Behind the Book

THE GOLDEN AGE OF INDIAN CINEMA  

One of the twin protagonists of Inside the Mirror, Kamlesh Malhotra, a young woman entering adulthood in the early 1950s, is besotted with the movies like millions of Indians of her generation, and fantasizes that her talents as a dancer could launch her into film stardom. Film made its debut in colonial Bombay in July 1896, when agents of the Lumiere brothers exhibited shorts of French bathers and factory workers to a fascinated elite. In 1913, Dadasaheb Phalke released the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra, about a mythological king, laying the foundation for the world’s largest movie industry. Cinematic narratives became a natural extension of the storytelling impulses of a civilization shaped by the innumerable legends of gods, demons, and princes. By the 1930s, thousand-seat Art Deco movie palaces with names like Eros and Regal burnished Bombay’s aura of modern glamour.

A dynamic confluence of charismatic screen couples, soulful playback singers, and brilliant directors like Guru Dutt and Bimal Roy, ushered in India’s golden era of moviemaking in the 1950s. Cinema scaled Indian storytelling down from the epic to the intimate, focusing on character and relationships, especially between lovers. The fluctuating emotions at the core of romantic encounters were expressed through a mixture of drama, humor, song and dance, rooted in both classical Sanskrit dramaturgy and folk theater.

These enchanted film romances expose the rich sensuality simmering beneath the surface decorum of Indian society. Perhaps no other national cinema comes so close to capturing the tenderness, urgency and ache of desire because few cultures have been as fiercely repressive of sexuality as India. Although other genres of films were made—Chaplinesque Raj Kapoor comedies, tragic tales of artists and poets, and movies like Do Bigha Zamin with strong social messages—ultimately, in mid-century India, when the future of almost every young man and woman was decided by an arranged marriage, most popular were the romances on the silver screen, potent with suppressed erotic sentiment, giving a tradition-bound society the space to discover the depth of its passions.

A few excerpts of song and dance scenes from movies of this golden era:

Howrah Bridge (1958), starring Madhubala and Ashok Kumar. Song: “Aaiye Meherbaan”

Azaad (1955), starring Meena Kumari and Dilip Kumar. Song: “Ja Ri Ja Ri O  Kari Badariya”

Anarkali (1953), starring Bina Rai and Pradeep Kumar. Song: “Yeh Zindagi Usi Ki Hai”