Lights, Camera & Bollywood!

 On May 3, 1913, the Father of Indian Cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke released the first film made in the country, Raja Harishchandra. As was the case with the advent of several modern inventions like the telegraph and railway, courtesy the English rulers, Cinematography too made its debut in India quite early, just about two decades since the motion pictures were invented in the West.

 

Those were the days of the British imperialism and Indian cinema too was stifled in its nascent years amidst the rise of nationalism. But even in those formative years filmmakers such as Sohrab Modi (Pukar and Sikander) picked up mythological and historical stories to awaken the masses and spread the spirit of nationalism.

In the 1943 film Kismet, regarded as the first super hit film that catapulted Ashok Kumar to stardom, lyricist Kavi Pradeep penned the song “Door hatho aye duniya walon Hindustan hamara hai”; the song escaped the scissors under the strict British censorship perhaps with references to the words Germany and Japan amidst the 2nd World War, but its underlying meaning coming close on the heels of the 1942 Quit India movement was not lost. Shortly Kavi Pradeep went underground to avoid an arrest warrant.

This article is written by a writer associated with Digiparagon.com.