NAKARAJAN

SILENT FILMS ACTRESS / EARLY BOLLYWOOD IN INDIA Innovative roles of women in Indian films, especially mainstream cinema, are very few. However, some creative directors, working within the mainstream format, have given us some wonderful characters. Several Women Centric Films were made in the early days of Indian cinema. Strong female roles have also been witnessed in parallel cinema. Thus, several filmmakers right from the inception of Indian films, till date, have earnestly tried to portray women in a dignified, realistic, and an intriguing way and have succeeded considerably. Of the recent genre, many filmmakers have given us the best of such women centric films.  Bollywood ActressesSulochana (1907-83)  Sulochana, a former telephone operator, went on to become the highest paid actress of her day. Her finest period was with Imperial Studios where her on-screen pairing with Dinshaw Billimoria was especially popular. They were among the few stars to successfully t...

 JEWS ACTRESS ,IN INDIA ,HIDED THEIR IDENTIDIES IN SILENT FILMS ERA jewish women were Indian cinema's first actresses Jewish women were an integral part of early Indian cinema, especially the silent era The Indian Cinema owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Baghdadi Jewish community for its women among all the communities in India were the first to act in films, at a great risk to their reputation, at a time when the participation of women in performing arts was a taboo. During the silent era, most of India’s film stars were Jewish. But they, except a few, could not continue with their successful careers, once the talkies were introduced as they were incapable of delivering dialogues in Hindi because of their Anglicized upbringing. In this photo-essay, first published on Café Dissensus in December 2014 under the title “Indian Jews in Cinema”, Kenneth X. Robbins draws our attention to the Jewish contributions to Indian cinema. It has been reproduced in full with the perm...

RAJA SULOCHANA ,  UNFORGETTABLE SOUTH INDIAN ACTRESS died 2013 march 5 “கண்ணு... உன் பெயர் என்ன சொல்லும்மா... ?” என ஆசிரியை கேட்டதும், குழந்தை மழலை உச்சரிப்பில் “ராஜீவலோசனா” என்றது.திருவல்லிக்கேணி திருமலாச்சாரி தேசிய மேல்நிலைப் பள்ளி. முதல் வகுப்பில் சேரக் காத்திருந்தது அந்த அரும்பு. ‘ராஜசுலோசனா’ என்று பதிவேடுகள் புதிதாக எழுதிக்கொண்டன. அதுவே நிலைத்தும்விட்டது. சிறுமி பிறந்தது 1934 ஆகஸ்டு 15 - விஜயவாடாவில். அம்மா தேவகி. அப்பா பக்தவசல நாயுடுவுக்கு ரயில்வேயில் பணி. தாத்தா காலத்திலேயே சென்னையில் குடியேறிய குடும்பம். வாய்ப்பாட்டு, வயலின் என்று ராஜசுலோசனாவுக்கு எட்டு வயதில் சப்தஸ்வரமும் பழக்கமானது. ஏவி.எம்.மின் ’வேதாள உலகம்’ படத்தில் லலிதா - பத்மினியின் நாட்டியத்தைப் பார்த்ததும், ஆடுவதில் ஆர்வம் அதிகரித்தது. மனம் விட்டு இசை ஆசிரியை பங்கஜத்திடம் அதைக் கூறினாள். ‘சரஸ்வதி கான நிலையம்’ ராஜசுலோசனாவுக்கு ஜதி சொல்லிற்று. சீக்கிரத்திலேயே அரங்கேற்றம் கண்டார். ராஜசுலோசனாவின் முதல் பரத நாட்டிய நிகழ்வு உச்ச நீதிமன்ற நீதியரசர் பி.எல். வெங்கட்ராமஅய்யர் தலைமையில் நடந்தது. ராஜசுலோசனா...

HISTORY OF HINDI SILENT CINEMA COMMEMORATION | SILENTS PLEASE         Share   Tweet Dinshaw Billimoria and Sulochana in Ardeshir Irani’s Heer Ranjha made in 1929. Photo: Courtesy Donnabelle Garga. India might be celebrating the centenary of cinema this year, but it’s fair to say that  the show and tell can begin only from around the mid-1930s. The country’s various film industries produced a little over 1,300 silent films from the late 1800s before moving to sound from 1931 onwards, but barely 20 titles have survived. The picture of Indian cinema resembles a building with several storeys and a hollowed out basement. Much of what has endured into the digital age is in bits and bobs. Devotees of the pre-talkies pioneers can take some hope from the surviving material, even if hope must be parcelled out in pieces. There is a fair amount of recent scholarship, DVDs of three silents, and occasional screenings of the extant films, to remin...