Karma (1933)
Director: J.L. Freer Hunt; Writer: Diwan Sharar, Rupert Downing; Producer: Himansu Rai; Cinematographer: Desmond Dickinson, Emil Schünemann; Editor: Challis Sanderson; Cast: Devika Rani, Himansu Rai, Abraham Sofaer, Sudharani, Diwan Sharar
Duration: 01:03:47; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 21.079; Saturation: 0.534; Lightness: 0.320; Volume: 0.223; Cuts per Minute: 23.545
Summary: Himansu Rai continued addressing the
European markets with this effort directed by
an ex-Royal Navy captain better known for
Navy propaganda and training films. The
simple plot has the maharani (Devika Rani) fall
in love with the neighbouring prince (Rai)
despite her father's disapproval. Shot and
synchronised at Stoll Studios in London, it is
presented as an Orlentallst fantasy wlth a by
Indlan standards
scandalously prolonged kiss.
Devika Rani's melodious English was a major
selling point, with songs like
Now The Moon
Her Light Has Shed and an advertising blurb
quoting the
London Star. 'You will never hear a
lovelier voice or diction or see a lovelier face'.
Variety (30 May 1933) described it as 'a sort of modern American romance done against an Indian background.'
The film flopped. encouraging Rai to concentrate on Bombay
Talkies.
Squirrel scene
"I hope that I have managed to establish who Devika Rani really was. A rebellious and unusually talented and beautiful woman, a great actress and studio head who changed the course of Indian cinema in many ways, despite her intense personal suffering. A pioneer then and now," writes author Kishwar Desai of "The Longest Kiss (Westland), the biography of India's first international superstar in the 1930s and 1940s.
"I hope this book will be of help to others who care to study this very important phase in Indian cinema, with its passion, idealism and entrepreneurship, in the days before it became a business like any other, adds Desai, whose husband, Lord Meghnad Desai is a lifetime member of Britain's House of Lords.
Astonishingly beautiful, prodigiously talented, and a great-grand-niece of Rabindranath Tagore, Devika Rani (1908-94) earned rave reviews for her first film, "Karma" (1933), a bilingual in Hindi and English. It elicited interest in England for a prolonged kissing scene featuring the real-life couple of Devika Rani and actor-producer-director Himanshu Rai, one of the pioneers of Indian cinema whom she had married in 1929, but bombed in India.
https://www.onmanorama.com/lifestyle/news/2020/12/22/the-longest-kiss-kishwar-desai-devika-rani-biography.html
Song: The Moon Her Light Has Shed
kiss
We’ve all heard of it. We’ve seen the photograph. But have we watched the film?
If we had indeed watched Karma (1933), we wouldn’t be talking about how taking kisses out of Indian cinema made no sense considering what had been shown in this bilingual film made as an Indo-German-British collaborative effort.
The story goes that actors Devika Rani and Himansu Rai – husband and wife in real life – were engaged in a four-minute kiss, supposedly the longest till date on the Indian screen. The truth, though, is quite different.
For, the prince played by Rai is almost dead – or even actually dead – from a snake-bite. And while Devika Rani does shower frantic kisses on him, he is quite inert and far from being a participant. Finally, she tries to breathe life into him, after which the film comes to an end.
And that’s all there was to it. Nothing steamy about it at all.
Manish Gaekwad
https://scroll.in/reel/371/when-a-kiss-is-not-a-kiss-leave-alone-being-the-longest-one
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