Details

Published: 22 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 4 2017/08/19

One Man Archive Army

So, three Censor Boards were set up in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras soon after 1918 and another one in Lahore in 1927. Our Knight on a quest was in Bombay, so he approached the Central Board of Censors there. They said, we were established in 1951 and we can help you with films censored after that. What do I do for films before that, he asked. Somebody mentioned  the Govt Dept of Archives. Off he went to the Archives and he found bonanza!

In collaboartion with the National Film Archives of India, Poona, he was able to examine the old gazettes on microfilm containing info about 1000 silents and talkies. This was about 80% of the films What about tthe remaining? The next important center was in Calcultta, so he went there.

The Calcutta Censor Board told him that they did not have anything, of course. He asked, Where do you keep all your junk? They pointed to a dirty and dilapidated room. Holding his nose, he ransacked it and found nearly disintegrated forty year old gazettes. He took them all to NFAI, where they are now. I presume they have been microfilmed. Prakash Magdum ji would know.

That one man archive army was a double graduate, Mechanical Engg and Electrical Engg. He was an Assistant Sound Recordist and Editor for "Vish Vaman (1936)"  a talkie made in Jabalpur. The film was financed by a beeDee maker.

His name is (Late) Bhaskarrao Vishnu Dharap, owner of Alka Talkies, Poona, who was commonly known as B V Dharap. Har Mandir Singh declared him to be his Godfather in his "Saga of the Compiler's Odyssey".

Thanks again to the magic of modern science and internet, I am able to show you a page from a gazette of 1922. You can see one silent Indian film and many foreign ones, because these foreign films had to be  re-censored in India before they could be shown here.

[As usual, right click, view image and magnify or just download.]

Now you know!

Details

Published: 22 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 3 2017/08/18

Filmographies

My mentor and guru Prof R K Pathria always proof-reads my books. When reading my book on Indurani he was surprised to know that only one of her films survives. He wanted to know how I prepared the list of her films and if I am sure that these films were even made!

So I told him briefly about the meticulous record-keeping habits of the British (rivaled by the Nazis!). British Govt passed the Indian Cinematograph Act of 1918, which required all films headed for public exhibition to obtain a censor certificate and be notified in the official Gazette.  Censors had to watch the film and give a certificate of approval or reject it.

Where are these gazettes? Nobody had any idea. Then around 1966, one tireless man went on a quest to track these down and prepare the first reliable filmography of Hindi films. Who was that man? Stay tuned.

Now you know! 

Details

Published: 22 August 2017

Last Updated: 03 November 2017

Number 2 2017/08/17

Music in the 30s

One often hears that in the early days of the talkies the music was made using harmonium and tabla. How do we find out about this? We can ask people. Ardeshir Irani mentioned that they used harmonium, tabla and violin in the first talkie. You can also listen to hundreds of songs from the thirties available on my website. Try the songs of Laal-e-Yaman (1933) http://hindi-films-songs.com/main/1933_laal-e-yaman.html  You will find in song 13 a very familiar tune, which was used again a few times.

Also, we know that in the Parsi theater they used more than harmonium and tabla. Knowing that  a lot of early talkies were either filmed plays or based on the plays, we can guess that many instruments would have been used. Even in the era of the silent movies, the screenings were accompaniments by lots of instruments. So, if somebody tells you that only harmonium and tabla were used in the early times, don't believe them.

Now you know!