Mandakini
September 1918 - NAVYUG, BOMBAY - PART 4 [[1]]
, I was in the gloom of despair.
At that time, the flame of self-confidence was flickering due to lack of oil (or affection).
Will this flame of self-confidence get extinguished when this material body is dried up due to the lack of flesh? No.
When Lord Krishna, who is my all in all, the nectar enlightening me, the protector against disease, my future, my life, when my lord is pouring on me showers of affection in the form of the Gita, which flame can get extinguished?
Which hurricane can dare to extinguish it?
The Lord has cast on me a compassionate glance, after I have toiled hard for the last twenty-four years. Now, He feels that He has tested me enough, so he became kind and entered the hearts of other human beings and fondled me through them.
O Mother! Goddess! O Laxmi!
Keep me under your protection, and keep me free from blemishes.
Do not allow me to lose my innocence.
What pleasures lie in being without passions, jealousy and temptations.
O God, may I remain a child forever!
As I grow my beard and moustaches, let my inner heart always have the purity of a child’s.
My studio, Haudacha Bangla, is not a place of pilgrimage.
A devotee would at least acquire some merit if he visits Panchvati, Tapovan Godavari and Shri Ram (temple).
A large number of people drop in at the studio casually at any time for their amusement, simply because it happens to be on the way.
Obviously, this studio is not public property.
When this author was in difficulty, how many of these gallants came to his help?
If I talk to them, I waste my time.
If I don’t talk with them, they feel let down.
Visitors are certainly welcome if they come in my leisure time and after fixing up appointments by correspondence. I will arrange to satisfy their curiosity.
Other pilgrims cum visitors may drop a gold coin and go away silently.
For all these years, I have constantly been asking for financial assistance and now I am so exhausted that I cannot exert myself further.
This gramophone record (asking for financial help) is so used that it may crack at any moment.
My films are Swadeshi in the sense that the capital, ownership, employees and stories are Swadeshi.
The material and equipment required are simply not available in India at any cost. They are all foreign.
I have read one of my fellow filmmakers advertising his film as ‘Completely Swadeshi’.
I am not able to understand the meaning of ‘Completely Swadeshi’ simply by using higher and higher superlatives.
O India! You have already become the laughing-stock of the world, and the variety of types in the printing press is helping in this.
The same advertisement says, ‘Made by a person who has not gone abroad.’ This phrase fills my heart with admiration for that man.
I have never dared to do that. I have been abroad thrice, yet I have the desire to go there for the fourth time, as it is necessary.
There is no end to observation, education and self-improvement.
In a way, the phrase ‘Made without going abroad’ is serving the national cause.
We, the lowly traders outside Poona, have to be proud of the fact that India has been ready for Home Rule by this sentence, and will have to get inspired!
I never blow my own trumpet.
People admire me for my humble offerings like ‘Lanka Dahan’ and ‘Shri Krishna Janma’. What can I do about it?
Lokmanya Tilak reads the articles in ‘Navyug’.
With the help of Manmohandas Ramjee and Ratanseth Tata, Tilak decides to set up a private film company for Phalke.
Miss Fatima is prepared to put in capital of a lakh of rupees.
Phalke finally accepts an offer from the industrialists of Bombay, who are brokers.
Phalke Films is incorporated into the Hindustan Film Company, with Phalke as working partner, and VS Apte, Mayashankar Bhatt, LB Phatak, Madhavjee Jaisingh, and Gokuldas Damodardas as financing partners.
Phalke gives up Western dress and takes to wearing a dhoti and kameez.
Srikrishna, his sixth child, is born.
Inspired, Phalke decides to make ‘Sri Krishna Janam’.
The first film to be produced under the Hindustan Film Company banner is ‘Sri Krishna Janam’.
After this, Phalke decides to make ‘Kaliya Mardan’ with his daughter Mandakini in the role of the mischievous child-god, Krishna. The shooting begins One day, during the shooting, Mandakini is making faces at herself in the mirror. Dada sees her and slaps her face.
Descriptions of the snake, made of rope. The apparatus with the glass tank for the trick photography showing the serpent in the water explodes, injuring Dada in the leg.
. When Krishna leaves home, Mandakini gets carried away and sheds real tears.
During the shoot one day, she falls into the water, but refuses to allow her father to pack up.
When it is finally released, ‘Kaliya Mardan’ is a huge success.
VISUALIZATION FOR ILLUSIONLink title
Phalke tries to tell BA about how the screen shows only what you want to see.
BA does not understand. He goes in to the kitchen, unable to comprehend Phalke’s concept of the screen, which is illusion and at the same time charming and innocent.
Mandakini comes in, playing grown ups in her mother’s clothes, mimicking Saraswatibai.
At that moment, Mandakini signifies both woman and child, childlike and charming, yet coquettish and mature.
Like Krishna, the child-god.[[2]]
Show multiple faces of Krishna moving around the frame.
[The Family Contributes][3]
The opening of Kaliya Mardan (1919) gives one the impression that the screen test Phalke took of his daughter Mandakini, has been inadvertently spliced onto the main film. Judging from what he did earlier by making a study film on the making of Raja Harischandra, his present attempt seems to be a conscious decision and with a definite purpose. He could very well have made another short film explaining the do's and don'ts and the basic principles of acting before a movie camera, to accompany the main feature. But he preferred not to repeat himself and devised a novel method of introducing his daughter to the audiences to get their approval for her legitimacy in the film - also a kind of pioneering activity.
