Sohrab Modi

Sohrab Merwanji Modi (2 November 1897 – 28 January 1984) was an Indian stage and film actor, director and producer.[1] His films include Khoon Ka Khoon (1935), a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Sikandar, Pukar, Prithvi Vallabh, Jhansi ki Rani, Mirza Ghalib, Jailor and Nausherwan-E-Adil (1957). His films always carried a message of strong commitment to social and national issues.[2]

Sohrab Merwanji Modi
Modi in 1931
Born(1897-11-02)2 November 1897
Died28 January 1984(1984-01-28) (aged 86)
NationalityIndian
OrganizationMinerva Movietone
Notable work
Pukar, Sikandar, Prithvi Vallabh, Jhansi Ki Rani, Mirza Ghalib, Jailor, Nausherwan-E-Adil (1957 film)
Spouse(s)Mehtab Modi
AwardsDadasaheb Phalke Award in 1980

Early life
Sohrab Modi in film Sikandar (1941).

Sohrab Merwanji Modi was born 2 November 1897 in Bombay.[2] After finishing school, he became travelling exhibitor in Gwalior with his brother Keki Modi. At 16 he used project films in Gwalior's Town Hall and at 26 set up his Arya Subhodh Theatrical Company.[3]

Sohrab began as a Parsi theatre actor with some experience in silent films. He earned quite a reputation as a Shakespearean actor, travelling throughout India with his brother's theatrical company and enjoying the tremendous sense of fulfillment every time the curtain came down and the audience applauded. However, with the advent of the sound film in 1931, theatre was declining. To rescue this dying art, Modi set up the Stage Film Company in 1935. His first two films were filmed versions of plays. Khoon Ka Khoon (1935) was an adaptation of Hamlet and marked Naseem Bano's acting debut. The second, Said-e-Havas (1936) was based on Shakespeare's King John. Both films failed at the box office.[2]

Personal life

Sohrab Modi was born into a Parsi family on 2 November 1897. His father was an Indian civil servant. He spent his childhood in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh where he developed a liking for Hindi and Urdu languages.[4]

Sohrab Modi was married to Mehtab Modi,[2] an actress born into an aristocratic Muslim family from Gujarat, who began her career in his movie Parakh (1944). They married on her birthday on 28 April 1946. They had a son, Mehelli, from this marriage[5] who settled in the UK in 1967, where he would later found the British arthouse DVD label Second Run.[6] Mehtab had a son, Ismail from her first marriage, who lived with them.[5][4]

There is an incident about Sohrab Modi's visit to Kolkata. Here he met with the Holy Mother Sarada Devi. Sohrab went to her for diksha but was denied permission. He reportedly asked to holy mother, "Maiji kuchh kijiye jisse khuda pehchana jaye". The incident of their meeting was not less than surprising. During her last days, none was permitted to come near the Holy Mother. But the day Sohrab had come for diksha, Maa Sarada could feel that someone has came for diksha from her saintly powers without anyone telling about him to the holy mother. She asked to send Sohrab to her and gave her many lessons which would be later helpful in his life.

Biography

He launched Minerva Movietone in 1936.[4] His early films at Minerva dealt with contemporary social issues such as alcoholism in Meetha Zaher (1938) and the right of Hindu women to divorce in Talaq (1938). Though the films did well, what attracted Modi was the historic genre. Minerva Movietone became famous for its trilogy of historical spectaculars that were to follow – Pukar (1939), Sikandar (1941) and Prithvi Vallabh (1943), wherein Modi made the most of his gift for grandiloquence to evoke historical grandeur.

Pukar (1939) was set in the court of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and is based on an incident, perhaps fictional, that highlights Jehangir's fair sense of justice. Many of the key scenes were filmed on location, at the magnificent courts and palaces from the Mughal era, which gave the film an authenticity that studio built sets could never achieve. The charisma of its stars, Chandra Mohan and Naseem Bano, and Kamaal Amrohi's oration, with its literary flourish and innate grace, ensured the film's popularity.[4]

Arguably Modi's greatest film was Sikander (1941), which immortalized Prithviraj Kapoor playing the title role. This epic film was set in 326 BC when Alexander the Great, having conquered Persia and the Kabul Valley, descends on the Indian border at Jhelum and encounters Porus (Modi), who stops the advance with his troops. Sikander's lavish mounting, huge sets, and production values equalled Hollywood's best, particularly in its rousing and spectacular battle scenes. The movie was rated by a British writer as "well up to the standard of that old masterpiece The Birth of a Nation." Its dramatic, declamatory dialogue gave both Prithviraj Kapoor and Sohrab Modi free rein to their histrionic proclivities.

The release of the film coincided with World War II at its peak and in India the political atmosphere was tense following Gandhiji's call to Civil Disobedience. Sikander further aroused patriotic feelings and national sentiment. Thus, though Sikander was approved by the Bombay censor board, it was later banned from some of the theatres serving army cantonments. However, its appeal to nationalism was so great and direct, it remained popular for years. It was revived in Delhi in 1961 during the Indian March into Goa.

Prithvi Vallabh was based on K.M. Munshi's novel of the same name. The film's major highlights were the confrontations between Modi and Durga Khote, the haughty queen Mrinalvati, who tries to humiliate him publicly but then falls in love with him.[4]

Although Modi went beyond Parsee theatre with such themes as illicit passion (Jailor (1938), remade in 1958) and incest (Bharosa (1940)), his formal approach still remained tied to the theatre. He re-created the look and sound of Parsee theatre by using frontal compositions and staging the narrative in spatial layers with copious use of Urdu dialogue.

In 1946, after his relationship with Naseem had run its course (though she continued to work with him in Sheesh Mahal (1950) and Nausherwan-e-Adil (1957)), he married Mehtab, an actress 20 years his junior whom he had directed in Parakh (1944). Sohrab Modi was 48 years old at that time.[2][4]

In 1950, when Sohrab Modi's Sheesh Mahal was being screened at Minerva Theatre in Bombay, the actor was present at the hall. Mr. Modi noticed a man sitting in the front row with closed eyes. Upset with such a reaction, he asked an attendant to let the viewer out and to return his money. The employee came back to say that the person was blind but had come just to hear Sohrab Modi's lines.

For Jhansi Ki Rani, India's first technicolour film, Modi had technicians flown in from Hollywood. Mehtab starred as the young queen of Jhansi who took up arms against the British during the Mutiny of 1857 with Modi playing the role of the Rajguru, her chief advisor. The film was notable for its authenticity in creating the right period and delineating historical events, its spectacular battle scenes and Mehtab's stirring performance though she was far too old for the role. She achieves stirring dignity in the role as she vows to protect Jhansi from all enemies both within and outside. The ball sequence in Jhansi's palace was superbly shot and Modi's characters held great emotional appeal. The film failed to connect with the audience and was a costly misfire for Modi as a box office crash.[2]

Modi however bounced back with Mirza Ghalib (1954). The film, based on the life of the great Indian poet who lived during the reign of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last of the Mughal Emperors, won the President's Gold Medal for Best Feature Film of 1954. The film beautifully captured the mood of the period, its hedonistic pursuits and the fading magnificence of the court of the last Mughal, where poets like Zauq, Momin, Tishna, Shefta and Ghalib assembled to recite their verse. Mirza Ghalib also saw Suraiya's finest dramatic performance as she embodied the role of the married Ghalib's lover, a courtesan. Ghalib also saw some of her finest singing – "Aah ko Chaihiye Ek Umar," "Nuktacheen Hai Gham-e-Dil," "Dil-e-Nadaan Tujhe Hua Kya Hai," "Yeh Na Thi Humari Kismet,". Her singing is to date regarded as the definitive portrayal of Ghalib. In fact India's then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru paid her the ultimate compliment by telling her she had brought Mirza Ghalib to life. ("Tumne Mirza Ghalib ki Rooh ko Zinda Kar Diya").[2]

Though Kundan (1955), Nausherwan-e-Adil and Jailor (1958) had their moments, particularly the latter in which Modi gave a chilling portrayal of a rational man turned into a tyrant, Modi's later films did not reach the heights of his earlier work.[2]

Death and later life

Even after he stopped making films, Sohrab Modi never actually gave up the idea of making one. Even as late as 1982 (when he was 85 years old) and was hardly able to move around, he had the muhurat of 'Guru-dakshina'. As per his wife, people took advantage of his weakness for making a film and they lost a lot of money by way of advance payments etc., since two days after the 'muhurat', Sohrab Modi fell sick and then never recovered. His wife also said in a 1986 interview that Sohrab Modi was obsessed with filmmaking and, in fact, had no other interests.[5]

Sohrab Modi received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1980. He was the tenth recipient of the award. He suffered from cancer of the bone marrow and succumbed to the disease on 28 January 1984 at the age of 86.[2]

Trivia
Sohrab Modi on a 2013 stamp of India

Filmography

As director

As actor
FilmYearRole
Khoon Ka Khoon1935Hamlet
Said-e-Havas1936Kazal Beg (Hubert)
Jailor1938Jailor
Meetha Zahar1938
Pukar[5]1939Sardar Sangram Singh
Sikandar[4]1941King Porus
Prithvi Vallabh[4]1943Munja
Sheesh Mahal1950Thakur Jaspal Singh
Jhansi Ki Rani1952Raj Guru
Kundan1955Kundan
Raj Hath1956Raja Babu
Nausherwan-E-Adil alias Farz Aur Mohabbat1957Sultan-e-Iran Nausherwan-e-Adil
Yahudi[2]1958Ezra, the Jew
Jailor1958Dilip
Pehli Raat1959
Woh Koi Aur Hoga1967
Noor Jahan1967Kazi
Jwala1971
Ek Nari Ek Brahmachari1971Raisaheb Surajbhan Chaudhary
Razia Sultan1983Vazir-e-Azam

References
  1. Gulazāra; Govind Nihalani; Saibal Chatterjee (2003). Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema. Popular Prakashan. pp. 614–. ISBN 978-81-7991-066-5. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. Karan Bali. "Sohrab Modi profile". Upperstall.com website. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  3. Gangar, Amrit (2008). The Legends of Indian Cinema – Sohrab Modi. New Delhi: Wisdom Tree. p. 6. ISBN 978-81-8328-108-9.
  4. Sohrab Modi (1897 - 1984) - profile on Cineplot.com website Archived 25 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine Published 13 June 2010, Retrieved 27 November 2019
  5. Yesteryear actress Mehtab remembers her husband Sohrab Modi Archived 23 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine Cineplot.com website (14 September 2013), Retrieved 27 November 2019
  6. London’s Second Run DVD is rescuing rare arthouse films from obscurity Archived 1 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Scroll.in (29 March 2018). Retrieved on 2018-11-09.
  7. "10th Berlin International Film Festival: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
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