The first Indian film released in India was Shree Pundalik a silent film in Marathi by Dadasaheb Torne on 18 May 1912 at 'Coronation Cinematograph', Bombay. Some have argued that Pundalik does not deserve the honour of being called the first Indian film because it was a photographic recording of a popular Marathi play, and because the cameraman—a man named Johnson—was a British national and the film was processed in London.
Ramchandra Gopal "Dadasaheb" Torne (Marathi: रामचंद्र गोपाळ "दादासाहेब" तोरणे)(13 April 1890 - 19 January 1960) was an Indian director and producer, best known for making the first feature film in India, Shree Pundalik.This historic record is well established by an advertisement in The Times of India published on 25 May 1912. Several leading reference books on cinema including The Guinness Book of Movie Facts & Feats, A Pictorial History of Indian Cinema and Marathi Cinema : In Restrospect amply substantiate this milestone achievement of the pioneer Indian feature-filmmaker.[
He is considered the "Father of Indian cinema."
Although Torne made his first film, Shree pundalik (पुंडलिक, 1912) just under a year before Dhundiraj Govind "Dadasaheb" Phalke made his, it is the latter who is regarded as the father of Indian cinema. The distinction may lie with the fact that, unlike Phalke, Torne sent his film overseas for processing. Moreover, Torne's Pundalik was 1,500' (c. 22 minutes) long, about 1,200' shorter than Phalke's Raja Harischandra, which ran for about 40 minutes.
India’s first full length film was made by Dadasahed Phalke (also known as the father of Indian cinema), India’s earliest film maker who blended together elements from Sanskrit epics to make his first film Raja Harishchandra in 1913, which was a silent film in Marathi. The roles of females were played by men and this film remains a landmark moment in the history of Indian cinema. Raja Harishchandra was a great commercial success and was an inspiration for further such films.
The first silent film in Tamil, Keechaka Vadham was made by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1916. Unfortunately no pics or videos are available.
The first Bengali-language movie was the silent feature Billwamangal, produced by the Madan Theatre Company of Calcutta and released on 8 November 1919, only six years after the first full-length Indian feature film, Raja Harish Chandra, was released. J F Madan also produced Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra in 1917, a remake of Phalke's Raja Harishchandra (1913). Unfortunately no pics or videos are available.
Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu (15 October 1887 – 15 March 1941), known widely as the father of Telugu cinema, was an Indian artiste and film maker.[1][2] Naidu was a pioneer in the production of silent Indian films and talkies. Starting in 1909, he was involved in many aspects of Indian cinema's history, like travelling to different regions in Asia to promote film work. He was the first to build and own cinema halls in Madras. The Raghupati Venkaiah Award is an annual award incorporated into Nandi Awards to recognize people for their contributions to the Telugu film industry
Venkaiah Naidu was second son of an Indian Army official Subedar Appayya Naidu in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. His brother Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu was a famous educationalist and social reformer. His forefathers worked as Commanders in the Army of East Indian Company and Madras Army in Telaga Regiments. At the age of 18, he moved to Madras and started drawing pictures and carving sculptures at Mount Road and selling them. He then learned photography and started a photo studio. In 1909, he ordered a Chrono Mega phone, equipment that relates sounds with pictures, from John Dickinson and Company. To pay for the Chrono Mega phone he bought for Rs 30,000, he rented out his photo studio. He shot 12 short films and exhibited them in Victoria Public Hall. He also travelled to Bangalore, Vijayawada, Sri Lanka, Rangoon and Pegu to exhibit his films. In 1910, he established Esplanade Ten House to exhibit his films. In 1912, he constructed Gaiety Talkies on Mount Road, the first Indian-owned cinema theatre in Chennai. He later constructed Crown Theatre on Mint Street and Globe Theatre in Parasuwakka, Chennai. He also exhibited American and British films. Some of the first movies shown in his theatres were Million Dollar Mystery, Mysteries of Meera, Clutching Hand, Broken Coin, Raja's casket, Peral fish, and 'Great Bard'. In 1919, he started a production company called Star of East Films and a film studio called Glass Studio. He sent his son, Raghupati Surya Prakash Naidu, to study cinematography in London. Father and son made their first movie "Meenakshi Kalyanam" around actual locations of the Madurai Meenakshi temple. Later, they produced films like Gajendra Moksham, Mathsyavatharam, Nandanaar, and Bhishma Pratigna, the first Telugu mookie (i.e., movie with no playback voices). In 1929, he was forced to sell his properties to pay off his debts. The Andhra Pradesh state government established the Raghupati Venkaiah Naidu Award, later changed to Raghupathi Venkaiah Award for lifetime contributors to the Telugu movie industry.
1912
1.Their Majesties in Calcutta,Globetrotter Bioscope
2.Garden Party of Sir Shapurji Broacha,Excelsior Cinematograph
3.Mahalakshmi Races,Excelsior Cinematograph
4.Great Cricket Match,Pathe Freres
5.Savitri,S.N. Patankar, A.P. Karandikar, V.P. Divekar
Shri Nath Patankar (?-1941) Pioneer producer-director-cameraman with an impact on early Indian film equivalent to Phalke’s. Fragments of biographical information suggest that he was born in the early 1880s and became a still photographer who bought a film camera from Bhatavdekar and filmed the great Delhi Durbar (1911) also shot by Hiralal Sen, Madan Theatres and others. Started Patankar Union in partnership with V.P. Divekar and A.P. Karandikar (1913) and made some films mainly to raise funds. They were helped by nationalist leader Lokmanya Tilak, who persuaded financiers Bhagwandas Chaturbhuj and Dharamdas Narayandas to invest in the company. His second feature, Narayanrao Peshwa, is almost certainly India’s first historical. The company only took off in 1917 with the entry of Dwarkadas Sampat into Patankar-Friends & Co. Films made 1918-20, usually scripted by Mohanlal Dave, prepared the emergence of the Kohinoor Studio. Following Sampat’s exit (1920), Patankar started a third studio, National Film (1922), financed by Thakurdas Vakil and Harilal, and then a fourth, Pioneer Film financed by Vazir Haji, which was also the parent company of the Excelsior Studio. His historicals and mythologicals were among the most professionally made films before the studio era (pre-1925). With the transformation of Pioneer into the Excelsior Studio, freelanced for a while as cameraman and art director in Bombay. Shot all the films he directed.
6.Arrival at Howrah,Hiralal Sen
7.Grand Delhi Coronation Durbar,Hiralal Sen
8.Princep's Ghat,Hiralal Sen
9.Procession,Hiralal Sen
10.Visit to Bombay and Exhibition,Hiralal Sen
11.Pundalik,P.R. Tipnis, N.G. Chitre
Often presented as the first Indian film. Usually credited to R.G. Torney, but recent research suggests he was only marginally involved. Made jointly by N.G. Chitre, the manager of the Coronation Cinematograph in Bombay, and · P.R. Tipnis, later a major Delhi-based distributor. The film about the Hindu saint is based, according to Harish Booch (1964), on Ramrao Kirtikar's Marathi play as staged by the Shripad Sangeet Mandali of Nasik. Shot on location in Bombay's Mangalwadi compound near Grant Road by a Bourne & Shepherd crew and released at the Coronation on 18 May, 1912. For the record, it must be pointed out that film-makers such as Hiralal Sen had made similar films of stage plays before Pundalik.
12.Coronation of Maharaja Holkar at Indore,Unknown Director
13.Delhi Durbar and Coronation,Unknown Director
14.An Episode from the Ramayana,
15.The Ganapati Festival,Unknown Director
1913
1.Jaimini and Vyas, S.N. Patankar2.The Dreamland of Ganjandrao, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
Also known as Dadasaheb Phalke. (1870 - 1944) Pioneering director. Born in Trymbakeshwar, Nasik. Claimed to have started the film industry in India with Raja Harishchandra. Saw his cinema as a direct contribution to Swadeshi. Son of Sanskrit scholar. Studied at J.J. School of Art (1885) and at Kala Bhavana, Baroda (see art schools). Then studied architecture. Became proficient as landscape painter of academic nature studies. Worked in photographic studio and learnt to develop and print negative film. At Ratlam studied three-colour blockmaking. photolithography and ceramics (1890). Worked as portrait photographer, stage make-up man, assistant to a German illusionist and as a magician (as Professor Kelpha). Started Phalke's Art Printing & Engraving Works at Lonavala (1908), later Laxmi Art Printing Works. Did photolitho transfers of Ravi Varma lithographs. Sailed to Germany to obtain three-colour printing equipment (1909). Saw The Life of Christ around Christmas 1910 in a Bombay cinema, an event he describes with great passion although contemporary notices suggest it must have been around Easter 1911. Strongly moved by the 'magic' of cinema. Also dedicated himself to bringing Indian images to the screen. Raised finance from Yeshwant Nadkarni. a photographic equipment dealer, with short trick film, Birth of a Pea Plant, shooting one frame a day to show a plant growing. Went to London in February 1912 to familiarise himself with film technology and to acquire equipment. Bought a Williamson camera, Kodak negative and a perforator. Cecil Hepworth tutored him at Walton Studios. Returned to establish Phalke Films on Dadar Main Road in Bombay (1912) for which he made five films, starting with Raja Harishchandra. Went to England again in 1914 to organise trade shows and received many offers to remain in Europe. Returned to India with new equipment, closed Phalke Films and set up the Hindustan Cinema Films (1918). Resigned briefly from Hindustan to write the Marathi play Rangbhoomi (1922) in Benares. Made 44 silent features, several shorts and one talkie, Gangavataran. The films introduced the mythological genre to Indian cinema, allowing him to merge his notion of Swadeshi with an industrial practice and a politico-cultural aesthetics. Satish Bahadur compiled the film D.C. Phalke, the First Indian Film Director for the Film (1964): the film contains the only existing footage of How Films Are Made, footage of himself directing Raja Harishchandra, and Setu Bandhan, and is a tribute nor only to the founder of the Indian film industry but also to a daring experimenter with animation techniques (including match- sticks), inventor of promotional films and of documentaries, creator of special effects and codifier of a new generic form, the mythological film. Essays on film, 'Bharatiya Chitrapat', were published in Navyug (1917-18).
3.Raja Harishchandra, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
Commonly performed and often-filmed Mahabharata legend and Phalke's first feature. The film is often celebrated for having inaugurated the Indian film industry following Phalke's own claim to that effect (ICC Report, 1928). The cast was drawn from non- professionals and although Phalke wanted to cast women in female roles (breaking with stage tradition), no woman agreed to perform. After its premiere on 21 April, the film was released at the Coronation Cinematograph on 3 May as part of a variety entertainment programme which also included The MacClements : A Comical Sketch .and Alexandroff The Wonderful Foot]uggler. The film that survives and has been extensively screened following the Indian Silent Cinema package at the Pordenone Film Festival 1994 is the 1917 remake.4.Hindu Bathing Festival at Allahabad, Hiralal Sen
1914
1.Mohini Bhasmasur, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
2.Nasik Trimbak Yethil Dekhave, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
3.Pithache Panje, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
4.Satyavan Savitri, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
5.Scenes of the River Godavari, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
1915
1.Gopal Krishna, R. Nataraja Mudaliar
2.The Death of Narayanrao Peshwa, S.N. Patankar
3.Chandraha, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
4.Glass Factory at Talegaon, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
5.Khod Modli, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
6.Mavilka, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
7.Miss Miller's Conversion to Hinduism, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
8.Putra Labha, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
9.Scenes from Khandala Ghat, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
10.Tilak's Week, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
1916
1.Keechaka Vadham, R. Nataraja Mudaliar
2.Prahlad Charitra, S.N. Patankar
3.Ahmadabad Congress, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
4.Dhumrapan Leela, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
5.Gajandrawancha Swapna Vihar, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
6.Kartiki Purnima Utsav, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
7.Lakshmicha Galicha, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
8.Professor Kelpha's Magic, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
9.Sanlagna Ras, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
10.Swapna Vihar, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
1917
1.Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra
Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra (Bengali: সত্যবাদী রাজা হরিশচন্দ্র; English: Truthful King Harishchandra) is a 1917 silent black and white Indian film based on Hindu mythology, directed by Rustomji Dhotiwala. It was produced by J. F. Madan's Elphinstone Bioscope. Credited as the first remake in Indian cinema, the film is a remake of the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913) and was also inspired by a Urdu language drama, Harishchandra. The film is based on the mythological story of a Hindu King Harishchandra, the 36th king of the Solar Dynasty, who donated his entire kingdom and sold himself and his family to keep the promise given to the sage Vishvamitra in the dream. It is also the first feature film made in Calcutta. The intertitles used in the film were in Bengali language as the film was a silent film. The film was released on 24 March 1917 at New Tent Maidan, Calcutta.
After the release of first Indian feature film Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913, no other production attempts were made in Indian cinema for the next four years. Phalke, however, made several short films and documentaries like Scenes of the River Godavari and Ahmadabad Congress, and also the feature film Mohini Bhasmasur in 1913 and Satyavan Savitri in 1914. J. F. Madan, who had formed two production companies in the beginning of the 1900s, decided to make a film. His first company, Elphinstone Bioscope, was a leading producer and distributor of foreign films in permanent and travelling cinema in India, whereas his second company, Madan Theaters Limited, was mainly involved in exhibition, distribution and production of Indian films during the silent era of film industry. Madan Theaters Limited eventually became India's largest film production-distribution-exhibition company and was also a noted importer of American films after World War I.
The film was inspired by a Urdu language drama, Harishchandra (written by Narain Prasad Betab). It was advertised as a "Photographed Play" with male lead Hormusji Tantra as "the 'Irving' of the Indian stage" and female lead Savaria, as "the most beautiful and emotional star".The film also starred Italian artists Signor and Signora Manelli. Other members of the film were recruited from Baliwala Victoria Theatrical Company, a Parsi theater company based in Mumbai. The film was released on 24 March 1917 at New Tent Maidan, Calcutta. The film's running time was two hours. It was the longest Indian feature film made till 1931. The film had 5 reels having length of 7000 feet and was a 35 mm film. Pt. Nityabodha Bidyaratna wrote the screen play. The film was produced by J. F. Madan's Elphinstone Bioscope and was distributed by his another company, Madan Theaters Limited.
2.Draupadi Vastrapaharanam, R. Nataraja Mudaliar
3.Bhakta Pralhad, S.N. Patankar
4.Aagkadyancha Mauja, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
5.Dhandhal Bhatjiche Gangasnaan, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
6.How Films Are Made, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
video available on www.indiancine.ma
Phalke's How Films Are Made appears to have been part-pedagogy and part self-exhibition, as it shows him with extravagant gestures directing his actors in his Raja Harishchandra, editing, scripting and thinking. The surviving footage has been incorporated in Satish Bahadur's documentary Dadasaheb Phalke: The First Indian Filmmaker, which is included here in its entirety.
This film is now a part of the film D.G. Phalke: the First indian Filmmaker, put together by Satish Bahadur for the 1965 FIAF Congress. Suresh Chabria writes: ‘Scripted and compiled by Professor Satish Bahadur in 1965 for the newly founded National Film Archive of India, the film gives an account of the career of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, the founder of the Indian film industry. It was specially produced for the 1965 FIAF Congress which had sent out enquiries about recently discovered film pioneers in different countries. Because it was hastily made, a soundtrack could not be prepared; instead titles in English and French were used.
The film comments on the relation of Phalke’s work with the Indian popular arts of that time–Ravi Varma’s paintings and oleographs, Parsi theatre, folk theatre etc.–and the reasons for the success of the mythological genre with Indian audiences. Extracts from the newly discovered Phalke films are skillfully arranged and include the entire first reel of Raja Harishchandra and several remarkable shots from his last silent film Setu Bandhan (1932-33) which Phalke subsequently synchronised at the Imperial Studio and released in 1934. But the true highlight of the film is the extraordinary footage showing Phalke at work on the 1917 version of Raja Harishchandra. These shots are from the lost How Films are Made released in the same year in which Phalke attempted to explain the medium of cinema to his early audience’. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 48.
7.Lanka Dahan, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
video available on www.indiancine.ma
Phalke Films' last production is a mythological retelling of the familiar Ramayana story of Rama's (Salunke) wife Seeta being abducted by Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, and Rama's triumph with the aid of men and monkeys. The available footage of the film, 501 ft, offers sophisticated parallel cutting between three spaces: the tulasi platform where Seeta is held captive in Lanka, the villain, Ravana, coming to molest her and the brave Hanuman (Shinde) atop a tree witnessing the tragic scene below. Instead of editing according to a temporal narrative logic, Phalke uses a spatial logic: Seeta's space is physically and emotionally isolated, conveyed in foreground/background contrasts. Ravana moves towards her in two daring long shots, from right background to left foreground, first across his palace garden and along his pool (locating his characters in the way stage backdrops in Marathi theatre functioned), then through two elaborate circular movements as he jettisons his royalty and moves into the no-man's-land around Seeta, with Hanuman performing an athletic dance in rage and grief at the villain's progress. The film proved a success after opening at the West End, Bombay and Aryan cinema, Pune.
Suresh Chabria writes: ‘A lively re-telling of an episode from the great epic Ramayana, Lanka Dahan is about the gentle Sita’s abduction and incarceration by the arrogant demon- king Ravana, and the ultimate triumph of her husband Rama (the God Vishnu in one of his avatars) with the help of an army of men and monkeys. In the extant fragment Hanuman, the monkey god, arrives in Lanka to witness Sita being tormented by Ravana and his demonic female attendants. Finding her to be a virtuous and loyal wife he delivers Rama’s ring to her—a token of his vow to rescue her. At this point, for a fleeting instant she envisions Rama in front of her. In an extraordinary piece of casting, Rama is also played by Anna Salunke which makes this the first instance of a double role in Indian cinema.
In contrast to the more static tableau-dominated Raja Harishchandra, Phalke varies his camera set-ups, adroitly cuts between the diðerent spaces in Ravana’s garden and elicits theatrically inspired but more convincing performances from the actors.
The film was a huge success and is often referred to as India’s first big box- office hit. Phalke could now command additional finance and facilities to make more ambitious films under his new production company and studio, Hindustan Cinema Film Co.’. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 57-58.
Phalke Films (Studio)
One of the founding institutions of Indian cinema. Set up by Dadasaheb Phalke and his family at Dadar Main Road, Bombay (1912). Initial capital came from a loan against his insurance policy and the main equipment was imported from London. Staffed by Phalke’s family and friends, e.g. Trymbak B. Telang, whom he trained to use the Williamson camera. Mrs Phalke (Saraswati aka Kaki) was an essential partner who took upon herself the managerial and technical tasks, included perforating raw Kodak stock. The family kitchen was turned into a laboratory. The first production, Raja Harishchandra (1913), was a success released at the Coronation Cinematograph and Variety Hall in Bombay as part of a programme with Miss Irene Del Mar in a duet and dance number, a comical sketch by the McClements, Alexandroff the Wonderful Foot Juggler and Tip- Top Comics. In 1913 the company moved to Nasik for easier access to locations Phalke deemed essential for cinema: rivers, mountains, and several famous shrines (locations where popular superstition placed some of the Ramayana stories). After four films, it became evident that a familial- artisanal set-up could not cope with the administration for production, processing, distribution and exhibition. In 1918 the company folded and was replaced by the more professional partnership enterprise Hindustan Cinema Films.
8.Raja Harishchandra, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
video available on www.indiancine.ma
Phalke's remake of his 1913 film. The original version of this very successful theme was written by Ranchhodbhai Udayram, but made popular by Vinayak Prasad Talib's Urdu version for the Baliwala Victoria theatre group (1884) and Bhartendu's Hindi Satya Harishchandra (1885). The homage to the upright King Harishchandra (Dabke) who almost sacrifices his kingdom for his love of truth, opens with a Ravi Varma-like tableau showing the king, his wife Taramati (Salunke) and his young son, to whom he is teaching archery. Derived from the Sangeet Natak, continuity is defined through juxtaposition of spatial planes (e.g. the space of the family idyll and the space 'beyond', while off-screen space functions like stage wings) which allow the narrative to be condensed into spaces against, and into, which the viewer's gaze traces a logic of movement. The hunt proceeds into and conquers the space beyond. Then the king blunders into a contiguous area controlled by the sage Vishwamitra, a mystical space opposed to the king's physical one. To atone for his mistake, the king is banished. In his play, Talib had introduced an Indrasabha-like fairy to seduce the king into renouncing the kingdom. In the film, this figure surfaces in the form of the three furies caught in flames whom Harishchandra tries to rescue. The hunt sequence, as well as the reduction of Nakshatra, Vishwamitra's disciple, into a comic character, are faithful to the play. The king endures much hardship before a deux ex machina (here literally a god) emerges at the join of the horizon and the gaze (cf Shri Krishna Janma, 1918) to reassure everyone that the whole narrative was merely a test of the king's integrity. Only 1475 ft. of the original film appear to have survived.
Suresh Chabria writes: ‘Preceded by two lost eðorts at making a narrative film in India, the first or 1913 version of Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra is commonly reckoned as India’s first true, indigenous feature film. It was made in an improvised studio in Bombay by Phalke’s Films, a production company consisting mainly of Phalke’s family and friends. Phalke produced, directed, scripted, designed the sets and costumes, supervised the camerawork and processing, and created the special eðects. The film was released at Bombay’s Coronation Cinematograph on 3 May 1913 and thus launched India’s film industry which, within a few decades, was to become one of the most profitable, influential and popular in the world.
However, since the Pordenone retrospective where NFAI’s print of Raja Harishchandra was shown as made in 1913–as it had always been in India– new facts have come to light. V. Dharamsey has found conclusive evidence in contemporary sources to prove that the print actually consists of the first and last reels from Phalke’s 1917 remake produced after he moved to Nasik. The main proof is that while in the 1913 version an actor called Pandurang Sane played the role of Queen Taramati, this role is played by a different and far better known actor, Anna Salunke, in the extant film. In fact, Salunke again appears prominently in two more Phalke films—Lanka Dahan and Kaliya Mardan.
Dharamsey was already convinced about this important, even momentous, finding in 1994, but it could not be included in the first edition as the book had already gone to press. I also exercised caution since more time was required to examine the evidence. Besides this, there was undoubtedly reluctance on my part–as also among several other historians and colleagues familiar with the film–to immediately accept the new dating. For to do so meant that the treasured reels one had long believed to be from the very first Indian film ever made, were, in fact, from the second version made four years later.
To return to the film itself, Raja Harishchandra is based on one of the most popular Mahabharata legends and unfolds in a series of tableaux that are typical of Phalke’s style. It narrates the exemplary story of King Harishchandra’s devotion to truth and duty for which he is prepared to sacrifice everything. For enthusiasts of Indian silent cinema, each surviving sequence carries tremendous nostalgia and significance, even though we now know that it was made in 1917. Among these are the opening royal hunt; Sage Vishwamitra’s fire sacrifice which King Harishchandra accidentally profanes and is consequently sent into ‘exile; his breaking of the news of their banishment from the kingdom to his queen, Taramati; their tearful departure from the palace; the tribulations and sufferings of Taramati and their son Rohidas in exile; the climax in the cremation ground where Shiva, the great God of Destruction, appears to prevent Taramati’s execution; and finally the family’s return to the palace which movingly brings the morality play to a happy conclusion. Each of these episodes is vividly etched in our collective imagination.
Phalke apparently made the second version to replace worn out prints and is said to have copied the original very closely. Thus what a contemporary review of the 1913 film states probably applies to the 1917 version as well␣‘...the result of his (Phalke’s) efforts exceeds one’s expectation ... Dramatically the film is admirable ... one can freely praise the beauty and ingenuity with which he has succeeded in presenting effectively the most difficult scenes ...’ The latter remark obviously refers to the special effects which were to become Phalke’s forté and a distinctive feature of the mythological genre he pioneered.
Besides the two versions made by Phalke, Madan’s Elphinstone Bioscope Co. also released its own version Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra in 1917, which is the first feature film produced in Calcutta. Among the several subsequent renderings of the story is Prabhat Film Co.’s Ayodhyacha Raja (1932) too, directed by V. Shantaram which is the earliest surviving Indian sound film'. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 67-69.
1918
1.Mayil Ravana, R. Nataraja Mudaliar
2.Raja Shriyal, S.N. Patankar
3.Ram Vanvas, S.N. Patankar
4.Shri Krishna Janma, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke,
video available on www.indiancine.ma
Studio: Hindustan Cinema Films,Writer: Dadasaheb Phalke,Cast: D.D. Dabke, Purshottam Vaidya, Mandakini Phalke, Bhagirathibai, Neelkanth
Mandakini, the film-maker's daughter, played the child god Krishna, repeating her role in Phalke's next mythological, Kaliya Mardan (1919). Beginning with the invocation of 'almighty god', the only available sequence of the film (576ft), which may in fact be its last episode, opens with a shot of a river from behind the backs of a group of people, echoing the position of the audience vis-a-vis the miraculous appearance of young Krishna rising out of the water astride the demon snake Kaliya. Phalke then cuts 180 degrees across the axis to the audience of the scene, an editing pattern he repeats several times, locking the two spaces into each other at right angles. The viewer enters Yashoda's space as she rocks the sleeping Krishna's crib and irilagines the god as Gopala, generating a fantasy space in which the evil Kamsa imagines Krishna threateningly duplicated many times around him. Kamsa then imagines himself dead as his severed head rises up out of the frame and descends again, a matte effect that was one of the film's highlights. The end has people of all castes paying obeisance to the deity and Phalke inserted the title-card: 'May this humble offering be accepted by the Lord'. Adverts included a reference to a 'spectacular' scene of 'the heavenward flight of Maya in the form of lightning'. Released to great acclaim in Bombay.
Suresh Chabria writes: ‘Shri Krishna Janma begins with a series of religious images which are perhaps the most invocatory in all Hindu mythology—the people beseeching the gods for succour and deliverance from the tyranny of demons. Vishnu rises from the cosmic ocean on the many-hooded serpent god Shesha and pledges that he will restore the balance of creation by being born as Krishna.
The framing of the human figures at foreground bottom of the frame identifies them with the spectator. Early cinema’s privileging of a ‘single view point and its posture of displaying something to the audience’ that Gunning and Gaudreault have discussed is here confirmed in the case of India’s early films as well. Phalke then cuts 180 degrees across the axis to the supplicants—an editing pattern which he repeated with memorable effect in the climax of Kaliya Mardan.
Unfortunately, only fragments from the original length of 5500 ft. have survived, but these include special effects of amazing virtuosity and sophistication which can be compared with the best of Méliès. The most famous of these is of the demon-king Kamsa’s hallucination. Destined to be destroyed by the child Krishna, in a vision he sees his severed head floating in a geyser of blood. It is part of Indian film lore that the blood in this trick shot was hand-tinted in red’. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 73-74.
1919
1.Kaliya Mardan, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke,Cast: Mandakini Phalke, Neelkanth, Purushottam Parchure, Yadav Gopal Takle, Narayan Pache
Introducing Phalke as the ‘Pioneering Cine-Artist of the East’, the most complete Phalke film extant opens with a series of shots demonstrating the 7- year-old Mandakini Phalke’s acting skills through a series of facial expressions. The playmates of Krishna (Mandakini) are insulted by a female villager who splashes water on them. They take revenge by stealing butter from her house. When they are beaten up by the woman, they again take revenge. Krishna receives a gift of fruit and gives it away, ‘an act which foreshadows his future benevolent inclination’. The film’s most elaborately plotted sequence has Krishna entering the room of a wealthy merchant and his wife at night and tying the man’s beard to his wife’s hair. These exploits lead to a large crowd complaining of Krishna’s antics to his foster parents. The film ends with Krishna vanquishing the demon snake Kaliya in a fierce underwater battle, intercut (cf Shri KrishnaJanma, 1918) with the faces of anxious observers. Krishna eventually rises triumphant with the slain demon’s tail on his shoulder, garlanded by the now liberated wives of the demon. Only 4441 ft of the original film survive.
Suresh Chabria writes: ‘Kaliya Mardan is a celebration of the lila or divine play of the child Krishna. It begins with a marvellous prologue in which the child actress enacting Krishna (Phalke’s daughter Mandakini who had earlier essayed this role in Shri Krishna Janma) is shown in her everyday clothes before she is dissolved into the character she is playing. After an inter-title–‘Study in facial expressions by a little girl of seven’–she enacts a few of the nine rasas or aesthetic sentiments of the Indian classical arts—humour, anger, wonder etc.
The narrative of Krishna’s childhood then unfolds through a juxtaposition of static tableaux with complex sequences of parallel cutting from one location or group of characters to another. Towards the end of the film, the great underwater sequence shows Krishna quelling the serpent-king Kaliya. This is followed by the ritual of aarti in a tableau vivant which reproduces the high point in Hindu temple ritual. According to the veteran exhibitor and film historian B.V. Dharap, this was the signal for audiences to break into spontaneous kirtan (singing of devotional songs) and shouting nationalist slogans. Kaliya thus symbolised to them not only the traditional concept of adharma or evil in Hindu mythology but colonial rule as well.
With its characteristic blending of the real and the imaginary and the use of Western film techniques with a distinct Indian ethos, Kaliya Mardan is the first definitive masterpiece of Indian cinema.’. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 55-56.
2.Sinhastha Parvani, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
3.Wrestling and Athletic Tournaments, Poona 1919, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke
4.Narasinha Avatar,Shri Nath Patankar
5.Lava Kush,R. Nataraja Mudaliar
6.Bilwamangal, Rustomji Dhotiwala, Cast:Gohar, Dorabji Mewawala
7.Kabir Kamal,Shri Nath Patankar
8.Kacha Devyani,Shri Nath Patankar
9.Usha Swapna, G V Sane
10.Vishvamitra Menaka, Kanji Bhai Rathod
Shri Nath Patankar (?-1941) Pioneer producer-director-cameraman with an impact on early Indian film equivalent to Phalke’s. Fragments of biographical information suggest that he was born in the early 1880s and became a still photographer who bought a film camera from Bhatavdekar and filmed the great Delhi Durbar (1911) also shot by Hiralal Sen, Madan Theatres and others. Started Patankar Union in partnership with V.P. Divekar and A.P. Karandikar (1913) and made some films mainly to raise funds. They were helped by nationalist leader Lokmanya Tilak, who persuaded financiers Bhagwandas Chaturbhuj and Dharamdas Narayandas to invest in the company. His second feature, Narayanrao Peshwa, is almost certainly India’s first historical. The company only took off in 1917 with the entry of Dwarkadas Sampat into Patankar-Friends & Co. Films made 1918-20, usually scripted by Mohanlal Dave, prepared the emergence of the Kohinoor Studio. Following Sampat’s exit (1920), Patankar started a third studio, National Film (1922), financed by Thakurdas Vakil and Harilal, and then a fourth, Pioneer Film financed by Vazir Haji, which was also the parent company of the Excelsior Studio. His historicals and mythologicals were among the most professionally made films before the studio era (pre-1925). With the transformation of Pioneer into the Excelsior Studio, freelanced for a while as cameraman and art director in Bombay. Shot all the films he directed.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Director)
Also known as Dadasaheb Phalke. (1870 - 1944) Pioneering director. Born in Trymbakeshwar, Nasik. Claimed to have started the film industry in India with Raja Harishchandra. Saw his cinema as a direct contribution to Swadeshi. Son of Sanskrit scholar. Studied at J.J. School of Art (1885) and at Kala Bhavana, Baroda (see art schools). Then studied architecture. Became proficient as landscape painter of academic nature studies. Worked in photographic studio and learnt to develop and print negative film. At Ratlam studied three-colour blockmaking. photolithography and ceramics (1890). Worked as portrait photographer, stage make-up man, assistant to a German illusionist and as a magician (as Professor Kelpha). Started Phalke's Art Printing & Engraving Works at Lonavala (1908), later Laxmi Art Printing Works. Did photolitho transfers of Ravi Varma lithographs. Sailed to Germany to obtain three-colour printing equipment (1909). Saw The Life of Christ around Christmas 1910 in a Bombay cinema, an event he describes with great passion although contemporary notices suggest it must have been around Easter 1911. Strongly moved by the 'magic' of cinema. Also dedicated himself to bringing Indian images to the screen. Raised finance from Yeshwant Nadkarni. a photographic equipment dealer, with short trick film, Birth of a Pea Plant, shooting one frame a day to show a plant growing. Went to London in February 1912 to familiarise himself with film technology and to acquire equipment. Bought a Williamson camera, Kodak negative and a perforator. Cecil Hepworth tutored him at Walton Studios. Returned to establish Phalke Films on Dadar Main Road in Bombay (1912) for which he made five films, starting with Raja Harishchandra. Went to England again in 1914 to organise trade shows and received many offers to remain in Europe. Returned to India with new equipment, closed Phalke Films and set up the Hindustan Cinema Films (1918). Resigned briefly from Hindustan to write the Marathi play Rangbhoomi (1922) in Benares. Made 44 silent features, several shorts and one talkie, Gangavataran. The films introduced the mythological genre to Indian cinema, allowing him to merge his notion of Swadeshi with an industrial practice and a politico-cultural aesthetics. Satish Bahadur compiled the film D.C. Phalke, the First Indian Film Director for the Film (1964): the film contains the only existing footage of How Films Are Made, footage of himself directing Raja Harishchandra, and Setu Bandhan, and is a tribute nor only to the founder of the Indian film industry but also to a daring experimenter with animation techniques (including match- sticks), inventor of promotional films and of documentaries, creator of special effects and codifier of a new generic form, the mythological film. Essays on film, 'Bharatiya Chitrapat', were published in Navyug (1917-18).
R. Nataraja Mudaliar (Director)
(1885-1972) Pioneer cineaste of South India born in Vellore. Initially in the cycle business (1906), then the car trade (1911). Apprenticed in 1912 to a Mr Stewart, the official cinematographer of Lord Curzon’s 1903 durbar. Set up India Film in Madras (1915) with a second-hand Williamson camera and finance from businessman S.M. Dharmalingam. The studio was set up in a makeshift space on Miller’s Road where he made Keechaka Vadham, intertitled in Tamil, Hindi and English. Reputed to have made an earlier film, Gopal Krishna. Draupadi Vastrapaharanam featured an Anglo-Indian actress, Violet Berry, as Draupadi. Made his other features, all mythologicals, around his home town of Vellore. In 1923, his studio burnt down and his son died, prompting him to retire.
G.V.Sane
G.V. Sane was born as V. Sane Gananan. He is a director and actor, known for Ahilyoddhar (1919), Keechaka Vadh (1926) and Bhim Sanjeevan (1926).
Kanjibhai Rathod
Kanjibhai Rathod from Maroli village in south Gujarat, was considered the first successful director in Indian cinema. His rise to fame in an era when most people stayed away from films due to a peculiar stigma attached to the filmdom. Not much is known about Rathod's personal life. Film historian Virchand Dharamsey writes, "Kanjibhai was coming from a Dalit family and he can be considered the first successful professional director of India."Rathod began as a still photographer with the Oriental Film Company. His experience earned him a job in Kohinoor Film Company and its owner Dwarkadas Sampat made him a director. Rathod's 'Bhakta Vidur' released in 1921, was perhaps the first criticism of the British colonialism in a popular feature film. This mythological allegory directly alluded to political issues, particularly the controversy over the Rowlatt Act. An adaptation from a section of the Mahabharata, this film showed the British as the Kauravas and its protagonist Vidur as Gandhi. Sampat himself played the role donning the Gandhi cap and khadi shirt. The film raised a storm - while a big hit in Bombay, it was banned by the British in Karachi and Madras, write historians. Rathod was the first film-maker to direct a crime thriller in 1920s on contemporary events. His Kala Naag (1924) was based on famous double murder case in Bombay. Rathod introduced Zubaida to film industry with his Gulbakavali. By the time he left for Saurashtra Film Company in Rajkot in 1924, Rathod had enough work on his name. At the launch of Krishna Film Company, he returned to Mumbai in 1931, the year of first talkies. Dharamsey writes in his 'Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912–1934' that Rathod directed five talkies out of 17 made in 1931. He remained active in the industry even in 1940s, but he was not as successful directing talkies.
