Nishikant Khajuria
`Inception o f Indian Cinema: 1896-1950’, authored by Sat Parkash Suri of Jammu, intends to provide a deep insight into the circumstances and detailed study how the moving pictures in flesh and blood took off in India towards the last decade of 19th century.
Mr Suri, who spent three decades of his life in Bollywood as a Film Editor, has authored this volume by compiling his interviews with stalwarts of Indian cinema and extensive research work on the information from National Film archival material, which he accessed as a student of Film and Television Institute of India at Pune.
The book is laced with the sketches of filmmakers, directors, composers, actors and actresses of all hues and colours who achieved iconic status in the tinsel world and remained on the radar of popularity that lasted for decades together. Life sketches and contribution of B N Sircar, P C Barua, Pahari Sanyal, Debaki Bose, Nitin Bose, Bimal Roy, Satyajit Roy, Tapan Sinha, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen and Hrishikesh Mukherjee have been penned down with gusto. Similarly the contribution and achievements of legendry South Indian film makers, such as S S Vasan, L V Prasad, A V Meippan, B Nagi Raddy as well as prominent heroes like M G R , Shivaji Ganeshan, Gemini Ganeshan, Ranjan, N T Ramarao, A Nageswar Rao, Dr Raj Kumar, Anjali Devi and Pandari Bai also find places in this volume.
New trends in film making, cinematograph Acts, its vicissitudes and progress of film making have also been discussed in details in the book.
The `Inception of India Cinema: 1896-1950’ unfolds how cinema in India took off and how enterprising and risk taking affluent business community embraced the new medium, welcomed it with open arms and carried it to the crest of worldwide recognition.
According to the book, the footage shot by Lumiere Brother (Louis and Auguste) in France and the show arranged by their Indian touring agents at Watson hotel in Bombay on July 7, 1896, was the main source of inspiration and attraction for the enterprising Indians to focus their attention towards the new medium. The footage of single shot films, beamed at the silver screen became craze which spread like wildfire and caught the fancy of some amateur cinematographers in India. That is how cinema or moving pictures of life-like, life-size and free from flicker’ made their maiden appearance in India.
Deeply impressed and inspired by the new invention, Save Dada, Hiralal and Motilal Sen, J F Madan, Patnakar Friends & Co and Dhirender Nath Ganguly picked up the loose threads and inadvertently sowed the seeds of film making in Idnai. Ostensibly inspired by the latest trends from short films and storytelling contours, ram Chander Gopal/Dada Saheb Torne produced India’s maiden independent feature film `Pundalik’, which was released at the Coronation Theatre at Sandhrust Road on May 18, 1912 in Bombay. Dada Saheb Torne was the first person who scripted history on the silver screen to be followed by Dhondiraj Govind Phalke’s `Raja Harish Chandra’ exactly after a year, which was an indigenous attempt and was released at Bombay’s coronation Theatre on May 3, 1913 to packed houses. Thus Dada Saheb Phalke laid the foundation of Swadeshi film industry in India.
Later on Banurao Painter, K Subramanyam, Saurashtra Film Co, Chandulal J Shah, V Shantaram, Sohrab Modi, Ardeshir M Irani, Madan Theatres, The New theatres Ltd, Mehboob Khan, Prabhat film Co, Bombay Talkies, Sangeet Movietone and other prominent production houses religiously carried forward the cause of Indian cinema and set it on a status of regular industry, which has now become world’s number one industry in churning out more films than the world proportionately produces annually.
Starry glamour of 30s and 40 including directors, producers, composers and lyricists such as Ruby Myers, Zubeida, Kajjan, Master Vithal, Master Nissar, Devika Rani, Ashok Kumar, Khursheed, Fearless Naida, JBH Wadia, Noorjehan, Shaukat Hussain, Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, Himanshu Roy, Composer Saraswati Devi, Durga Khote, Shanta Apte, Master Vinayak, Meenakshi, Kavi Pardeep, d N Madhok, Anil Biswas, Zoharabi Amelewali, Amirbai Karanataki, Vijay Bhatt, Swarnlata, Jagdish Sethi, Prithviraj Kapoor, K N Singh, P Jairaj and many more screen celebrities have been given sufficient space in this book, which is published by Highbrow Publications and costs Rs 770 only.
Jammu born Sat Parkash Suri, author of this book, did his Diploma in Cinema Editing from Film & Television Institute of India at Pune in 972. He started film voyage under Ramanand Sagar and got opportunities to work in different film production houses. He got associated with popular film makers of 70s and 80s, such as Shakti Samta, Prakash Mehra, Sohan Lal Kanwar, Vikram Bhat in mid 90s and many more.
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