A JOURNEY OF MOTION PICTURE IN INDIA | EP6

The late 1940s to 1960 is known to be the golden age for Indian cinema. Some of the best cinematic wonders took place in between this two decade. It also saw the birth of parallel cinema, mainly led by Bengali cinema. Movies such as NEECHA NAGAR (1946), NAGRIK (1952), DO BIGHA ZAMEEN (1953) lay the foundation of Indian neorealist.

The style of new Indian wave in cinemas starting from the year 1955 like PATHER PANCHALI, THE APU TRIOLOGY was brought in by filmmaker Satyajit Ray, winning many international film festival awards, Indian Film Industry was being noticed for creativeness in its story and execution by the world. In 1967, Satyajit Ray written film named “The Alien” was said to be an inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s E.T. (1982). However Ray’s project got cancelled. He and Ritwik Ghatak were two of the prominent names in art films and parallel cinema.

Along with parallel cinema, commercial cinemas also started gaining huge success. Movies like Guru Dutt’s PYAASA (1957), KAAGAZ KE PHOOL (1959), Raj Kapoor’s AWAARA (1951), SHREE 420(1955), MUGHAL-E-AZAM (1960), and V. Shantaram’s DO AAKHEN BARAH HAATH (1957) were appreciated by audience and were a cult hit. The quality of these films was so good that the tag of being a masala movie from Indian Films Industry was partially wiped off. A journey towards amazing stories and ethical filmmaking was a key ingredient in this golden age of Indian cinema.

Mehboob Khan’s MOTHER INDIA (1957) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. As said before people started noticing our work and because of filmmakers such as V. Shantaram, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Mani Kaul, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, Girish Kasaravalli, Bimal Roy, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and K. Asif.  The golden age of Indian cinema was indeed precious as gold.

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A JOURNEY OF MOTION PICTURE IN INDIA | EP5

    
In the 60’s cinema had started getting noticed and was gaining huge popularity by the Indian audience. The filmmakers were also catering to this audience very particularly keeping in mind their taste and preferences. Ticket prices were also reduced so that a common man can purchase it and for the elite better seats and facilities were provided on high priced tickets.

The commercial success of films triggered an emotional aspect with the audiences and made people go crazy for their favorite actors and actresses. India’s social life and culture was being put into cinemas as example festivals like Holi, Diwali, Karvachaut etc. which created a bonding among audiences.    Seeing this rapid growth global audience and markets became aware of Indian Film Industry.

To reach the audience in rural areas Cinemas were being put up in a tent. These came to be known as tent cinema introduced by Swamikannu Vincent in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land close to a town or village to screen the films. The first of its kind was established in Madras, called "Edison's Grand Cinemamegaphone".

As the growth was happening, during World War II, Indian audiences were being treated with masala films and that has been a successful ingredient for Indian film. Masala films stands for all those commercial films which primarily have songs, dance, romance, fight etc. An entertainment package which still stands successful in today’s Indian film industry.

During the 1940s cinema in south India captured almost half of India’s cinema halls. Cinema came to be known as a part of cultural revival. After partition of India the assets were divided and number of studios went to the neighboring country Pakistan.

After Indian independence the cinema of India was handled by S.K. Patil Commission. S.K. Patil, head of the commission, viewed cinema in India as a 'combination of art, industry, and showmanship' while noting its commercial value. Patil set up of a Film Finance Corporation under the Ministry of Finance. In 1960 the Film Finance Corporation came into being to provide financial support to talented filmmakers throughout India.

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A JOURNEY OF MOTION PICTURE IN INDIA | EP4

The journey from painting reels to digital technology we have seen it all. The future still waits for more inventions in the world of films. Over the year we as audience came across 3D projection, 4k resolution IMAX etc. In earlier years these things were just dreams. Who would have thought that what we see through our eyes could be seen through Camera and soon this thought turned into reality.

Technicolor techniques were introduced. Though the first attempt of Indians to make a color film failed, the film KISAN KANYA gave hopes for improvement. The first attempt of coloring film SAIRHANDRI failed as the reels were damaged during the process. It could have been the first multi color talkie film produced by Prabhat Film Company in 1933. Sairhandri was directed by Rajaram Vankudre Shantaram.

Later in 1937, KISAN KANYA a film directed by Moti B. Gidvani and produced by Ardeshir Irani released. It used a cinecolor process and became India’s first color film. Though this film didn’t do well, this change was not accepted by the audience at first but it all changed until the film AAN released in 1953.

A Dilip Kumar- Nimmi starrer by Mehboob Khan was the first Indian film which used Technicolor process on the prints which was the most expensive color format of that era. Shot in 16 mm it was blown up to 35 mm achieving a landmark success. As a safety measure the film was also shot in black and white format.

The following years brought in massive hits with V. Shantaram’s Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje in 1955 and Mehboob Khan’s Mother India in 1957. Coloring techniques like Geva color, techicolor, Eastman color etc. were used too.

Adapting to this quickly soon the black and white format started to fade away. The last film in black and white is Saraswatichandra which is still remembered for its songs.

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A JOURNEY OF MOTION PICTURE IN INDIA | EP3

The period from 1890’s to 1930 saw an innovative change in the field of movies. Four decades of trial and error paid off in 1930’s when Ardeshir Irani brought Alam Ara to the Indian audience. It was the first Indian talkie film. However in 1927, The Jazz Singer became the first talkie film in the world. It was made with Vitaphone which was a leading brand of sound on disc technology. Technically the rest of the world was way ahead of India back then too because In India people are not likely to accept change quickly and thus the development takes time.

On 14^th March 1931, Ardeshir Irani released ALAM ARA and then followed up by producing first south Indian talkie film KALIDAS which was directed by H. M. REDDY and released on 31^st October 1931. ‘Talkie film’ means talking film or films with sound. This new technology was liked by Indian audience and soon Indian Film Industry sky rocketed to the top and today is the largest producer of films in world.

During the initial period there were hardly any actors but the ones who were, carried out multiple tasks and thus were paid a good sum of money too. CHITTOR V. NAGAIAH was the first multilingual film actor, singer, composer, producer and directors in India. He was popular to be known as the Paul Muni of India in the media.

As the sound technology improved over the years, 1930’s saw a rise of music in Indian cinema with musicals such as INDRA SABHA and DEVI DEVYANI being the first with a concept of song and dance in Indian films. Rapid changes enthralled the Indian audience and attracted them which could be seen due to the massive success of DEVDAS. Studios were being built and one of the oldest standing studios till date is the AVM studio in Chennai which has produced over 170 films in multiple languages.

Up next how color films rule the market.

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A JOURNEY OF MOTION PICTURE IN INDIA | EP2

                                 
It was time; people had started to notice the magic of cinema. On 18th May 1912 "SHREE PUNDALIK" a silent Marathi film by Dadasaheb Torne released. It was the first Indian film which released at coronation cinematograph at the then called Bombay. It’s quite controversial as it is believed that it cannot be called India's first film because it was a photographic recording of a famous Marathi play as well the camera man named Johnson was British and the film was processed in London.

Then entered the father of Indian cinema Mr.DADASAHEB PHALKE. A scholar on India's languages and culture broke new grounds in the Indian Film Industry. Producer-screenwriter-director DADASAHEB PHALKE combined the elements from Sanskrit epics and produced Raja Harishchandra in 1913 a silent Marathi film. It is known to be the first full length Indian motion picture and interestingly the female characters in the film were played by male actors. Thus gaining a huge success it motivated many others to make such films.

In 1916,Tamil filmmaker R.Nataraja Mudaliar made first Tamil silent film named Keechaka Vadham. The film industry was taking its place and was building a strong base with an intention to succeed and prowess, bold decisions were been taken as in that era, money was a primary concern for many upcoming producers. It was a niche market to enter and therefore many were scared to incur a loss. The ones with money entered and one of them was Jamshedji Framji Madan a Parsi entrepreneur who owned first Indian chain of cinema houses named Madan theatre.

It produced 10 films annually and distributed throughout the Indian Subcontinent from the year 1902. In 1919, also being a founder of Elphinstone Bioscope Company, Calcutta he merged with Madan Theatre Limited and produced Bengals popular literary work. He made a remake of Dadasaheb Phalke’s RAJA HARISHCHANDRA as SATYAWADI RAJA HARISHCHANDRA in 1917.

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A JOURNEY OF MOTION PICTURE IN INDIA | EP1

It all started in 1890, motion picture cameras were invented. Films untill 1927 were a minute long and were produced without sound. The first feature film or also called multi-reel film was produced by an Australian production  in 1906 named The story of the Kelly Gang .The motion picture business was dealing with a rapid growth with all new inventions such as Stop motion, double exposure, reverse motion, panning, slow motion and visual effects. Filmmakers including Georges Méliès , Robert W. Paul, Louis Le Prince, Dadasaheb Phalke etc. have given their life in making motion picture a reality. The market of motion pictures was expanding globally and soon it reached India in 1899,  H.S.Bhatavdekar made a film named The Wrestlers showing a wrestling match at Hanging Gardens in Mumbai which was the first film to be shot by an Indian. It was also the first Indian documentary film. Cinema has been a part of life for Indians, the Friday releases have become more important for all cinema lovers.

The journey from hand operated rolling cameras to a Red dragon digital 4k as well as an IMAX camera a motion picture has find its way to entertain the audience, from silent to sound and black and white to colour is a journey to experience in following episodes. Follow to know more interesting facts and trivia.

Ode to her!

Namaste,
It took almost a year to post something new.
Phew ! I AM BACK
So lets start with a hindi poem,hope you like it!

Tu ujwal hai,
Tu bhavishya hai,
Tu pavitra hai,
Tu annapurna hai,
Tu lakshmi hai,
Tu saraswati hai,
Tu ek vardan hai,
Tu kathor hai,
Tu mamta hai,
Tu vilakshan pyaar ka sagar hai,
Tu kabhi beti hai,
Tu kabhi bahu hai,
Tu kabhi maa hai,
Tu kabhi dost hai,
Tu kabhi swatantra hai,
Tu hai kabhi bandhi.
Tu alag hai,teri pehchan adbhut hai,
Mahabharat main hui thi teri vidambana,
Aaj dharti par bhi tu nagna ho rahi hai,
Phir bhi tu atal hai.
Tu Naya savera laane main safal hai,
Tu Sadaiva Amar hai.

Garv hai ,tu ladki hai .

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