A Very Old Machine

Sudhir Mahadevan

Description

In A Very Old Machine, Sudhir Mahadevan shows how Indian cinema's many origins in the technologies and practices of the nineteenth century continue to play a vital and broad function in its twenty-first-century present. He proposes that there has never been a singular cinema in India; rather, Indian cinema has been a multifaceted phenomenon that was (and is) understood, experienced, and present in everyday life in myriad ways. Employing methods of media archaeology, close textual analysis, archival research, and cultural theory, Mahadevan digs into the history of photography, print media, practices of piracy and showmanship, and contemporary everyday imaginations of the cinema to offer an understanding of how the cinema came to be such a dominant force of culture in India. The result is an open-ended and innovative account of Indian cinema's "many origins."
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I: Obsolescence

1. The Nineteenth-Century Indian Techno-Bazaar

2. Traveling Showmen, Makeshift Cinemas: The Bioscopewallah and Early Cinema

Part II: Mechanical Reproduction and Mass Culture

3. Copyright and Cultural Authenticity: The Politics of Mechanical Reproduction in South Asia

4. The Cinema as Mass Culture: The Melodramas of Mechanical Reproduction

Part III: Intermediality

5. The Emergence of Topicality: Snapshot Cultures and Newspaper Photojournalism

6. Politics across Media: The Partition of Bengal (1905) and the Cinematic City

Part IV: Archives

7. The Abundant Ephemeral: The Protocols of Popular Film Historiography in India

8. Postscript

Notes
Works Cited
Filmography
Index

Sujets

• Histoire du cinéma
• Histoire du cinéma
• Histoire du cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinéma
• Cinema
• Film
• Electronic
• History of film
• History of Asia
• Visual culture
• Película fotográfica

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 06 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438458304
• Langue: English

Extrait

A VERY OLD MACHINE
Also in the series
William Rothman, editor, Cavell on Film
J. David Slocum, editor, Rebel Without a Cause
Joe McElhaney, The Death of Classical Cinema
Kirsten Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread
Frances Gateward, editor, Seoul Searching
Michael Atkinson, editor, Exile Cinema
Bert Cardullo, Soundings on Cinema
Paul S. Moore, Now Playing
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, Ecology and Popular Film
William Rothman, editor, Three Documentary Filmmakers
Sean Griffin, editor, Hetero
Jean-Michel Frodon, editor, Cinema and the Shoah
Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, editors, Second Takes
Matthew Solomon, editor, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination
R. Barton Palmer and David Boyd, editors, Hitchcock at the Source
William Rothman, Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze , 2nd ed.
Joanna Hearne, Native Recognition
Marc Raymond, Hollywood’s New Yorker
Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel, editors, Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground
Claire Perkins and Constantine Verevis, editors, B Is for Bad Cinema
Dominic Lennard, Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors
Rosie Thomas, Bombay before Bollywood
A VERY OLD MACHINE

The Many Origins of the Cinema in India
SUDHIR MAHADEVAN
Cover image: Bioscope in Surajkund Mela (annual fair) in suburban Delhi, India (Photo: Padmanabha Rao Pulakhandam)
Published by
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Albany
© 2015 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact
State University of New York Press
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Laurie D. Searl
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mahadevan, Sudhir, [date]
A very old machine : the many origins of the cinema in India / Sudhir Mahadevan.
pages cm. — (SUNY series, Horizons of cinema)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5829-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5830-4 (e-book)
1. Motion pictures—India—History. 2. Motion picture industry—India—History. I. Title.
PN1993.5.I8M326 2015 791.430954—dc23 2014045586
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I: OBSOLESCENCE
1 The Nineteenth-Century Indian Techno-Bazaar
2 Traveling Showmen, Makeshift Cinemas: The Bioscopewallah and Early Cinema
PART II: MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION AND MASS CULTURE
3 Copyright and Cultural Authenticity: The Politics of Mechanical Reproduction in South Asia
4 The Cinema as Mass Culture: The Melodramas of Mechanical Reproduction
PART III: INTERMEDIALITY
5 The Emergence of Topicality: Snapshot Cultures and Newspaper Photojournalism
6 Politics across Media: The Partition of Bengal (1905) and the Cinematic City
PART IV: ARCHIVES
7 The Abundant Ephemeral: The Protocols of Popular Film Historiography in India
8 Postscript
Notes
Works Cited
Filmography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
0.1 A Bioscope at Hauz Khas, New Delhi (Photo: Amit Malhotra).
0.2. A Bioscope at the Dastkar Mela, New Delhi, 2010, with mega-horn speaker, DVD player (not visible), and electrical light source (Photo: Amit Malhotra).
1.1 The photographer in Dehra Dun using a manual exposure “processing” camera with paper negatives (Source: David McDougall’s Photowallas [1991]).
2.1. Salim and his son conduct film showings for children in the neighborhoods of Kolkata, with a refurbished and retrofitted movie projector ensconced in a rolling wooden cart (Source: Tim Sternberg’s Salim Baba [USA: HBO, 2007]).
2.2. Thacker, Spink, and Company advertises an optical viewing device called a Panoramic Examiner (Source: Bengal Hurkaru , March 15, 1853).
2.3. On the outskirts of Pune, Rau Waghmare’s livelihood depends on a viewing device similar to Thacker, Spink, and Company’s Panoramic Examiner, and catering to children. See Prashant Kadam, The Bioscopewallah , 2007 (Source: www.visualcultures.com).
4.1. A manuscript of poems (Source: Pyaasa , Guru Dutt, 1957).
4.2. Printed and sold in the hundreds like hot cakes (Source: Pyaasa , Guru Dutt, 1957).
4.3. The poet petrified into a bust of stone (Source: Pyaasa , Guru Dutt, 1957).
4.4. Phalke the Craftsman (Source: Wikipedia/Creative Commons License).
5.1. “Some snapshots in an Indian bazaar,” Journal of the Photographic Society of India , vol. 17, 1903, np (Source: Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkata, India).
5.2. A reader of the Illustrated Weekly , Nov. 15, 1905, Supplement First Page.
5.3. “A Study in Expression,” Illustrated Weekly of India , Aug. 22, 1906.
5.4. “Feminine Curiosity,” Illustrated Weekly of India , Oct. 10, 1906.
5.5. “State entry. Their Excellencies Lord and Lady Curzon,” Delhi Durbar Album , Hoe and Company, Madras, 1903.
5.6. “Broad Daylight Dacoity in Calcutta,” The Statesman , March 3, 1908, 10.
5.7. The honest employee hides and watches his manager’s corruption. Frame from Black Sheep (1953, M. Bhavnani, Films Division of India).
5.8. The motion picture camera saves the day. Frame from Black Sheep (1953, M. Bhavnani, Films Division of India).
5.9. The act of human apprehension is edited into what is supposed to be hidden surveillance footage.
6.1. “Prize photo: Welding rail joints on the Colombo Electric Tramway. The Photograph was exposed, developed and printed and in no way was worked over by hand,” Illustrated Weekly of India , May 2, 1906.
6.2. “Rapid Housebuilding in Nasik,” Illustrated Weekly of India , September 16, 1906.
6.3. The convergence of technology and natural disaster. “The recent disturbances social and seismic in Calcutta,” Journal of the Photographic Society of India , Calcutta, Aug. 1897, 352–53 Courtesy Asiatic Society of Bengal, Kolkata.
6.4. “The abode of anarchy in Calcutta,” Illustrated Weekly , May 13, 1908.
6.5. A frame from Jallianwalla Bagh (1970, Films Division of India).
6.6. Partition Day in Calcutta, Illustrated Weekly of India , Oct. 31, 1906.
6.7. A tidal crowd. Date and photographer unknown. “India’s Independence Movement, 1857 to 1947.” Photo: Press Bureau of India. New Delhi, India.
7.1. An Engaged Audience. Source: Cinema Cinema .
7.2 Sight turns into touch. The projectionist is seduced by celluloid. Frame: Cinema Cinema .
7.3. This image of the theater appears in Cinema Cinema as well as Film Hi Film .
8.1. Interior of the proposed film museum by Yazdani Studio. Source: Indian Architect and Builder magazine, Jan. 2012 issue, courtesy of Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design.
8.2. Exterior of the proposed film museum by Yazdani Studio. Source: Indian Architect and Builder magazine, Jan. 2012 issue, courtesy of Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design.
8.3. Old Delhi, 2010 (Photo: Sudhir Mahadevan)
8.4. Old Delhi, 2010 (Photo: Sudhir Mahadevan)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Speaking of origins, the title of this book was proposed by Murray Pomerance at a DOMITOR conference a few years ago, during a brief ten-minute break between panels. Murray has been more than a friend and Series Editor at SUNY for this project (and with the title of this book, a conceptualizer-in-chief). His guidance has been invaluable in seeing this manuscript through to book form. Thanks go also to James Peltz, co-director of SUNY Press, to Rafael Chaiken, the production and copy editors Laurie Searl and Alan Hewat, the marketing team, including Kate Seburyamo, and everyone at the Press for seeing this manuscript through to publication.
I’m grateful to my intellectual and professional homes at the University of Washington in Seattle: the Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media, my current and past chairs in the department, Mì eàl Vaughan and Cynthia Steele, my colleagues in the Film Studies Program (Jennifer Bean, Eric Ames, Yomi Braester, Tamara Cooper, Cynthia Steele, James Tweedie), and my colleagues in the South Asia Studies Program in The Jackson School of International Studies. My film studies colleagues saw me through challenging moments by shouldering some of my existing teaching commitments. Particular thanks go to Jennifer Bean, James Tweedie, and to doctoral candidate Kathy Morrow in this regard. Without all of them, and the inspiration of their own scholarly work, this book is unimaginable. Marcia Feinstein-Tobey has been a pillar of administrative and logistical support, and along with Yuko Mera, an additional source of camaraderie that I have valued very much. Paul Morton copyedited early versions and also undertook some of the late research and scanning of images. I owe many of the same debts to the South Asia Program at the UW under the direction of Priti Ramamurthy and Anand Yang. Institutional support came in the form of a Society of Scholars Fellowship at the UW’s Simpson Center for the Humanities. Two quarters off as part of the Junior Faculty Development Program at the UW were additionally instrum