58 VIVACITY MAGAZINE • 15 MAY - 14 JUNE 2013 www.vivacitymagazines.com 59 15 MAY - 14 JUNE 2013 • VIVACITY MAGAZINE www.vivacitymagazines.com elodrama, molten emotion, and histrionics spilling over into the dark stroboscopic theatre galleries punctuated with applause at the valor of the hero, the sacrifices of the coy heroine, golden hearted risqué temptresses, and hushed silence of impending retribution... designed to climax to a “happily living ever aſter” All loose ends bow-tied into a package of catharsis, with incongruence acceptable and beliefs suspended. Despite their obvious escapade tendencies, the Bollywood movie model carries an unshakeable optimism against cynicism Indian Cinema started with the Lumiere Brothers showing “Train Pulling into a Station” in 1896, in a show at Watson’s Hotel in Bombay. e following year two short pioneering films were made by Save Dada. ARUN KHANNA A TAKE ON BOLLYWOOD THEATRICS In fond memory of songs, dance and drama over the decades of maudlin emotion, social hiccups & causes – a take on Bollywood’s style that marks the distinct decades from the 1950s to the 2000s -Priyanka Karki takes it on with fun and frisk! MAKING 100 YEARS OF FILM No female applicants came forward except for sex workers from Bombay’s red-light areas, but even they eventually backed out. e female parts were finally played by male actors; and yet the success of Raja Harishchandra was such that for his second film, Dadasaheb had no trouble finding actresses. To woo his audience away from the stage to the screen, DadasahebPhalkepromotedhisfilmsas:“Aperformance with 57,000 photographs, a picture two miles long, all for only three annas.” Eighteen years later, in 1931, four anna tickets were selling in black for 4 to 5 rupees on the opening day of the first talkie Alam Ara, creating legendary stars as Prithvi Raj Kapoor. From the times of arduous set-painting by the as-of- then, unknown M F Hussein painting the studio set of the historical drama Anarkali for just 75 rupees in 1953 (a single painting of his, in 2010 sold for 2 crore Indian rupees) to the Belgian glass-studded sets of Mughal-E-Azam which took two years to build, dreams were making their way to the reality of Bollywood, creating the biggest film industry in the world. Songs abounded, Alam Ara included about a dozen, Indrasabha, is said to have had 59 songs. Shirin Farhad had 42. Dance, fantasy and maudlin drama combined to formulate the Bollywood genres of film making. Despite that, social consciousness remained entwined in the ethos of film making. Legends like V.Shantaram, Bimal Roy, Raj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan made their films with a strong social purpose. Technologies from the Tanar camera to the ARRIFLEX have driven its cinematography. Pioneering tent shows to state-of-the-art multiplexes have projected its images, and productions steeped in debt to mega extravaganzas have moved the likes of 20 th Century Fox and Warner Bros along with hundreds of top notch home productions overshadowing even Hollywood budgets. Enjou it. PHOTO FEATURE Model: Priyanka Karki Photographer: Rajiv Shrestha Make up & Hair: Sophie Stylist: Subani B. Magar Creative Director: Arun Khanna Accessories:Swornim’s Studio, Baluwatar, Opposite Roadhouse Cafe, above Focus Interior, 9841323863 Escape, City Center, 40116781 Location: Hotel Everest, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, 01-4780100 Wardrobe Exclusively Designed for the Retro look by Uttam Banepali, Uttam’s Creation, Kupondole, 9841327513 In fond memory of songs, dance and drama over the decades of maudlin emotion, social hiccups & causes – a take on Bollywood’s style that marks the distinct decades from the 1950s to the 2000s -Priyanka Karki takes it on with fun and frisk! Exactly hundred years ago a film by Dada Saheb Phalke, Raja Harishchandra, screened at Coronation Cinema in Bombay on 3 rd May 1913, marking the beginning of feature film productions in India. Initial advertisements brought a surplus lack of talented applicants and Dadasaheb was forced to add a line saying “ugly faces need not apply.”