrian middle-class materialism. He also published a long essay on the film, ‘Mazha Mulgachya Nimittane’, (1939). Launching the star combination of Modak and Hublikar, repeated in Shantaram’s hit Manoos (1939), the film essayed a realist idiom new to the Prabhat Studio (esp. in the scenes at the printing press). Hit songs included Pahu re kiti vaat (Hublikar) and Ya saglejan laukarya (Modak).

Vasant Thengadi in Mazha Mulga

MOHINI BHASMASURA

1938 183’ b&w Telugu

d C. Pullaiah pc Andhra Talkies lyr D. Venkatavadham c G.V. Bhadsavale

lp Pushpavalli, Dasari Kotiratnam, A.V. Subba Rao, Nagarajakumari, Tungala Chalapathi Rao

Pullaiah’s widely advertised mythological about the demon Bhasmasura who comes to earth armed with a boon from Shiva and causes mayhem until Vishnu, in the guise of Mohini (Pushpavalli), brings about the demon’s self-destruction. The film’s main attraction was the star Pushpavalli, promoted as a divine beauty come down to earth. The advertising, by the London Film Exchange (which controlled distribution rights), also stressed the location scenes and their ‘natural scenic beauty’.

NANDAKUMAR

1938 156’ b&w Tamil

d Narayanrao D. Sarpotdar p A.V. Meiyappan pc Pragati Pics lyr A.T. Krishnaswamy c Pai m S.A. Venkatraman

lp V.A. Chellappa, C.V.V. Panthulu, T.P. Rajalakshmi, T.R. Mahalingam, Krishnamurthy, G.S. Sandow, T.S. Rajalakshmi

The breakthrough for producer A.V. Meiyappan (see AVM Film) is also the Marathi director Sarpotdar’s only venture into Tamil. The mythological features the birth, childhood and the early antics of Krishna (Mahalingam), culminating in the death of Kamsa. The mandatory miracle scenes gave ample scope for special effects in a narrative format that had by now congealed into a formula. The film was originally planned as a Prabhat trilingual, but Meiyappan dropped out when the Marathi and Hindi versions by Dhaiber failed. This was the famous Carnatic musician T.R. Mahalingam’s film debut, aged 14, his powerful singing voice being among its star attractions. The sound was recorded by Y.S. Kothare and C.E. Biggs.

SARBAJANIN BIBAHOTSAB

1938 c.130’ b&w Bengali

d Satu Sen pc Kali Films s Sachindranath Sengupta c Suresh Das m Kamal Dasgupta

lp Jiban Ganguly, Dhiraj Bhattacharya, Jahar Ganguly, Nabadwip Haldar, Haridhan Mukherjee, Santosh Sinha, Ranibala, Sabitri, Usha, Bina

Stage director and technician Satu Sen’s best-known film is an elaborately plotted farce written by noted playwright Sengupta (1892–1961), better known for his historicals and reformist melodramas (Siraj-ud-Dowla, 1938; Janana, 1933). The story features five couples: stage actor Bimal is loved by actress Chameli but prefers Kamala. When Kamala announces her marriage with Pranadhan, Chameli disguises herself and tries to implicate Pranadhan in a scandal. He escapes by disguising himself as an old man, but winds up in the clutches of Banalata. Departing from the conventions of the Bengali comedy of manners, this film about acting vertiginously multiplies the ‘disguise’ motif and culminates in a quintuple wedding. According to contemporary reviews, excessive plotting detracted from the film’s success.

SEVA SADAN

1938 210’ b&w Tamil

d K. Subramanyam pc Chandraprabha Cinetone, Madras United Artists st Premchand’s novel Bazaar-e-Husn (1919) c Sailen Bose.

lp M.S. Subbulakshmi, F.G. Natesa Iyer, Mrs Jayalakshmi, Varadachar, Rampiary, Pattu Iyer, Mani Bhagavathar, A.K. Kamalam, Jolly Kittu, Sitalakshmi, S. Varalakshmi

Written originally in Urdu, the novel’s translation became Premchand’s first Hindi work of fiction. The writer was distressed by Nanubhai Vakil’s film version (1934) and Subramanyam’s Tamil film put it back into its original reformist shape. The novel deals with prostitution and women’s emancipation. While retaining its political thrust, Subramanyam made it a musical, casting the debuting Subbulakshmi in the lead as Suman. Both her performance and that of her co-star, Natesa Iyer as Gajadhar Pande, won acclaim. The music was very popular and served partly to blunt the anticipated conservative opposition to the plot’s feminist overtones. Subbulakshmi’s Shyamasundara madana mohana was a major hit. Sitalakshmi, a brahmin widow, played ‘herself as Gundamma, a widow who goes mad, and was especially popular. Actress Rampiary was imported from Bombay for the film.

STATE EXPRESS

1938 171’ b&w Hindi

d Vijay Bhatt pc Prakash Pics dial/lyr Sampatlal Srivastava ‘Anuj’ m Lallubhai Nayak

lp Jayant, Sardar Akhtar, Umakant, Shirin, Zaverbhai, M. Zahur, Lallubhai, Ismail, Jehangir, Chhotejaan, Vithaldas, Athavale

Successful stunt movie featuring a vivacious prince (Jayant), his evil uncle, and a masked girl (Akhtar). Its major attractions, apart from Akhtar who also sings all the songs, is a performing gorilla. Together with e.g. Leatherface (1939), this is the best known of mythological specialist Bhatt’s early stunt work.

STREET SINGER/SAATHI

1938 135’[H]/144’[B] b&w Hindi/Bengali

d/s Phani Majumdar pc New Theatres dial[H] A.H. Shore lyr Munshi Arzoo Lucknowi[H], Ajoy Bhattacharya[B] c Dilip Gupta, Sudhish Ghatak m Rai Chand Boral

lp K.L. Saigal, Kanan Devi, Boken Chatto, Rekha, Jagdish[H], Bikram Kapoor[H], Shabbir[H], A.H. Shore[H], Chamanlal[H], Vaid[H], Abdul Rehman[H], Vrij Paul[H], Ramkumari[H], Rani[H], Amar Mullick[B], Sailen Choudhury[B], Bhanu Bannerjee[B], Ahi Sanyal[B], Khagen Pathak[B], Sukumar Pal[B], Shyam Laha[B], Benoy Goswami[B], Kamala Jharia[B], Poornima[B]

Majumdar’s directorial debut is a classic musical and one of Saigal’s most famous films. The story tells of two childhood friends, Bhulwa (Saigal) and Manju (Kanan Devi), who grow up to become street singers in Calcutta. Bhulwa dreams of becoming a stage star but it is Manju who succeeds. At the height of her fame Manju almost forgets Bhulwa until at the end - in an obviously symbolic landscape (literally showing a boat washed ashore in a storm) the two are united. The Hindi version, where this sequence illustrates Saigal’s all-time hit Babul mora, is the better known one.

TALAAQ

aka Divorce

1938 127’ b&w Hindi

d Sohrab Modi pc Minerva Movietone co-st Gajanan Jagirdar dial/lyr/co-st Anand Kumar c S.D. Patil m Mir Saheb

lp Naseem Banu, Gajanan Jagirdar, Navin Yagnik, Prem Adib, Khwaja Sabir, Sheela, Vimala Vasisth, Shanta Dutt, Abu Baker, Khan Mastana

An early Modi psychodrama condemning the divorce law as iniquitous to Hinduism. Roopa (Banu), wife of politician Niranjan (Yagnik), leaves her husband to fight for more progressive divorce laws. She is helped for exploitative reasons by Chhabilelal (Jagirdar), the editor of the radical journal Aandhi. Roopa gets her divorce but is disillusioned by her legal achievement when Amarnath (Adib), whom she marries, uses the same law against her. Niranjan rescues and falls in love with the married Shanta (Sheela); since he does not approve of the divorce law, they cannot marry. Modi’s late 30s films focus on the issue of sexual infidelity (Jailor, 1938; Bharosa, 1940), chronicling with almost gleeful misogyny how the guilty women are made to suffer for their temerity.

THREE HUNDRED DAYS AND AFTER

aka Teen Sau Din Ke Baad

1938 158’ b&w Hindi

d Sarvottam Badami pc Sagar Film st Babubhai A. Mehta dial Wajahat Mirza, Waqif lyr Zia Sarhadi c Faredoon Irani m Anil Biswas

lp Sabita Devi, Motilal, Bibbo, Yakub, Sankatha, Pesi Patel, Pande, Gulzar, Yusuf, Wasker, Rukmini, Piroj Wadkar

Young, bored millionaire (Motilal) has a bet with his doctor that he will go out into the world without taking any money and survive for 300 days. The story of his adventures was a big hit, including two songs by Motilal himself: Ghar apna yeh kursi apni and Ik turn na hui to kya hua.

WATAN

1938 168’ b&w Hindi

d/s/co-st Mehboob Khan pc Sagar Film co-st/dial/lyr Wajahat Mirza c Faredoon Irani m Anil Biswas

lp Kumar, Bibbo, Maya Bannerjee, Yakub, Sitara Devi, Kayamali, Sankatha, H. Siddiqui, Pande, Mirza, Ramchandra, Agashe

Ostensibly a Central Asian war fantasy about a conflict between the Cossacks and the Tartars, Mehboob’s film proposes a tale advocating national independence. The Cossacks are oppressed by the despotic Russian king (Siddiqui) and his minister Jabir (Kayamali), who has Tartar blood in him. General Murad (Kumar) covertly sides with the opposition, gets arrested for treason and escapes. He meets the wild Gulnar (Sitara Devi) and gets her to spy as a maid of Princess Nigar (Bibbo). Nigar falls for Murad and Gulnar withdraws from the scene for the sake of her nation. Eventually Nigar, at the head of an army of women, helps defeat the villains.

ADHURI KAHANI

aka The Unfinished Tale

1939 148’ b&w Hindi

d Chaturbhuj Doshi pc Ranjit Movietone st Gunwantrai Acharya sc/dial/lyr J.S. Casshyap c L.N. Verma m Gyan Dutt

lp Durga Khote, Prithviraj Kapoor, Rose, Keshavrao Date, Ila Devi, Ishwarlal, Meera, Lala Yakub, Khatun, Mirza Musharraf, T. Zadi

Based on a story by the noted Gujarati novelist Acharya (author of Daryalal, Allabeli et al.), this modernisation fable is one of Chaturbhuj Doshi’s best early films at Ranjit. The educated and liberal Harbala (Khote) is oppressed by her conservative husband Seth Gopaldas (Date). Determined that her children Somnath (Kapoor) and Neelam (Rose) shall lead freer lives, she is frustrated by Gopaldas’s authoritarian traditionalism and commits suicide. Neelam and Somnath, haunted by guilt, join her in death. The film leaves open the possibility that in the future a less oppressive society will be achieved: literally translated, the title means ‘The Unfinished Tale’.

BARDIDI/BADI DIDI

1939 128’[B] b&w Bengali/Hindi

d Amar Mullick pc New Theatres st Saratchandra Chattopadhyay dial/lyr[H] Kidar Sharma lyr Ajoy Bhattacharya, Pashupati Chatterjee, Jibanmoy Roy[B] c Bimal Roy m Pankaj Mullick

lp[B]: Jogesh Choudhury, Nirmal Bannerjee, Sailen Choudhury, Bhanu Bannerjee, Indu Mukherjee, Keshto Das, Ahi Sanyal, Naresh Babu, Benoy Sanyal, Sailen Pal, Dhiren Das, Kali Ghosh, Paresh Chatterjee, Chhabi Roy, Nibhanani Devi, Ranibala, Poornima; [H]: Molina Devi, Pahadi Sanyal, Chandrabati Devi, Jagdish Sethi, Zainab, Gulab, Bela, Nawab, Bikram Kapoor, Rajalakshmi, Menaka, Pannalal, Nemo, Chimanlal, Rani, Renuka Devi, Kidar Sharma

After Devdas (1935), this is one of New Theatres’ best-known films based on Saratchandra’s writing. Suren (P. Sanyal), prevented by his family from pursuing a university career, leaves home and becomes a tutor to Pramila (Zainab). He falls in love with her widowed elder sister Madhavi (Molina Devi) who, although returning his love, has him sacked to save the situation. Years later, Suren becomes a big zamindar and, unknown to him, Madhavi is one of his tenants suffering under the oppression of his staff, a plot device providing ample opportunities for emotional drama about how ‘traditional’ social conventions lay waste to people’s lives. The end, as a terminally ill Suren makes up with Madhavi before dying on her lap, evokes Devdas.

BRANDICHI BATLI/BRANDY KI BOTAL

1939 147’[M]/146’[H] b&w Marathi/Hindi

d Master Vinayak pc Huns Pics s/lyr[M] P.K. Atre c Pandurang Naik m Dada Chandekar

lp Damuanna Malvankar[M]/Master Vinayak[H], V.G. Jog, Salvi, Meenakshi, Javdekar

Vinayak and Atre’s classic sequel to the hit Brahmachari (1938) addresses prohibition and Gandhian morality. The naively innocent bachelor Bagaram (Malvankar/Vinayak), a clerk in a municipal office, has to find some brandy to restore the ill son of his boss, who is also the brother of Malati (Meenakshi), whom he secretly loves. Not knowing what brandy is, Bagaram gets embroiled in adventures, including a famous scene in a crowded bar. He eventually procures a bottle but his beloved persists in regarding him merely as ‘a brother’. Documentary footage of Vallabhbhai Patel making a speech about abstinence (included with his permission) had to be removed because of censor objections, as was the ambiguous line by Bagaram who, surrounded by young women, implored the god Krishna to ‘give me a break too’. The film was widely attacked for its irreverence towards Hindu tradition but went on to become a perennial commercial hit, establishing Atre’s scripts as an independent stellar attraction.

DEVATA

1939 148’ b&w Marathi

d Master Vinayak pc Huns Pics s/co-lyr V.S. Khandekar co-lyr B.R. Tambe c Pandurang Naik m Dada Chandekar

lp Baburao Pendharkar, Indira Wadkar, Meenakshi, Salvi, Damuanna Malvankar, Miss Sardar, Vibhavati, Baby Vimal, Patankar

One of Marathi actress-singer Wadkar’s most famous roles as Sushila, who marries an old widower, Dasopant (Salvi), in order to pay for her younger brother’s education. Dasopant already has a son, the social worker and professor Ashok (Pendharkar), who is horrified at his father’s decision and begs Sushila to reconsider, but she marries the old man anyway. Sushila later admits to Ashok (now her stepson) that it was a mistake, and when she has to take refuge in his room to escape from her husband she is accused of adultery with Ashok, who then becomes a social outcast to the distress of his girlfriend Pushpa (Meenakshi). Sushila leaves having written letters explaining all to Ashok and Pushpa. Years later she is heard singing on a radio station. The film repeats Khandekar’s favourite themes of bravely borne suffering (inevitably that of an older sister on behalf of younger siblings) and the self-revealing act at the end: in Chhaya (1936) the hero publishes an autobiographical novel thus betraying himself to the police; here Sushila craves anonymity yet she sings an autobiographical song on the radio drawing the family’s attention back to her.

DURGA

1939 135’ b&w Hindi

d Franz Osten pc Bombay Talkies s Sardindu Bannerjee dial/co-lyr Narottam Vyas co-lyr Narendra Nath Tuli c Josef Wirsching m Saraswati Devi

lp Devika Rani, Rama Shukul, Hansa Wadkar, Vishnupant Aundhkar, P.F. Pithawala, Saroj Borkar, Enver, Kiran Singh Shashi

Rural melodrama about Durga (Devika Rani), an adolescent child of nature, living with her aged mother Heera. Unable to get the medicine required to prevent her mother’s death, one misfortune after another befalls the heroine in spite of the sympathies of the newly arrived village doctor, Jawahar (Shukul). In the absence of Niranjan Pal, the studio’s main scenarist and author of its best-known rural dramas Achhut Kanya, Janmabhoomi, both 1936), the tale reduces itself to a purely familial narrative. It is nevertheless a key production in Devika Rani’s self-projection of urbane charm clothed in primal innocence. Osten followed it with Leela Chitnis’s first big film, Kangan (1939). Wadkar was promoted to lead actress again opposite Shukul in in her next big film, Navjeevan (1939).

EK HI RAASTA

aka The Only Way

1939 149’ b&w Hindi

d Mehboob Khan pc Sagar Movietone s Babubhai A. Mehta dial Wajahat Mirza lyr Pandit Indra c Faredoon Irani m Anil Biswas

lp Arun, Sheikh Mukhtar, Anuradha, Jyoti, Harish, Kanhaiyalal, Mohan, A. Banbasi, Jagdish Rai, Devi, Wasker, Gani

Mehboob uses a didactic style to address contemporary topics, a concern extended in e.g. Roti (1942). The orphan and shipwreck survivor Raja (Arun) works as a coolie forming a trio of friends with Mangoo (Sheikh Mukhtar), a pickpocket, and Vithal (Mohan), a hansom cab driver. Mala (Anuradha) and her father (Gani) come to the city where she is kidnapped by Banke (Kanhaiyalal) and sold to a rich man while her father accuses Mangoo of theft. Mangoo kills the father. Mala escapes and finds shelter with Raja, with whom she falls in love. The problems of the trio increase when they enlist in the army for WW 2. The film opposes religious faith to atheistic fatalism (the latter exemplified by Mangoo whose mother dies in an accident and he becomes a killer) and dares to present a couple openly living together as Mala stubbornly rejects the pressures of her stepmother (Devi) and her villainous cousin Madan (A. Banbasi).