Devdas, the Bengali film of 1935 based on Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s famous book, and Devadasu, the first Telugu version of the novel and starring A. Nageswara Rao. These and other milestones in the long and colourful journey of Indian cinema come alive in an exhibition of posters of ‘Restored classics’ of the National Film Archives of India.
The exhibition, at Kanakakkunnu, intends to create awareness of the National Film Heritage Mission, an NFAI project for preservation, conservation, digitisation and restoration of film and filmic material. The Rs.597.41-crore project is being implemented on a wide scale for conservation of restoration of film reels, restoration of short and feature films, and digitisation.
It begins with the poster of Raja Harischandra, the first Indian film that came out in 1913, directed by Dadasaheb Phalke. A silent movie, it had male actors playing female roles.
Posters of Malayalam yesteryear classics such as Marthanda Varma (1931), based on C.V. Raman Pillai’s novel of the same name, with references to the Swadeshi movement, and newsreel footage of the temple procession of Chithira Tirunal, Kunhali Marakkar , Mudiyanaya Puthran on workers’ struggles, Adimakal which won the president Silver Medal, Adhyapika which won the National Award for Best Malayalam Film, Estheppan , Chidambaram , and Kummatty by G. Aravindan, Mukhamukham by Adoor.
