| 20 | | Set up production company Naya Sansar (1951), providing India’s most consistent representation of socialist-realist film (cf. Thoppil Bhasi and Utpal Dutt). Best work is in the scripts for his own films and for those of Raj Kapoor (Awara, 1951; Shri 420, 1955, both co-written with V.P. Sathe; Jagte Raho, 1956; Bobby, 1973) and Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946; adapted from his own book, And One Did Not Come Back), which combined aspects of Soviet cinema (Pudovkin) and of Hollywood (e.g. Capra and Upton Sinclair), influencing a new generation of Hindi cineastes (Kapoor, Chetan Anand) and sparking new realist performance idioms (Balraj Sahni). His Munna, without songs or dances, and Shaher Aur Sapna, cheaply made on location in slums, were described as being influenced by neo-realism. Pardesi is the first Indian-Soviet co-production, co- directed by Vassili M. Pronin. The landmark Supreme Court censorship judgement about his Char Shaher Ek Kahani (aka A Tale of Four Cities) curtailed ‘arbitrary’ governmental pre- censorship powers on the grounds that the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to free speech. His constitutional challenge of the Cinematograph Act led to the famous [[http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1719619/|Supreme Court decision]] upholding the validity of precensorship of cinema |
| | 20 | Set up production company Naya Sansar (1951), providing India’s most consistent representation of socialist-realist film (cf. Thoppil Bhasi and Utpal Dutt). Best work is in the scripts for his own films and for those of Raj Kapoor (Awara, 1951; Shri 420, 1955, both co-written with V.P. Sathe; Jagte Raho, 1956; Bobby, 1973) and Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946; adapted from his own book, And One Did Not Come Back), which combined aspects of Soviet cinema (Pudovkin) and of Hollywood (e.g. Capra and Upton Sinclair), influencing a new generation of Hindi cineastes (Kapoor, Chetan Anand) and sparking new realist performance idioms (Balraj Sahni). His Munna, without songs or dances, and Shaher Aur Sapna, cheaply made on location in slums, were described as being influenced by neo-realism. Pardesi is the first Indian-Soviet co-production, co- directed by Vassili M. Pronin. The landmark Supreme Court censorship judgement about his Char Shaher Ek Kahani (aka A Tale of Four Cities) curtailed ‘arbitrary’ governmental pre- censorship powers on the grounds that the Indian Constitution guarantees the right to free speech. His constitutional challenge of the Cinematograph Act led to the famous [[http://indiankanoon.org/doc/1719619/|Supreme Court decision]] upholding the validity of precensorship of cinema. Interestingly in Interestingly in 1939, K A Abbas had written a letter to Gandhi urging him to reconsider his opinion on the idea of the evil of cinema. He writes |
| | 21 | |
| | 22 | ''“Today I bring for your scrutiny - and approval -a new toy my generation has learned to play with, the CINEMA! – You include cinema among evils like gambling, sutta, horse racing etc... Now if these statements had come from any other person, it was not necessary to be worried about them... But your case is different. In view of the great position you hold in this country, and I may say in the world, even the slightest expression of your opinion carries much weight with millions of people. And one of the world's most useful inventions would be allowed to be discarded or what is worse, left alone to be abused by unscrupulous people. You are a great soul, Bapu. In your heart there is no room for prejudice. Give this little toy of ours, the cinema, which is not so useless as it looks, a little of your attention and bless it with a smile of toleration”. |
| | 23 | '' |