Page 33 - Seniorstoday May 2023 Issue

Films

Cinema

Pioneers ( L to R) -Dadasaheb Phalke, Jaddanbai, Chandulal Shah

Without these magnificent people with their drive and ambition laying down the
foundation of cinema, India would not have been the great centre of movie-making
that it is today, writes Deepa Gahlot

The recent, much admired – and somewhat has not even survived—the prints either
criticised—web series Jubilee, directed sold to extract silver from the celluloid
by Vikramaditya Motwane, has evoked strips, or simply destroyed by neglect.
some interest in the history of cinema, in Laboratory and storage facility fires took
a country so indifferent to the past, that out another large chunk. If it was not for the
Dadasaheb Phalke’s name is attached to a tireless efforts of PK Nair who established
national award for lifetime achievement, the National Film Archives of India in
but his home in Nashik is marked just by Pune, even more of India’s film heritage
a plaque; anywhere else in the world, the would have been destroyed.
Father of Indian Cinema would have a
museum to his name. The man himself died
in penury and oblivion.
Devika Rani and Himansu Rai, who
inspired two of the lead characters in
Jubilee, were cinema pioneers who heralded
the Golden Age of Hindi films; their
stardom and glamour ensured a place for
them in movie history, but there are many
others, who have been totally forgotten. A
very large section of early Indian cinema

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #47 | MAY 2023 33