Indian Realism

Tradition & Cinema

Major Milestone in Indian film history
• 1896- Lumiere ‘s open their show in the Watson’s hotel, Bombay ( 7th July)
• 1898- Prof Stevenson brings first Bioscope to Calcutta star theatre
• ( Indian actuality covered by foreign cameraman
• 1901- Return of the Wrangler Paranjpe- first Indian actuality shot by
Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar ( Hiralal sen starts by filming stage
extracts
• 1902- 1904- the business proposition of movie projects gathers momentum
• 1907- J F Madan opens the Elphinstone picture palace in Calcutta
• 1913- Raja Harishchandra ( 4 reeler) by Govindraj Dhunidiraj Phalke
• Releases in Bombay Coronation Cinematograph ( Phalke made a film on
“how films educate people”)
the concept of Indian aesthetics
• Being one of the earliest, in river valley civilization along with other
prominent one’s alongside Mesopotamia , Greek, Latin for example, the
evolution of language, codification of texts ( based on dramaturgy &
performance all gained importance, with other aspects of science &
economics
• The cave paintings at Edakkal, the dancing girl from Mohenjadaro and
many such instances ( on nature, various changes in the seasons around
indus valley) recorded in poetical treatises of Kalidasa & other celebrated
poets give instances rituals and festivals celebrated by the people
• Vishnu Sharma’s Panchatantra and the tradition of inviting the motley
crowd around the village to perform “ Natak “ as a mimesis of the various
aspects of life, graduated later to court plays and appreciation of the artists
 Root nature of Indian thoughts- classical
construct
• The desire to get liberated from the human indebtedness ( material
life- realized through knowledge/action/elevated thoughts & in
effable actions) which is a part of the many religious strands and to
achieve it through purgation, somewhere constitutes the external
form of Indian art, thus the classical art in India assumes the purpose
of cleansing the individual towards path of liberation
• Invoking the gods, setting the premise, expansion and deliberation on
the conflicts ensued for the individual or the society and paths of
liberation ( some where on the lines of accepted morality) and ending
with salutations again to the omnipresent narrator forms the ideal
structure of many of the art forms across the unified India
The coming together of Traditions
• India land of divergent cultures is bound by various traditions of
storytelling.
• The nomad storytellers and the court playwrights of different
dynasties- relied heavily upon the epic storyline- nearly idolizing the
heroes, heroines and tarnishing the villain
• The varied strata's ranging from higher to the lower ranks society and
upliftment of society, justice to the betrayed and victory of goodness
over evil was consistent
• Single person story telling to the accompaniment of a rhythm or a
string instrument to magnificent representations of epics took shape
in the due course of history( folklore)
Conceptual roots of Indian Acting & stage
choreography
• Natyashastra- Bharata Muni- Nritta Nritya Natya
• ( Hasta Lakshana Deepika- communicating through mudras)
• Kadambari- Banabhatta
• Trait endowed characters Rajasik/Tamasik & Satvik- enacting to fulfill
the pre endowed purpose of fulfilling completion of the narrative arc
• Balanced out output of Navarasas ( as per characteristic traits to
ultimately purge the audience, taking him through the cyclical pattern
of life
Courtesan Tradition giving birth- culturing the
art form
• The courtesan paramapara- the traditional nautch girl- Kathak
• Devadasi Tradition- Bharatnatyam- Kuchipudi- Mohniyattam
• The song in the film “Devdas” where the seducer has life lessons to
provide the hero
• The climax points of various films after the introduction of sound,
where events coalesce/merge- as dance as a temporal medium
proves it’s capacity to pinnacle the emotion- Jalasaghar ( Satyajit
Ray)- the news of his son’s death, combined with thunder and
lightning
• important milestones- 3rd May /1913 Raja Harishchandra is screened
at Bombay’s Coronation Cinematograph ( A swadeshi film) as his film
lab was close to his kitchen. Extravagant Mythological-an excerpt
from Mahabharatha
• Coincidence is that Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali released officially on
26th August 1955, opened to a big audience in Museum of Modern
Arts on 3rd May. It ran for continuous eight weeks at fifth avenue
playhouse in New York
• Marie Seton’ Ray’s Biographer found “content” of Indian films meaty
but was quite vary of it’s expression which veered towards
melodrama
• Generations down as India got ruled by different dynasties (
Mauryas/Chalukyas/Cholas/Cheras) along the varied regions, so did the
court playwrights, poets and historians valorize their deeds conveniently
uplifting them to the Epic stature by co- relating them with puranic
characters of Ramayana & Mahabharatha
• These two epics and an array of topics on the miracles performed by saints,
enthused in devotional practices became the lore of the song dramas
performed during festivals of Ramleela, Navarathri, Deepavali and so on
• The invasions by Alexander and other Muslim kings ( Muhammed Of Ghori/
Ghazni, who later became the rulers of Indian sub- continent changed the
architectural and cultural assimilations of Indian culture
• These architectural extravagance of Mughal emperor’s and the need
to picturize the century tradition of epic stories, inspired the pioneers
of India cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke to produce films like Raja
Harishchandra ( 1913 ) and Aalam Ara ( Ardeshir Irani) the first sound
film on Indian screen
• Though ruled by a colonial power after Cinematograph Screenings not
so popular only became a commercial enterprise when the
production houses ( fed and run money lender’s) took only to
profitable ventures and wanted to captalise on the epic tradtions till it
took a turn towards the second world war, where India participated
alliance against the fascist forces
• The noir elements are strewn around films of Dev Aanand ( India’s
Cary Grant) Taxi Driver, Kaala Pani, Baazi
• Guru Dutt and his ace Cinematographer V K Murthy combined
together to bring out the disillusionment of the individual in a morally
crumbling society post second world war
• The social reality inclusion was one the tools in scripting which made
the film look like realistic, though it was conceived as any other
western counterpart
• The differences lie in character motivation, multitude of characters,
the time arc encompassed in the narrative, reliance on cause- and
effect but escaping the same as and when convenient
Milestone fims
• Some Iconic films pre independence- Light of Asia,
• Achut Kanya, Franz Osten- Himanshu Rai- Bombay Talkies
• Kisan Kanya- Imperial Studios
• Roti- Mehboob Khan
• Devdas- P C Barua
• Kismet- Gyan Mukherjee
• Neecha Nagar- Chetan Aanand
• Mahal- Kamal Amrohi
• Andaz-Mehboob Khan
• 1933- Himanshu Rai- Karma- In England- Devika Rani
• V Shantaram- Sairandhri- first color film to Germany for printing
• 1934- Seeta Debaki Bose – Prithviraj Kapoor- Durga Khote
• ( screened at Venice Film Festival)
• Bhakta Prahlada- H M Reddy (First Telugu talkie)
• Seetha Kalyanam- P V Das- Vel Pictures ( Telugu) talkie
• Srinivasa Kalyanam- A Narayanan Tamil Talkie
• Dhruvakumar- First Kannada talkie
• 1935- Amar Jyothi-Prabhat Films
• Shohrab Modi- Hamlet- Khoon Ka Khoon
• Chandidas and Devdas- New Theatres Calcutta
• ( Playback introduced
• 1936 – Hunterwali z( Fealess Nadia is a hit)
• 1937