Matinee Masala

Baburao Krishnarao Mestri, better known as Baburao Painter was born on 3rd June 1890 in Kolhapur, Maharshtra. He taught himself to paint (hence the name) and sculpt in academic art school style. He and his artist cousin Anandrao Painter were avid filmgoers who saw Raja Harishchandra several times before the film bug bit them.

Both brothers started their careers as exhibitors trying to assemble their own camera. Unfortunately Anandrao passed away in 1916 and it was left to Painter and his main disciple V.G. Damle who put together a working camera in 1918.

They set up the Maharashtra Film Company in Kolhapur in 1919 which was later joined by V. Shantaram. Eventually Baburao produced his first film Sairandhri (1920) which he wrote and cinematographed. As luck would have it Sairandhri attracted the attention of the then censor board for its graphic depiction of the slaying of Keechak by Bhima. Finally it had to be deleted but the film won both critical and commercial acclaim spurring Painter on to more ambitious projects.

Baburao was a man of many talents - he wrote his own stories and screenplays and did art directions and set designing from painted curtains to solid multi-dimensional lived in spaces. He was the first man to introduced artificial lighting and understood the importance of publicity. As early as 1921-22 he was the first to issue program booklets, complete with details of the film and photographs. He also painted himself tasteful, eye-catching posters of his films.

Sinhagad (1923) proved to be a benchmark of sorts with the Revenue Department bringing about introduction of Entertainment Tax on films. Baburao also made the first realistic Indian film Savakari Pash (1925) dealing with money lending issues which didn’t go down too well with audience, making him return to costume dramas.

Baburao produced Netaji Palkar (1927) directed by V. Shantaram and Karna (1928) directed by Damle and Fatehlal which were huge hits. However after a few more silent films, the Maharashtra Film Company pulled down its shutters with the advent of sound.

Baburao was a creator who believed a lot in silence and visuals and was not particularly keen on the talkies. He returned to painting and sculpture, his original vocation barring sporadic ventures like remaking Savkari Pash in sound in 1936, Pratibha (1937) which was a good illustration of his control over big sets, lighting and crowd scenes.

He also acted in Kalyan Khajina (1924) and Sinhagad (1923). He died on 16th Jan 1954 at Kolhapur when he still was planning to produce films. He will always be remembered as the filmmaker with most “first’s” to his credit.

Baburao Painters Memorable Films

Sairandhri (1920), Sinhagad (1923), Sati Padmini (1924), Savkari Pash (1925)
Sati Savitri (1927), Prem Sangam (1932), Usha (1935), Pratibha (1937), Lokshahir Ramjoshi (1947).

Ardeshir Irani could easily be showcased as the first showman of Indian Cinema in the 1920’s, when it was in its nascent stages. He was a writer, director, producer, actor and cinematographer in the silent and sound eras of vintage Bollywood.

Ardeshir Irani was born into an immigrant Iranian Zoroastrian family as Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani on December 5, 1886 in Pune, Maharashtra. In 1905, Irani became the Indian representative of Universal Studios who ran Alexander Cinema, which showed Indian and foreign films, in Bombay. In 1917, Irani entered the field of film production and produced his first silent feature film, Nala Dayamanti which released in 1920.

In 1925, Irani founded Imperial Films Co., where he made more than sixty films. By the age of 40 he became one of the renowned names in Bollywood. He became the father of talkie films with the release of his sound feature film, Alam Ara in 1931. Many of the films he produced, were later made into talkie films, with the same cast and crew. He is also accredited with making the first Indian English feature film, Noor Jahan 1934. He completed his hat-trick of earning fame when he made the first color feature film of India, Kisan Kanya (1937), although the trend of color films began very late. His contribution does not end only with giving voice to the silent cinema and color to black-and-white films; he gave a new courageous outlook to filmmaking in India.

Irani’s Imperial Films Co. gave doyens like Billimoria, Bibbo, Prithviraj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, Yakub, Mubarak etc. He produced Kalidas in Tamil on the sets of Alam Ara, with songs in Telugu. Irani created a whole new trend by shootings outdoors in sunlight with the help of reflectors. However, the outdoor undesirable sounds were disturbing him so greatly that he shot the entire sequence in the studio, under heavy lights. Thus, he began the trend of shooting under artificial light.

Irani made 158 films in a long and illustrious career of 25 years, between the First and Second World Wars. He made his last film Pujari in 1945. Irani was not compelled to live like Dadasaheb Phalke for he realized the war was a time not suitable for film business and therefore he suspended his film business during that time. He passed away on October 14, 1969 at the age of 82 in Bombay, Maharashtra.

Known as the grand uncle of Indian cinema, Chandulal Shah was the founder of the famous Ranjit Studios. Ranjit Studios was one of the great institutions of its time like Bombay Talkies, New Theatres and The Prabhat Film Company.

Born at Jamnagar in 1898, Chandulal Shah entered the films when he was called by Laxmi Film Company to direct Vimla (1925), as its director Manilal Joshi was bedridden. Chandulal Shah not only directed the film but also went on to do two more pictures for the company, Panch Dadda (1925) and Madhav Kamkundala (1926).

Later he went on to acquire Kohinoor Film Company where he directed his first film independently which was Typist Girl (1926). The film did extremely well at the box-office leading Shah to direct another five films for the studio all featuring his favorite Gohar.

The movie for which he is remembered was Gunsundari (1927) which was a record-breaking success. He was so much in awe of this film that he made the film thrice, directing the first two versions in 1927 and 1934 and it was a success each time. Its story has become a staple of Hindi cinema and has been retold several times over the years with slight variations.

Ranjit Film Company churned out 39 silent films in little more than 3 years from 1929-32.

With the advent of sound technology, Ranjit Film Company was renamed Ranjit Movietone. It produced films which include Sati Savitri (1932), Barrister’s Wife (1935), Achut (1940), Tansen (1943), Moorti (1943) and Jogan (1950). He directed many of Ranjit’s earlier talkies and tried unsuccessfully to achieve a comeback as a director with the Raj Kapoor - Nargis starrer, Paapi (1953) after a gap of 13 years.

Chandulal Shah became the first president of The Film Federation of India formed in 1951 and even led an Indian delegation to Hollywood the following year.

His continuing obsession with The Stock Exchange and the races led to massive losses and finally he was left with no option but to allow the takeover of his famous studio. In later years he was reduced to traveling by Bombay’s public transport and died in 1975 in poverty.

Chandulal Shah’s Memorable Films

Typist Girl (1926), Gunsundari (1927), Rajputani (1929), Miss 1933 (1933), Gunsundari (1934), Barristor’s Wife (1935), Achchut (1940).

Continuing with legendary directors who have left a mark in Indian cinema, it’s time to showcase Syed Amir Haider Kamal, more popularly known as Kamal Amrohi. Kamal Amrohi as the name suggests was born on 17 Jan, 1918 in Amroha, U.P, India. He became renowned as a director who made ‘Mahal’ and ‘Pakeezah’, one of the most successful Indian films ever.

A writer and poet in Urdu and Hindi, Kamal went to Bombay in 1938 and joined the film industry. He worked as script writer for directors like Sohrab Modi, Abdul Rashid Kardar and K.Asif in his fabulous movie ‘Mughal-E-Azam’. His movie ‘Mahal’ was produced by Bombay Talkies which had the evergreen Lata hit Aayega Aayega Aanewaala.

Later he went on to establish his own Kamal Pictures in 1953 and Kamalistan Studio in Bombay in 1958. His films scripted by himself were characterized by powerful screenplay and dialogues.

‘Pakeezah’ his third and most famous film was in the making for years and finally got released in 1972 after the death of his wife- Meena Kumari. ‘Pakeezah’ went on to become a phenomenonal success after which he could never create the same magic that he was famous for.

His most ambitious multi-crore project ‘Razia Sultan’ in 1983 is considered as one of the biggest duds in Indian cinema. He couldn’t recover from the loss and never made a film after that.

Kamal Amrohi passed away on the 11th February 1993 in Mumbai. His name will always figure in the list of all time great directors likes of K.Asif, Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt etc.

Kamal Amrohi Filmography

Razia Sultan (1983)
Pakeezah (1971)
Daera (1953)
Mahal (1949)

Mehboob Khan was born in 1907 in Gujarat who went on to become one of India’s greatest filmmakers of all time.

Mehboob Khan after a bit of struggle learnt the craft of film making from his theatre days. He started his career with the Imperial Film Company as a bit player in Alibaba and the 40 Thieves (1927). Then he joined Sagar Movietone where he got his first break as a director with Judgement of Allah (1935).

In 1945 Mehboob set up his own Mehboob Productions, under which he made some master pieces like Anmol Ghadi , Andaz and Mother India- a remake of his earlier hit Aurat. 

Mehboob being a true son of the soil made realistic films with rural backdrops. He was familiar with rural life, its customs and manners, its soil, seasons, sufferings and joys and created a totally Indian experience in milieu, detail, characters and dramatic incidents.

Mehboob’s film career spanned over 30 years who was known to make highly charged film that were larger than life and one that admittedly takes a totally romanticized look at rural India. After the high of Mother India, Mehboob aimed to fly even higher with Son of India (1962) but the film was a big disappointment as the audience rejected it outright.

He died on 28 May 1964 with a desire of making a film on the life of Habba Khatoon, the 16th century poetess-queen of Kashmir.

Mehboob Khan’s Filmography

Judgement of Allah (1935)
Deccan Queen (1936)
Manmohan (1936)
Jagirdar (1937)
Hum Tum Aur Woh (1938)
Watan (1938)
Ek hi Raasta (1939)
Aurat (1940)
Alibaba (1940)
Bahen (1941)
Roti (1942)
Huma Gun Anmogaldi (1942)
Roti (1942)
Najma (1943)
Taqdeer (1943)
Humayun (1945)
Anmol Ghadi (1946)
Anokhi Ada (1948)
Andaaz (1949)
Aan (1952)
Amar (1954)
Mother India (1957)
A Handful of Grain (1959)
Son of India (1962)

Born on 14 June, 1924 in Etawah- UP, Karimuddin Asif will always be remembered for his all time great Mughal epic Mughal-e-Azam (1960). Very few know that this legendary filmmaker made his directorial debut with Phool (1945) with starred Prithviraj Kapoor, Durga Khote and Suraiya, which was a box-office success.

He planned his magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam in 1950 which ran into troubled waters from the beginning. He decided to temporarily shelve the film but went ahead and produced his next venture- Hulchul in 1951.

The same year he revived Mughal-e-Azam and recasted it with Dilip Kumar in the male lead and Madhubala in the female lead. Finally after nine years in the making, Mughal-e-Azam was released in 1960 and became a huge hit with packed cinema houses across India.

K. Asif contributed as a writer, director and producer to his films and attained legendary status after the success of Mughal-e-Azam. After the release and success of Mughal-e-Azam, he planned to make Love and God in color with Guru Dutt and Nimmi in the lead. However, in 1964, when Guru Dutt passed away, the shooting came to a halt. Then, Asif recast Sanjeev Kumar in the male lead and resumed production of the film. During the production of the film, K. Asif died on March 9, 1971 at the age of 47 and the film was abandoned.

However in 1986, Asif’s widow, Akhtar Asif revived Love and God and released it on her own.