Narayan Prasad Betaab (1872-1945)

Playwright for Parsee theatre and scenarist mainly for the Ranjit Studio. Early stage successes Meetha Zaher (1905) and Zehari Saap (1906), written originally for the Parsee Natak Mandali, were extensively staged and filmed. Used the mythological genre (e.g. his best-known play, Mahabharata, for the Khatau-Alfred company, 1913) and inaugurated what the critic Agyaat called the Betaab Yug (c.1910-35), consolidating 19th C. efforts to define distinctively Hindi playwrighting practice. Whereas the 19th C. stage mythological mainly adapted familiar musical compositions interspersed with prose commentaries, the improvisational style of a traditional kathakaar, the Betaab style codified a more contemporary genre, determined politically by his explicitly brahminical adherences (underlined by his editorship of the journal Brahma Bhatt Darpan). His example greatly influenced the genre’s cinematic form.

Also created Hindi versions of original screenplays by e.g. ​Chandulal Shah. After working at Ranjit?, Betaab wrote scripts for Madan, Ambika, Sharda and Saroj Studios. Definitive biography by Vidyavati Namra (1972).

Story, dial and/or lyr credits include ​Chandulal Shah’s Devi Devayani? (1931), Radha Rani?, Sati Savitri?, Sheilbala (all 1932), Vishwamohini, Miss 1933? (both 1933), Barrister?’s Wife?, Keemti Aansoo? (both 1935) and Pardesi Pankhi (1937); Jayant Desai?’s Krishna Sudama (1933), Nadira, Sitamgarh?, Veer Babruwahan? (all 1934), College Girl, Noor-e-Watan (both 1935), Raj Ramani (1936) and Prithvi Putra (1938); J.J. Madan’s Zehari Saap? (1933); ppNandlal Jaswantlal]]’s Pardesi Preetam (1933) and Kashmeera (1934); Raja Sandow’s Raat Ki Rani (1935); Gunjal’s Ambarish (1934); Nanubhai Desai and J.P. Advani?’s Shah Behram (1935); R.S. Choudhury?’s Kal Ki Baat (1937); Advani’s Sneh Bandhan (1940) and Parashuram by Ramnik Desai (1947).

Writer