Hindustani cinema kay pachhaas saal is the title of the book under review, which is a compilation of several essays written by the author on different past occasions. It contains a brief history of the evolution, development and refinement of cinema in post-independence India.
Written in chaste Urdu, it establishes both the credentials as well as command over Urdu of the author, whose knowledge of the language should make him the envy of many writers. Author Prem Pal Ashk seems to be quite knowledgeable about various aspects and phases of the development of Indian movie industry.
Any account of Indian cinema cannot but run the risk of communal bias including its reactionary aspects. (Intentionally or otherwise, the names of many Muslim producers, directors, composers and actors/actresses such as A. R. Kardar, the Fazli Brothers, Khurshid Anwar, Feroze Nizami etc., have not been mentioned in this book).
To acknowledge that the art form defined under such murky circumstances is always too diverse to fit neatly under any label that could be affixed to it, is small comfort.
Most of the facts mentioned in this book seem to come from the memory of the author but some have been gleaned from available sources, representing the most reliable ones he could find, including archives on Indian cinema. Given the nature of the Indian film industry, however, there are compelling reasons for drawing on this material alongside others, not always less reliable sources.
The indication Hindi-Urdu in the credits of the films is meant to suggest that the author dealt with a Hindi film making extensive use of Urdu, usually for the lyrics and dialogues. A strong advocate of giving Urdu language its due place in the credits of Indian films, Prem Pal Ashk has written about a number of producers of Indian films, who lacked courage and felt shy of asking the Chairman of Indian Censor Board to give their movies certificates that these were produced in Urdu, which was so freely used in their dialogues and songs.
Tracing the history of film-making, both silent and sound, the author begins with Dada Saheb Phulke's first silent film Raja Harish Chandra, which he produced in Bombay in the year 1913 almost a century ago. From 1913 to 1931, when Khan Bahadur Aardsher Irani made first sound motion picture Alam Ara, the author writes about the efforts made by different persons to make this powerful visual medium of entertainment popular in the sub-continent.
The different departments of cinema about which the author has expressed his opinion somewhat authoritatively are music compositions and lyrics, playacting, investment, direction and sound recording. He has named a large number of individuals who have made significant contributions to these different domains of creative human endeavours. He has also brought distributors and exhibitors, the mushrooming of cinema halls, honours and awards for the films, which encouraged and motivated creative artistes to give their best to this performing art.
In the context of development of cinematic art in India, the author has also discussed the influence and impact of video and cable TV on the popularity and profitability of film-making as an industry.
An interesting chapter in the book is on the concept of women in the films and how gender emphasis had contributed to the success of many a film made during the last 50 years. In these movies the problems and status of women in society were portrayed in a romantic and melodramatic manner creating greater interest not only in the status and/or the plight of women but also how the directors and playwrights presented them.
The author has also devoted a separate chapter on character acting and has named those stalwarts like Nawab whose contribution to this department of film-making have become legion. Then he writes, in another chapter, about the wholesome contributions of film-makers and artistes from Bengal and the South to the development of Urdu films. He has tried to establish the non-partisan attitudes of Bengali and Madrasi artistes and film-makers towards Urdu who recommended giving this language its due share in film-making.
Other subjects discussed by the author include the psychological impact of films on cine-goers, the portrayal of Muslim culture, customs and civilisation in films, the impact of Urdu literature, particularly short stories on Indian movies, films for children and documentaries.
The most interesting and readable chapter of the book is the one in which the author has discussed threadbare the role of music in the success at the box office of films made in the sub-continent. This chapter has much information for those readers who want to know the names of those early stalwarts, whose contributions to the development of Indian cinema often rekindle nostalgic memories among senior citizens. It contains brief sketches on a number of celebrities of contemporary Indian cinema.
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