Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion Book 4
Author: Arunkumar Deshmukh
Publisher: Professor toofaani publishers, East Lansing, MI, USA
Price (Pothi.com): ₹675 plus shipping (Paperback)
Copyright: © Arunkumar Deshmukh
Pages: 227

This is the fourth book in the series, and I have reviewed all the earlier books on this site. When I got to know Arunkumar Deshmukh well, I realised he had many books in him. I mentioned to him that he should think about bringing out a book of all the details of early era artists, I had in mind something like “Glossary of Names in Mahabharata” or “Vedic Concordance” (by Maurice Bloomfield, first published by Harvard University Press in 1906; later updated version brought out by Motilal Banarasidas). However, instead of one thick volume, Arunji has brought out several books under the series Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion, and some other books under other titles.

The readers have earlier mentioned that these books are priced high and that becomes a deterrence. I have no idea of the publishing world, I think self-publishing is an expensive affair. The publisher is in the business of making some money. He estimates how many copies of the title are likely to sell. He computes the total cost plus profit margin and divides by the number mentioned by the author. He tries to make it risk free for himself. After sometime, when it is available on Amazon there is some discount.

Be that as it may, let me start by asking why should anyone look at this volume having already invested in some earlier volumes? Look at the thumbnail picture at the top of this article. Do you recognise the moustached man at the bottom left corner? Most likely not, but we all know him very well. He is our comical villain with a slight limp, Kanhaiyalal who essayed the same role of the rural moneylender, Sukhilala, in Aurat (1940) and its later remake Mother India (1957). He came from a very scholarly family from Banaras and he himself was a man of many parts: acting; lyricist; dialogue-writer. He started his career in the 1930s and acted in about 120 films till late 1970s. It is amazing that he should have such longevity in the film world, playing similar characters with similar mannerisms film after film. Many other villains, top of the trade being Pran, have added so much variety that now we accept them in any kind of role. I would put the next as Amrish Puri. Even Madan Puri and Prem Chopra have played sympathetic roles. But Kanhaiyalal to my mind, is a remarkable exception.

The book is full of such fascinating information at one place. It is divided into four Parts. Part One is titled “Forgotten Lesser-Known Artists”. Well-known, Lesser-known, Unknown are relative terms. There are over 60 profiles in Part One. For an average SOY-er I would put about one third in each category. Some like Balraj Sahni is a very familiar name, even for a person casually interested in films.

If you consider the stalwart BN Sircar, the article on him takes you through an era of great institution building. The Studio system, the New Theatres artistic stalwarts, the inevitable decline due to environment, economic and personality factors, people in droves leaving for Bollywood, and its formal closure in the mid-50s makes a sad reading. The beginning of the end had started a decade earlier.

On the other hand, Chandulal Shah and his Ranjit Studio’s decline was more due to the hubris of its owner. Once he proudly boasted that there are more stars on the rolls of Ranjit than in the sky. Technically, his last film Akeli Mat Jaiyo was made in 1963, but his glorious days were over a decade earlier.

We know P. L. Santoshi as a famous lyricist, screenplay writer, director-producer, but how many of us know that his real name was Pyarelal Shrivastav? His association with C Ramchandra, the music director brought him great acclaim and financial success. His obsessive one-sided love for Rehana was talk of the town. Plus, his wayward lifestyle left him in penury during his last days.

Baburao Painter (real name Baburao Krishnarao Mestri) is an important personality from the early era. Inspired by the success of Phalke, another Kolhapur man, Baburao Painter was driven by  similar passion for filmmaking. He withstood all kinds of societal prejudices about women working in film line, faced financial difficulties, and yet established Maharashtra Film Company in Kolhapur, which became a precursor of Prabhat Film Company in Pune. His assistants in Kolhapur were Damle and Fattelal; Shantaram joined him later as his apprentice. His silent film Sairandhri in 1919 was a big success. This film had the credit of being first film to feature female artists – Gulab Bai (aka Kamla Devi) and Anusuya Bai (aka Sushila Devi). This Kamla Devi married Fattelal, later to become one of the directors of Prabhat, and posed for the poster of Prabhat Film Company, playing tutari (a horn-like folk instrument) with a bent body.

Baburao Painter later made a social film Savkari Pash in 1925 on the issue of farmers’ distress caused by greedy rural moneylenders. It is regarded as one of the milestones of Indian cinema earning accolades at international film festivals. In this film V Shantaram too played a small role. Later, Baburao Painter combined with V Shantaram and directed a well-acclaimed film Matwala Shayar Ram Joshi (1947).

Among the early legends, Arunji has written a brief profile on Mohan Bhavnani, eminent producer-director who was active in both the silent and talkies era. He went to Germany twice to study film-making technique – once during the silent era and then in the talkies era. He directed 19 silent movies and 23 sound movies. He left the film industry in 1948 and joined Films Division as its Chief Producer. He left this assignment in 1955. In 1958 he was invited by the Chinese government to produce a documentary on China.

There is information galore in the Book. For, example was the famous arranger Sebastian D’Souza a music director for any film? Arunji informs on the basis of some source that indeed he gave music to a film. The film Street Singer (1966)‘s music is credited to one Sooraj in HFGK. Its music was actually given by a team of Dattaram, Sebastian D’Souza and Enoch Daniels.

But some information requires cross-checking from other sources. While talking about Dadasaheb Torne (real name Ramchandra Gopal), Arunji says Torne deserved the honour of producing the first feature film of Hindi Films, namely Pundalik (1912), but he missed the honours because all his creative work was lost in floods. My recollection is Pundalik’s precedence was known to the authorities, and the issue of giving credit was thoroughly discussed. Phalke was given the credit as his film, Raja Harishchandra (1913) was entirely an indigenous effort, whereas Pundalik had foreign technicians. I believe, among the historians and experts there still exists a conflicting view as to who should be given the credit for the first feature film of Indian Cinema.

Part Two of the book talks about eight pairs of similar names. We are likely to encounter both Zohra Jan and Zohrabai Ambalewali on this blog. The confusion is compounded by the fact that they were both singers. You could develop your own mnemonic for understanding the difference between the two. Zohra Jan both acted and sang in films, she also predates Zohrabai Ambalewali by a few years. The latter did not act in any film, and was a more famous singer. I understand Zohrabai Ambalewali trained her daughter, Roshan Kumari, to be an eminent Kathak dancer. Roshan Kumari’s long Kathak dance in Satyaji Ray’s film Jalsaghar (1958) is a high point of the film. I regard it as Ray’s one of the best films, and I am never tired of its repeat watching.

Another interesting pair is the music director Madan Mohan and Mohan Jr. The confusion arises because of a footnote in HFGK below the entry for the film Dana Pani (1953) that as per Begum Akhtar, Madan Mohan gave music of this film in the name of Mohan Jr. After a lot of research Arunji confirms that they were two different persons; the reason for Begum Akhtar mentioning Madan Mohan is probably duet to the fact that her one ghazal in the film was composed by Madan Mohan which was used in the film.

Part Three of the book is titled “Look What I Found”. This part contains articles on some interesting discoveries. The first chapter is on why in the duo Husnlal-Bhagatram the younger brother is named first. For this he credits this blog. Regular readers might recall that I had an opportunity to meet with Pt. Husnlal’s wife Smt Nirmala Devi who had a razor-sharp memory even at the age of 90. The last article in this Part gives some interesting features of Rafi’s statistics.

The Part Four of the book reproduces two special articles Arunji wrote for different forums. The first article on Lahore-Hiramandi-Tamancha Jan emphasises the special hold of Lahore in the imagination of people who were displaced from there. One can understand the romance for Lahore in the minds of people who had clear memories of the place. That generation is disappearing, but we do remember that Lahore was an important centre of film production and the most natural thing during that era was cross-cultural exchanges between the two places. To put things in perspective, for the early generation you could take a person out of Lahore, but you could not take Lahore out of that person. There are now accounts that for all practical purposes Lahore should have been given to India, but Radcliffe decided to give it to Pakistan as they would have been bereft of any big city. For this guilt and the guilt of the blood of thousands in the Partition mayhem, Radcliffe did not accept any remuneration for his assignment. History is always controversial and subject to interpretation. But some facts are well=known. Lord Cyril Radcliffe was a British Lawyer, who was appointed the joint Chairman of two Boundary Commissions, by the British government, set to depart soon – one for Bengal and the other for Punjab. Radcliffe had never visited India, he arrived here on the 8th July 1947 and was given less than five weeks to submit his Partition Plan.

The second and the last article is about Arunji’s fascination for the singer Geeta Roy/Dutt.

Now you get a fair idea of the book.

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