The First Ladies of Indian Cinema

The story goes that when Dadasaheb Phalke was making Raja Harishchandra, he was having a hard time looking for an actress. He even extended his search to the “red-light” areas of Mumbai, but had no luck. Finally, he got a male cook, Anna Salunke, to play the female lead. Which means, in effect, that the first lady of Indian cinema was actually a man!

The story is not just about the actress, or the task of finding them to act, it is a story of social stigma. Cinema was considered taboo by the gentry and ladies were prohibited from making it a career. Even if Raja Harishchandra opened up the avenue, getting ladies from the Indian middle-class homes to act in films was a tough call. The matter compounded when Dadasaheb actually cast Durgabai Kamat and her daughter, Kamlabai Gokhale, in his highly successful Mohini Bhamasur in 1913 — but the mother and daughter were ostracised by the Brahmins, a typical Indian caste system malady.

If you recall, even in theatre, men dressed up as women and for a long time, this was the norm in Indian theatre. So, film makers had to look at leading ladies outside of “Indian” homes, which meant looking at Jews, Eurasians, Anglo Indians — even full-blooded Europeans and even an Australian!

Enter the famous five Anglo-Indian girls: Patience Cooper, Rini Smith, Irish Gasper, Effi Hipolite and Bonnie Bard in Kolkata. The interesting point was whenever they played a role in a Hindu mythological film, they chose appropriate Bengali names. Like while Miss Hipolite acted under her name in a routine Bengali film, when she played Goddess Kali in Kapalkundala, she was Indira Devi!!

Mumbai saw a large number of actresses in the Parsee Theatre. The Parsees were very active with their theatre companies, which were heavily influenced by the English Theatre in terms of style and technology and naturally, they were easy pickings for the film makers. Many of the “Western” ladies were employed as telephone operators, stenographers, teachers, nurses.

Since these films were made in the Silent Era, looks and style mattered, voice was not an issue. By the time the Talkies and songs came to play a dominant role, the complexity had changed.

By the time Alam Ara was released, the lead lady, Jubeida had a background of being born to a nawabi family from Gujarat. In fact, both her sisters were actors. In Bengal, DG roped in Sushila Mukherjee, the daughter of an advocate, who in turn became the first ever Bengali actress in cinema. She was pretty, knew horse-riding, car driving and was accomplished in every way.

As time rolled, two such first ladies went on to attain immortality: Ruby Myers, known as Sulochona and Mary Ann Evans, who is remembered even today as the Fearless Nadia.

Each of them deserve an independent story on their own.

Courtesy : Artpickles