History of Indian Cinema

At the turn of this century, when the country was poised for major social and political reforms, a new entertainment form dawned in India-the Cinema. The first exposure to motion pictures was in 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers' Chinematographe unveiled six soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Esplanade Mansion, Bombay on July 7. And the first exposing of celluloid in camera by an Indian and its consequent screening took place in 1899, when Harishchandra Bhatvadekar (Save Dada) shot two short films and exhibited them under Edison's projecting kinetoscope. Hiralal Sen and F.B. Thanawalla were two other Indian pioneers engaged in the production of short films in Calcutta and Bombay in 1900. Around 1902, J.F. Madan and Abdullah Esoofally launched their career with Bioscope shows of imported short films. In 1912 , N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney made a silent feature film Pundalik which was released on May 18, and it was half British in its make.

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, more generally known as Dada Saheb Phalke was responsible for the production of India's first fully indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra which heralded the birth of the Indian film industry. The film had titles in Hindi and English and was released on May 3, 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay. In 1917, Bengal saw the birth of its first feature film-Satyabadi Raja Harishchandra made by Madan's Elphinstone Bioscope Company. In Madras, the first feature film of South India Keechaka Vadham was made by Nataraja Mudaliar in 1919. After stepping into 1920, the Indian cinema gradually assumed the shape of a regular industry. The new decade saw the arrival of many new companies and filmmakers. Dhiren Ganguly (England Returned), Baburao Painter (Savkari Pash), Suchet Singh (Sakuntala), Chandulal Shah (Guna Sundari), Ardershir Israni, and V. Santharam were the prominent film makers of the 20s.

The most remarkable thing about the birth of the sound film in India is that it came with a bang and quickly displaced the silent movies. The first Indian talkie Alam Ara produced by the Imperial film company and directed by Ardershir Irani was released on March 14, 1931 in Bombay. The year 1931 marked the beginning of the talking ear in Bengal and South India. The first talkie films in Bengali (Jamai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass) were released in the same year.

The 30s is recognised as the decade of social protests in the history of Indian Cinema. Three big banners-Prabhat, Bombay Talkies and New Theatres gave the lead in making serious but gripping and entertaining films for all classes. A number of films making a strong plea against social injustice were also made in this period like V.Santharam's Duniya Na Mane, Aadmi and Padosi, Franz Osten's Achut Kanya, Damle & Fatehlal's Sant Thukaram and Mehboob's Watan. For the first time Ardeshir Irani attempted a colour picture in 1937 with Kisan Kanya. The decade also witnessed the release of the first talkie films in Marathi (Ayodhiyecha Raja), Gujarathi (Narasinh Mehta), Kannada (Dhurvkumar), Oriya (Sita Bibaha); Assamese (Joymati), Punjabi (Sheila) and Malayalam (Balan).

The decade of the 2nd world war and India’s independence was a momentous one for cinematography all over India. Some memorable films were produced during the forties such as Shantharam's Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob's Roti, Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar, Uday Shanker's Kalpana, Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal and Sohrab Modi's Sikander.

The first International Film Festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay had great impact of Indian Cinema. The big turning point came in 1955 with the arrival of Satyajit Ray and his classic Pather Panchali, which lead the Indian film to the world film scene. International recognition came with the Cannes award for best human document followed by an unprecedented crop of foreign and national awards. In Hindi Cinema too, the impact of neorealism was evident in some distinguished films like Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin, Devadas and Madhumati, Rajkapoor's Boot Polish, Shri-420, V. Shantharam's Do Aankhen Barah Haath, Mehbood's Mother India, Gurudutt's Pyaasa and B.R. Chopra's Kanoon.

The transition to colour and the consequent preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought about a complete change in the film industry. The sixties was a decade of mediocre films made mostly to please the distributors and to meet the demands of the box office. The decade began with a bang with the release of K. Asif's Mughal-E-Azam, which set a record at the box-office. It was followed by notable productions, which includes romantic musical and melodramas of a better quality. Rajkapoor's Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Sangam, Gurudutt's Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Dev Anand's Guide, S.Mukherji's Junglee, Sunil Dutt's Mujhe Jeene Do, Basu Bhatacharya's Teesri Kasam, Pramod Chakravorthy's Love in Tokyo, Ramanand Sagar's Arzoo, Sakhti Samantha's Aradhana, Hrishikesh Mukherji's Anand, B.R. Chopra's Waqt and Manoj Kumar's Upkar were the significant Hindi films of the decade.

Among the regional languages, Malayalam cinema derived much of its strength from literature during the sixties. Malayalam cinema hit the headlines for the first time when Ramu Kariat's Chemmeen (1965) won the President's Gold Medal. Towards the end of the decade, Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome signalled the beginnings of the new wave in Indian Cinema.

The New Wave in Indian Cinema emerged, as a reaction to the popular cinema's ‘other worldliness’. It is a cinema of social significance and artistic sincerity, presenting a modern, humanist perspective, more durable than the fantasy world of the popular cinema.

Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen were the founding fathers of the new cinema in India. Acclaimed as India's foremost director Satyajit Ray has made 30 feature films and five documentaries, tacking a wide range of rural, urban and historical themes. His cinematography places him away form the inheritors of the neorealist school, and yet his films are infused with an unusual humaneness. Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar, Charulata, Jalsaghar, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Seemabadha, Jana Aranya, Ashani Sanket and Agantuk are some of his outstanding films.

Ritwik Ghatak swooped on the Indian scene with new dynamism. His films constitute a record of the traumas the rootless and deprived refugees from East Bengal. (Meghe Dhaka Tara and Ajantrik). Mrinal Sen is the ebullient one, experimenting with neorealism as well as new wave and fantasy. His notable films are Chorus, Mrigaya, Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler Sandhane, Kharij and Khandahar.

In Bombay, a new group of filmmakers emerged. Notable amongst them are Basu Chatterji (Sara Akash), Rajinder Singh Bedi (Dastak), Mani Kaul (Uski Roti), Kumar Shahani (Maya Darpan), Avtar Kaul (27-Down), Basu Bhattacharya (Anubhav), M.S. Sathyu (Garam Hawa), Shyam Benegal (Ankur), and Kanthilal Rathod (Kanku). In Calcutta, following the trend set by Ray, Ghatak and Sen, Tapan Sinha and Tarun Majumdar made some note worthy films like Kabuliwala, Hatey Bazarey, Harmonium, Safed Haathi; Balika Bodhu, Nimantran, Ganadevta, Dadar Kirti.

The seventies has further widened the gap between big budgeted and off- beat films. The popular Hindi hits of the decade include Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeeza, Rajkapoor's Bobby , Devar's Haathi Mere Saathi, Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, Zanjeer, Deewar, Yaadon Ki Baarat, Kabhi Kabhi, Amar Akbar Anthony, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, and Muqaddar ka Sikandar. Of these, majority were action- oriented flicks with revenge as the dominating theme. Down in the South, the new wave cinema originated in Karnataka and Kerala. Pattabhi Rama Reddy's Damskara (70) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvaram (72) were the trend setters in Kannada and Malayalam respectively. This continued with a series of socially conspicuous films like M.T. Vasidevan Nair's Nirmalyam, B.V.Karanth's Chomana Dudi, Girish Karnad's Kaadu, G. Aravindan's Uttarayanam, K. Balachander's Arangetram, Adoor's Kodyettam, K.G. George's Swapnadanam and P.A. Backer's Chuvanna Vithukal .

The Hindi avante garde or new wave seems to have reached its bloom period towards the end of the seventies with the coming of film makers like Govind Nihalani (Aakrosh), Saeed Mirza (Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai), Rabindra Dharmaraj (Chakra), Sai Paranjpe (Sparsh), Muzafar Ali (Gaman) and Biplab Roy Chowdhari (Shodh). The movement spread to the other regional cinemas such as Marathi, Gujarathi, Assamese, Oriya and Telugu. Directors like Jabbar Patel (Samna), Ramdas Phuttane (Sarvasakshi), Ketan Mehta (Bhavni Bhavai), Babendranath Saikia(Sandhya Rag), Jahanu Barua (Aparoopa), and Gautam Ghose (Ma Bhoomi) came to the scene with their films.

The new cinema movement continued with full spirit in the 80’s. Shyam Benegal presented some good movies like Manthan, Bhumika and Trikal. Nihlani's Aaghat and Tamas were remarkable works. Other important films with new style of treatment include Damul (Prakash Jha), 36-Chowringhee Lane (Aparna Sen), New Delhi Times (Ramesh Sharma), Mirch Masala (Ketan Mehta), Debshishu (Utpalendu Chakraborthy), Ijaazat (Gulzar), Umrao Jaan (Muzafar Ali), Dakhal (Gautam Ghose), Dooratwa, Neem Annapurana, Andhi Gali (Buddhadeb Dasgupta), Aajka Robin Hood (Tapan Sinha), and Phaniyamma (Prema Karanth).

The late eighties and early nineties saw the revival of the musical love stories in Hindi cinema. Mr. India, Tezaab, Qayamat se Qayamat Tak, Main Pyar Kiya, Chandni, Ghayal, Saudagar, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Hum Hain Rahi Pyarke, Hum Apake Hai Kaun, and Rangeela were some of the popular Hindi films of the last decade.

The first half of nineties witnessed the release of some better films in Hindi as well as in other regional languages. Drishti and Drohkal (Nihalani), Lekin (Gulzar), Prahar (Nana Patekar), Parinda (Vinod Chopra), Rudaali (Kalpana Lajmi), Maya Memsaab (Ketan Mehta), Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda (Benegal), Ek Doctor Ki Maut (Tapan Sinha), were some of the notable Hindi films.

From Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Manipur came films like Tahader Katha, Charachar (Buddhadeb Dasgupta), Uttoran (Sandip Ray), Wheel Chair (Tapan Sinha), Unishe April (Rituparno Ghosh), Lalvanya Preethi (A.K. Bir), Firingoti (Jahau Barua), Haladhar (Sanjeev Hazarika), and Ishanou (Aribam Shayam Sharma).

From Tamil and Telugu cinema, there came few films like Anjali, Roja and Bombay (Mani Ratnam) , Nammavar (Sethsumadhavan), Surigadu (Dasari Narayana Rao), Swathi Kiranam (K.Viswanath), Mogha Mul (G.Rajasekharan). English film like Miss Beatty's Children (Pamela Rooks) and English August (Dev Benegal) were also produced during this period.

Overall, it has been a long story of nearly nine decades, with the early shaky screen images turning into a multi pronged and multi winged empire of its own, that has yielded about 27,000 feature films and thousands of documented and short films. Cinema has raised India's flag high in the world as consistently being the largest film producer. However, when it comes to quality the flag has to fly half mast.


Edited by : Pranab Ganguly
Date: 30.05.2008
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