Hiralal Sen

Hiralal Sen (Bengali: হীরালাল সেন, Hiralal Shen) (2 August 1868 – 26 October 1917[1]) is generally considered as one of India's first filmmakers. A noted photographer, he is also credited with creating India's first advertising films and quite possibly India's first political film. A fire in 1917 destroyed all of his films.

Hiralal Sen
Hiralal Sen
Born2 August 1868
Manikganj, Bengal Presidency
Died26 October 1917(1917-10-26) (aged 49)
Calcutta
NationalityIndian
OccupationPhotographer, filmmaker
Spouse(s)Hemangini Devi
Parent(s)Chandramohan Sen
Bidhumukhi Sen
Hiralal Sen, performing the Flower of Persia at the Star Theatre, Kolkata

Early life

Hiralal Sen's native home was in Bagjuri, a village in Manikganj, approximately 80 km from Dhaka, the present-day capital of Bangladesh.[2] Although he was the son of a successful lawyer of a Baidya zamindar family of that region, he grew up in Calcutta.[2] In 1898, a film troupe en route to Paris screened a certain Professor Stevenson's short film along with the stage show, The Flower of Persia at the Star Theatre in Calcutta.[3] Borrowing Stevenson's camera, Sen made his first film, "A Dancing Scene" from the opera The Flower of Persia.[3] With assistance from his brother, Motilal Sen, he bought an Urban Bioscope from Charles Urban's Warwick Trading Company in London.[3] In the following year, with his brother, he formed the Royal Bioscope company.[3]

Creative years

In a creative career that extended up to 1913, Hiralal Sen made over forty short films.[4] Most of the films he made depicted scenes from theatrical productions played at Amarendra Dutta's Classic Theatre in Calcutta. At that time raw film was imported into the country.[3] Between 1901 and 1904, he produced many films for Classic Theatre including Bhramar, Hariraj, and Buddhadev.[3] His longest film, produced in 1903 and titled Alibaba and the Forty Thieves, was also based on an original Classic Theatre performance.[2][3] However, not much is known about this feature film since it was never screened.[2] He also produced a number of advertising films and newsfilms taking commissions.[3] Having made two films advertising Jabakusum Hair Oil and Edwards Tonic, he became the first Indian to use film for advertising purposes.[2]

India's first political film

In 1905, Sen advertised a "genuine Swadeshi film of our own make". Documenting the "Anti-Partition Demonstration and Swadeshi movement at the Town Hall, Calcutta, on the 22nd September 1905", it is, according to critic Samik Bandyopadhyay, India's first political film.[4]

Later years

Royal Bioscope made its last film in 1913. Hiralal Sen's later years were filled with disappointment and economic hardship.[2] Jamshedji Framji Madan of the Elphinstone Bioscope Company had long surpassed him in terms of success.[4] To compound his misery, he was also suffering from cancer. A few days before his death in 1917, a fire broke out destroying every film he ever made.[2][3]

Notes
  1. Bandyopadhyay, Alexander (23 October 2017). "Pioneer of Bengali Cinema Hiralal Sen (in Bengali)".
  2. Teachers’ Medicare Benevolent Fund (31 December 2005). "Hiralal Sen (in Bengali)". Retrieved 1 November 2006.
  3. McKernan, Luke (31 December 1996). "Hiralal Sen (copyright British Film Institute)". Retrieved 1 November 2006.
  4. Bandyopadhyay, Samik (1990). "The Early Years of Calcutta Cinema". In Chaudhuri, Sukanta (ed.). Calcutta: The Living City. Volume II: The Present and Future. Oxford University Press. pp. 293–294. ISBN 978-0-19-563697-0.

Further reading
  • Raju, Zakir Hossain (2014). Bangladesh Cinema and National Identity: In Search of the Modern?. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-60181-4.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.