A man of many arts (1890-1954)
Baburao Painter, film director, painter and sculptor, nicknamed ‘Father of Indian Film Art’, was also known by the sobriquet ‘Painter’, as he was a well known scenic painter with several theatre companies.
Born Baburao Krishnarao Mestry on 3 June 1890 in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, he taught himself to paint, and sculpt in academic art school style. Between 1910 and 1916, together with his artist cousin Anandrao, he was a leading painter of stage backdrops for Sangeet Natak troupes and those of Kirloskar Natak Mandali, Govindrao Tembe and Bal Gandharva, as well as Gujarati Parsi theatre.
Post the release of Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, the duo became avid filmgoers and with a movie projector, proceeded to exhibit films, studying the art of movies in the process.
In 1919, Baburao founded the Maharashtra Film Company, which went on to launch careers of many filmmakers, technicians and artistes. With movie acting, especially tamashas looked down upon in conservative societies like Kolhapur, the studio itself was a living quarter for quite a few, including leading ladies.
Baburao’s first feature film was Sairandri (1920), which got heavily censored for its graphic depiction of slaying of Keechak by Bhima. The intense realism horrified the audience, with women screaming, assuming it was real, and the scenes were deleted. However, the movie got positive commercial and critical acclaim. He acted in Kalyan Khajina (1924) and in Sinhagad (1923), among others.
Painter’s films dealt with realistic subjects with mostly patriotic or mythological themes. While his master piece Savkari Pash (1925) was inspired by the plight of illiterate farmers and their exploitation by money lenders; Lokshahir Ram Joshi (1947) was based on the life of an18th century poet and lavani singer popular in the time of the Peshwas. The patriotic tone of Sinhagad appealed to Lokmanya Tilak so much that he conferred the title of “Cinema Kesari” on Painter. The film did very well and the government went on to levy entertainment tax on it. Savkari Pash, however flopped, as the audience, long fed on mythological fantasy and historical love was just not prepared for so strong a dose of realism. Baburao returned to the tried and tested costume dramas.
A man of many talents – he wrote his own screenplays and was also the first Indian filmmaker to adopt the method Eisenstein (the Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage) had described as ‘stenographic’.
He sketched the costumes, movements, and characters; changed the concept of set designing from painted curtains to solid multi-dimensional lived in spaces and introduced artificial lighting apart from understanding the importance of publicity. While filming for Sinhagad, Baburao fell off a horse, the injuries causing a lifelong speech defect.
He introduced sophisticated art-direction techniques, as well as innovations in lighting and cinematography. He also painted tasteful, eye-catching posters of his films. Painter however, was not excited about the advent of sound in 1931, as he fervently felt that the talkies would destroy the visual culture so painfully evolved over the years, and believed that cinema should go beyond language. Yet, moving with the times, he made talkies as well.
Out of the 18 silent films and nine talkies that Painter made, surprisingly, only five – three talkies Pratibha (1937), Lokshahir Ram Joshi and Matwala Shahir (1947), and two silent films Murliwala (1927) and Sati Savitri (1927) are available today at the National Film Archives of India, Pune. Says Ashok, his grandson, “In those days, filmmakers used nitric films, which caught fire easily. A number of his prints were destroyed like that. Besides, whenever anyone would ask for prints of his films, my grandfather would never refuse. Those never came back”.
In conclusion, Baburao on his 125th birth anniversary will always be remembered for the many innovations and for his portraits and sketches of actresses and illustrations in Marathi books and magazine covers. He died on 16 January 1954 in Kolhapur, at the age of 63.