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| − | The family, consisting of the child Phalke and his parents, leaves for Bombay.
| + | [[Through the looking glass]] |
| − | 1879 - 86 - BOMBAY
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| − | The train moves on.
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| − | After a time, it enters a cave-like Victoria Terminus, almost as though entering a camera obscura, and halts.
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| − | A crowd gets off.
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| − | Phalke is separated from his family and gets lost.
| + | [[Phalke, 1879 -86, Bombay]] |
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| − | [[Darkness descends]]. | |
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| − | He is alone in a deserted Victoria Terminus, bewitched by the carvings of gargoyles, lizards, lions, tigers, flora and fauna, like in a fairyland.
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| − | Suddenly it starts to rain, and everything comes to life.
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| − | Streams of water pour out of the stone mouths of mythical monsters, frothing at the jaws.
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| − | Phalke is shaken, shivering with cold, crying for his father in the dark. | |
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| − | But it is in a still [[unreal twilight]] outside VT station that a group of boys from the JJ School of Arts sits with hammers and knives, carving out figures on the terraces and the tops.
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| − | The cotton loaders are teasing a Victoria look-alike, a mad woman at the fountain outside.
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| − | Picking up leaves as if to build a nest, small birds move above.
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| − | A Victoria enters and drags the woman away by the hair.
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| − | A mad dog chases Phalke through a backdrop - streets, railway lines, ships and factories.
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| − | He enters a palace and finds the princess stretching her arms and calling his name, and then metamorphosing into a frightening old woman.
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| − | With a jerk, Phalke comes awake.
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| − | Phalke roams from camp to camp with [[photographs]] of his wife and child, looking for their bodies.
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| − | Wandering desolate after their death, a paranoid Dada meets Nicephore Niepce, one of the [[Lumiere Brothers’ 40 magicians]].
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| − | Phalke travels with Niepce and learns the history of chemistry and mechanics.
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| − | They become popular figures in north and central India.
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| − | They play trick slides.
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| − | A large mirror in a carved frame is on the stage.
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| − | Phalke is invited onstage, where he is asked to walk around the mirror and examine it to his satisfaction.
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| − | Niepce asks him to don a hooded red robe.
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| − | He then positions him some ten feet from the mirror, where the vivid red reflection is clearly visible to the audience.
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| − | The theatre is darkened, except for a brightening light that comes from within the mirror itself.
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| − | As Phalke waves his robed arms around and bows to his bowing reflection, his reflection begins to show signs of disobedience.
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| − | It crosses its arms over its chest and starts waving them about.
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| − | Suddenly, the reflection grimaces, removes a knife and stabs itself in the chest.
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| − | The reflection collapses onto the reflected floor - it is he himself.
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| − | Now a ghost-like white form rises from the dead reflection and hovers in the mirror.
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| − | All at once, a ghost emerges from the glass.
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| − | It looks towards the startled, terrified spectators.
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| − | The masterful illusion mystifies even professional magicians who agree only that the [[mirror]] was a trick cabinet with black lined doors in the rear and an assistant hidden inside.
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| − | The lights were probably concealed between the glass and the lightly silvered back.
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| − | As the lights grew brighter, the mirror grew transparent, and a red-robed assistant showed himself in the glass.
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| − | The ghost was more difficult to explain, despite a big tradition of stage ghosts.
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| − | It was said that concealed magic lanterns produced the phantom, but no other magician was able to imitate the effect.
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| − | Even in these early years, there was something uncanny about the illusions.
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| − | But some said that Nicephore was not a showman at all, but had sold his soul to the devil in return for unholy powers.
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| − | As the guru and his disciple traveled across the country, Nicephore made him paint the backdrops with his chemical jugglery.
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| − | Phalke is a changed man when he returns home to Baroda.
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