History of cinema

What is Cinema
Cinema is a powerful medium to display all the human emotions.
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still images which,
when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images. This art has now evolved to
a greater extend where not just the camera but various types of technological advances
have made their way in process of Film making.
Humanity has always had different ways of entertainment in some or the
other form from its evolution period. Initially the entertainment used to be in forms of theatre,
where performers used to give live performances. These forms can be identified as music or
dance concerts, dramas, exhibitions. All these forms always required the actual presence of
artists all the time.
By the end of the 1880s, the introduction of lengths of celluloid photographic
film and the invention of motion picture cameras, which could photograph an indefinitely long
rapid sequence of images using only one lens, allowed several minutes of action to be
captured and stored on a single compact reel of film. Some early films were made to be
viewed by one person at a time through a "peep show" device such as the Kinetoscope.
Others were intended for a projector, mechanically similar to the camera and sometimes
actually the same machine, which was used to shine an intense light through the processed
and printed film and into a projection lens so that these "moving pictures" could be shown
tremendously enlarged on a screen for viewing by an entire audience. The first public
exhibition of projected motion pictures in America was at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New
York City on the 23rd of April 1896.

Cinema came to India

India first got introduced to Marathi cinema in July 1896 when Lumiere
Brothers showcased their six films at Watson Hotel, Near Kala Ghoda and the Prince Of
Wales Museum.
After this introduction to cinema, some artist from drama company and some
having background of photography started experimenting in film making in available
techniques and equipments.

First feature film of India

Though first movie released in India was documented as Shree Pundalik by
Dadasaheb Torne on 18 May 1912, but sill Dadasaheb Phalke is considered to be the
Father of Indian cinema. The distinction may lie with the fact that, unlike Phalke, Torne sent
his film overseas for processing. After the success of these film Dadasaheb torne and
Dadasaheb Phalke gave many silent films to the industry.
The two brothers from Kolhapur, Anandrao and Baburao were all-rounders in
the field of art and cinema. On 1st of December 1898, he founded the Maharashtra Film
Company. He produced the first film, which had a female character in it Sairandhri. It was
released on 7th February 1920 in Aryan Theatre in Pune. The fight scenes between Bheem
and Keechak were filmed without any trick camerawork and were so effective that some
people in the audience fainted. This incident prompted the British government to introduce
film censorship, which exists to-date. His company, the Maharashtra Film Company, was
responsible for nurturing the talents of many great artists like H M Reddy and Nagi Reddy
from Chennai and V Shantaram, Damle, Fattelal, Dhaybar, Baburao Pendharkar, Master
Vinayak and Nanasaheb Sarpotdar from Maharashtra. This company also launched many
actors like Ruby Myers, Master Vitthal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Zebunnissa and Lalita Pawar, etc.
Nanasaheb Sarpotdar, who had earlier worked with Baburao Painter founded
the Aryan Film Company in Pune in 1927. Nanasaheb also directed a few films and
produced a total of 24 silent films. In those days, silent films were full of violence and
thrills. Tabla, harmonium and sarangi players used to sit in the movie theatres and play the
music as per the requirements of the scene to make it more effective.

Cinema started talking

After the success in silent films , cinema started talkingand industry got divide
by different languages. the Industry got its first talkie Alam Ara by the Imperial Movietone in
1931. It was dubbed in Hindi and Urdu. Soon after the Alam Ara came Ayodhyecha raja in
1932 in Marathi and Ayodhya ka raja in Hindi by Prabhat.

History of Marathi Cinema

The producers were aware that the age of the silent films was soon coming to
an end and talkies were going to be a reality. Dadasaheb Torne had learnt the art of sound
editing. He founded the Movie Camera Company. Through this company, Torne along with
ArdeshirIrani has produced the first Indian talkie , Alam Ara in Hindi and Urdu.
1930-1960
Film genre -Mythology

Historical

Films on the contemporary social issues and problems

Prabhat Company
After working with Maharashtra Film Company Baburao Painters students, V
Shantaram, Dhaybar, Damle and Fattelal decided to move out of the Maharashtra Film
Company and formed their own Prabhat Film Company on 1st June 1929 in Kolhapur. Their
first production, Ayodhyecha Raja (The King of Ayodhya - 1932) went on to become a huge
success and they subsequently shifted base to Pune. Here, they built the best and the most
well equipped studio in Asia. In the very next year (1933), Prabhat embarked on an
ambitious venture of making the first film in colour: Sairandhari, based on a popular episode
of the Mahabharat which had been filmed often enough in the brief history of Indian movies.
The colour film was sent to be processed at the UFA Studios in Germany but the final result
was too gaudy for exhibition In 1934, the talkie AmrutManthan was produced here. Fattelal
drew a sketch of a lady blowing a trumpet in the early hours of the morning when the suns
rays were just breaking out. This picture later became the famous logo and stamp of Prabhat
Films. Next, in 1936, came the movie, SantTukaram (Saint Tukaram) which became the first
ever Marathi movie to be screened at the International Venice Film Festival and was rated
as one of the best three movies that year. Later, Prabhat produced beautiful films like Kunku,
Gopalkrishna, Mazaa Mulga, Manoos and Shejari. etc.
All the films produced by Prabhat were beautiful, quality films. Many artists
and technicians became well known due to Prabhat Films. Among these are various
scriptwriters, musicians and directors like Vishram Bedekar, KeshavraoBhole, Master
Krishnarao, Vasant Desai, Raja Nene, Datta Dharmadhikari, Anant Mane; actors and
technicians like Shanta Hublikar, Hansa Wadkar, Jayashri Gadkar, ShantaApte, Baby
Shakuntala, Dev Anand, Shahu Modak, Anant Marathe, Ram Marathe and Gajanan
Jahagirdar. Prabhat Films began the tradition of showcasing the contemporary social issues
and problems through their films. Their films were a blend of social relevance and
entertainment.
The Prabhat era was in full swing in Pune. The working of Prabhat Studios
was extremely disciplined. The sensitive V Shantaram was the first to leave Prabhat owing
to some partnership issues.As the migration of of artist from Marathi to Hindi and The use of
same genre like mythalogy and historical movies in Marathi resulted in decreased no of
audiance as well as decreased no of film production to the extent that there was no single
Marathi movie released in 1945.Whil on 5th July 1945, Vishnupant Damle passed away. The
success of the film Ramshastri too could not save Prabhat, which was on the verge of
collapse. This was a major shock for S Fattelal. In 1952, the Prabhat Film Company finally
closed down.

The period from 1940-1960 is considered as the classical and golden era of
Marathi cinema. The Prabhat studios produced a series of Marathi films. Bhalaji Pendharkar,
Baburao Painter, V Shantaram, Raja Paranjape, Raja Thakur, G D Madgulkar, Sudhir
Phadkewere the distinguished names who brought the family drama as well as social issues
very craftily to the public through creative story lines. One such cinema was Jagachya
Pathivar (Around the World) of Raja Paranjape that weaved very gripping story line with very
meaningful and melodious songs that captured the audiences.
After Prabhat, V. Shantaram established Rajkamal Studios and moved toward
hindi industry for wide opportunities but also continued to produce films in Marathi too.

1960-1970
Film genre- Tamasha

Comedy

In this period films were based on Tamasha or folk dance and drama. Many of such
films were based on the personal stories of the actors and actresses working in Tamasha theaters.
More of rural based movies started coming , as 70% of Maharashtra popolation live in rural area.
Latre Dada Kondke captured not only the rural audience but also in the cities like
Mumbai. Dada Kondke went on to make bawdy comedies with double entendre rustic dialogues.
But because repetition of same genre audience again started turning their backs to theatres .

1970-1980
Individual Excellence
THe comedy genre was still going on in this time but on other hand this period saw
some hallmark films produced by Jabbar Patel, Sinhasanor The Throne about competition among
power-hungry politicians and Umbartha, or The Threshold about a woman trying to establish her
identity outside the family. Other notable filmmakers were Jayu and NachiketPatwardhan, who
made 22 June 1897, about revolutionaries in the Indian independence movement, Vijaya Mehta,
who made SmritiChitre or Memories, based on memoires of famous woman writer and AmolPalekar,
whose Bangarwadi was based on a well-known story about rural Maharashtra. These films clearly
demonstrated that Marathi cinema was indeed turning the page from the period of racy films.

After 1980's
Goverment of Maharastra introcuced Tax benefit sceme for Marathi film to
help the Marathi industry to improve and explore.Which helped many aspiring artist to
showcase their work .But more than that many people started misusing this facility to convert
their black money to white.they became temporary producers for 1-2 movies and vanished.
This resulted in the increased in the no of films but it affected the quality of the cinema.

In same period Sachin Pilgoankar, Mahesh Kothare, SmitaTalwalkar,

Chnadrakant Kulkarni were some other trend setters who brought back young audiences to
Marathi cinema by handling unusual subjects. Mahesh Kothare made the first Marathi film
shot on the anamorphic format or cinemascope. He brought a great deal of innovation in the
technical quality of Marathi films, including Dolby Digital sound. He made the first film with
digital special effects in 2004.

Marathi cinema after 2004

Marathi cinema has seen a remarkable turn around in the show and
substance of Marathi Cinema. Sandeep SawantsShwaas (Breath) came like a fresh wave of
breeze. Its success clearly demonstrated that stories handled in a simple but mature manner
can make an impact. The film bagged the Presidents Medal for the Best Film and was also
Indias official entry to the 77th Academy Awards. After P K Atres Shyamchi Aai, (Shyams
Mother), Shwaas is the only Marathi film to have won Presidents Medal and the only
regional film to enter academy awards as Indias official entry.
Movies like SatchyaaatGharat about neo-liberalism in the youth, Dombivali
Fast about commuters woes and common mans impotence in face of corruption, Uttarayan
about love between two senior citizens, Valuabout taming of a wild bull in the village,
Mahasattaon a workers ordeal in face of power of industrialists,Thaang on homo sexuality,
Balak Palak on sex education, demonstrated that Marathi cinema had reached an important
milestone and searching the root problems caused by globalisation.
Young film makers like Kedar Shinde, Gautam Joglekar, Gajendra Ahire with
veterans like Mahesh Kothare, Smita Talwalkar, Amol Palekar managed to turn around the
fortunes of Marathi cinema. The industry once stuggled to make 30 odd films a year in 2007
now 100 films at time in the pipeline to realise. Ankush Chaudhury and Sachit Patils Saade
Maade Teen, and Umesh Kulkarnis Valu fetched about $1 million each, a sum not
considered as small for the regional language cinema.
Nowadays, some of the Marathi films have also found interest in other parts
of the country and they have been remade in other languages. For example, Nishikant
Kamats award winning film Dombivali Fast was remade in Tamil in 2007.
In 2009, the Marathi Film Harish Chandrachi Factory, which was based on
Dadasaheb Phalkes journey in making Indias first feature film, was Indias official entry to
the 82nd Academy Awards. In 2012, Marathi film Deool won the best Golden Lotus National
Award for the best feature film.
With these recent successes in Marathi films, the Government of Maharashtra
has started film grants to initiate seed projects. The new wave Marathi films have explored
bold subjects with very innovative scripts and original screenplay.

In past view years bollywood fraternity also started takin intrest in producing
Marathi films such as Akshay Kumar produced 72 mail ek pravas , Ritesh Deshmukh-Balak
palak, Amitabh Bachhan-Vihir, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures- Zapatlela 2, etc.
This shows the growth of the Marathi films on national as well as international
level.