Back to the beginning

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Last week I was ecstatic and privileged to see one of the oldest Indian feature films I have seen in my life - the beautifully restored, silent, black-and-white film Behula (55 min, with English intertitles), made in 1921. Imagine this: Behula is an Indo-French collaboration, directed by Camille Legrand, French director and Pathe cinematographer in Calcutta, based on a Bengali folk legend about the snake goddess Manasa, produced by Jamshedji Framji Madan, the Parsi head of Madan Theatres, Calcutta, starring Patience Cooper, of Jewish-Iraqi origin. We could see the film on the big screen last week, at the gorgeous art deco Regal Cinema, founded by Faramji Sidhwa, another Parsi, restored by the Fondation Jerome Seydoux-Pathe in France in 2022, with the restoration done in 4K by the Image Retrouvee in Paris and Bologna, and brought to us by the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) headed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. It gives you a sense of how rich, diverse, inclusive - and international - Indian film history is, and how Indians are able to see our own rare restored Indian films in a public theatre today, again with a lot of support from Indian and international partners. The screening was part of the 7th Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop in Mumbai, held by FHF, the International Federation of Film Archives and the CSMVS (formerly Prince of Wales Museum). It is part of pioneering work being done by Dungarpur - as a not-for-profit organisation - on film preservation and restoration in South Asia, teaching preservation and restoration skills, and making archival and restored films accessible in public theatres across India.

The FHF has organised two landmark film festivals of Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Kumar, in theatres nationwide. Bachchan: Back To The Beginning ran from Oct 8-11, screening 11 films on 22 screens in 17 cities all over India. The films were Deewaar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Kabhi Kabhie, Namak Halaal, Abhimaan, Mili, Satte Pe Satta, Chupke Chupke, Don, Kaala Paththar and Kaalia. The ‘Dilip Kumar: Hero Of Heroes' festival runs this weekend on December 10-11, screening Aan (1952), Devdas (1955), Ram Aur Shyam (1967) and Shakti (1982). The festivals are held in collaboration with PVR and Inox, the latter film screening at 30 all-India cinemas, and available on bookmyshow.

I've seen many older silent Indian films when I was Guest Curator of the year-long India on Film, for the British Film Institute (BFI) in 2017. These were mostly b/w, shorts, shot in India between 1899 and 1947, then available online for free on BFI Player. But watching the silent feature film Behula, on the big screen, is like India talking to its younger self, and what an extraordinary cinematic heritage it is, seamlessly blending diverse, inclusive, multi-community Indian and international talent.

Most of India's silent film heritage is lost, but Behula survived because its negatives were sent to France and preserved by the Seydoux-Pathe collection. The film Behula, which has many story and film versions, is primarily the bizarre rivalry of two goddesses competing for the attention of a single devotee! Lord Shiva is married to Goddess Chandi (Parvati) and he creates stepdaughter snake goddess Manasa, in the film, via a cool lightning bolt. Manasa is jealous of Chandi, and vies for the attention of her devotee, merchant Chand Saudagar. She has Chand's son Lakhinder killed by snakebite on his wedding night, and only when Lakhinder's wife Behula undertakes a difficult journey to heaven with his body in a boat, and assures Lord Indra, Manasa & Co that Chand will pray to her, that Lakhinder is restored to life.

The restored film is elevated by extraordinary original music composed by Paris-born Keyvan Chemirani (soloist; Trio Chemirani), who also performs percussion, santoor, drum, udu and Persian zarb. The thrilling and delightful special effects of 1921 - including billowing painted backgrounds, visual superimpositions, descending angels with wings sliding down an overhead rope, the ‘trolley' concealed behind a charming cardboard cloud, heaven with Indra and dancers, and more - only underline how wonderfully imaginative filmmakers were, with limited mechanical tools at their disposal, and what dullards many of today's filmmakers are in 2022, abandoning their imagination in exchange for VFX software. A great way forward is - as Dungarpur suggests - back to the beginning.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com