history of bollywood - bollywood

8/7/2019 History of Bollywood - BOLLYWOOD

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History of Bollywood

History of Bollywood

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 firstexposure to motion pictures which India received was in 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers' Chinematographe unveiled six soundless short films at WatsonHotel, 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, whenHarishchandra Bhatvadekar (Save Dada) shot two short films and exhibited them under Edison's projecting kinetoscope. Hiralal Sen and F.B. Thanawalla weretwo other Indian pioneers engaged in the production of short films in Calcutta and Bombay in 1900. Around 1902, J.F. Madan and Abdullah Esoofally launchedtheir 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 May18, 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 theCoronation Cinema, Bombay. In 1917, Bengal saw the birth of its first feature film-Satyabadi Raja Harishchandra made by Madan's Elphinstone BioscopeCompany. 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 industry also came within the purview of the law. The newdecade saw the arrival of many new companies and film makers. 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 twenties.

The most remarkable things 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 talkieAlam Ara produced by the Imperial film company and directed by Ardershir Irani was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay; The talkiehad brought revolutionary changes in the whole set up of the industry. The year 1931 marked the beginning of the talking ear in Bengal and South India. Thefirst talkie films in Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass) were released in the same year.

The thirties is recognised as the decade of social protests in the history of Indian Cinema. Three big banners-Prabhat, Bombay Talkies and New Theatres gavethe lead in making serious but gripping sand entertaining films for all classes of the wide audience. 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,Mehboob's Watan, Ek hi Raasta and Aurat. 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 1932), Gujarathi (Narasinh Mehta-32), Kannada (Dhurvkumar-34);Oriya (Sita Bibaha-34); Assamese (Joymati-35); Punjabi (Sheila-35) and Malayalam(Balan-38).

The decade during which the second world was fought and Indian independence won, was a momentous one for cinematography all over India. Somememorable films were produced during the forties such as Shantharam's Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob's Roti, Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar, UdayShanker's Kalpana, Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal, Sohrab Modi's Sikander, Pukar and Prithvi Vallabh, J.B.H. Wadia's Court Dancer, S.S. Vasan's Chandralekha, VijayBhatt's Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya, Rajkapoor's Barsaat and Aag.

The first International Film Festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay had great impact of Indian Cinema. The big turning point camp in 1955 with thearrival of Satyajit Ray and his classic Pather Panchali which opened up a new path leading the Indian film to the World Film Scene. International recognitioncame to it with the Cannes award for best human document followed by an unprecedented crop of foreign and national awards. In Hindi Cinema too, theimpact of neorealism was evident in some distinguished films like Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin, Devadas and Madhumati, Rajkapoor's Boot Polish, Shri-420 and

Jagte Raho, V. Shantharam's Do Aankhen Barah Haath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Mehbood's Mother India.

Gurudutt's Pyaasa, and Kagaz Ke Phool and B.R. Chopra's Kanoon; The first Indo-Soviet co-production Pardesi by K.A.Abbas was also made during the fifties.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 some extent, meet the demands of the box office. The sixtiesbegan 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 includeromantic musical and melodramas of a better quality. Rajkapoor's Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Sangam, Dilip Kumar's Gunga Jamna, Gurudutt's Sahib Bibi

Aur Gulam, Dev Anand's Guide; Bimal Roy's Bandini, S.Mukherji's Junglee, Sunil Dutt's Mujhe Jeene Do and the experimental Yaadein, Basu Bhatacharya'sTeesri Kasam, Pramod Chakravorthy's Love in Tokyo, Ramanand Sagar's Arzoo, Sakhti Samantha's Aradhana, Hrishikesh Mukherji's Aashirwad and Anand, B.R.Chopra's Waqt, Manoj Kumar's Upkar, and Prasad Productions Milan 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 head lines for the firsttime when Ramu Kariat's Chemmeen (1965) won the President's Gold Medal. Towards the end of the decade, Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome, signalled thebeginnings of the new wave in Indian Cinema.

The New Indian Cinema emerged as a reaction to the popular cinema's Other Worldiness. It is a cinema of social significance and artistic sincerity, presenting amodern, 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 made30 feature films and five documentaries, tacking a wide range of rural, urban historical themes. His cinematography places him away form the inheritors of theneorealist 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. He was fortunate enough to present his films in almost all the leadingfilms festivals of the world. The national and international awards won by Ray are numerous.

Ritwik Ghatak swooped on the Indian scene with new dynamism. His films constitute a record of the traumas of change form the desperation of the rootlessand deprived refugees from East Bengal .(Meghe Dhaka Tara, Ajantrik, Komal Ghandhar, Subarnarekha). Mrinal Sen is the ebullient one-experimenting withneorealism as well as new wave and fantasy. His notable films are Bhuvan Shome, Chorus, Mrigaya, Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler Sandhane, Kharij & Khandahar. Hehas also won several national an international awards.

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