Director: J.J. Madan; Writer: Sayed Aga Hasan Amanat's play (1853); Cinematographer: T. Marconi; Cast: Nissar, Jehanara Kajjan, A.R. Kabuli, Mukhtar Begum
Summary: Big-budget adaptation of Sayed Aga Hasan
Amanat's Indrasabha written in 1853 for the
Lucknow court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah. The
often staged play had elaborated the Rahas
style, adapted from the Ras-Lila form of Hindi
folk theatre and brought specific music and
dance conventions into Urdu prose theatre.
This new style gradually amalgamated, says
Somnath Gupta (1969), 'The Hindi Devmala
[Hindi Pantheon] with the Islami Ravaiyat'
and crystaliised into a plot stiucture revolving
around a benevolent king whose moral fibre is
tested by celestial powers as they cause an
apsara (a fairy) to appear before him as a fallen
woman begging for mercy. The language
assimilated the Urdu ghazal, Hindustani,
Bajbhasa and dialects usually spoken by
women (zanana boli). As performed in the
Parsee theatre, this performance style also
absorbed aspects of European opera, esp. its
neo-classical visuals which already contained a
measure of baroque Orientalism. The 69 songs,
familiar from the stage productions, suggested
an Indian equivalent of the Ziegfield Follies.
Madan also drew on his Italian connections
(Savitri, 1913) and asked his Italian
cinematographer to model the complex choral
mise en scene on the venerable Italian epics.
The film repeated the popular singing duo of
Nissar and Kajjan from Shirin Farhad (1931).
Marconi later shot and probably directed the
Tamil feature Vimochanam (1939).
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