Ardeshir Irani: The Man And His Bombay Movies
- Shivendra Singh
- Feb 5, 2016
- 4 min read
Let me put things in perspective.
1905. A brand new century had just begun! India was waking up from her stupor. A long, tough battle, nevertheless, still lay ahead. Bengal was partitioned. Politics started to gain vibrancy and momentum. Next year, Prithvi Raj Kapoor would be born, who would begin his career at the film-studio established by the subject of this article, and later, would go on to become a pioneer himself. A great leader, who would be hailed as the Father of the Nation, would return home in some years and usher in a great revolution. The world elsewhere was churning, too, and in less than a decade a bloody World War would start and rage on and on.
In that year, 1905, and amidst the tides, a young man (nineteen years old, to be exact) — yes, Ardeshir Irani was his name — would roam around Bombay, pondering: "What to make of my life? What to make of myself?"
He had a degree from that much-famed institution in Bombay — Sir J.J. School of Art. To make money, he had his father's gramophone company to fall back on. And around him, social and political storms were brewing and clutching the attention of his contemporaries.
His interests, nevertheless, and, therefore, his land of action, lay elsewhere.
He had his eyes and ears open to new developments, and before he turned twenty, he began importing movies from Hollywood. He became the representative of Universal Studios, and started showcasing Hollywood in and around Bombay — in tents!
Thoughts led to actions; actions fed more thoughts — so that the young man started to burn with ambition! Tents turned into theatres, and Ardeshir Irani, along with a friend, started running Alexandra Cinema, which would go on to become a legendary hotspot.
It was there, at Alexandra Cinema, while screening flicks from Hollywood and numerous other silent films made in India (makers led by Dadasaheb Phalke), that Ardeshir Irani developed a huge interest in the art of filmmaking. One can imagine the young man going about his day — running the theatre in daytime, and dropping in the movie-halls at night to watch movies, to notice the intricacies involved, to observe and learn the art, and then to break out with ones own plans and course of action!
In 1917, at the prime age of 31, he made his first movie — a silent feature, and transformed from being just a showman to also being a showmaker.
Every great invention, and every piece of excellence, is preceded by a tortuous course of trials and errors, of crests and troughs. Ardeshir Irani had his share of that course. He started and restarted film-houses, failed and failed again, spent considerable time in gathering his choice of artists, and then he established Imperial Films — a movie production house that would give India her famous and first superstars: Prithvi Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan (he would go on to make Mother India), Fatima Begum (the first female film director of India), Yakub, and numerous other artists who started coming of age.
When Hollywood entered a new era by making talkies, Ardeshir Irani (the entrepreneur, the innovator!) swiftly took note of the changing dynamics, and made up his mind to introduce sound in Indian movies. Sound in films, even in Hollywood, was, at first, thought of as "vulgar". Like any great development that questions and disturbs the status quo, it, too, was met with resistance and was considered to degrade the "purity" of the silent age. Yet, it was to the credit of Ardeshir Irani's chivalry and far-sightedness that Indian movies embraced this new development almost simultaneously as Hollywood did, and blossomed out brilliantly.
(Perhaps, the fact that both Hollywood and Bombay Movies shared their respective Golden Eras almost at the same time underscores the efforts of those early film stalwarts in India who didn't shy away from competing with foreign film houses and setting high standards.)
To make that first talkie — Alam Ara (1931) — Ardeshir Irani, then almost 44 years old and well-established, flew to London to learn the art of sound-recording, like a student embarking upon a new career, a fresh phase. After he returned, Indian movies were never going to be the same. Indian audiences thronged to cinemas to watch their favourite stars "talk"! Tickets were selling at five times the standard rates, and were still bought!
Imagine what a sensation it would have been! Imagine those full houses, in those days in Bombay!
Few people know that Ardeshir Irani was also the first person to make an English movie in India, and also the first person to make a feature film in colour! He did that with Kisan Kanya in 1937.
Perhaps, it is the brilliance of Ardeshir Irani's career that it overshadows the nature of the age he was living and working in. To put things in perspective, again: India's struggle for independence was at its peak when he was contemplating and making movies. Quit India Movement was about to hit the streets. A second World War — crazier, bloodier — had started. And very few people at the time were interested in arts, let alone movies.
But Ardeshir Irani made his way THROUGH all that. He may not have participated in the freedom struggle directly, but he used his medium to open doors — and windows — for a much-tired society, and let some fresh breeze in — something that every revolution requires!
One of the achievements of the man was that if one could pick him up and drop him in our age — the second decade of the twenty first century — he would feel as much at home. He might have to adjust a little. But he would still be rich in vision, hungry for knowledge, and would burn with ambition, because that is how he had decided to live his life.
In those turbulent times, when the world was breathing stale air and was restricted within "narrow, domestic walls", Ardeshir Irani broke out and came across as a man who was way ahead of his times. He was cheerful, courageous, and brilliant. And so are his achievements!
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