The Common Man Speaks

This actor played both Ram and Sita in a movie

May 29, 2022 by Keyur Seta 2 Comments

Legendary filmmaker Dhundiraj Govind Phalke aka Dadasaheb Phalke gave birth to Indian cinema after he made the very first Indian movie Raja Harishchandra in 1913. Hence, he is known as the father of Indian cinema.

Phalke was smitten by the Hindu mythology. Hence, his films were mostly based on various mythological tales. One such film he made four years after Raja Harishchandra was Lanka Dahan.

Lanka Dahan is based on one episode from the epic Ramayana. Sita is abducted by Ravana and kept in Lanka [now Sri Lanka]. Her husband Lord Rama joins hands with his greatest devotee Hanuman along with his vaanar sena [army of animals] to help free Sita. In order to confirm if Sita is indeed in Lanka, Hanuman flies off to the island and finds Sita over there.

He presents the ring given by Rama as his identity and proof. While Hanuman is about to return, he is captured by Ravana’s army and is presented in the court. Ravana orders Hanuman’s tail to be set on fire. As soon as his tail is ignited, Hanuman escapes from the court and burns the entire city of Lanka with his tail [Hence, the title Lanka Dahan. Dahan translates to “setting anything on fire”].

Anna Salunke as Sita in Lanka Dahan
Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

Hanuman escapes from Lanka and gets reunited with Rama at the other shore of the Indian ocean. His act gives a blow to Ravana’s morale.

Women weren’t allowed to act in movies in those days. So it was a common practice to cast men in female characters after working a lot on their look and attire. Actor Anna Salunke regularly played female characters in Phalke’s movies. The filmmaker had cast him for the first time in his first aforementioned movie Raja Harishchandra.

Salunke used to work in a small restaurant in the Grant Road locality of Mumbai. When Phalke was struggling to find a female to play the role of Taramati in Raja Harishchandra, he, out of sheer co-incidence, came across Salunke in the restaurant. After getting convinced that he can be a good fit for Taramati, Phalke immediately cast him. Salunke continued his association with the filmmaker in his future films.

Salunke achieved a rarest of the rare feat in Phalke’s Lanka Dahan after he was cast as both Rama and Sita in the movie. The reason for casting the same actor in both the roles isn’t known. But it made Salunke the first actor in Indian cinema to play a double role.

Even more than 100 years after the film released, this remains a rare feat of a man playing the role of two people of two different genders in one movie. In the picture above, Salunke is seen as Sita.

This trivia was recently shared in the event CineTalkies in Mumbai organized by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Rare find of a scene from Lanka Dahan:

Also read:

Review of Harishchandrachi Factory – based on the making of Phalke’s first movie

Filed Under: Regional cinema Tagged With: Anna Salunke, Anna Salunke actor, Dadasaheb Phalke Lanka Dahan, Dadasaheb Phalke movies, Lanka Dahan, Lanka Dahan movie

Phalke’s magic recreated on big screen!

January 30, 2013 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Indian cinema took birth a hundred years ago when Dhundiraj Govind Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra was released in May 1913 at Mumbai’s (then Bombay) Coronation Theater. The film was a result of some painstaking efforts by Dadasaheb Phalke, due to which he acquired the title – Father of Indian Cinema. Now, almost a hundred years later, the magic of Phalke’s earliest films was recreated on the big screen recently at Mumbai’s National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA).

Raja-Harishchandra-movieA group of audience that had gathered was bestowed with a memorable experience of watching Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra (1917), Kaliya Mardan (1919), Lanka Dahan (1917), Shri Krishna Janma (1918) and a documentary on him named Dream Takes Wings (1970).  Composer Rahul Ranade’s background score was added to the films to make viewing more pleasurable for people of today’s era who aren’t used to watching silent films. The screening was made possible by the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) based in Pune. The event was a part of NCPA Flashback Series which is started to celebrate 100 years of Indian Cinema.

Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benagal, who was the guest of honor at the event, seemed pretty excited for the screenings. “It’s a pleasure to see Phalke’s films. His (Raja Harishchandra) was the first film to be made completely in India. So it is Phalke who is responsible for spreading cinema in India,” he said. Benegal also revealed how quickly cinema got acceptance in India. “After the introduction of sound (talkies), Indian cinema just took off as if it was invented here.”

Shyam-BenegalBy going back to the pre-independence time, Benegal also criticized the need for films to be censored. “British Government used to ban films that had nationalist sentiments. Unfortunately, even 66 years after independence, films are still censored, which, I think, is ridiculous in a democracy.”

Director of NFA Prashant Pathrabe shared some good news for the audience. He said screening of more of such classic films under NCPA Flashback Series would take place at the end of every month at NCPA for the next year. “We would love to take our association with NCPA forward,” he said.

Some of the films that would be shown in the upcoming NCPA Flashback Series include Sant Tukaram (Marathi, 1936), Sikandar (Hindi, 1941), Achhut Kanya (Hindi, 1936), Manthan (Hindi, 1976), Devdas (Bengali, 1935), Chandralekha (Tamil, 1948), etc.

So if you are lover of quality cinema, you know where you should be heading at the end of each month!

To receive updates on the upcoming screenings, visit – http://www.ncpamumbai.com/
Facebook page –
https://www.facebook.com/NCPAMumbai
Twitter page – https://twitter.com/ncpamumbai

Filed Under: Bollywood, Marathi movies Tagged With: Dadasaheb Phalke films, Dadasaheb Phalke information, Dadasaheb Phalke movies, films by Dadasaheb Phalke, NCPA events, NCPA Mumbai, Raja Harishchandra movie, Shyam Benegal interview

Phalke’s 142nd Anniversary: Overshadowed National Event!

April 29, 2012 by Keyur Seta Leave a Comment

Over the decades, movies have become an integral part of the lives of Indians. People of all ages, gender, religion, caste, language and class have been regularly thronging movie theatres ever since cinema arrived in India 99 years ago. The choice of movies among people might differ but visiting cinema halls and getting amazed, inspired and influenced by movies and its actors has become very common. Therefore, it won’t be an overstatement to say that cinema has become a part of Indian culture.

For making this possible, we all movie buffs should be thankful or even indebted to the Father of Indian Cinema Dhundiraj Govind Phalke aka Dadasaheb Phalke. It was his strong dedication and belief that made cinema possible in India. But when Phalke decided to make India’s first film Raja Harishchandra in 1912, there were many who tried to discourage him. There were some who even considered him a mad man.

Dadasaheb Phalke (Picture courtesy - Wikipedia)

But his dedication and passion was so strong that it had no effect on him. This was also because his wife Saraswati and his two kids too joined him in the mission. So, it won’t be wrong to say that the first Indian movie was made by the whole Phalke family.

After that, he could have easily settled in England and made films for the English. Financiers from London were ready to shell out huge amounts of money to produce his films. But he chose to stay in India so that the film industry develops and flourishes in our country.

It was filmmaker Paresh Mokashi and his team that enlightened the cinegoers about Phalke through his first film Harishchandrachi Factory (2009). Personally speaking, I will always be thankful to Mokashi for giving this hugely needed tribute to the great man. Without going overboard, the filmmaker presented Phalke’s struggle and the subsequent achievement by just using the visual medium.

However, from the huge number of movie buffs, how many are truly aware about Phalke? And from those who know about him, how many are there who truly think about him? I am sure a lot of people from the Indian film industry might not know about him.

I think even the mass media hasn’t given much importance to Phalke in all these 99 years. It wouldn’t cost much to our filmmakers to give tribute to Phalke at the start of their movie. After all, they are able to make movies only because he brought the medium to India. Apart from Harishchandrachi Factory, the only movie I remember doing this was Swarajya (2011).

I would like to give special mention to Fame Nakshatra (Dadar) for honoring Phalke by putting his picture with a garland inside their theatre (See below picture). I haven’t seen any other theatre doing this.

Monday April 30, 2012 marks the 142nd birth anniversary of Phalke. As expected, there is just no excitement or even awareness about it. But that is not going to stop me from rejoicing for the Father of Indian Cinema since it’s a day every cinema lover should be proud of! 

Watch the 11 minute footage from Raja Harishchandra (1913), the very first film of India!

Nandu Madhav and Vibhawari Deshpande in a still from Harishchandrachi Factory

Picture of Dadasaheb Phalke inside Fame Nakshatra theatre, Dadar.

Filed Under: Bollywood, Marathi movies, Socio/Political Tagged With: Dadasaheb Phalke, Dadasaheb Phalke anniversary, Dadasaheb Phalke biography, Dadasaheb Phalke movies, Dadasaheb Phalke picture, Dadasaheb Phalke Raja Harishchandra, Dadasaheb Phalke story, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, Raja Harishchandra 1913 movie

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