Movie Toast with Morning Tea ~ 1932

Movie Toast with Morning Tea ~ 1932

In 1932, as many as 60 films were made and released by established as well emerging companies: Imperial, Madan, New Theatres, Prabhat, Ranjit, Sagar, Saraswati Cinetone to name a few.

Madan Theatres

Madan Theatres held a record of producing as many as 16 films in 1932. They were the most prolific and the most advanced of all. The company was also the first to introduce colour (processed abroad) in its devotional venture “Bilwamangal” which was based on a play written by Agha Hashr Kashmiri. The film starred Patience Cooper as a beautiful courtesan with whom Bilwamangal falls in love hopelessly. The film was a musical hit.

Yet another remarkable film featuring Patience Cooper was “Pati Bhakti”, the talkie version of the company’s silent film by the same title, with the same actress and released in 1922. As the title suggests, the film advocated that women should be devoted and faithful to their husbands. The film was also involved in a controversy over an ‘obscene’ dance number which the censors demanded to be deleted.

Incidentally, Patience Cooper was the first actress to play a double role as twin sisters in Madan Theatres’ silent film “Patni Pratap” (1923). She repeated the feat as a mother and daughter in the company’s silent film “Kashmiri Sundari” (1925).

Master Nissar and Jahan Ara Kajjan continued their reign as the sensational singing super stars with as many as four hit musicals: “Bilwamangal”, “Chatra Bakavali”, “Gulru Zarina” and “Indrasabha”. The last mentioned film had about 60 songs. Kajjan had a few more releases like “Alibaba and Forty Thieves”, “Aankh Ka Tara” and “Pati Bhakti”. Unfortunately, songs from these films are not available as no records were made.

Incidentally, the film “Aankh Ka Tara” had a song Hai kya kya jalwa bhara hua. Ghanshyam tumhari ankhon mein based on a traditional melody in the voice of Indubala. The same tune was heard later as Taqdeer banaanewale ne kaisi taqdeer banaayi hai in “Duniya” (1949) in the voice of Pushpa Hans and Ooparwale teri duniya mein kabhi jeb kisi bhi khaali na ho in “Haath Ki Safai’(1974) in the voice of Mahendra Kapoor.

Imperial

Of the eight releases of Imperial, the most significant film was the “Madhuri”. The historical film was set in the backdrop of the battle between kings of  Ujjain and Kanauj and had Sulochana (Ruby Myers) and Prof. Vinayakrao Patwardhan in the lead, quite a casting coup.

The film was a comeback vehicle for Sulochana. With the advent of sound, her highly successful career suffered a set back because of language problem. In fact, ‘sound’ rung the death knell for several Anglo Indian and Jewish actresses who could not speak Hindi. But Sulochana, it is believed, took a sabbatical to learn the language and then made a grand comeback with Madhuri.

With the advent of sound, dialogues and songs became integral part of talkie films. Music was by Pransukh Nayak and of the 16 songs, four sung by Patwardhan were released on long play records.

Prabhat

After a spate of successful silent films, Prabhat released its first talkie film “Ayodhya Ka Raja” (Ayodhyacha Raja in Marathi) which was followed by “Maya Machhindra”. Both the films were directed by V Shantaram; the former was perhaps his tribute to Dadasaheb Phalke as he chose the same story of Raja Harishchandra for his first talkie film.

Both the films featured almost the same stars: Durga Khote (in her first major roles), Govindrao Tembe (who also gave music and sang), Winayak, Baburao Pendharkar, Nimbalkar, Bajar Battoo, most of them forgotten names today.  The song Chhod akash ko sitaare zameen par aaye written (not sure), composed and rendered by Tembe in “Maya Machhindra” in the natya sangeet style became very popular. Indeed, all the stars of the era descended from the heaven as a boon to the film industry. “Jalti Nishani” was yet another film from Prabhat.

Sagar Movietone

Sagar Movietone released a variety of films “Bulbul-e-Baghdad” (fantasy), “Maya Bazar” and “Subhadra Haran” (mythological), “Meerabai” (devotional) and “Zarina” (costume).

The film “Meerabai” with Jal Merchant and Zubeida in the lead as Krishna and Meera respectively was the first film to be made on the life of saint-poetess.

Critics described “Zarina” as an “occidental transplantation” because of its technical brilliance and the Hollywood influence. The film was directed by Ezra Mir who had a rich experience of working earlier with Madan Theatres as well as in Hollywood. Ezra Mir was known to be the best and most experienced among the directors of Sagar Movietone till the unexpected impact created by Mehboob Khan in 1935 with his maiden film “Judgement of Allah”.

Saraswati Cinetone

The company was established during the year and released a mythological film “Shyam Sundar” starring Shahu Modak. He played the role of Krishna in the film. The image stuck on him and he went on to play the charismatic Krishna in about 30 films. Bhalji Pendharkar introduced Shanta Apte in the film; she played Radha and the role of her husband was played by her own brother Baburao Apte. “Shyam Sundar” was the first film to celebrate silver jubilee.

New Theatres

Among the new studios, New Theatres was emerging as one of the premier and path breaking film studios of the 30s with three releases: “Mohabbat Ke Aansoo”, “Subah Ka Sitara” and “Zinda Laash”. K L Saigal made his debut as a singing star and R C Boral also got his break as a composer in these films. Unfortunately, all the three films failed at the box office inspiring B N Sircar, the studio’s boss, to devise new strategy in the very following years.

Notable Natter ~ 1932

Legends of Hindi Cinema born during the year include popular names like: Amrish Puri (character actor-villain), Asha Bhosle (playback singer), Meena Kumari (actress), Mehmood (comedian) and Yash Chopra (filmmaker).

Manohar ‘M T’ Iyer

Photos Courtesy: Google