Down Melody Lane..::..Article on Films, Personalities, Music Reviews and More..

The story of New Theatres is woven with the history of Indian cinema. The Calcutta based company zoomed into the limelight in the 1930s with its output of quality films. In themes as well as technique, the films of New Theatres carried a distinct stamp of the Bengal school, setting it apart from its contemporary film companies like the Prabhat and the Bombay Talkies.

New Theatres emerged in the 1930s when film-making was maturing into a fine art. Starry-eyed youth, fresh from universities, were eager to make waves in the "moving pictures". The well-equipped studios of New Theatres, Prabhat and Bombay Talkies were turned into classrooms where Ashok Kumar and Bimal Roy took their first lessons under the arc lights.

Musical dramas and the bioscope shows preceded the advent of New Theatres. Stalwarts like Dhiren Ganguly - D. G., as he was popularly known - and J. F. Madan, a pioneer in bioscope cinema and a prominent exhibitor, had tried their luck at film production and D. G.'s Velaat Fera (England Returned), a whacky comedy on "the evils of western influence on the Indian youth", was a big success. However, it was a young engineer, an alumni of the University of London, who became instrumental in putting Bengal on the map of Indian cinema. Birendranath Sircar, son of S. N. Sircar, a celebrated lawyer and later the advocate general of Bengal, set up New Theatres in 1931 with a modern studio in Tollygunge. D. G. and Devaki Bose were his two lieutenants.

Suave and soft-spoken, Sircar had a sharp business sense, excellent administrative abilities and a hawk's eye for scouting talent. For instance, K. L. Saigal, a shy, diffident salesman who hummed ghazals and dadraas on his harmonium when not promoting the sales of the Remington typewriters, became a legend under Sircar's martinet gaze. Soon, New Theatres grew into a beehive of talent including Nitin Bose, Bimal Roy, Hemchander, Saigal, Pahari Sanyal, K. C. Dey, Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran, Phani Mazumdar, Jagdish Sethi, Uma Shashi, Leela Desai, Jamuna, Kananbala, Seeta Devi and Asit Sen. Stalwarts from Bombay like Prithviraj Kapoor and Durga Khote were only too willing to be on the floors of New Theatres. "Sircar was the pillar of strength. He could immediately judge a person's worth," says yesteryear's screen villain, K. N. Singh.

Though he did only two films - Anatha Ashram and Vidyapati - Singh is proud of his association with New Theatres. "The company had a galaxy of well-trained, well bred artistes and the work atmosphere was excellent," Singh says.

Mukul Bose, Pankaj Mullick, R D Boral & Timir Baran

Mukul Bose, Pankaj Mullick, R D Boral & Timir Baran

Director Devaki Bose, a fiery nationalist, was straight out of a novel. A scion of the royal family of Gauripur, a princely state in Assam, he had all the trappings of a Saratchandra hero. The Bose - P. C. Barua team has left an unmistakable stamp on the film of New Theatres, like Bhakta Chandidas, Vidyapati and Bhakta Puran. Though made with an eye on the box-office these films were suffused with Vaishnavite philosophy - a deep sense of humanism, simplicity and secular values. Of these, Bhakata Puran made a nation wide impact and was immediately acclaimed for its unadorned beauty and sheer poetry.

However, it was Devdas which firmly established New Theatres credentials. Based on the classic novel by Saratchandra, Devdas set the tradition of romantic-tragic hero on the road to self-destruction. The film was produced, as was the company's wont, both in Bengali and Hindi. Barua played the star-crossed lover opposite Jamuna in Bengali while Saigal essayed the title role in Hindi version.

The film sof New Theatres were widely appreciated for their simple plots, pithy dialogue and, most of all, the melodious music. Songs like Dole, dole, dole hridaya ki naiya; Aayee Bahar, Aayee Bahar; Chale pawan ki chaal; Main kya jaanoo jadu hai; So jaa rajkumari; Ek bangle bane nyara; Kahun kya aas niraas bhai were super-hits, next only in popularity to the nationalist slogans like Simon Commission Go Back and Namak Ka Kaanoon Tod Diya. New Theatres combined the bramho-Rabindra Sangeet (K. C. Dey - Pankaj Mullick) with the traditional thumri of north India (Saigal). Undergraduates in Lahore like Chetan Anand, Balraj Sahani, Raj Khosla and O. P. Naiyyar moulded their dreams to the tunes of Saigal, Mullick and Dey. Down south, S. S. Vasan and L. V. Prasad were swept off their feet by the New Theatres magic.

Over the years, New Thetres gave a string of wholesome, home spun films, enriched with melodies and dealing with a range of social themes in the films, Mukti, Dushman, Doctor, Badi Didi, Meera, Street Singer, and Sapera.

However, the advent of World War II saw the beginning of the end of the glory of New Theatres. Lured by the contact system, Devaki Bose and Saigal made a beeline to Bombay while Barua and Jamuna setup their independent company. Again, a new concept of entertainment was introduced by crime thrillers like Bombay Talkies Kismet and Punjab-made films like Rattan and Zeenat.

To cap it all, the war-time recession and the extravagant overhead expenditures ate into the revenue of New Theatres. Monobina Rai, wife of late Bimal Roy describes the life style in New Theatres as a "Zamindari". The afternoon tea on a typical day at the studio resembled the Viceroy's garden party, what with a liberal round of samosas, pakodas, sweets and high quality tea from Assam. Though Bimal Roy made a valiant bid to keep New Theatres going with films like Humrahi and Pehla Aadmi, the effort did not pay the essential dividends. A massive inferno in the studios in the mid-1050s came as the blazing climax.

The elephant banner of New Theatres was kept flying high by a group of dedicated directors including Nitin Bose (Sangram and Milan), Bimal Roy (Do Bigha Zameen, Bandini, Sujata). The New Theatres spirit remains enshrined in every filmgoer's heart right to this day.