Director: Unknown Director; Producer: Department of Information and Broadcasting
Duration: 00:11:22; Aspect Ratio: 1.363:1; Hue: 312.949; Saturation: 0.002; Lightness: 0.312; Volume: 0.134; Cuts per Minute: 22.404
Summary: In 1943 the Film Advisory Board (FAB), the body that had been created to oversee the production of wartime documentaries in India, was dissolved and Information Films of India (IFI) was created in its place. Under this new organisation the Government of India assumed full responsibility for propaganda films. In addition, the government implemented the Defence of India Rule 44A, effective from September 1943, which required that every cinema in India show at least 2,000 feet of government ‘approved’ film at each performance. To ensure that the IFI’s films reached as wide an audience as possible they were issued in separate English, Hindustani, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu versions (‘Note for Cut Motion’). This closer governmental control of film production was a response to two main threats: the unrest in the sub-continent caused by the nationalist Quit India movement, and the growing seriousness of the war in south-east Asia (Garga, 2007, 97).
The Second World War deployed a large amount of Indian resources and manpower. By 1943, India was third only to Britain and Canada in producing goods for war supply (Jackson, 2006, 358). The number of soldiers serving in the Indian Army grew from 205,058 men in October 1939 to 2,251,050 in July 1945, the majority of whom came from rural areas (Brown, 1994, 319; Garga, 2007, 109). The war effort had its effect on the Indian economy, bringing with it both inflation and food shortages (Brown, 1994, 325).
Among the Empire countries India provided the most serious opposition to Britain’s War aims. The outbreak of war witnessed the leading Indian political party, the Indian National Congress, resign from government rather than support the war cause, and in 1942 the party launched the ‘Quit India’ movement, demanding full independence for India.
This otherwise uncredited film was produced by the Prabhat Film Company ‘for the Films Division of the Government of India’ in 1945. Established in 1929, and based in Maharashtra, Prabhat was one of the major Indian film companies of the 1930s (Ganti, 2004, 16). One of its founders and leading directors was V. Shantaram, who left the company in the early 1940s and went on to serve as production chief at the FAB (Garga, 2007, 80). However, by the time the IFI was created Shantaram had resigned from his post (Woods, 2001, 293). His production duties were taken over by Ezra Mir, who gradually steered IFI films away from War propaganda towards films that dealt with the socio-economic and cultural life of Indian people (Garga, 2007, 108-09). In Rural Maharashtra, in fact, deals with both aims.
The IFI’s films were primarily aimed at an Indian audience (Brock 1945), but some of them also received a non-theatrical distribution in the UK. In Rural Maharashtra was reviewed in relation to its educational value by the British movie press, receiving qualified praise (MFB, 13 October 1946, 144).
Maharashtra is located on the western coast of India, but its size and status have altered over time. Until the seventeenth century much of the area that now constitutes. Maharashtra was under Mughal rule. The credit for founding the Maratha Empire is given to the general Chhatrapati Shivaji (1627-1680), who during his lifetime reclaimed much of India from Muslim rule. The British defeated the Marathas in the third Anglo-Maratha war (1817-1818) and subsequently most of Maharashtra became part of Bombay State. Following independence, demands were made for a unification of Marathi speaking regions under one state; Maharashtra was formed in 1960, becoming the third largest state in India. Agriculture continues to be the dominant occupation in the state, and the primary religion is Hinduism (Tikekar, 1966, 13-18).
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