[Reader-list] Glimpses of Early Indian Cinema

[T. Vishnu Vardhan]

Hi, this is my first posting on the list.  It will give you an idea of the 
work I have been doing.  Hope you will take time to read it, give lots of 
suggestions and shoot many questions.

To start with, check out, how good is your Early Indian Cinema knowledge?

1) Which film is often celebrated for having inaugurated the Indian film 
industry?
2) Do you know the full name of the pioneering director, Phalke?
3) Which is India's first sound film and when was it released?
4) The first Telugu film is _____________ .
5) Can you guess the film title that is used most number of times and has 
similar plot?

You can find the answers at the end.  Go on, read.

The above questionnaire kind of hints at what I am interested in.  My 
project is a historical study of mythological films - a dead genre - in 
Telugu cinema.

Various stories from epics - Ramayana and Mahabharatha -  were the first 
narrative sources for the early filmmakers in India, who were experimenting 
with the 'modern' technology of visual representation.  These pioneers in 
turn played a historically significant role in laying the ground for one of 
the major film industries of the present day world.  From 1913 till 1919, 
twenty-five narrative films were produced in  India and all of them filmed 
imaginary spaces, mythic people and epic themes and needless to say they 
were big hits of the time.  These films were/are categorized as 
mythologicals or mythological films.  Later, different types of films were 
tried out along with mythologicals, which can be broadly classified as 
devotionals, socials, folklore and historical films.  Though other kind of 
films came into existence, mythologicals dominated the Indian film field 
for another two decades to come.

In the history of Indian cinema mythological films played a significant 
role as the foundation of indigenous film production.  According to Ashish 
Rajadhyaksha and Willemen (1999), although people like Hiralal Sen and H.S. 
Bhatavdekar started making films as early as 1897, most of them were 
actualities or scenes of stage shows (e.g. Dancing Scenes from 'The Flower 
of Persia'  (1898), Coronation Ceremony and Durbar (1903), etc. by Hiralal 
Sen.  The Wrestlers (1899), Man and Monkey (1899), Delhi Durbar of Lord 
Curzon (1903) etc. by H.S. Bhatavdekar).  However, it is Raja Harishchandra 
(D.G. Phalke, 1913) that takes the credit of being the 'first Indian 
film'.  It is worth noting that this is an Indian film because of its use 
of mythic material.  Mythic material is arguably among the reasons for the 
increased reach of film among the Indian population.  Phlake, with his 
mythological films, seems to have catered to and indeed, helped to create, 
a different audience from the one which patronized foreign films.  He 
advertised in vernacular newspapers rather than in the English-language 
press, and took his shows to the hinterland, often by bullock cart, to 
offer inexpensive screenings to rural audiences who sat on the ground 
before makeshift screen (Barnouw and Krishnaswamy 1980).

Furthermore, with the advent of talkies in 1931, different language 
cinemas, catering to the particular linguistic tastes of the audiences, 
replaced the unitary Indian (silent) cinema (it has to be noted that silent 
films were continued to be made and exhibited for some years even after the 
advent of talkies).  Once again mythologicals eclipsed the Indian film 
industry(ies).  They were prominent in South Indian cinema even after their 
decline in Hindi, Bengali and Marathi film industry.  For a long time they 
exerted influence on various aspects of film form, film production and film 
emhibition.  There is also an opinion that even in the silent days 
mythologicals were more popular in South India than in rest of 
India.  Taking stock of the just emerged talkies, their commercial success 
and influence on the 'film industry' in comparision to the silent days, in 
1935, the editorial of the Moving Picture Monthly remarks that income from 
Bombay talkies has come down when compared to silent films.  Because it feels:
         The language difficulty has reduced the scope of the 
market.  Moreover as Tamil, Telugu and     Kanarese talkies are running in 
the circuit, it is impossible to get even a date for a Hindi talkie... 
It       may interest some of our readers to know that in silent days 
Kohinoor, Jagdish, Imperial, and   other concerns used to derive a lot of 
revenue from this territory.  Mythological pictures have         drawn 
money by shovels from this presidency.
The above remark suggests that the declining popularity of Bombay films in 
Madras region was not only because of the language barrier but also the 
fact that most of them were also not mythologicals.  This coincides with 
the establishment of the film industry in Madras from where (mythological) 
films were produced in all the four south Indian languages.

In the case of Telugu cinema, during the initial 7 years (when 39 films 
were produced) almost all the films were mythologicals.  I have come to 
this conclusion after examining Paruchuri Gopala Krishna's Telugu Cinema 
Sahithyam: Katha - Kathanam - Shiplam, Bulemoni Venkateshwarlu's Telugu 
Cinema Charitra, Maddali Raghuram edited Aravy Yella Telugu Cinema all in 
Telugu and of course also referred to Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema.  And 
mythologicals successfully continues until 1980s.  Further, it has been 
argued, for instance Chidananda Das Gupta, that mythologicals played a 
critical role in the political success of N.T. Rama Rao, the star of 1970s, 
who became the first non-congress Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Given the magnitude of mythological films in Indian cinema it is a manner 
of concern that the ' Indian' film theory and critical writings on Indian 
cinema, have not examined it at any greater length.  Theorization of film 
in India is centered on the 'social' and does not give importance to the 
fact that the mythological was the earliest form of Indian film and had a 
massive presence for decades.  This emphasis, I suggest, might be because 
the theorization of Indian cinema was more informed by Hindi and Bengali 
cinema than other language cinema, which were dominated by socials.  Even 
in the context of Hindi and Bengali cinema not much work is done on 
mythologicals, beyond silent cinema period (Phalke Era), because 
mythological as a commercially successful form, started declining by 1940s 
and was being replaced by an all-inclusive film called 'social'.  "Indian 
film studies began to acquire an identity as a separate discipline identity 
in the eighties" with a sprit to examine "Indian cinema as a modern 
cultural institution whose unique features can be related directly or 
indirectly to the specificity of the socio-political formation of the 
Indian nation-state" (Prasad, Madhava 1998; vii).  In this context, I 
suggest, the 'social' film form was more germane than the mythological film 
form.  Further, social was contemporary to the emerging disciplines of Film 
Studies in 1980s, and its dynamic presence grabbed the immediate attention 
of film studies.  However, mythologicals of the recent past were out of 
sight and thus out of mind.  Giving a different reason, Madhava Prasad in 
his recent unpublished work on mythologicals says "while they command 
audiences for a long time, for critics mythologicals have stood for the 
worst tendency in Indian cinema",  Whatever may be the reason for the 
absence of much critical writing on mythologicals, it is time that 
mythological should be examined meticulously without which the study of 
Telugu cinema in particular and Indian cinema in general is incomplete.

Given this context, the project limits its study and looks at the career of 
pouranicalu or mythologicals in Telugu cinema and intends to answer - Why 
mythologicals existed for such a long period in Telugu cinema in contrast 
to other Indian cinemas?  Did it have any influence on Telugu film form and 
industry?  If so, what?  Furthermore, the project will also look at the 
criticism of mythologicals, by sections of the reading public, starting 
from early 1940s and other aspects to explore various intricacies involved 
in the death of pouranicalu in 1980s.  I will be collecting various kinds 
of print material from various libraries and archives and will also under 
take oral documentation, as part of which I will be interviewing a 
generation of actors an technicians who have seen and been part of the life 
and death of mythological films.

Answers:
1) Raja Harishchandra
2) Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, aka Dadasaheb Phalke
3) Alam Ara, 1931
4) Bhakta Prahlada, 1931
5) Bhakta Prahlad(a).  I could dig out 16 films bearing the same 
title.  Probably this is the only film title in the world that has been 
used most number of times.  It was made as a silent, Hindi, Gujrati, 
Marathi, Assameese, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu film.

Hope it was an easy read.  Pour in your comments.

Best,
Vishnu


T. Vishnu Vardhan
Centre for the Study of Culture and Society,
466, 9th Cross, 1st Block, Jayanagar,
Bangalore - 560011.
e-mail: vishnu at cscsban.org
         thvishnu_viva at yahoo.com
Tel. no. 080-26562986
mobile no. +919845207308
fax no. 080-26562991  
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