Hindi Cinema

History

Early cinema in india

In 1895, the Lumière Brothers showed the first film of an engine train at the Paris Salon. These same Lumiere brothers also showed the first show of the film on 7 July 1896 at Watson Hotel in Bombay. By paying an entry fee of one rupee per person, the elite class of Bombay welcomed it with applause and applause. Indian cinema was born on the same day. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response of the public, it was again shown in the Novelty Theater and various ticket rates were kept to attract both the lower class and the elite class. Zanana shows were also conducted for orthodox women. The cheapest seat was for four annas and even after a century these same four annas are the fate makers of cinema, its stars, music directors and in fact the entire commercial cinema of India. Around 1902 Abdulli Isofalli and J. S. Entrepreneurs like Madan would roam around in small, open grounds and demonstrate binoculars in tents. He created an empire of distribution of cinema from Burma ( Myanmar ) to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Early cinema depended on piano or harmonium players whose voices were lost in the hum of the projector . But the attraction of the novelty of imported films and documentary films began to wane very soon. Then the film exhibitors had to put dancers, acrobats and wrestlers on the stage to make their productions attractive.

In the early days, the discerning Indian audience did not find itself connected to foreign films. In 1901 H.S. Bhatwadekar (known as 'Saave Dada') shot Indian subject matter and news reels for the first time. Soon after, many European and American companies took advantage of Indian news reels shot in India for Indian audiences. Hiralal Sen first photographed the plays 'Alibaba', 'Buddha' and 'Sitaram' staged in the Classic Theater of Calcutta in February 1901 . Although the Indian market was saturated with European and American films, very few audiences watched these films because the common audience felt alienated from them. In May 1912, a play based on the Hindu saint 'Pundalik' was filmed by R. R. Singh using imported cameras, film stock and equipment. Yes. Torni Kiya which is probably India's first full length film.

The first film was Raja Harishchandra made by Dadasaheb Phalke in 1913 . Film soon became popular in India and by the year 1930, about 200 films were being made annually. The first talkie film was Alam Ara made by Ardeshir Irani . This film was very popular. Soon all films were talking films.

In the coming years, historical events like freedom struggle and partition of the country took place in India. Its influence was felt in the Hindi films made during that period. Hindi films changed from black-and-white to color in the 1950s. The theme of films was mainly love and music was the main part of films. Violence dominated the films of the 1960s-70s. Love-based films started becoming popular again in the 1980s and 1990s. Films made in the 1990-2000 decade were quite popular outside India also. The increasing number of overseas Indians was also the main reason for this. The themes of NRIs remained popular in Hindi films.

Film city

The films of renowned filmmaker Avijit Mukul Kishore talk about changing cities, towns and the people and places living in them. Through his camera he captures the changes taking place here very beautifully. In the 'Film City' online masterclass, the language and perspective of cinema has been explored in collaboration with Avijit Mukul Kishore . This initiative of The Third Eye  is an attempt to talk about films and the images created by them in Hindi language. And also to find out, how our cinema is looking at our rapidly changing villages and cities. In the 'Film City' [9] the layers of class, caste , gender, sexuality and various kinds of inequalities present within cinema are exposed one after another.

Founder of Indian Cinema: Dadasaheb Phalke

Raja Harishchandra (1913) was the first Hindi film made in India. It was directed by Dadasaheb Phalke. During the era of silent films, filming of movie scenes was completed during the day because the use of artificial light was impossible.