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In Musing 2237, I had a poster of the film Frontiers of Freedom. A female named Mrs Shilotri was mentioned. Here is some info about her from Arunkumar Deshmukh, who has published four books on Forgotten Artists and the Same Name Confusion (look in the Published books section).
Arunkumar writes:
Ratanbai Shilotri was married to Dr. Prabhakar Shilotri, a highly educated Ph.D from a foreign university. He was a Finance Expert and had established "Shilotri Bank", having 6 branches in major towns, including his native place. They had only one daughter - Saroj. Dr. Shilotri was very arrogant and was a pucca anti British. The British Govt. also was waiting for an opportunity to teach him a lesson. Unfortunately, Dr. Shilotri was caught by the Govt. on a technicality and was jailed for 2 years. He died in jail.
Having lost everything Ratanbai and Saroj came to Ratanbai's brother Dinkar Jaywant for support. Saroj was interested in working in films, but Jaywant was dead against it (though his own daughter Nalini Jaywant joined films later). Saroj got married to Kumarsen Samarth, a Germany trained Cinematographer and a handsome person. Saroj became Shobhana Samarth. They, along with mother Ratanbai, shifted to Kolhapur. There Shobhana did her first film- 'Nigah-e- Nafrat' - 1935 (aka Orphans of the Society) and its Marathi Version - Vilasi Ishwar, opposite Master Vinayak. She continued working in films. Shobhana's daughters Nutan and Tanuja are well-known.
Ratanbai worked in just one film - Swarajyachya Seemevar- Frontiers of Freedom. She did Shivaji's mother's role in it. This film was made under the Kolhapur Cinetone banner, produced by Prince Shivaji Productions (their only film). The producer director was Major Dadasaheb Nimbalkar, and it was written by Bhalji Pendharkar. Shivaji's role was done by Col. Nanasaheb Ingle.
After this single role, Ratanbai Shilotri never ever acted in any other film. Her daughter Shobhana did about 50 films and became famous as India's favourite SEETA, after the superhit film Ramrajya-1943.
PS: Of course, she is different from the Calcuttawali Ratanbai who acted in Saigal films. Also Kumar Dilip mentioned and seen in the poster is Nazir, as has been mentioned before.
Now You Know!
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The relevant sections from the report are reproduced below. It is clear that
1. Rafi is nowhere mentioned.
2. The ban started on AIR on May 4 and Doordarshan on My 5, 1976.
3. Kishore wrote a letter dated June 14, in which he agreed to cooperate, but there is no mention of any apology. [I would love to see the actual letter.]
4. The ban must have been lifted in a few days after this letter.
4. When asked to freeze the sale of his records, Polydor did not commit to do anything, and HMV agreed only to stop recording solo items. As amply shown by KC Pingle, this half-hearted 'ban' was not very effective.
5. In his deposition to the Shah Commission, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting , VC Shukla, excused all his officers and took full blame of the regrettable episode.
Now You Know!
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AMAZON INDIA
NOTION PRESS
POTHI.COM
International Edition
Note: The word 'been' was missing in the author bio, corrected. Thanks Anil Manchanda.
professor toofaanii publishers, Lansing, MI, USA, is happy to announce their 37th book
India: A Reckoning With History
by Sanjay Sood PhD
Dr Sanjay Sood is a theoretical physicist and a microchip design engineer. He did his PhD in electrical engineering from the university of North Carolina. He has been in the US since 1990 and in California for the last 25 years. He has been interested in Indian history since his childhood in New Delhi.
This is his first book. In it he has tried to provide a brief but vivid overview of some important events that proved to be turning points in the nation’s history and have had tremendous impact on Indian civilization over the last 2,500 years. His main purpose in writing this book is to understand the impact of these events on the development of Indian society through the centuries and what light they can shed on the current state of the society.
Black and White interior, Color cover, 6 by 9, pages 76.
First 10 pages may be read here
Page 342 of 827
