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Kaliya Mardan 1919 St 6000 ft b&w dis D.G. Phalke pc Hindustan Cinema Films ijJMandakini Phalke, Neelkanth

Introducing Phalke as the 'Pioneering Cine- Artist of the East', the most complete Phalke film extant opens with a series of shots demonstrating the 7-year-old Mandakini Phalke's acting skills through a series of facial expressions. The playmates of Krishna (Mandakini) are insulted by a female villager who splashes water on them. They take revenge by stealing butter from her house. When they are beaten up by the woman, they again take revenge. Krishna receives a gift of fruit and gives it away, 'an act which foreshadows his future benevolent inclination'.

The film's most elaborately plotted sequence has Krishna entering the room of a wealthy merchant and his wife at night and tying the man's beard to his wife's hair. These exploits lead to a large crowd complaining of Krishna's antics to his foster parents. The film ends with Krishna vanquishing the demon snake Kaliya in a fierce underwater battle, intercut (cf Sbri Krisbna]anma, 1918) with the faces of anxious observers. Krishna eventually rises triumphant with the slain demon's tail on his shoulder, garlanded by the now liberated wives of the demon. Only 4441 ft of the original film survive.

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