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The poster of Zabak (1961) directed by Homi Wadia.
Out of Sight: Archivingof Hidden Practice Histories Debashree Mukherjee All photographs courtesy Priya Paul
Chairperson of Apeejay Our understanding of Indian cinema would remain incomplete until we acknowledged its supporting cast of hairdressers, poster painters, costume designers, still photographers, makeup artists and numerous other specialists invisible to the public eye. In January 2013, Debashree Mukherjee curated an exhibition of Hindi film memorabilia titled ‘Maya Mahal’, which featured artefacts from the private collection of Priya Paul, Surrendra Park Hotels. In this essay, Mukherjee uses examples from the collection to point to hidden histories of work and practice, and to give us a fragmented view of low-budget films, lost genres and the wage-workers who mark each film with their individual skills. ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:29 PM Page 44
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eterodox in its scope and the elemental contract of cinema range, Priya Paul’s itself: to deliver sensory excitement, Hcollection of film voyeuristic delight and magical memorabilia represents an eccentric worlds. Thus, the exhibition mix of films. There are archives larger showcased genres, practitioners and than this, there are archives that are aesthetics that are often forgotten in more systematic, but the pleasure of a bid to celebrate auteurs and ‘classics’. serendipity springs from This is an alternative history of juxtaposition, not from order and Hindi cinema—one that is decidedly expanse. Comprising approximately excessive, melodramatic, even 5,000 paper artefacts, the Priya Paul utopian. collection was built using an intuitive logic that brought disparate objects Many of these films have not been together with scant regard for considered socially or artistically cultural hierarchies. And thus, significant by dominant standards. Mehboob Khan’s Mother India Most of them firmly belong to the B- (1957) is shelved with K.S. Reddy’s circuit and were made on a low 44 Daku Rani Himmatwali (1984), and budget, with scant attention to Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa (1957) jostles for subtlety and much emphasis on space with Akkoo’s Aadam Khor thrills. B movies have traditionally (1955), to create an associative magic. circulated in mofussil towns, rural centres, and the working class In January 2013 an neighbourhoods of big cities. exhibition titled ‘Maya The point is not Mahal’ presented a whether these first glimpse of this films are ‘good’ or collection. As its ‘bad’, but that these curator I wanted to are desires and distil the chief imaginations that promise held out have existed alongside by the collection the mainstream, often rather than erupting into it. The illustrate its power of the mainstream range. This blockbuster draws on the promise was affective charge of the ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:29 PM Page 45
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underground, the unseen. The two go Signs of this change in direction can be together, much like the Ravi-Vijay seen in Raqs Media Collective and duo in Yash Chopra’s Deewar (1975). C.K. Muralidharan’s research on ‘The In the A-circuit universe, Vijay must History and Practice of 1 be punished for his transgressions Cinematography in India’, Sarai- and die in the climax. But he is also CSDS’s project titled ‘Publics and the more exciting sibling, dangerous Practices in the History of the Present’, and sexy, flouting all norms and Ranjani Mazumdar’s work on making us secretly root for him. As production designers and poster 2 we celebrate the centenary of Indian makers, Clare Wilkinson-Weber’s cinema, we must also look at the B study of ‘dressmen’ (costume managers movie, the ogre in the cave, the in Hindi cinema), Tejaswini Ganti’s misshapen twin of the mainstream. ethnographic research on production and Gregory Booth’s study of the music 3 Hidden histories of work and practice industry. are encoded within the Priya Paul collection. Film artefacts such as lobby We do not have any collective memory cards, posters and song booklets evoke of the actors, producers and directors 45 layered histories—of the men and of B- and C-grade movies. And when women who created the object in itself it comes to the legendary classics of (still photographers, poster painters, mainstream Hindi cinema, we rarely graphic designers, printers) and of recognise the efforts of specialists such those who created all that is contained as art directors, costume designers, within the frame (art directors, makeup artists or stunt masters. Here costume designers, choreographers, are some artefacts presented in the background dancers, light boys). The ‘Maya Mahal’ exhibition, viewed from Bombay film industry is seldom the angles of labour and biography. approached as a site of work. But it is What follows is an exercise in seeing in fact an industrial-affective site where and naming that will necessarily be technology, innovation and incomplete and fragmented, for it will improvisation go hand-in-hand with largely take the form of an inventory risk, ambition and desire. Over the last of biographies, a catalogue of decade, some areas of Indian film and practices. Perhaps it could also point media studies have clearly veered to possibilities for research and toward the documentation of practice. historiography. ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:29 PM Page 46
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Tarzan-fashion, and adopted by Dada, a chimpanzee. Seventeen years later the professor’s brother arrives on a mission to find his nephew. He is accompanied by his beautiful, adopted daughter Leela. This character is played by Chitra and she immediately falls in love with our dashing local Tarzan. For the rest of the film we see her play Jane in demure leopard skins and battle it out with her romantic rival, Maya.
Chitra (d. 2006) was a leading lady in low-budget films of the 1950s and 1960s. Born Afsar Unissa Begum in Stunts and Action Hyderabad, her life and work have gone practically undocumented. The 47 Zimbo (1958) was a Priya Paul collection, with its colour remake of Wadia Movietone’s emphasis on stunt and fantasy films, superhit film Toofani Tarzan (1937), brings an actress such as Chitra into both directed by Homi Wadia. The the public eye. In an interview to success of Toofani Tarzan had Khalid Mohamed in 1990, Chitra launched a veritable cycle of jungle constructs her own narrative. As a adventure films; the film itself child she frequently went to Bombay remained in circulation for about for family holidays, and was soon twenty years. The story begins when swept up by the film craze. Her first Professor Chakravarty, who is working role was opposite Ajit in Safdar Aah’s on a formula for eternal life in his top- Maan (1954) but real success came secret forest laboratory, is killed by with P.N. Arora’s Chor Bazaar (1954) 4 wild animals. Before dying, though, he opposite Shammi Kapoor. fixes the anti-aging formula in an amulet around his infant son’s neck Chitra proudly listed Zimbo among and sets him aloft in a hot air balloon. her most significant films calling it The boy is brought up by the jungle in “India’s first jungle colour film.” Her ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 48
opens up several other narratives of lost genres such as jungle stunt films, and players such as Azad, the muscular Tarzan of India, or even Pedro, ‘the human chimpanzee’.
Opender Chanana, film professional and labour activist, starts his book on work conditions in the Bombay film industry with a reference to a news report from 1938 written by a young film journalist from Lahore, B.R. Chopra. Three account of her short-lived professional actors had drowned in the Powai success is bitter-sweet: Lake during the shooting of Mohan 48 Pictures’ Vir Bala. Chanana recounts I’ve done all sorts of films… I that Chopra wrote a strident lived in a bungalow-type house, editorial in his magazine, Cine I changed seven cars as I Herald, and “called upon the became more and more popular. Producers to give material and moral I’ve done 111 films, I’ve support and relief to the dependents counted them actually… But of the victims. It also suggested, as then there was an ajeebsi guidance for future, to stunt [strange] tragedy… Work companies, to arrange for safe guards stopped coming and there beforehand for those who play with wasn’t the kind of money flow danger. It stressed the need for as earlier. … I’m okay, I have a security and assurance against loss of 6 decent 650 sq ft flat, a phone. life to artists.” This editorial did not God forbid, I’ve never starved. change the industry’s approach to I’ve adjusted to the times. I like safety norms or compensation. travelling by auto rickshaw, it’s However, it pointed to a huge blind 5 like sitting on a jhoola [swing]. spot in discussions around the Tracking biographies like Chitra’s Indian film industries—that ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 49
unorganised, informal labour and precarious working conditions had been ignored entirely.
In the same year as the Powai Lake accident, a predecessor of Chitra and Azad at Wadia Movietone faced a series of shooting mishaps. Pramilla, born Esther Abraham, acted in more than thirty-five films from 1935 to 1961 and was closely associated with the stunt film genre, acting in adventure films such as Jungle King (1939) from Wadia Movietone and Bijlee (1939) from Prakash Pictures, where one would find her dressed in tiger skins and jumping off horses. Pramilla performed her own stunts in 49 tiger costume, which was heavy, many films and sustained many severe and when she finally gave up, she injuries. In 1938 during the shooting of was thrown out by the whirlpool Jungle King she had a couple of narrow onto the bank. Everyone came up escapes. The film unit had gone to to congratulate her – ‘Kya scene Ghodbunder for an outdoor shoot and 7 tha!’ there was a scene in which she had to sing while swimming in a river. The other serious accident that took Unbeknownst to anyone in the crew: place at the time gave Pramilla a broken nose, and for years to come she A whirlpool sucked her under; took great pleasure in pointing out the she kept bobbing up and down; ‘dent’ in her nose. each time she managed to come up she would make frantic Esther Victoria Abraham (1916- gestures asking for help. The 2006) was born into a wealthy camera crew continued shooting, Baghdadi Jewish family in Calcutta. mistaking her frantic gestures for Like in a typical melodramatic film, a authentic acting. She was in her sudden reversal in family fortunes ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 50
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forced Esther and her sisters to seek in their highly risky, improvisational 9 employment immediately after school. work environments. Esther started her professional life as a teacher at the Talmud Jewish Boys’ Publicity Art School. By 1934, Esther was nineteen, divorced and a single mother. During a One of the few Hindi cinema ‘classics’ casual visit to Bombay, she got an represented in the Priya Paul acting offer and immediately sent a collection is Mother India. The telegram to Calcutta “saying she would collection contains a publicity booklet 8 not be returning”. for the film, an elaborate document that carries production information As Pramilla, she excelled in roles that and a heavily illustrated synopsis. This presented her as a bold, westernised twenty-two-page booklet differs from woman, mostly playing a ‘dangerous’ the song booklet genre in that it second lead. While Fearless Nadia contains no lyrics at all. Most unique played the vigilante superwoman in is the fact that instead of photographic many of these films, Pramilla publicity stills, it carries hand-painted 50 performed the scheming vamp. But images in which the technique of over- she seems to have recognised that painting is used—the artist paints these gender stereotypes not only sent over actors’ photographic portraits out moralistic messages about the with oils. Rachel Dwyer and Divia ‘emancipated woman’ but, Patel point out that the artist L.L. paradoxically, also enabled the Meghanee had selected “key unabashed portrayal of strong, photographs illustrating the most sexually-aware female characters. dramatic points in the film.” They analyse the visual style, saying that “the The fragmented archive of Indian exaggerated and rough brush strokes cinema bears traces of these few give an effect similar to that of shooting accidents primarily because Western Expressionist painting. they involved relatively well-known …The entire booklet is charged with actors. It might be worth mentioning an emotional and passionate intensity that there is no count of the light that aimed to glorify India and its 10 boys, stuntmen, setting dadas and traditional ways.” One sees a steady electricians who have died of electric rise in this kind of formal analysis of shocks or fallen off tarafas (catwalks) poster art and artists, and a growing ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 51
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interest in compiling these artists’ songs, which are transliterated into professional histories and studying the those languages. Booklets were often history of poster printing meant as publicity targeted at technologies. distributors and exhibitors, but were also sold directly to spectators, as the Another interesting publicity price of four annas printed on some document is the song booklet. This is covers indicates. Not surprisingly, this a slim pamphlet that carries a fragile and slight object is one of our miniaturised version of the film poster most precious resources for writing a on the cover, and contains the history of Indian cinema today. Nearly synopsis, production stills, and 2,200 films were produced in Bombay complete cast and crew credits, besides alone between 1931 and 1950 and at the lyrics of the songs. Most song least eighty per cent of these films are booklets translate the textual material now unavailable for viewing. The into two or more languages, such as prints have crumbled to dust, been English, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and destroyed in fires, or simply Bengali, except for the lyrics of the disappeared for lack of care and archival attention. It would hardly be 51 an exaggeration to say that the archive of early Indian cinema is haunted by ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 52
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this absence. Thus, the song booklet Hair and Makeup with its rich information and illustrations is often the only means to Tracking film practitioners through reconstruct a lost history. From the film memorabilia is a dizzying perspective of visual history, the design enterprise. Clues lead to other clues, and typeface used in these booklets also protagonists multiply and mimic reflect the artistic currents of the times. each other, the original chase is For example, the stunning booklet cover forgotten and one starts shadowing for M. Udwadia’s Shahu Chor/Prince of newer characters. One such character Thieves (1936) uses a mix of styles is ‘Madam Solomon’ credited for the including an art deco background and ‘Hair Styles’ in S.U. Sunny’s Uran typeface combined with photographic Khatola (1955), a fantasy film cut-outs. A preliminary search has starring Nimmi, Dilip Kumar and revealed nothing about the artist, S.K. Surya Kumari. Written by Azim Murthy, except that he was possibly a Bazidpuri, the film is set in a well-known art director in south India. mythical land called Shanga, ruled by a fair queen. The plot opens when 52 Dilip Kumar’s plane crashes in this ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 53
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land and he falls in love with the high- IMDB claims, the nine films that are born local lass, Nimmi. The film was listed can only represent a slice of her 11 lavishly produced by Naushad who body of work. also scored some memorable songs for the film. Given that there are no Hairdressers in the 1950s and 1960s screen credits for individual actors’ were part of the small tribe of female hairstylists, it can be assumed that film professionals you would Mrs Solomon was responsible for encounter in a studio. The other styling at least the main female careerists in this tribe were actresses, characters. Nimmi sports a variety of extras and dancers. Ram Tipnis, a elaborate hairdos in the film, mainly makeup artist who started his film chosen for their old-world appeal. Soft career in the 1940s, has said in an curls, fancy ringlets, intricately interview that: arranged plaits, and semi-pompadours from the Victorian era create Nimmi’s In fact Bombay Talkies and pretty look. Surya Kumari’s hair is Filmistan started the trend of more demurely designed to create a having a separate Hair mature and elegant effect. Both Department. Before that the 53 characters are given a wide range of actresses would get their maids hair accessories and ornaments to add to do their hair or everyone to the exotic appeal of the imaginary would just do their own hair, you world they inhabit. One can only know Indian style. …Even in the imagine what references Mrs Solomon Costume department we had used to decide upon these looks, or men. Sometimes if they needed what discussions there might have help they might call the Hair been at a pre-production stage. There assistant, but no, there were no is no trace of the mysterious Madam other women employed in the 12 Solomon in the usual records. studio. IMDb.com, however, has a listing for Mrs R. Solomon and credits her with By the mid-1950s the situation had a brief filmography including Guide changed somewhat. Bhanu Athaiya (1965), Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966), was hired by Guru Dutt to design Ram aur Shyam (1967) and Patthar Ke costumes in CID (1956) and the rest Sanam (1967). Even if Solomon’s is history. career was only a decade long, as ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 54
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The story of women’s work in the film and events, we can have a more industry is waiting to be excavated from contemplative relationship to the film clues such as these. While those who visual. The Uran Khatola lobby card worked in the first decades of the film capitalises on this difference in form. industry are no more, it is yet possible It is relatively spare and showcases the to do a much-needed oral history two highlights of the film: sets and project for the 1950s and beyond. costumes. In a fantasy film, these are the chief attractions, and the lobby Art Direction card economically privileges these to guarantee an evening of spectacle. When the moving image is frozen on paper, in the form of publicity stills, Uran Khatola opens with a scene of an our relation to it is altered. Not caught up with following characters, actions
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old-fashioned galleon being tossed collection with films such as Zimbo, mercilessly on the high seas. Only one Nanabhai Bhatt’s Madame XYZ man survives the shipwreck and finds (1959), and Homi Wadia’s Zabak himself on the shores of an unfamiliar (1961). island. He then makes his way through an eerie forest and reaches a tiny Art Direction, nowadays known as house, shabby and with a pointed Production Design, was one of the first roof, much like in an illustrated specialised film categories to be Grimms’ fairytale. These are carefully acknowledged by the Filmfare Awards. constructed sets complete with Instituted in 1953, the Filmfare specially moulded trees, painted skies Awards started with five basic and artificial giant cobwebs. Coupled categories: Best Film, Director, Actor, with low-key lighting and wide-angle Actress and Music Director. The next lensing, the determinedly non- year it added the categories of Story, naturalistic sets create an Supporting Roles, Cinematography Expressionist aesthetic. Later, when and Sound. In 1955, two more we are taken to the mythical land of categories were added: Editing and Art Shanga, the film treats us to a Direction. It took another couple of 55 dizzying series of phantasmagorical years for Lyricist, Dialogue Writer and sets. Colossal statues of gods that Playback Singer to be included. breathe fire, idyllic pleasure gardens, a Categories such as Action and musical bridge, flying chariots and a Choreography, those staples of Bombay royal bed shaped like a blossoming cinema, were only recognised post flower are just some of the stunning 1988. The film industry has long creations of art director V. Jadhav Rao. recognised Art Direction as being one Rao’s name crops up in films from the of the core elements of film production, 1950s right through the 1980s and yet but the names, filmographies, one can find no systematically listed innovations and signature strategies of biographical or professional art directors are difficult to come by. information about him. The same goes The Bombay film industry is often for Bachubhai Mistry, the art director blamed for not documenting its own of Zimbo and of several special effects past but traces do exist as award and stunt films produced by the histories, and records of crafts unions Wadia Brothers. Mistry’s name and associations. recurrently appears in the Priya Paul ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 56
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Choreography on symmetrically arranged bodies, epic sets, chorus lines and frontal tableau Zabak is a resplendent Persian displays. The film credits three adventure film shot in Geva Colour. It choreographers: Satyanarayan, Surya stars Mahipal as the title character, a Kumar, and Chetan. Both polyglot healer and a carefree soul. He Satyanarayan and Surya Kumar were falls in love with the wealthy Zainab prolific choreographers and dancers (Shyama) but the difference in their from the 1950s right up until the status presents the first of many 1980s. Satyanarayan was partial to obstacles in their path. After being ballet and some of that proclivity is persecuted by Zainab’s family, he joins evident in Zabak. The dances in the a gang of bandits. The sets, designed film work organically with the sets and by Bachubhai Mistry, are extravagant costumes to create a unified pageant of in scale and breathtaking in detail. attractions. Mistry follows the Islamicate iconography of spires, domes, latticed Surya Kumar was Anglo-Indian by windows, diaphanous curtains and birth and was known to his colleagues 56 pendulous chandeliers. The costumes, as Robert Master. He is sometimes by Mohamed Umer, follow the even listed in a film’s credits as ‘Robert’. Arabian Nights model of unisex harem Symptomatic of the acute lack of pants, waistcoats and fezes. Umer was documentation of choreographic also responsible for the costumes of practice in Bombay cinema, Surya Zimbo, radically different from those in Kumar’s professional information is Zabak. The film credits three women nearly impossible to come by. This is for ‘Hair Styles’: Nargis, Norma, and compounded by the fact that for the Geeta. At this stage in my research, I ninety-four films he is known to have have absolutely no information on worked on, there are many more where them. his work might be uncredited. He himself appeared in many of the No Persian fantasy is complete famous dances he choreographed, as a without dances, and Zabak features backup dancer, a band member, or examples of synchronised group even to partner the lead female dancer. choreography. It continues a tradition According to the dancer Edwina Lyons seen in films such as K. Amarnath’s and Thomas Daniel, it appears that he Alif Laila (1953) wherein the focus is introduced the international dance ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 57
collection brings certain histories into focus with its privileging of stunt and sensation of the 1960s, ‘The Shake’, to fantasy genres. Narratives of local Hindi film audiences with the song innovation, transnational referencing, ‘Jaan Pehchaan Ho’ from Raja 13 and precarious labour are stamped Nawathe’s Gumnaam (1965). It is onto these films. A focus on cultural worth mentioning that Surya Kumar work can yield a new approach to the 57 was the man behind the ‘Hum Aapki history of Indian cinema, one that Aankhon Mein’ dream sequence in simultaneously acknowledges its Pyaasa. Typically, the Priya Paul industrial and artistic facets. We are archive frequently brings up his name. also reminded that film is an He also choreographed dances in Uran inherently collaborative medium Khatola. involving hundreds of salaried experts and wage-workers who mark each film According to Lyons, Surya Kumar was with their individual skills. An so penniless in his last years that he auteurist history of Hindi cinema is had to beg his dancers to buy him a inadequate to either the memory of pair of spectacles. He died of a heart these practitioners or the complex attack sometime in the mid-1980s, in a practices they represent. makeup room in a studio. Debashree Mukherjee is a Ph.D In the preceding sections I have tried candidate in the Department of to demonstrate some of the tangents Cinema Studies, New York University. one could follow while looking for Her dissertation tracks a history of traces of film work. The Priya Paul film practice in late colonial Bombay. ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 58
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NOTES in Popular Hindi Film’ in Anthropological Quarterly, 79(4), pp. 581-608 and her 1. This research project was among the first forthcoming book titled Fashioning Bollywood: to be supported by IFA. The Making and Meaning of Hindi Film Costume; Ranjani Mazumdar, Bombay 2. Ranjani Mazumdar received an IFA grant Cinema: An Archive of the City (New Delhi: in 2002 to study the Bombay film poster. Permanent Black, 2007) and ‘The Bombay Film Poster’ in Seminar-525, 2003; 3. Gregory Booth, Behind the Curtain: http://www.sarai.net/research/media-city. Making Music in Mumbai’s Film Studios (Oxford & New York: Oxford University 4. http://cineplot.com/encyclopedia/chitra/ Press, 2008); Tejaswani Ganti, Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi 5. Ibid. Film Industry (Duke University Press, 2012); Clare Wilkinson-Weber, ‘The Dressman’s 6. Opender Chanana, The Missing 3 in Line: Transforming the Work of Costumers Bollywood: Safety, Security, Shelter 58 ArtConnect corrected_Layout 3 6/24/2013 5:30 PM Page 59
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(Switzerland: UNI Global Union, 2011). See everything from carpentry and painting to also G. Nihalani, S. Chatterjee & Gulzar arrangement of props and furnishings. A (eds.) Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema: An tarafa is a narrow wooden walkway that runs Enchanting Close-Up of India’s Hindi Cinema above the set in a studio and from which (New Delhi: Popular Prakashan, 2003) for light-men hang and adjust lights and cables. the section on stunts and safety hazards. 10. Rachel Dwyer and Divia Patel, Cinema 7. R. Shahani (ed) Pramila – Esther Victoria India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film Abraham (Mumbai: Sound & Picture (London: Reaktion Books, 2002), p. 163. Archives for Research on Women, 1998), p.16. 11. See http://www.imdb.com/ name/nm1351931/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 8. Ibid. 12. Interviewed in Bombay, 2008. 9. A lower-rung Art Department assistant is often called ‘setting dada’, the term ‘dada’, 13. http://dustedoff.wordpress.com meaning ‘older brother’, being a mark of /2011/10/10/edwina-part-2-a-cast-of- respect. Setting dadas are responsible for characters/(Surya Kumar) 59 dressing a set according to the instructions of the art director. It is a job that includes