Pahari Sanyal in Vidyapati (1937). Courtesy National Film Archive of India.
The New Theatres classic Vidyapati, directed
by Devaki Bose and exploring the life and times of the fourteenth-century court
poet Vidyapati, is remembered even today for its sonorous songs and melodious
music. Surprisingly, the song lyrics draw no inspiration from the renowned
poet’s words. Nor is the film in Maithili, the language in which he
communicated. Rather, the 1937 film is in Hindi and Bengali.
Maithili cinema had to wait
until the 1960s to begin its journey in Indian cinema. Kanyadan from 1965
is credited as the first movie in Maithili. Phani Mazumdar’s film is based on
Harimohan Jha’s novel of the same name. The theme of a mismatched married
couple is depicted through a difference in language – the characters speak
Maithili and Hindi, respectively. Noted Hindi writer Phanishwar Nath “Renu”
wrote the dialogue for Kanyadan.
Naihar Bhel
Mor Sasur, directed by C Parmanand, might have been released earlier
than Kanyadan had it not faced production obstacles.
Ultimately released in the mid-1980s under the title Mamta Gabay Geet,
the movie is still remembered for its dialogue and songs, by such leading
playback singers as Geeta Dutt, Mahendra Kapoor and Suman Kalyanpur.
The list of Maithili-language
movies is sparse. It includes Jai Baba Vaidyanath (Madhusravani), Sasta
Jingi Mahg Senur, Kakhan Harb Dukh Mor and Ghogh
Me Chand. These productions revolved around social themes and used the
narrative idioms of mainstream Hindi cinema.
Maithili was included in the
Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution in 2004. The Mithila region, which
encompasses parts of present-day Bihar and Nepal, is known for its language,
literature and culture. And yet, it is Bhojpuri, the language spoken in Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand, that has produced a more vibrant and sustainable
cinema. Any discussion of the cinema of Bihar begins and ends with Bhojpuri
films.
Production on the first
Bhojpuri film Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo began at
around the same time as Mamta Gabay Geet (which was delayed by
at least two decades). Kedarnath Chaudhary, one of the producers of Mamta
Gabay Geet, said, “Bhojpuri films reached their zenith while Maithili
remains at the bottom.”
The 1966 Hindi-language
film Teesri Kasam, directed by Basu Bhattacharya and produced by
the lyricist Shailendra, was based on the short story Mare
Gaye Gulfam by Phanishwar Nath ‘Renu’. Could Teesri Kasam have
been made in Maithili? The movie, starring Waheeda Rehman and Raj Kapoor,
depicts Mithila’s culture and has scenes containing Maithili dialogue.
Kedarnath Chaudhary said, “If Teesri Kasam had been made in
Maithili, the trajectory of Maithili films would have been very different.”
A strong culture ofmovie-watching existed in Bihar right from the earliest years of cinema. Patna
still has Elphinstone Theatre, which came up in 1919 and started off by
screening silent films. And yet, not only have there been relatively fewer
films in the local languages, but also the existing productions are poorly
preserved. Prints of the first Maithili film Kanyadan are
unavailable today – even the National Film Archive of India in Pune doesn’t
have a copy.
Regional cinema has managed to
conquer new territories in the past two decades. Films made in Marathi, Punjabi
and Malayalam films have been popular beyond their language markets. There is a
glimmer of hope for Maithili films, represented by Nitin Chandra’s Mithila
Makhan (2015), Roopak Sharar’s Premak Basat (2018)
and Achal Mishra’s Gamak Ghar (2019).
Mithila
Makhan is the only film to have won a National Award for
Best Film in the Maithili language. Gamak Ghar has received
widespread critical acclaim and has travelled to several film festivals. Yet,
distributors have been largely unenthusiastic about backing Maithili films.
Director Nitin Chandra said, “Distributors do not even know that there is a
language called Maithili in which films are made.” After streaming services
rejected Mithila Makhan, he released the film this
year on his own online platform, Bejod.in. Clearly, the story hasn’t changed
too much since Mamta Gabay Geet. It appears that all these
years later, Maithili cinema is wandering in search of a home.
(Scroll.in, 5th December 2020)
(All these years later, Maithili cinema is still in search of a home)
