Chapter 5
Conclusion
The study of “Franz Osten, Bombay Talkies and Varying Discourses in Early Indian Cinema” was undertaken with the purpose of examining the position of Bombay Talkies Ltd. Studio in the early Indian cinema culture. This study was also aimed at finding out how the international collaboration between German technicians (Franz Osten and Joseph Wirsching) and Indian artists (Himansu Rai, Niranjan Pal) created the symbolic capital for the people involved in the making of these films. This study focused on various activities of the Indo-German-British collaborations and its reception in India in the 1920s. The formation of Bombay Talkies studio in 1934 was the second phase of the collaborative effort. Two important aspects of the study are taken into account. The three silent films and sixteen talkies are studied for their historical relevance and how they contributed to the history of Indian cinema. The other aspect was the technical analysis of the films and the reflection of issues of modernity in these films.
Himansu Rai and Franz Osten’s collaboration for making films is, probably, the only long lasting international collaborative effort in the history of Indian cinema. This collaboration started in 1926 and ended when the Second World War broke in 1939. Franz Osten being a German had to leave the British India and in 1940 Himansu Rai passed away. Bombay Talkies studio continued to make films till 1954 but in the absence of Himansu Rai and Franz Osten had lost its zest. These films made with collaborative efforts occupied a curious place in the cultural field. The commentators in the ICCR and the ICCE volumes do not deny that Light of Asia was technically a superior film but it was not considered an Indian film. Light of Asia earned great reputation to Himansu Rai and Niranjan Pal but in India, as one gets the impression out of the ICCR and ICCE, it was not very successful. To locate the importance and function of these films in the history of Indian cinema Pierre Burdieu’s method of relational network is being used.
The archival research to study the silent films resulted in studying government documents like Evans’ Report on Indian Cinema published in 1921, Indian Cinematograph Committee Report and Indian Cinematograph Committee Evidence Volumes. Similarly to understand the relational mode of existence of the sound films
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produced by Bombay Talkies, study of contemporary journals was undertaken. Film magazines like Filmindia, Filmland, Varieties Weekly, The Cinema were referred.
The technical analysis of the films, as another important aspect of this research, was carried out using Gilles Deleuze’s two books Cinema 1: The movement Image and Cinema 2: The Time Image. Since Delezue’s books deal with the representation of movement and time, which separate film from other arts, their adequacy was never in doubt. The silent films and talkies being in the formative years of Indian film culture needed the kind of technical analysis that Deleuze’s books render possible.
The first chapter of the thesis entitled ‘Some issues in Early Indian Cinema’, discusses the history of early Indian Cinema. The overview of the film history emerges from historical documents like Evans’ Report on Indian Cinema, A.M. Green’s paper, “The Indian Cinematograph Industry,” presented as proceedings of the ICC, ICCR and ICCE. Evans’ report clearly states that all the exhibitors catered to the small audience of European population who pay high prices for the attendance of the shows. Messers. Madan owned almost half of the cinema theatres and had monopoly over exhibition and distribution of the films. Madans used to buy the films outright with the already acquired economic capital. An interesting fact that comes out of this report is the circulation of film was completely dependent on the purchase of the films. Instead of a universal renting system, under which the renter obtains films directly from the producer and lets them out at competitive rates in the open market to exhibitors, there existed in Indian film business a system of purchase. The new entrant in the film business either had to buy the films in bulk, as Madans would do, or do not have any business at all. To change this scenario Mr. Green suggests the British government to have complete control over Indian film business. The government, suggests Mr. Green, has to control the import of the foreign films. Evans also suggests that for the growth of number of cinema halls the government should provide concession to the people and companies interested in building new theatres. On censorship issues Evans suggests the British government to censor films according to the regions they are to be screened in. Evans rightly takes into account the diversity of public and their sensibilities at this point. Evans’ report also brings to light the issue of undesirable films. By undesirable films Evans means films showing European women in bad light. He appears to be specifically pointing towards the American
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films. Evans’ suggestion to British government to control the film activities in India highlights two points. The Britishers knew India was a good market for their films to be sold but it was completely captured by American films. Secondly they were aware of the educational value of films. Evans specifically recommends that the producers helped by the government for building theatres should be asked to exhibit educational films for a fixed period of time or on specific days. The narrative of the history of Indian cinema in many a versions considers Dhundiraj Govind Phalke to be the pioneer of Indian cinema. The reason for believing so most of the times given is Phalke’s claim of producing ‘swadeshi’ images. As Madhava Prasad claims Phalke’s nationalist agenda for making films considers a certain position in the cultural political field. This position taken by Phalke as a producer is later on taken by many others and stands exactly opposite to the silent and talkie films produced by Himansu Rai and Franz Osten collaboration. Kristin Thompson’s book Exporting Entertainment contends that before 1913 (the year generally marked as the beginning of the Indian film industry) it was Pathé who dominated the distribution and exhibition aspect of film culture. The Pathé prints, after being shown in theatres were sold to the travelling cinemas at half price. The mention of travelling cinema, by both Evans and Kristin Thompson, makes us aware of the lost history of travelling cinema’s exhibition and film viewing practice. However, during the years 1915 and 1916 American exports increased in numbers. The reason for this was the decline of industries of other nations. But films like Exploits of Elaine serial, Chaplin and Keystone comedies imported by Pathé were popular amongst the audience. However D. G. Phalke’s position in the early Indian cinema continues to be important for film historians like Ashish Rajadhyaksha. Rajadhyaksha forms his analysis of Phalke’s films and his position in the early Indian cinema culture based on two axes; modern technology and indigenous content.
The Indian Cinematograph Committee Report and Indian Cinematograph Committee Evidence volumes highlight the need to look at the processes of production, distribution and consumption practices of film and its technology. In the absence of actual footage of the early Indian cinema, the documents related to the film practice in early twentieth century become important sources to get some ideas of early film culture.
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The Indian Cinematograph Committee inquiry produced five volumes of written and oral interviews in which 353 witnesses were interviewed. The interviewees included people like educationists working in India, actors, film producers, exhibitors, distributors, newspaper editors and people from film censor board. The quality of Indian produced films and their content, monopoly of supply or exhibition of the films, system of block and blind booking, production and exhibition of films conforming to moral standards, sex films and crime films and their impact on the audience, films misrepresenting western civilization and operation of censor board were the major concerns of the film enquiry committee. The archival research shows that American cine journals like Variety, published in January 1928, were keenly following the film market and activities surrounding it in India. Priya Jaikumar’s essay “More than Morality: Indian Cinematograph Committee Interviews (1927),” suggests that the Indian Cinematograph Committee Report and Indian Cinematograph Committee Evidence volumes are important source for the study of film culture and power relations surrounding it. The audience in the 1920s was not a single homogenous community. Social hierarchies and class difference is evident in the interviews recorded in the Indian Cinematograph Committee Evidence volumes. It is possible to read these differences because by the 1920s film consumption for entertainment had already started establishing itself as an entertainment practice. The cultural divide amongst the audience based on their literacy was a result of the colonial educational policies. As Dass argues and is evident through the ICCE interviews, the illiterate audience preferred watching Indian mythological film, western comedy and adventure films. The western audience and the Indian elites preferred watching western socials. The development of cinema practice in India appears to be analogous to the development of cities like Bombay. The effect of modernisation in terms of industries and machines gets reflected through the growing consumption of cinema in the 1920s. The cinema halls catering to the lower-middle- class mill workers and the elites were divided according to the areas in Bombay. The cinema halls in and around Churchagate areas specifically served Europeans and elite Indians. On the other hand cinema halls in Dadar, Parel, Sewry and Bandra served the mill workers. By the end of the 1920s most of the major Indian producing concerns had started producing films with social themes. Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen edited Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema becomes an important source for the information of some of the important contributors and their films at this point.
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The arrival of talkies affected the processes of production, circulation and consumption of Indian cinema. The open market of the silent cinema was divided along the lines of languages. With the talkies the need for extra technicians became evident. A look at American cine magazine like Projection Engineering highlights the business activities of American and European companies producing and selling sound recording equipments to the newly emerging production houses in India. Indian technicians either went to Europe or America to learn the techniques of camera and sound recording. Indian film magazines like Filmland and Varieties Weekly advertised the sound recording equipments and cameras.
A vague account of the equipments used for the production of films is possible to be drawn only through the film journals available with libraries and archives. These accounts are instrumental to get some idea of how production of films was heavily dependent on the distribution of films and film equipments. Apart from advertising films and film equipments film journals performed an important function of creating discourse around film activities.
This chapter also gives an account of the kind of films produced by production houses like Prabhat Film Co., New Theatres Ltd., and Wadia Movietone. These production houses were producing important films and were catering to and shaping the audience’s taste for certain kind of films. Prabhat and New Theatres chiefly produced socials and Wadia Movietone was popular for its stunt films. Himansu Rai’s international collaborations for silent films and talkies produced under Bombay Talkies studio were part of this fast growing Indian film industry.
In the second chapter I have studied the history of how Himansu Rai, Niranjan Pal and Franz Osten got involved into the international collaboration for the three silent films. The formation of Bombay Talkies Ltd. and the films it produced are also discussed in this chapter. In the later section of the chapter I have discussed Habermas’ concept of ‘Public Sphere’ to see the possibilities of study the community formation around film culture. But Habermas’ contention that the arts consumed by masses and the commercial aspects of the news papers and journals led to the transformation of public sphere. The transformation of rational-critical debate into the activity of consumption, as mentioned by Habermas, proved to be one more reason to turn away from using the idea of public sphere to study the audience participation in
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the discourse around cinema. However this leads to the ideas of ‘cultural field’, ‘symbolic capital’ and ‘habitus’ put forth by Pierre Bourdieu in his writings.
Light of Asia, Shiraz and Throw of Dice, though now in the Twenty-first Century, appear to be made from the orientalist perspective, may not be considered oriental at that point of time. Niranjan Pal’s experiences in England and his hatred towards the oriental depictions of India in the European films make him appear very sensitive to the misrepresentation of Indians. In the late 1920s, these three silent films were made specifically for the European audience. The ICCR and ICCE consider Light of Asia to be good film. ICCR considers Light of Asia to be a good example of international collaboration. Himansu Rai’s choice of subjects to cater to the European audience was apt and spot on as these films earned him lot of respect in Europe as well as in India. Josef Wirsching and Emile Schunemann’s cinematography and Franz Osten’s direction skills are evident in the films. It was during making of these films that Himansu Rai met Devika Rani. Both of them later in the 1930s became the famous couple of Indian film industry. Devika Rani got trained in Ufa studio in Germany. Her experience of observing great film makers Frtitz Lang and G. W. Pabst seemed to help her in India while working for Bombay Talkies studio. Rai, Pal and Devika Rani’s stint with Germany came to an abrupt end when Nazis came in power. This led to Rai and Rani’s first talkie film Karma. Karma was the first Indian talkie to be made in English language. The film had two versions; English and Hindi. The English version screened in London made Devika Rani a star. The British newspapers were full of praise for Devika Rani. Even in India both Devika Rani and Himansu Rai were held in high regard for making Karma.
Bombay Talkies was formed in 1934 as a joint stock company having F.E. Dinshaw, Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Sir Chunilal Mehta, Sir Pheroze Sethna and Sir Cowasji Jehangir as some of its partners. All these partners, businessmen and public figures, were well known in the elite circle in India. Bombay Talkies studio was well equipped with all the state of the art machineries. Himansu Rai brought in Niranjan Pal, Franz Osten, Josef Wirsching and Karl Von Spreti for the new studio. Rai and Osten worked together for sixteen films till 1939. Niranjan Pal had already left Bombay Talkies over his differences with Himansu Rai in 1937. Franz Osten, being a German, had to leave India after the Second World War broke in 1939. The other Germans were interned in Deolali. Josef Wirsching stayed back in India and
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contributed immensely to the Indian film industry till 1971 the year in which he manned the camera for the last time for the film Pakeezah. Karl Von Spreti went into politics, became a member of Parliament and West Germany’s Ambassador to Gautemala where he was kidnapped and shot dead by the terrorists in the year 1970. The later years (after 1940) of Bombay Talkies studio were not as glamorous as its heydays till 1939. The last film produced by Bombay Talkies Ltd. was Baadbaan in 1954.
Himansu Rai and Franz Osten tried out various genres for the sixteen films they worked together on. Achhut Kanya (1936), Janmabhoomi (1936), Jeevan Naiya (1936), Jeevan Prabhat (1937), Durga (1939) and Kangan (1939) can be considered as socials. Navjeevan (1939) and Miya Biwi (1937) are comedies. Izzat (1936) and Vachan (1938) are period drama. Savitri (1937) is a mythological. Nirmala (1938) deals with the protagonist’s obsession with motherhood and can be looked at as a psychological drama. Bhabi (1938) was an adaptation of Saradindu Banerjee written novel Bisher Dhuan ponders on the narrow minded society. Prem Kahani (1937) is a love story with story within story format. Mamata (1936) is a courtroom drama in which a dancing girl has to undergo a trial for murdering her former lover to save her child. Jawani Ki Hawa (1935) was crime thriller.
The film journals in the 1930s contain articles by film critics like K.A. Abbas and Baburao Patel in which the activities of New Theatres, Prabhat and Bombay Talkies were compared. The readers of these journals communicated with the editors about the new films, film actors, and themes of the films. Bombay Talkies was always given its due for the technical superiority of its films. But New Theatres and Prabhat were considered better in terms of production of social film. This discourse surrounding cinema is termed as public sphere by Debashree Mukherjee and a few other film critics.
Public Sphere for Habermas entails social institutions that allow an open and rational debate between citizens in order to form public opinion. The debate can be conducted in person or through exchanges of letters and other written communications, and may be mediated by journals, newspapers and electronic forms of communication. Ideally the public sphere should be open to all, and agreement should be secured through the force of better argument, rather than through any
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exercise or threat of physical force. Habermas’s early arguments explain that the bourgeois public sphere emerged from the private sphere of the individual. The already established salons helped the ‘art critic’ to emerge as a new occupation. The art critic would analyse and talk about the art work and the artist and sometimes he would shape the public’s ways of thinking about literature. In Europe the public sphere came into existence with the maturation of capitalism in the eighteenth century. It was a bourgeois public sphere, which is to say that it was a space within which the members of rising commercial and professional classes met and communicated. But later on the journals and newspapers became the mass media to propagate culture. The critical rational debate was lost in the process of integration brought on by the mass media.
Bur Habermas’s formulation of public sphere operative in Europe does not seem to work seamlessly while talking about community formations in India. Rajeev Bhargava puts forth his observation on public sphere in India. Habermas, according to Bhargava, overestimates the degeneration of public sphere as his account of the twentieth century public sphere is based on the audience of television in the European suburbs. The absence of nationalism and impact of religion is also an objectionable aspect in Habermas’ theorisation of the public sphere. Bhargava also considers that Habermas’ idea of public sphere appears to be restrictive as his focus on debate and discussion demands conformation to the rational debate. The final objection, element of debate in public sphere, raised by Bhargava is important because discourse surrounding cinema in early twentieth century India has the elements of debate and discussion but these elements are difficult to be considered as a public sphere.
In the case of early cinema in India discussions and debates surrounding cinema existed through film journals but the conversations through letters and art critic’s essays did not contain critical rationality. After all cinema and cinema journals were commodities of mass consumption.
The newspaper and governmentality was brought in India by the British. The access to European culture brought in the ‘deterritorialized’ modernity. Metclaf approved the freedom of the press and had said that ignorance was more dangerous than the spread of knowledge and that if England had the choice she had a definite responsibility to prefer the diffusion of knowledge to the perpetuation of ignorance in
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India, its colony. Dipesh Chakrabarti considers modernity, the nation-state, and the idea of history to be important and controversial topics. Most of the writings on the issues of modernity, according to Dipesh Chakrabarty, revolve around contesting the idea that modernity has any ideal and typical form. Some scholars prefer the label alternative or plural modernities while talking about modernity in India. Though these ideas are useful, the scholars are still left with the task of defining what modernity is. Chakrabarty discusses the ways in which the global legacy of the European Enlightenment in countries like India can be thought about. The important theme of the ‘swadeshi’ movement is a conflict between modernism and traditionalism. The conflict is between an attitude that demands social reforms, through the evaluation of issues and ideas by the criteria of reason transcending limits of caste and religion and the opposite trend that follows the established social norms in the name of tradition. And this tradition is always addressed as the glorious past. The ideas of modernity were laid open to new territories to be inhabited by new discourses of social practices. Metcalf’s approval, for example, for the free press act, allowed people to discuss personal as public through journals and newspapers.
Neeladri Bhattacharya’s attempt at investigating the conceptual power and limitations of the term public Sphere and the peculiarities of its history in the context of India’s colonial modernity brought in new insights. The public sphere in India becomes difficult to be conceptualised as a single, homogenous, consensual, unitary space. One of the most important reasons for stating so is that it was deeply segmented along the lines of religion, caste and various aspects around which community formation happened. This segmentation has become the intrinsic and stable characteristic of the formation of communities and it defines cultural richness and polyvalence of these community formations.
I have argued at this point that looking at the community formation around cinema from the point of view of ‘public sphere’ or ‘literary public sphere’ does not yield interesting insights into the early Indian film culture. Instead Pierre Bourdieu’s approach of relational network appears to be more appealing.
A work of art, according to Pierre Bourdieu, has meaning and interest only for people who have the competence to appreciate it. The possession of this code, or ‘cultural capital,’ is accumulated through a long process of acquisition or inculcation
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which includes the teachings from the family or group members, or social institutions. In the ICCE while answering the question on kind of films popular amongst the Indian audience, the interviewees distinguish the audience watching Indian films based on their education. The analysis of the ICCE volumes shows that the audience of early Indian silent cinema was divided between two sections. The first sections contains illiterate lower class audience preferring Indian mythology, Wesern adventure films, crime thrillers and comedies. The interviewee who mostly are educated and have watched Indian as well as European silent films distinguish the illiterate audience from themselves based on the ‘taste’. But the gradual shift from mythology to the social as a genre chosen for making silent films shows the changing strategies and trajectories of the field of early Indian cinema.
Himansu Rai’s international collaboration for Light of Asia is held in opposition to the swaeshi films produced in India by other Indian producers. The position taken by the Indian producers is that of indigenous art. Himansu Rai, though did not get much of economic capital out of the silent films, gained ‘symbolic capital’ out of his international collaborations. This ‘symbolic capital’ helped Himansu Rai in forming Bombay Talkies studio. Bombay Talkies studio changed its strategies time to time to keep up with the audience’s taste. Film culture being the field of large-scale production compels certain kind of dispositions of the agents involved in it. The shift from crime thriller (Jawani ki Hawa being the first film produced by Bombay Talkies) to the socials (Achhut Kanya and Janmabhoomi) shows Himansu Rai’s position taking in this cultural field. An attempt at mythological (Savitri) and period drama or historical (Vachan and Izzat) again shows the effect of the economic field on the field of large-scale production. Compared to New Theatres and Prabhat, Bombay Talkis was financially more stable. New Theatres and Prabhat mostly produced socials where as Bombay Talkies tried out other genres as well.
The advertisements of Bombay Talkies films used Devika Rani’s star status, modern themes of the films and the technical superiority.
The film journals Filmindia, Varieties Weekly, The Cinema play an important role in shaping the taste of the audience. K. A. Abbas and Baburao Patel’s film reviews and critical essays in the journals favour the social films. Wadia Movietone’s films. though very popular amongst the audience, were not considered to be high art.
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In the third chapter I have attempted technical analysis of the three silent films Light of Asia, Shiraz and A Throw of Dice. Cinema as an art is different from other arts because it is capable of representing movement. By technique here I mean the camera angles, montage, mise-e-scene and shot types like close-up, mid-shot and long-shot. The attempt in this chapter is to analyze how the above mentioned three silent films represent images of movement and images of time and how they might have affected their audience.
For this study Gilles Delezue’s ideas from his cinema books were used to analyse the silent cinema as these films were made in the formative years of Indian cinema. For Gilles Deleuze, cinema is neither a language system (langue) nor a language (langage). Cinema for Deleuze is non-linguistically formed content and narration in cinema is a consequence of images and their combinations. For Deleuze cinematic image equals to ‘matter’, it is pre-signifying, pre-linguistic material. The structuralist approach of Christian Metz presupposes structures as pre-linguistic, in this sense cinematic images for Metz become the site of meaningful articulations based on presupposed structures of meaning formation. Thus, for Metz an image is subordinate to the external structures for its meaningful articulation.
For Deleuze cinema is made up of images. And these images act on each other. What we get in cinema is the image of movement. A frame might have characters or objects moving in it and produce the image of movement. The other way of producing movement would be with the mobile camera that moves in space. The movement image has its types in perception, affection and action image.
The first film analysed in this chapter, Light of Asia, opens with images of animals contrasted with city traffic. The religious diversity is displayed by showing temples and mosques. India is shown as land of contrasts between elements of modernization and myth. The next shot is of European tourists visiting Bodh Gaya. They are shown intently watching local fruits, snake charmer, street vendors and dancing bear. The entire scene is read as a colonial gaze. The tour guide introduces the group of tourists to an old sage at the Bodh Gaya temple. The old sage narrates the story of Buddha to the tourist group. The film ends with a zoom out of the last scene of Gautam Buddha’s life and the next shot is of the sage finishing his story. The film
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begins with the perception images and through the sage telling the story it goes into recollection image. The entire story of Gautam Buddha is a recollection by the sage. But this recollection appears in the film as a flashback subsumed into the movement- image. The transition from present to past happens through a wipe. Though the film would seem driven by movement-image, there are some shots in the film that go close to being time-images. One of the reasons for the existence of slowness in the movement-image in the film is Gautam Buddha’s quest for spirituality. The film is divided into acts. The intertitles are used to show the change in the acts. The out of field in the silent films becomes visible through the gaze suggesting the virtual space or the readable image of intertitle. The film is divided into two acts Act I and Act II. The Act II has more instances of gap between perception-image and action-image. In one of the scenes, for example, the king dreams of Gautam Buddha getting to know the pain in life. For the dream sequences and foretelling of events the film uses superimposition as a visual transition. Superimposition as a visual transition in this film is a link between the past, present and future. These images in the plane of immanence are sets that open up on to other sets. Some of the images linked and separated by superimposition become affection-image. Gautam Buddha’s quest for spirituality and Gopa’s quest for Gautam are organised using parallel cutting. The film contains large form of action-image that is a situation getting transformed into a new situation through action.
Shiraz, based on the legend of Taj Mahal, is notable for H. Harris and E. Schunemann’s camera work and Franz Osten’s direction skills. This film brings to the audience oriental spectacles. The Al Kalab market scene is a spectacle for the occidental audience. In this scene the initial frame saturated with male viewers and women dancers is replaced by an animal show. These frames do not open up onto new sets and are can be considered as perception images. In most of the shots the camera is immobile. Considering the immobility of camera, the movement happens with elements in the frame moving towards their respective destinations; for example in the opening sequence of the film, the caravan moves to the gorge and the dacoits move to the caravan. The frames are organized using parallel cutting. The actions of dacoits and the movement of the caravan are juxtaposed against the desert, the space open from all the sides with immense possibilities. In fact the waiting of dacoits for the right moment to attack, to allow the caravan to reach to the gorge brings forth the
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image of time. The extreme long shots are not long takes but the depth of field and vast open space waits for something to happen. It is here that the movement is subordinated to the time but only for a very short period. In the later part of the film prince Khurram’s palace works as an affection image as it shows the possibilities of action on its surface. It encompasses all the possible actions in its purview. Dalia’s scheming to become the Princess of India, Prince Khurram’s attempts to woo Selima, Shiraz’s efforts to meet Selima become the possibility on this receptive immobile surface of the palace. Every time a part of palace is framed it creates the anticipation and leaves the mark of action after the potential action is embodied.
A Throw of Dice, based on A Thousand and One Nights and Mahabharata, executes more sophistication in terms of film making. In this film one can see the use of camera movements, particularly slow pans to capture the movement of the wild animals in the forest. This film contains mostly action-images. Images of movement in this film are organized using American school of organic montage.
This chapter while analysing the films discusses the concepts, put forth by Deleuze, in his two cinema books, frame, set, shot, montage, types of movement- image and their corresponding signs. Using Deleuze’s ideas for the analysis of the films resulted in finding out that the films contain images of perception at the important junctures of the films. These images of perception capture the indigenous culture. Since these films were made chiefly for the European audience these perception images must have added to the pleasure of the European audience.
In the fourth chapter I have discussed the talkies produced by Bombay Talkies studio. I have specifically focused on Achhut Kanya, Janmabhoomi, Durga and Izzat. These films were chosen for the themes they deal with, the first three films are the socials and Izzat is a period drama. This chapter also discusses Deleuze’s idea of sound as a new dimension of the visual image.
The basic difference, which Deleuze points out, between silent cinema and the talkie is the readability of image. The images of silent cinema are seen and the intertitles are read with the second function of eye. With talkies Deleuze states the second function of the eye that is of reading image, is taken away. The speech act that was read in silent cinema is now heard directly. The heard images become the new dimension, new component of visual image. Thus talkie modifies the visual image by
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making visible some aspect of image that was not there in the image of silent cinema. It is human interaction that becomes visible in talkies.
The first film analysed in this chapter is Achhut Kanya. Achhut Kanya is a love story between an untouchable girl, Kasturi, played by Devika Rani and Pratap, a Brahmin. Pratap and Kasturi’s story is narrated as a flashback by a ghost that appears at Kasturi’s monument near railway crossing. This film’s visuals contain some elements of German expressionism. Dominated by movement-image Achhut Kanya is organised using American trend of organic montage. The village in the film becomes a world divided between elements of modernity and tradition. Mohanlal grocer’s practice of modern medicine goes against the traditional Aayurvedik medicine practiced by the village vaidya. In the society dominated by the caste hierarchy the two lovers can not exercise the individual choices and desires. This film is organized according to the American school of montage. The action-reaction scheme of movement-image is based on sensory-motor-link. But this sensory-motor-schema appears to fall apart whenever crisis situation arises in the film. The separation of the two lovers results in moments of sensory-schemata failure, with the stretching of gap between perception and action becoming visible. But ultimately all these images conform to the sensory-motor-schema and become parts of movement-image. The film ends with quick succession of action-images, the parallel alternate montage heightens the effects of climax at the end of the film. In the last scene, the shots of train approaching the railway crossing, Kasturi’s desperate attempt of separating two dueling men and her running towards the train to stop it are organized with quick cuts. The ambivalent relationship between tradition and modernity in early twentieth century India gets represented with this film.
Janmabhoomi a nationalist rural drama focuses on the village reform and kisan bank, modern medicine, hygiene, police and the court of law as agencies of modernity. Ajay is a doctor from city. He visits his ailing friend in a small village and stays back to serve the motherland. Again, this film as well, is organized using the American school of organic montage. All the problems get solved and the situation transformed into a new situation. This film is a curious combination of elements of modernity and tradition. The composition of movement-images in this film is organic. The village here is divided into two sections. First is that of the inhabitants who believe in agencies of modernity, like modern medicine, a bank for monetary
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transition, hygiene, equality and law. Pagali, Prem, Ajay, and Pratima inhabit this world. And later on in the film the villagers also believe in these ideas. Modern medicine, ideas of reform, police and the court of law become the agencies of modernity. On the other hand Zamindar, Sanatan, Vaidya, Mahajan and Brahmin inhabit the second section that of traditional ideas of caste hierarchy and its practice. Both the sections are organized using parallel alternate montage. Ajay’s decision to come back to the village and do reform work is pitched directly against the forces interested in maintaining the traditional set up of the village. These two sections are connected with each other using speech-acts of the characters. Lies and scheming play an important role in forming the organic whole as these elements create their own vectors that open up the virtual sets expanding the signification of the images.
Durga is a rural drama with the theme of love and village reform. Like Achhut Kanya and Janmabhoomi conversations and rumours play an important role in this film as well. The situations and actions are connected through conversations, speech- acts and the rumours. They connect sets with open whole. Durga’s mischief and innocence come in contact with villagers in separate ways. Her innocence penetrates Pagala and Jawahir and her mischievous acts are met with villagers’ wrath. The following scenes quickly establish these relationships. For example Durga steals vegetables and fruits from the villagers’ farms. She steals green peas from Jawahir’s farms which he does not mind and instead brings fruits for her to eat. Rambhoj, Meghraj and other villagers, on the other hand are not happy with Durga’s mischief. This conflict between villagers and Durga comes across through images of movement, through action-images and speech-acts. Durga’s mischief is discussed amongst the villagers. Jawahir reports to Durga that villagers complain about her acts to him.
This film most of the times deals with conversations that are not regulated by the social structure. It is the conversation out of which the social structures are formed. The interactions in this film create, deplete and tighten the relations between the characters. It is always some sort of speech-act that helps the shots and scenes to transit into another scene. The sets and parts of them are carried forward and connected with other sets through conversations. The conversations reveal the conflicting ideologies of the characters. As a result what we get in visuals are the flat images. In the absence of dubbing technology the camera had to be close enough to the characters so that their utterances could be recorded. Thus what is seen is the loss
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of the depth of the field. The depth of field is replaced by emergence of the flat images carrying conversations as another dimension of the image. Durga was, and even now can be, appreciated for the stellar performances given by Devika Rani and Rama Shukul.
The last film analysed in this chapter is Izzat. Ashok Kumar playing the main character in the film is seen in completely different attire and set of expressions than what he was seen in the earlier films. This film pleasantly does not contain as many flat images as are seen in the earlier films. A historical or a period drama, Izzat has the clash between Bhil and Maratha community. The Bhil community has to leave the village and go back to the forest and this migration from one place to another becomes a base for the movement-images in the film. The scene in which Kanhaiyya and Maruti are attacked by Somaji and Bhimaji is organized using parallel cutting. This scene also has an audio input through the background music. The background music changes with the speeding movements of the characters. The tempo of background music increases as the assassins are about to confront the two Bhills. The sound from Sarangi is accompanied by a steady but continuous beat of Dhol. The background music stops after the assassins kill Maruti, injure Kanhaiyya and run away with the money. The sequence is organized using parallel editing and as the climactic shot of assassins attacking Kanhaiyya and Maruti approaches the actions and movements take on speed along with the background music.
In this sequence the background music corresponds to the surging in of the actions that make way for a new situation. The movements in this sequence are cut on action to give the feel of continuity. Though the music is not located in the visual image it increases the curiosity of the spectator for the confrontation between the assassins and the Bhills. The movements of the characters that are spread over the space and organized using parallel editing represent the time indirectly but the continuous music piece represents the time directly. Since the source of the music is not present in the frame the music becomes a ‘voice-off’.
Kanhaiyya has to go through various action sequences to change the initial situation, the revenge of Bhills’ dishonour and his father Maruti’s death. There is a long gap between the initial situation and the modified situation. Between the two situations (S-Sʹ) there are continuous small missions that Kanhaiyya has to
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accomplish. Kanhaiyya catches the assassins, Somaji and Bhimaji, he duels with Appaiyya to become the new Nayak of the Bhills and confronts Balaji Patel. Kanhaiyya is never shown tranquil and is always bursting out into action after the first period of permeation. The film is organized using organic editing or to use the term proposed by Deleuze, ‘organic-active American montage’.
The last part of this chapter deals with the phenomenon of song sequence. One has to consider the fact that the sound recording technology in the 1930s India was still in its infancy. The songs had to be recorded simultaneously with the visuals. The actors had to be trained in the art of singing and had to sing songs themselves. The sound recording camera and the video recording camera had to be placed close to the characters so that the sound gets recorded. This conditioning of technology had its implications for cinema as an art. In the films studied above, songs, and to a certain extent songs accompanied by dance, become important part of the movement-image. In Achhut Kanya the second song in the narrative “Khet ki muli, Bagon ke aam” is shot using static camera with two different angles. The camera is placed close to both the characters sitting on the Bullock cart. Both the characters Kasturi and Pratap wait for the ‘connecting orchestration’ (the music piece between the two stanzas or lines) to finish so that they can begin singing their lines. Thus the visuals become dependent on the sound. In the history of western or American cinema, particularly early talkie era, sound was subordinate to the visuals. Songs in Hindi cinema in general and early Indian cinema in particular operate on two levels. One, songs are important and integral part of the narrative. Most of the times, in early Indian cinema, songs were used to express the interiority of the characters.
The songs were divided into two major categories: ‘background song’ and ‘song of expression’. Background song appears as voice-off. Its source is not the lead character in the frame but it corresponds to the emotions of the character. Song of expression on the other hand operates as ‘voice-in’. Song of expression can be easily attributed to any of the lead characters in the frame. This kind of song is a direct expression of the interiority of the characters.
But some songs in these films change their function from background song to the song of expression. They shift from ‘voice-off’ to ‘voice-in’ expanding the possibilities of the out-of-field. The sad songs become extend the gap between
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perception-image and action-image. In Achhut Kanya two sad songs appear as the song of expression. After Pratap marries the girl from his caste, the separation becomes unbearable for both Pratap and Kasturi. The first sad song “Udi hawa me jaati hai gaati chidiya ye rag/ avo pritam hilmil khele premprit ka phag/ mai dukhiyari bichhad gayi/ ka ke sag khelu phag” is picturised on Kasturi (Devika Rani). Kasturi is shown sitting beside the lake looking in the direction of lake or towards the sky. The characters in the song of expression are permeated by the situation. They soak in the conditions and milieu. Kasturi here does not erupt in any of the bodily movements. In fact, if one looks at the visuals closely, her actions match the beat of the song. Her hand movements intermittently follow the beat of the song. It is important to remember here that Devika Rani was not merely faking the singing of the song. She was actually singing the song while being shot for the scene. Her hand movements and facial expressions actually betray the emotions she is supposed to portray (being sad) on the screen. The ‘song of expression’ in this case is assimilated into movement-image. Another sad song picturised on Pratap (Ashok Kumar) has the similar characteristics. Pratap is shown working on the roof top of his house and singing a sad song expressing his grief of separation from Kasturi. His actions and his expression, the song, do not go hand in hand. Janmabhoomi gives an interesting example of song of expression sung by a group of people. There are four songs sung by group of people together in Janmabhoomi. These songs appear in the film at ssue of village reform is expressed adequately through these songs. This form of song in Janmabhoomi becomes the other pole of the action-image; ‘an animal pole’. If permeation is the vegetative pole, eruption in action becomes the ‘animal pole’. The determination of the main character and the villagers who believe in him is expressed through the song accompanied by the physical movement and action. The same is applicable to the other three songs of expression performed by the groups. These songs perform the function of convergent actions of organic montage. The collective desires and wishes get expressed through these kinds of songs. These song sequences prominently work as an action-image in the scheme of movement-image.
The songs in general are iterable. In the above discussed films the background songs become iterable expressing the emotions of the characters that are not singing that song. But there is another aspect to the iterability. The audience can sing the song and express their emotions through the iterability. This iterability of the song makes it
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detachable from the film. Songs from the films were recorded on phonograph and made available for the audience to listen at leisure. Songs were used to advertise the films.
Detachability of the song, mechanical reproducibility of the song and limitations of the sound recording machines did create some peculiar practices of video recording of Hindi film songs. Songs in the films produced by Bombay Talkies do give us a glimpse of the way film songs became an integral part of the film narrative in spite of being detachable from them.
The major findings of the research can be put in the following statements. The three silent films produced by Himansu Rai with international collaboration were made for European audience. The dominance of the perception-image in these films reflects the effort of the film makers to show the glimpses of life in India through these films. Himansu Rai and Niranjan Pal though did not earn much of economic capital out of these international collaborations, they surely earned symbolic capital which helped them later while forming the Bombay Talkies studio. The talkies produced by Bombay Talkies studio were made for Indian masses. These films’ use of simple technique, use of simple language for the audience to understand the film, Saraswati Devi’s simple but soothing music, Niranjan Pal’s stories dealing with social issues, Devika Rani’s stellar performances and star status made Bombay Talkies a popular production house. It is possible to make these statements about Bombay Talkies studio produced films only after using relational method of analysis purported by Pierre Bourdie. Pierre Boudieu’s ideas of cultural field, taste, distinction, habitus and symbolic capital helped to gauge the status of Bombay Talkies studio in the early Indian film culture. The government documents and film journals like Evans’ report, The Indian Cinematograph Committee Report, Evidence volumes, Indian Cinema Year Book 1938, Filmland, Filmindia, Varieties Weekly, and The Cinema reflect the film viewing culture in the 1920s and 1930s in India. The community formation around cinema was based on the audience’s taste for certain kind of films. The literacy and class of the audience was instrumental in the process of forming distinctions amongst the film viewing communities. The film journalists like K.A. Abbas and Baburao Patel played an important role in legitimizing and delegitimizing films in the 1930s.The gradually emerging modernity in British India gets reflected in the early film culture in India. Gilles Deleuze’s concepts ‘movement-image’ and
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‘time-image’ help to understand the visual style of film making in the formative years of Indian cinema. The scheme of movement-image; from perception to affection to action image fails when characters in the talkies are faced with the moments of indecision. These moments of indecision occur whenever they are faced with issues of modernity such as exercising personal choice. These are the moments when the movement-image appears to lose its action-reaction formula. But all the films are dominated by movement-image highlighting either, perception, affection or action- image.
This research could not foray into the study of German films made by Franz Osten. A comparative study of Osten’s silent films made in Germany and the three silent films he worked on in India would have shed some light on the different techniques used in making these films from two different cultures. It is also possible to study Ellis Duncan’s contribution to Indian cinema. Ellis Duncan known in India as Dungan was born in Ohio, studied at American Institute of Cinematography, worked in Hollywood as a cameraman in 1927. He came to India in 1935 to sell the camera equipments and stayed back for 17 years and made films in Tamil language. A study of his contribution to Indian cinema would bring out more interesting information about the technological history of early Indian cinema.
Peter Deitz, Himansu Rai’s grandson from his first wife Mary Heinlein, a German actress, has some important documents regarding Bombay Talkies. An access to those documents would have brought out more interesting facts about Bombay Talkies studio. In one of his interview in 2014 he had said that they are going to make those documents open for public access. I think it would be worthwhile to wait for the access to these documents.
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