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A Century of Bollywood
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Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai in Karma.
Photo courtesy of NFAI
Barua (1935), Bimal Roy (1955), Sanjay Leela Bhansali (2002), and Anurag
Kashyap (2009), featuring such stars as K. L. Saigal, Dilip Kumar, Shah
Rukh Khan, and Abhay Deol playing the character of Devdas, respectively.
Each of these films remain landmark achievements.
14. 1935—The Fearless Nadia franchise of stunt-adventure films is launched
with an unusual action hero in Hunterwali (The Lady with a Whip), a
feminist heroine who thrashes man after man in film after film, each
with more or less the same storyline. A noted sex symbol, her onscreen
exercising while wearing gym shorts is an erotic highlight for her many
followers.
15. 1936—Bollywood’s first iconic love duet is crooned by two star-crossed
lovers, an upper-class Brahmin boy (the dapper Ashok Kumar) and a
village girl belonging to the “untouchable” working class (the exquisite
beauty Devika Rani). The actors may appear too posh to portray their
underprivileged characters, but their sincere interpretation of “Main ban
ki chidiya” (“I am a jungle bird”) in the Bombay blockbuster Achhut Kanya
(The Untouchable Girl, 1936) remains a timeless romantic melody. The song
was composed by Saraswati Devi (a.k.a. Khorshed Minocher-Homji), one
of the few female songwriters to make a mark in film.
16. 1938—The Indian film industry celebrates its Silver Jubilee with the convening
of a Motion Picture Congress, with conferences and a screening