When first I grasped this fact that the credit for the very birth of this huge Indian film industry....goes...not to a certain Kapoor, or Chopra....or a Singh.....but to a Maharashtrian!!..... I was a bit surprised... I couldn't believe that...because being a marathi....whatever little idea I do have about the community's tendencies and the history...marathi community has more or less been a salaried class one...with very few entrepreners to name! But once I watched this movie 'Harishchandra chi factory'..which was India's official entry for 2009 Oscars under 'Best Foreign Language Film'..... it occurred to me that this was not unbelievable...but it was only natural that this craft was brought forward to the popular culture by a marathi man! Yes...the guy's name was 'Dhundiraj Govind Phalke' (Later famously known as 'Dadasaheb Phalke'....'Father of Indian Cinema'). I had heard his name few times...for the award they give to film veterans in his honor...otherwise I had no idea who this man was...and what his achievements were.
It's a very interesting movie...it tells the story of Phalke, who was a creative at heart. Those were the days, when nobody knew about a motion picture in India...nobody could believe that one can show....alive people moving around...trees..rocks..mountains...everything what we see around us, on a curtain screen...a 'Parda'...! Only the theatre plays, nautanki or tamashas (Kind of Street plays) were the known things. It all started when Phalke in Mumbai, once saw a silent movie about life of Jesus Christ in the movie-tent(They used to show films in tents rather than a hall..that's what they showed in this film)...and immediately fell in love with this art....he envisioned to make similar motion pictures depicting Indian Gods on the screen! He started learning about film making from all possible means...he used to stay late in those movie tents..learning from the man who rolled the reel...he read books on this subject...all this learning required money...and he had to sell almost everything which was there in his house...his wife and children always supported him in his endevour. All this learning and effort took a toll on his eyes...and he had become partially blind for sometime...though later he recovered his eyesight. Such was his dedication and love for film-making...that his friends, neighbors and all started thinking he has gone mad or become mentally ill! (Well....we know that all the great achievers of this world have been framed as 'mad' at some point or the other in their lives!)
He even managed to get some funding from a friend...for a London trip where he learned this art from the English and also bought the Camera and other equipment in order to make his own film in India. He knew nobody in London....going abroad, crossing the sea meant you become an outcast...and yet he went there to chase his dream...that's some courage!
After coming back from London..he started his film 'Raja Harishchandra'...and faced a lot of difficulties in finding the cast for his film..in making the film....in marketing the film...But overcoming all hurdles one by one...he eventually released the first ever Indian motion picture in Mumbai in 1913! And this marked the beginning of one of the world's biggest film industries!!
The movie also gives an idea of the Indian society of that time ......when women were not allowed to go to school...forget about acting in theatre/movies!....when men used to play the part of women as well in plays...when going abroad meant...loosing your religion....!....when India was under British rule...and 'Lokmanya' Tilak had been leading the nation's struggle for 'Swaraj'..!
The reason why I felt it was natural to a marathi man...to achieve this kind of a feat...is the then India's social and cultural situation where the maharashtrians were leading from the front in almost all the facets of national life. As I mentioned before...while the Lokmanya was the leading icon of India's cause of Swaraj... Gopal Kirshna Gokhale was the face of 'moderates' in Congress. Veer Savarkar had captured the imagination of young indian revolutionaries who believed in armed resistance against the British. Mahadev Govind Ranade and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar were leading the social reform movements... such as widow remarriage, eradication of untouchability...Education to women etc. The maharashtrian society as a whole...just like the then Bengali community... was welcome to new ideas and modern education...an awakening was taking place...a transformation sorts of thing! Hence under such a social and cultural backdrop....taking up the craft of film making....which was a new phenomena for Indians...which involved...craft...creativity....came naturally to this courageous marathi man....Phalke! Mind you...I mentioned only the 'craft' part of film making...which came natural to a marathi.....and not the 'industry' part...that's still the stronghold of Kapoors and Chopras! :-)
It's a very interesting movie...it tells the story of Phalke, who was a creative at heart. Those were the days, when nobody knew about a motion picture in India...nobody could believe that one can show....alive people moving around...trees..rocks..mountains...everything what we see around us, on a curtain screen...a 'Parda'...! Only the theatre plays, nautanki or tamashas (Kind of Street plays) were the known things. It all started when Phalke in Mumbai, once saw a silent movie about life of Jesus Christ in the movie-tent(They used to show films in tents rather than a hall..that's what they showed in this film)...and immediately fell in love with this art....he envisioned to make similar motion pictures depicting Indian Gods on the screen! He started learning about film making from all possible means...he used to stay late in those movie tents..learning from the man who rolled the reel...he read books on this subject...all this learning required money...and he had to sell almost everything which was there in his house...his wife and children always supported him in his endevour. All this learning and effort took a toll on his eyes...and he had become partially blind for sometime...though later he recovered his eyesight. Such was his dedication and love for film-making...that his friends, neighbors and all started thinking he has gone mad or become mentally ill! (Well....we know that all the great achievers of this world have been framed as 'mad' at some point or the other in their lives!)
He even managed to get some funding from a friend...for a London trip where he learned this art from the English and also bought the Camera and other equipment in order to make his own film in India. He knew nobody in London....going abroad, crossing the sea meant you become an outcast...and yet he went there to chase his dream...that's some courage!
After coming back from London..he started his film 'Raja Harishchandra'...and faced a lot of difficulties in finding the cast for his film..in making the film....in marketing the film...But overcoming all hurdles one by one...he eventually released the first ever Indian motion picture in Mumbai in 1913! And this marked the beginning of one of the world's biggest film industries!!
The movie also gives an idea of the Indian society of that time ......when women were not allowed to go to school...forget about acting in theatre/movies!....when men used to play the part of women as well in plays...when going abroad meant...loosing your religion....!....when India was under British rule...and 'Lokmanya' Tilak had been leading the nation's struggle for 'Swaraj'..!
The reason why I felt it was natural to a marathi man...to achieve this kind of a feat...is the then India's social and cultural situation where the maharashtrians were leading from the front in almost all the facets of national life. As I mentioned before...while the Lokmanya was the leading icon of India's cause of Swaraj... Gopal Kirshna Gokhale was the face of 'moderates' in Congress. Veer Savarkar had captured the imagination of young indian revolutionaries who believed in armed resistance against the British. Mahadev Govind Ranade and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar were leading the social reform movements... such as widow remarriage, eradication of untouchability...Education to women etc. The maharashtrian society as a whole...just like the then Bengali community... was welcome to new ideas and modern education...an awakening was taking place...a transformation sorts of thing! Hence under such a social and cultural backdrop....taking up the craft of film making....which was a new phenomena for Indians...which involved...craft...creativity....came naturally to this courageous marathi man....Phalke! Mind you...I mentioned only the 'craft' part of film making...which came natural to a marathi.....and not the 'industry' part...that's still the stronghold of Kapoors and Chopras! :-)
