Saluting
Silent Cinema
17.02.14
Aamir Khan released a book SAGAR MOVIETONE : Reel by
Reel story of Sagar Movietone & Chimanlal Desai. The event was attended by
actor Anil Kapoor, directors Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Vijay
Krishna, music director Ravindra Jain, Tushar Bhatia writer Prasoon Joshi,
veteran actor Sushila Rani Patel and historian Nalin Shah.
SAGAR MOVIETON released in English and
Gujarati simultaneously is about a leading film company which started in
1930 originally by Ardeshir Irani of Imperial
Film Co. and later taken over by Chimanlal Desai and Dr. Ambalal Patel
who served as distributors in Bangalore. Chimanlal Desai made two silent films
before the Talkie Films took over Meri Jaan or Romantic Prince, 1931.
Desai says that was the golden period of cinema and the only way to make good
cinema those days was to hire talented artises. The first Gujarati Talkie Narsinh
Mehto was produced by Sagar in 1932 and later they made films in
Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Punjabi.
Desai recalled that many artistes began their career with the banner and
rose to prominence and this includes Mehboob Khan got his first break as a
director in Al Hilal in 1935.
Other actors that Sagar Movieton launched were Motilal, Surendra, Kumar,
Maya Banerejee, Bibbo, Sabita Devi, Snehprabha Pradhan and Noor Mohammed. Music Composers like Pransukh Naik,
Anil Biswas, Ajit Merchant, sound
recordists Kaushik, Chandrakant Pandya and cinematographe Faredoon
Irani.
Desai explained that the banner made Hindi films based on novels
of well known Gujarati litterateur Kanhaiyalal Munshi/Dr. Madhurika-
1935, Ver ka Badla- 1935, Do Diwane- 1936, Kulvadhu- 1937
and R.V.Desai’s Kokila, 1937. In 1940, when the company was amalgamated
with General Pictures to form National Studios, and made 52 Hindi
films of which some of the titles include Silver King (1935), Deccan
Queen (1936), Jeevanlata (1936), Gramophone Singer
(1938), Postman (1938), Hum, Tum aur Woh (1938), Uski Tamanna
(1939), Alibaba (1940). Mehboob Khan’s Aurat, the original of Mother India was originally produced
under Sagar Movietone but it was released under National Studios. Chimanlal Desai informed he quit National Studios after three films
and started his own company Amar
Pictures. Amar Pictures made six films and shut down after Gujarati film
Kariyavar in 1948. That is the time Desai turned into an exhibitor and successfully ran Neptune Theatres and New Talkies at Bandra for decades.
Desai is proud to be a part of cinema for years and proud to be a producer of
total 75 films in 15 years - 61 Hindi, 4 Gujarati Films, 5 Tamil Films,
3 Telugu Films, and one each in Bengali and Punjabi. Few people know this but Desai has directed few
films too- Sanskar (1940), Radhika (1941) , Nirdosh (1941),
Savera (1942), Adab Arz (1943), Gunjan (1948) etc. In Radhika,
Desai introduced Nalini Jayvant whom he married later.
Sagar
Movieton is a result of two intense years of research
encompassing several unknown facets about the banner and the first decade of
Indian Talkies. Combined with rare
vintage photographs and memorablia the book includes, a CD containing 79 songs
of various films of Sagar Movietone,
National Studios and Amar Pictures. Written & compiled
by: Biren Kothari the book is a
tribute to the Silent and beginning of Talki cinema.
Bhawana
Somaaya/ @bhawanasomaaya
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