The Golden Period of Indian Cinema (2)

The Partition of India in 1947 brought in a lot of changes. In the west, a large number of Punjabi Hindus shifted to India, while many Punjabi Muslims crossed over to Pakistan. There were losses and gains on either side. Sadat Hasan Manto opted for Pakistan, while B R Chopra shifted to India and became the pioneer in film production. Many Punjabi Hindu film personalities living in Mumbai who had their homes in West Punjab stayed on, actress and singer Noor Jehan crossed the border.

For a while the industry took time to resettle and take stock. Then early 50’s onwards, some of the most popular and commercially successful films rolled out, many with a socialist touch. Raj Kapoor pushed the borders with Awara in 1951 and followed it up with Shree 420. These films, which were not just high on entertainment value, actually started developing a cult by itself. The socialist leanings was more pronounced in Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin in 1953. Indian cinema was suddenly coming on its own. They were not only classics, they actually started defining Indian cinema. In 1957 Mehboob Khan’s Mother India became a milestone with filmy and non filmy incidents. It was the first Indian film to be nominated for Oscars in the Foreign Language category and it resulted in the marriage of Sunil Dutt with Nargis.

The giants in the business were at work. The production value of K Asif’s Mughal e Azam, (1960) was comparable to period productions of Hollywood films, V Shantaram’s Do Ankhen Barah Haath was said to have been the inspiration for Hollywood production of Dirty Dozen, and in 1958, Bimal Roy followed up success of Do Bigha Zamin with Madhumati, scripted by Rwitick Ghatak. Alongside, a Kannadigi who had started his working life as a telephone operator in the Hindustan Lever Factory in Kolkata, delivered as series of films with one foot on commercial, the other on art cinema. Guru Dutt. Two of them, Pyasa and Kagaz ke Phool have been considered amongst the greatest films of all times with Pyasa listed by TIME magazine as amongst the 100 Best Films of Twentieth Century. There was drama, there was Dilip Kumar. There was the versatile hero. There was Dev Anand. There was an evergreen actor. There was Ashok Kumar. And there was tyhe villain. There was Pran. Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nargis. There was SD, there was Rafi. There was Rishikesh Mukherjee. There was Radhu Karmakar.

The 50’s running into 60’s is no wonder referred by many as the Golden Period of Indian Cinema.

Then in 1957, a non film person made his debut with a film in Bengali. Pather Panchali catapulted Indian cinema to the world cinema. Satyajit Ray had arrived. It was truly golden moment.

Courtesy : Artpickles