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1930s – 1960s
The thirties saw the emergence of three big banners in Indian cinema - Prabhat,
Bombay Talkies and New Theatres – which took the lead in making serious films
with gripping social themes meant for all classes of the cinema audience. The
studio system emerged in the early 1930s and its most successful initial product
was P.C. Barua's film Devdas (1935).
Its Hindi re-make established the legendary career of Kundan Lal Saigal. Some of
the notable early talkie films include
King of Ayodhya (1932), Lal-e-yaman
(1933), Char Darvesh, Daku Ki Ladki, Miss
1933, Bambai Ki Mohini (1934) and Nai
Duniya. A number of films of this period like V.Santharam's
Duniya Na Mane, Aadmi and
Padosi, Franz Osten's
Achut Kanya, Mehboob's
Watan, Ek hi Raasta and
Aurat made a strong plea against
social injustices. Veteran historical film-maker Sohrab Modi played a remarkable
role in shaping the Indian films by enriching their style and presentation.
Prabhat's Sairandhri, which was
processed and printed in Germany in 1933, became India's first colour film.
However, the first indigenously made colour film was Ardashir Irani’s
Kisan Kanya made in 1937 and directed
by Gidwani.
J.B.H. Wadia and Homi Wadia were the forerunners of the stunt films in India
with their Hunterwali (1935). The thirties was a period in Indian cinema when 'Wadia'
and 'Nadia' were synonymous. The Australian actress Mary Evans became a stunt
actress for the Wadias and earned the sobriquet "Fearless Nadia". The Wadias
made a number of films like Toofan Mail, Flying Ranee, Punjab Mail and so on. J.B.H. Wadia's
Naujawan (1937) became the first
song-less film. Another Bombay company,
Prakash, specialized in making thrillers like
Its Passing Show, with Jayant in the
role of a masked hero, and Mehboob's
Deccan Queen, which portrayed a female mask-wearing bandit, became great
treats. Premsagar (1939) produced and
directed by K.Subrahmanyam, was the first Hindi film to be made in South India.
India's first dream girl, Devika Rani, began her career in
the 1930's and became the top heroine of her days, starring in movies such as
Kara and
A Throw of Dice. The other renowned
female leads were Durga Khote, Nadia, Jamuna, Padma Devi and Kanan Devi. The
important male leads of the 1930s were Prithviraj Kapoor, K.L.Saigal, Ashok
Kumar and P.C.Barua.
The 1940s was a tumultuous decade; the first half was ravaged
by war and the second saw drastic political changes all over the world. V.
Shantaram, the doyen of lyrical films, made
Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Padosi, Do
Aankhen Barah Haath, Pinjra, Chaani, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje and
Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne. The forties
witnessed production of several memorable films like Ranjit's
Achhoot; Acharya's
Bandhan; Mehboob's Aurat
(the original version of Mother India)
and Roti; Chetan Anand's
Neecha Nagar; Abbas's
Dharti Ke Lal; Sohrab Modi's
Sikander, Pukar, Ek Din Ka Sultan and
Prithvi Vallabh; S.Nazir's
Laila Majnu; Kidar Sharma's
Chitralekha; J.B.H. Wadia's
Court Dancer; S.S. Vasan's
Chandralekha; Vijay Bhatt's
Bharat Milap and
Ram Rajya; Rajkamal Kalamandir's
Shakuntala; S.Mukherjee's
Kismat, Santoshi's Shehnai;
Prakash's Samaj Ko Badal Dalo and
Kamal Amrohi's Mahal. In 1948, the
famous modern dancer, Uday Shankar made his only film
Kalpana, which was woven entirely in
dance numbers. In 1949, Western India Theatre's Ajit was the first picture to be
photographed in India on Kodachrome 16 mm film and then blown up in the USA. The
first film in techni-colour was Sohrab Modi’s
Jhansi Ki Rani (1953).
The leading actors of 1940s were Kishore Sahu, Jairaj, Pahari
Sanyal, Pankaj Mullick, Bharat Bhushan, Ulhas, Ghulam Mohammad and Ashok Kumar
while the leading actresses were Kanan Devi, Jamuna, Lalita Pawar, Nurjehan (who
later migrated to Pakistan), Suraiya and Madhubala. The fifties brought onto the
scene the famous trinity – Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand – each of whom
developed their own image and huge fan followings. The R.K.Films was launched in
1950 with Barsaat. It was the same year when the Central Board of Film Censors
was set up with Mr Justice Agarwal, the former Judge of the Patna High Court as
its Chairman.
The first International Film Festival of India, which was
held in early 1952 at Bombay, had great impact of Indian Cinema. In 1953 Bimal
Roy's Do Bigha Zameen won an award at the Cannes. The first National film
awards were given to the feature film
Shyamchi Aai and Jagat Murari's short
Mahabalipuram, in the year 1954. In 1955, Satyajit Ray’s
Pather Panchali won the Cannes award
for ‘the best human document’, along with several other foreign and national
awards.
In 1957 Mother India, which brought the character of mother
at the centre-stage in Hindi films, was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign
language film. The first Indo-Soviet co-production Pardesi by K.A.Abbas was also
made in 1957. The first film in cinema scope was Guru Dutt’s
Kagaz Ke Phool, which was made in
1958. The first documentary film festival was held in Bombay in the same year.
In Hindi Cinema, several distinguished films were produced which include
Ranjit's Jogan; Bimal Roy's
Devadas and
Madhumati; Kedar Sharma's
Bawre Nain; Rajkapoor's
Boot Polish, Shri-420 and
Jagte Raho; Mehboob's
Mother India; Gurudutt's
Pyaasa and
Kagaz Ke Phool; K.A.Abbas's
Aadhi Raat and Anhonee; Devendra
Goel's Vachan; Amiya Chakrabarty's
Seema; Prakash's
Baiju Bawra; Hrishikesh Mukherjee's
Musasfir; Ramesh Saigal's Phir
Subah Hogi; Savak Vachha's Yahudi
and B.R. Chopra's Kanoon,
Dhool Ka Phool and
Ek Hi Raasta. Colour films Aan
and Jhansi Ki Rani were also released.
Sohrab Modi's Mirza Ghalib (1954)
became the first Hindi film to get the President's Gold Medal.
S.K.Ojha's Naaz
(1954) was the first Hindi film to have location work done abroad, in London and
Cairo. Guru Dutt's Kaagaz Ke Phool was
the first black and white Indian film to be made in Cinemascope.
Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Kishore Kumar, Mahipal, Raj Kumar,
Balraj Sahni and Shammi Kapoor were among the leading heroes of the fifties
while Sandhya, Vijayantimala, Nargis, Nutan, Suchitra Sen, Waheeda Rehman and
Asha Parekh were among the leading heroines of the period.
The sixties experienced the use of most melodious music in
the Indian films, which is difficult to replicate. K.Asif released his
Mughal-E-Azam that broke all the
previous records at the box-office. It was followed by notable productions like
Rajkapoor's Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai
and Sangam, Gurudutt's
Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Dev Anand's
Guide; Bimal Roy's
Bandini, S.Mukherji's
Junglee, Sunil Dutt's
Mujhe Jeene Do, Basu Bhatacharya's
Teesri Kasam, K.A.Abbas's
Aasman Mahal (1965), 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 and
Gumraah and Manoj Kumar's
Upkar.
Raj Kapoor's film
Sangam popularised the trend for shooting on foreign locales. During the
1960s, popular cinema had shifted its social concerns towards more romantic
genres. The period is also notable for a more assertive Indian nationalism.
Following the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1962 and 1965, the Indian officer came to be
a rallying point for the national imagination in films such as
Sangam (Raj Kapoor, 1964) and
Aradhana (Shakti Samanta; 1969).
Chetan Anand's Haqeeqat (1964) was a
memorable war film of the decade. Hemant Kumar's mystery thriller
Bees Saal Baad (1962) became a runaway
hit. The Film Institute was started in Pune in 1960 on the former Prabhat Studio
premises. It coincided with the starting of the Institute for Film Technology in
Madras. In 1961, the second Film Festival of India was held in Delhi. The
Dadasaheb Phalke Life-time Achievement Awards were started in 1969. Towards the
end of sixties, Rajesh Khanna emerged as a Romantic mega-star with the big
success of Aradhana, which also put
the singer Kishore Kumar to great fame. Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Ashok Kumar and
Manoj Kumar were among the leading heroes of the sixties while Vijayantimala,
Madhubala, Nutan and Waheeda Rehman were among the leading heroines. Rajesh
Khanna emerged as the undisputed romantic hero of the sixties and early
seventies following major hits like Andaz, Aradhana, Kati Patang, Do Raaste
and Dushman.
1970s – 1980s
The seventies saw the mainstream cinema turning more
explosive and violent, although romantic and good off beat movies continued.
This period can be best described as the era of Amitabh Bachchan, who marched
onto the Hindi filmdom with a great bang with his
Zanjeer (1971). Amitabh introduced the
'Angry Young Man' as protagonist in Hindi cinema. Amitabh, in fact, became a
one-man industry and came to be known as the first Superstar. His other films
like Deewar, Sholay (1975),
Khoon Pasina, Hera Pheri, Muqaddar ka
Sikandar and Inquilab followed the
same trend and became great block-busters. Amitabh also made a mark in serious
as well as humorous roles in films like Kabhi Kabhi, Amar Akbar Anthony and
Namak Halal. The seventies also saw the release of the first 70mm
film in the form of Ramesh Sippy's Sholay.
Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (1972)
established the Ramsay Brothers and the horror genre in Hindi cinema. The
mythological film Jai Shantoshi Maa
(1975) was a great hit. Amrit Nahata made his
Kissa Kursi Ka in 1976, which was a political satire on the
Emergency. The other notable films of the decade were Asit Sen's
Safar; Chetan Anand's
Heer Ranjha; Manoj Kumar's
Purab Aur Paschim; Raj Kapoor’s
Bobby;
Johnny Mera Naam; Seeta Aur Geeta; Ram Aur Shyam and
Victoria No 203. The film
Heer Ranjha was unique in the sense
the whole film was written in lyrics by Kaifi Azmi.
The eighties saw the advent of women film-makers, Vijaya
Mehta (Rao Saheb), Aparna Sen (36
Chowringhee Lane, Paroma), Sai Paranjpye (Chashme
Baddoor, Katha, Sparsh), Kalpana Lajmi (Ek
Pal and Rudali), Prema Karanth (Phaniamma)
and Meera Nair (Salaam Bombay).
Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Sanjiv Kumar, Feroz Khan,
Dharmendra, Jitender, Shashi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor and Mithun
Chakravarty were the other important male leads of the eighties. Mumtaz, Hema
Malani, Sharmila Tagore, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Rakhi, Rekha and Rati
Agnihotri were the important female leads. Among the all-time great villains,
Ajit, Madan Puri, Prem Nath, Prem Chopra, Pran, Ranjeet, Amjad Khan, Shakti
Kapoor, Gulshan Grover, Amrish Puri and Sadashiv Amrapurkar are notable. Some of
the best comedians of Hindi cinema include Bhagwan, Johnny Walker, Mukhri,
Rajendra Nath, Mehmood, Jagdeep, Asrani, Khader Khan, Satish Kaushik and Johnny
Lever. Among the vamps, mention may be made of Lalita Pawar, Shashi Kala,
Nadira, Helen, Faryaal, Bindu and Aruna Irani.
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