The director of such cinematic classics as \u2018Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani\u2019 and \u2018Do Aankhen Barah Haath\u2019, Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre, better known as V. Shantaram, was born on November 18, 1901, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.<\/p>\n
As a teenager he did odd jobs like railroad repairs and maintenance work. When he turned 16, to supplement his meagre wages, he took up a job at a local tin-shed cinema where he did everything from painting signs and ushering people in, all for a sum of Rs 5 per month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Films were a new, exciting medium then and Indian pioneers like Dadasaheb Phalke had already started experimenting with Indian mythological themes in films. The young Shantaram admired Phalke and became an avid film viewer, watching western films with great interest as well. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Soon, Shantaram, surrounded and mesmerised by films, started assisting a photographer, and then joined Baburao Painter\u2019s Maharashtra Film Company in Kolhapur. Here he learned the craft of filmmaking and did everything from acting to production to working as a lab assistant. He played the role of a young farmer in Painter\u2019s 1925 film \u2018Savkari Pash\u2019, and directed his first film, \u2018Netaji Palkar\u2019, in 1927.<\/p>\n
In 1929, Shantaram, along with V.G. Damle, K.R. Dhaiber, S. Fatelal and S.B. Kulkarni, founded the Prabhat Film Company. Initially they worked with very basic studio facilities. However, Prabhat Films, as it was popularly known, moved to Pune in 1933, and would go on to produce more than 40 films in Marathi and Hindi in less than three decades, and today is regarded as a vital part of India\u2019s cinematic history.<\/p>\n
In 1931, \u2018Alam Ara\u2019, the first Indian talkie, directed by Ardeshir Irani and produced by the Imperial Film Company in Bombay, was released, a momentous occasion for Indian cinema. Prabhat Films, though short of funds and resources, quickly made three sound films in Marathi, including \u2018Ayodhyecha Raja\u2019, directed by Shantaram himself. Durga Khote, a Brahmin girl, played a prominent role in the film.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shantaram followed this with films in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil.<\/p>\n
Among his more important works in this early phase was the hit \u2018Amrit Manthan\u2019, made in both Hindi and Marathi, the first film produced by Prabhat Films in its Pune studio. With splendid sets and colourful costumes, the film spoke about the importance of a religion that celebrated peace, and established Shantaram as a prominent filmmaker.<\/p>\n
Other impressive Shantaram films followed such \u2018Amar Jyoti\u2019 (1936) and \u2018Duniya Na Mane\u2019 (1937), both of which focused in different and dramatic ways on gender justice and women\u2019s place in society. Social and contemporary themes echoed in his films, like the 1941 \u2018Padosi\u2019, which is about communal strife and how it affects neighbours. In 1941, Shantaram left Prabhat and created his own production firm, Rajkamal Kalamandir. The 1943 super hit \u2018Shakuntala\u2019, which was directed by him and ran for 104 weeks, was made at the new company.<\/p>\n
In 1946, Shantaram directed and played the lead role in \u2018Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani\u2019, which had both Hindi and English (\u2018The eternal tale of Dr. Kotnis\u2019) versions. It was based on a true story of Dwarkanath Kotnis, an Indian doctor who led a medical team to China to attend to the sick and wounded people, most of them victims of the China-Japan war. According to renowned film critic B.D. Garga, it was a \u201cremarkable film, unabashedly patriotic and, strangely enough, satisfying to the colonialist government in India, the Communists and the Congress party\u201d.<\/p>\n
He directed other successful films in the next few years including \u2018Lokshahir Ramjoshi\u2019 (1947), which promoted the Marathi Tamasha spectacle, and \u2018Amar Bhoopali\u2019, the 1951 biopic that popularised the Lavani dance form.<\/p>\n
In 1957, he made the critically acclaimed \u2018Do Aankhen Barah Haath\u2019, which bagged a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. A morality tale, it is about a jail warden who believes in the inherent goodness of man and rehabilitates six convicts. Garga called it a \u201cbrilliant film that depicted the true human being within\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shantaram made films for an astonishing six long decades. The 1987 film \u2018Jhanjhar\u2019 was the last film he directed. He died on October 30, 1990, in Mumbai. For his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema he was conferred with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1985 and Padma Vibhushan (posthumously) in 1992.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on Shantaram\u2019s legacy in The Hindu<\/em>, veteran journalist and media critic V. Gangadhar wrote on the occasion of the birth centenary of the legendary film-maker: \u201cMuch before the \u2018Hindi Chini bhai\u2019 hoopla unleashed by Jawaharlal Nehru during the 1950s, Shantaram had brought the people of the two great nations together in his film, \u2018Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani\u2019\u2026 Film-making was a social crusade for Shantaram. \u2018Dahej\u2019 dealt with the evils of the dowry system. Who would have thought of prison reforms and national integration in the early 1950s? But Shantaram did.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Also on this day:<\/p>\n 1892 \u2014 Rustomji Jamshedji, Indian Test cricketer, was born<\/p>\n 1910 \u2014 Batukeshwar Dutt, Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter, was born \u00a0<\/p>\n 1946 \u2014 Kamal Nath, union minister and Congress leader, was born<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The director of such cinematic classics as \u2018Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani\u2019 and \u2018Do Aankhen Barah Haath\u2019, Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre, better known as V. Shantaram, was born on November 18, 1901, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. As a teenager he did odd jobs like railroad repairs and maintenance work. When he turned 16, to supplement his meagre wages, he took up a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n