Indian Cinema: Contemporary Perceptions from the Thirties

Citation preview

Celluloid Chapter

Founded on 25 December 1985, Celluloid Chapter, a film society in Jamshedpur, has led some kind of a movement in the Steel City for the last few years, aimed at the promotion and popular understanding of good cinema. Its activities have extended beyond the usual film society routine of screenings of significant films to seminars, study sessions, popular lectures and open discussions devoted to particular films or filmmakers and trends and movements and problems covering a wide range of cinema; encounters with filmmakers and film personalities like Mrinal Sen, Govind Nihalani, Vijay Tendulkar, Aribam Syam Sharma,,. Balu Mahendra, Basu Chatterjee, Guizar, Prakash /ha and others; several retrospectives; a ten day film appreciation course conducted by the National Film Archives of India, held in collaboration with the society; running a.library of books, periodicals and reference materials on cinema; holding a biennial international film festival; and now a publication programme under the-1mprint 'a Cel.. luloid Chapter documentation'.

Digitized by

Google

•

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

In the same series of 'Celluloid Chapter documentations'

1 Govind Nihalani Edited by Samik Bandyopadhyay with Nihalani's long lecture on the Art of the Cinematographer, a long interview and 'conversations' with Nihalani, contributions by Tendulkar, Benegal and Orn Puri, and an exhaustive filmography of his works as director and cinematographer

2

African Cinema : A View from India Dhruba Gupta

3

Cinema in Latin America : An inside view Edited by S V Raman and Samik Bandyopadhyay

Digitized by

Google

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Indian Cinema : . Contemporary Perceptions from the Thirties .

•'

•

Digitized by

Google

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

INDIAN CINEMA ;J

Contemporary Perceptions from the Thirties

Selected by

DHRUBA GUPTA and

BIREN DAS SHARMA

Edited by

SAMIK BANDYOPADliYAY

.

•

•

1993 CELLULOID CHAPTER JAMSHEDPUR

Digitized by

Google

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

•

Indian Cinema : Contemporary Perceptions from the Thirties

Selected. by Dhruba Gupta and Biren Das Sharma

Edited by Samik Bandyopadhyay .

# c~ll~ the Mlll br M~~doot~ spelt o~t fn .both Hin4i ~Hd ufJu, from ~ sto · :,,. Premr;1t~n11~ with ~•bbo, N4··am.: b~. 'e_.'!:i!,I f~fe, _of_ t~~af-J - ~,~~ bet.~e~n .~lie ~boure.'J, ~nil tlie tapitqlists-t»ve. solves r~e P~oblem and ts14bli$hes

b~tter uriderstanding

between th'e Mittowners an4 ihe Em-

ployees:' tit~ sit~nt fti~ hhJ H~et &etomt ~ Jitrmi_,~.the th~t,e; Sui ih~ t~fki~ did tbttit in.the iva~ 6f 13~ngdli th~at~; S~tu $en ~t;Ught ttJ i.ntroduce 12 tot of itlusiohistic gimmic.-y intd tlte-

ajfii to t~~ltenge tiHem_ ~; In it.s editorial date~ 19 S~rett;bdFiifuJ:jrtd fijjbtted: .'TH~ siidde,t intnis~ok t>f t4tldes in tit~~ J~ys df.econdmit tl-Bfs liiis; it is said; hit liard th~ 13engate~ ~tl1g~. the sidg~ is thefefor~ mdking prepar~tions td t.uijH~lahJ lh~ tJnsidughi bj netb ~Henttatitih ttt th~ $t~g~: Such d µtiili tb~ f~ea1e4 t~_e ~ih~r ,da .:_tb ~ .~ft#, ,t>f .t.~lt~ tta Jouf~ nttlisl~ Ii!! .Mf Satyendra Ndth, §e#; Direct9r df Natya,il~et~H tihe cos.~ B~hgalee llieatreJ; Mf $ifi tbd$ the iethnlcal OlrecJt,f fJf Ifie hibdraio Theiilre, ~&b York; iitid hds ~ast e#i~-

~!.~ftt~ ~f !.he.~,.~~~ /h~~,,~-,1~~i_u~1~t _lhd~~ of ~~$slai _ u~

w,it therefore put ~,s full weight to the technique of the stage, so that there may not be persistent falling off of stage patrons. 'We as lovers of histrionic art, have every sympathy for the cause for more reasons than one. Firstly, there will be an age of renaissance in Bengalee stage, and secondly, there will be an attempt on the part of the talkie producers to improve the quality of the pictures. So far as Bengal is concerned, we do not believe that Bengali talkies will reach such a standard in a decade or so when it will bi both paying and impressive, so as to be a real rival of the Bengalee stage. ' 11 Digitized by

Google

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

In the second half of 1931, while B N Sircar was importing equipment and setting up the New Theatres Talkie Studios at Tollygunje, P C Barua was advertising himself as 'film producer', with his 'electric studio', and offering 'Production Work Undertaken-Interior Electric Lighting-A Special Feature', with Krishna Gopal as photographer and D K Bose as Director, and inviting contacts at 'Barua Film Production, 14, Ballygunje Circular Road, Calcutta'. On 3 October 1931, PC Barua Production inserted an advertisement looking for 'a Bengalee Film Actor for a Comic Role with knowledge of Motor Driving'. By 1934, the sound film was firmly entrenched, and the first generation of singing stars- Kajjan, Gohar, faddanbai, fyotsna Bhole, Pheroze Dastoor, K L Saigal and K C Dey-were on the scene. In fact, one of the 'overviews' included in this volume ascribes part of the box office triumph of Madans' Shirin Farhad-the second talkie-over Imperial's Alamara, the first, to 'the songs by Kajjan and Nissar'. The same 'overview' observed, 'Jn the early days of the talkies the outlook was a bit bright. Everybody expected that intelligent pictures would soon come into their own. But the success of Shirin Farhad caused not a little tremor. Audiences wanted songs and songs. Songs used to take up nearly half the length of the picture. The climax was reached with lndrasabha which had more than sixty songs'. A Filmland editorial on 3 October 1931 complained: 'It is common to find in West Indian dramas that a lover expresses his or her love by melodious songs over the nrortal remains of the beloved. Such a thing was not infrequent in Bengali dramas of the last century, but now such things are not to be found. The mentality of bursting into sudden music without rhyme or reason . .. - West Indian dramatists cling to these archaic dramatic fashions to the bewildennent of Eastern picture or theatre ,goers. . . These old world opera techniques are hannful and damaging to the growth of Indian talkies.' Both Filmta·nct and Filmindia in the thirties were fighting a lost battle against what they considered the 'Bombay brand picture with all action but no psychology.' Even as Prabhansu Gupta (Filmland, 31 January 1931) upheld Murnau, Stroheim and Lubitsch as models, 'as sworn allies of emotional pictures and ... not panoramic and advocates of motion 12 Digitized by

Google

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

as the Yankee directors are, and Niranjan Pal held up the 'technique' of German cinema, and the 'art and life' of Russian cinema against the 'well-made, sophisticated film plays to tickle our fancies-sugary, peppery, undress spectacles and so-called sex-dramas' churned out by Hollywood; Filmland itself recognized the popularity of 'Director Chowdhry ... 50 per cent Nationalist and 50 ·per cent His Majesty the American' (Filmland, 24 January 1931); and the Moving Picture Monthly gloated on the fact that Toofan Mail, noted for its 'stunts and thrills·, 'ran for fifteen weeks at Calcutta and is expected to top the collections of any Hindi talkie in the Bengal circuit. This is a present to our Bengal contemporaries, who wax very eloquent on psychology, emotion and other things.' The Indian market looked attractive enough to the film industry abroad. Visitors coming down to India included stars like Douglas Fairbanks, Ramon Novarro, Gary Cooper, and the NRI, Sheikh Iftekhar Rasool, who in a letter from London, would exultingly acknowledge 'dozens of letters. .. asking for my photographs and if I would write to them. Most of the letters come from the ladies some of whom are graduates of the Calcutta University'. Both MGM and Columbia were present on the Indian scene. S V Money, former general manager of Columbia Films (India), interviewed recently by Santwana Bhattacharya (Metroscope, Indian Express, 6 November 1993), recalled the rise and glory and crash of the Hollywood industry in India : 'They closed down suddenly with just a month's notice. Even a person in my position was left without a job and out of the trade circuit '-with his collection of celebrity letters including the one from Lord Mountbatten, dated 21 June 1948, in which the last British Viceroy in India (significantly, in the letterhead itself, 'The Viceroy's House' is neatly crossed out to make way for 'Government House'!) thanked him 'for all _the assistance you have rendered in supplying the Government House Cinema with films. During the past fifteen months I have had the opportunity of seeing many films supplied by your Company which my wife and I, our personal staff and guests have much enjoyed, especially during those periods of last year when the cinema was our only form of relaxation.' 13 Digitized by

Google

Original from

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

~~

.. .. .. .. ,... , c~~ : 'IIJ: ~ . laµ. ~~ f!,e. Bombay bof?m: blew t!Je.c~~s '?I t!t.~-H.