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Dadasaheb Phalke and the Birth of Indian Cinema
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Phalke’s vision was achieved by his opting to re-engage and re-introduce
his countrymen and fellow filmmakers to India’s continuing aesthetic traditions
and postulates on performance, drama, and narration. He disseminated
his ideas on the purpose and nature of film appreciation through extensive
commentaries in the press and in public lectures. Simultaneously, he encouraged
an entire generation of actors, technicians, and filmmakers to be mindful
of “entertainment with enlightenment,” a tenet that would guide narrative
concerns in popular Indian cinema.
A grateful nation and the Indian film industry acknowledged Phalke’s
contribution by naming its highest lifetime achievement honor for film personalities
presented by the government of India after him: the Dadasaheb
Phalke Award. This is presented every year by the president of India on the
third of May, the date Phalke first screened his indigenous Indian film Raja
Harishchandra at Bombay’s Coronation Cinematograph in 1913.