Dr. Ashraf Aziz's presentation on the birth of Popular Cinema in India.

1. Respectfully Remembering
Babasaheb Ambedkar

2. ORIGIN OF UNIQUE POPULAR INDIAN
CINEMA
“ALL TALKING, ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING”
HINDI FILM
By ASHRAF AZIZ

4. Lagtaa nahin hai dil meraa ujday dayaar mein
kis ki bani hai aalam-e-naa_paayedaar mein
kah do in hasraton se kahin aur jaa basein
itani jagah kahaan hai dil-e-daagdaar mein
umr-e-daraaz maang kar laaye they chaar din
do arzoo mein kaT gaye do intezaar mein
kitnaa hai bad_naseeb 'Zafar' dafn key liye
do gaz zamin bhi na mili kuu-e-yaar mein
Bahadur Shah

7. Fruits of the
Printing
Press/Typograp
hy
Due to lack of mass literacy in
English, ordinary people could
not access valuable information

9. "Nature, red in tooth and
claw"
-- Lord Tennyson

11. I am greatly indebted
to the writings of
Marshall McLuhan in
formulating my
thoughts on the
special nature of
popular Indian
cinema.

12. The Gutenberg Galaxy

13. The Gutenberg Galaxy

14. ■ With the invention of the printing press nearly 500 years ago, the age of typography
had begun. The printed book was the spaceship which took Europeans into the
Gutenberg Galaxy. Engagement with typography unlocked the genius of the left
hemisphere of the brain. Because this is where the speech and numbers centers are
located. This is the problem-solving hemisphere. The Europeans’ Ages of Discovery
had started. What did they discover?
– Reformation
– Renaissance
– The Heliocentric universe
– The secrets of the human body
– The Scientific Method with which to unlock nature’s secrets
– Navigational technology and crafts to travel to the New World and New Old World
– Enlightenment leading to incremental democratic societies
Knowledge is Power. Knowledge is gained by reading printed
books is Exponential Power.
[Digital technology not withstanding, nothing beats the printed book as the
instrument of truly opening the human mind. It is futile to think that one can skipped
the book on the road to wisdom. The book created the computer and not the other
way around.]

15. The Age of the European Empires
■ Great Britain
■ France
■ Spain
■ Portugal
■ Holland
■ Denmark
■ Belgium
All of these nations discovered the
New Worlds, occupied them and
treated the land, its nature and its
peoples as their property. Why
Not? Nature abhors vacuum.
Wherever there is vacuum, power
will fill it. Vasco da Gama arrived in
Calicut, India, in July 8, 1497. He
immediately sensed a sub-
continental proportion of vacuum.
You know the rest of that history . .
. .

16. “His initial voyage to India (1497–1499) was
the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean
route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian
oceans and therefore, the West and the
Orient.”
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (1460 –1524),

17. Portrait of a European painted by Mughal artists, Ca.1590

19. “Photography: A
mystic act, rather than
a mechanical process
which captured one’s
inner self in a
photograph and thus
deprived him of his
strength.”
-- O. P. Joshi

21. Chod gaye balam
Mujhe hai akela
Chod gaye

24. The manuscript was an aid
to memory. It was used to
initiate recitation or
chanting. It also contained
miniatures and other
decorations to help
remember the message.
The manuscript is an aid to
oral/aural communication.

26. ■ No nation is fonder of
singing and dancing
and than the Indian.
-- Arrian,
Greek
Historian
The Song: India’s Calling Card

28. Ik dil ke tukde hazar hue
Ik yahan gira Ik wahan gira
Sanskrit blowing into vernacular languages of India

30. It takes a village to raise a child – African Proverb

32. “Gods created man and the
world. The culture’s heroes
completed the creation and the
history of all these divine and
semi-divine works is preserved
in myths. By re-actualizing
sacred history, by imitating
divine behavior, man puts and
keeps himself close to the
gods—that is, in the real and the
significant.”
[I found the works of Mircea Eliade
inspiring in writing my works]

33. Nine Nights: Watching Almora Come
Alive With Ramlila Dramas

34. Mumbai artists put on Radha-Krishna
lila dance-play

35. Raja Harishchandra
1913

39. The eye has
conquered the
domain of other
special senses
In
Western
countries

40. The Ear has
conquered the
domain of other
special senses
In Eastern
countries

42. One point perspective

45. Maria Misra (2007)
“Phalke’s films challenged caste and gender conventions to provide
an internationalize ideal nation . . . Film was a powerful agent of
egalitarian internationalism, not hierarchical nationalism, because it
showed Indians how other societies were organized. It was also a
medium for projecting democratic values in to a hierarchical culture.”
Raja
Harishchandra

46. Gandhjee in
South Africa
(1890s)

49. Rachel Dwyer: FILMING THE GODS
Filming the Gods
Religion and Indian Cinema
This is one of the best books about
the early Indian popular film. It has
helped me to develop this
presentation.

51. India: the multicultural kaleidoscope

53. Entertain first and instruct later

55. Georges Méliès (1861 –1938)
Auguste (1862- 1954) and Louis Lumière (1864 -1948)

57. Amritsar Massacre 1919

58. Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian cinema

59. Thank You

60. References
■ Barnouw, E and Krishnaswamy, S. Indian Films. Oxford University Press; 2 edition (May 29,
1980)
■ Dwyer, R. Filming the Gods. Routledge; 1 edition (September 27, 2006)
■ Eliade, M. The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
(October 23, 1987)
■ Gutman, J.M. Through Indian Eyes. Oxford University Press; 1st Edition (July 22, 1982)
■ McLuhan, M. Understanding Media. The MIT Press; Reprint edition (October 20, 1994)
■ McLuhan, M. The Guttenberg Galaxy. University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing
Division; Centennial Edition (July 31, 2011)
■ Nehru, J. The Discovery of India. Penguin Books; New Ed edition (November 1, 2004)
■ Nehru, J. An Autobiography. Penguin Books; 07-May-2004 edition (November 28, 2004)
■ Guha R. India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy; Ecco (2008)

61. Special Acknowledgements
■ Babasaheb Ambedkar
■ Professor Salil Misra, ProVice Chancellor, School of Liberal Studies,
Ambedkar University Delhi
■ And all those visionaries who founded, nourished and sustained this
remarkable university

62. Acknowledgements
■ Desaram, Vijyalakshmi, Radio Broadcaster, Writer
■ Professor Jawarimal Parakh & Family
■ Mr. Asad Zaidi & Family
■ Dr. Barbara Dunn, Geneticist/Oncologist
■ Stafford Battle, Graphic Designer
“I have no words to express my gratitude to composer/writer, poet Naushadsahab who
always inspired love and respect for the popular musical Indian film.”
Phir teri kahani yaad ai
Phir tera fasana yaad aya . . .