Hiralal Sen – The pioneer who banished into oblivion.

The Statesman on 21st October 2022.

On 25th March 1917 The Englishman newspaper of Calcutta reported a news under the heading “ Fatal Calcutta Fire “.

In it’s sub heading it says “ Bioscope Proprietor’s Daughter Killed “. In it’s report it stated of gutting down an office and store room of Royal Bioscope Company at 9/1Bray Bagan street near Cornwallis Square”.

What it did not mention was with this fatal fire one of the most important part of India’s cultural history is destroyed forever. The flame of fire of that Saturday night permanently hushed all tangible testimonial of India’s earliest work of cinema picture an art form that will soon become the biggest mode of public entertainment in India.

The fire of that evening actually destroyed all work one Hiralal Sen’s cinematography made under various companies since 1898 when in India movie making was an unknown craft. With this Hiralal Sen pathetically lost his place in history to Dada Saheb Phalke whose 1913 motion picture is now considered a pioneering work of Indian cinema and it very wrongly gives Phalke the highest herald calling him father of Indian cinema.

The journey of Indian cinema making was actually started in Calcutta’s Classic Theatre on 4th April 1898 when a short film of few minutes was shown before a play. This news was published next day in Amrita Bazar Patrika and later in Indian Mirror – Though there is no evidence that film screened on 4th April was made by Sen. The owner of the theatre Amarendranath Dutta was good friend of Sen and in 1898 itself Sen purchased expensive camera and other equipment from March John Wrench & Sons of London to form a company named HL Sen & Brothers later known as Royal Bioscope. He sent d Rs 5000 and even paid a commission of 2.5% to a company named John Elliot to import machines to Calcutta . In 1899 Sen purchased another camera from Warwick Trading Company of London.

At that point of time as history records no one in India had any experience of making any motion picture. Thus the assumption goes that any film made in India during that time span was actually made by none other than Hiralal Sen.

However there is full evidences that from 1898 to till 1917 Hiralal Sen made almost all kind of motion pictures and obtained a pan India fame covering Assam to Delhi. His pioneering work got him the offer from British Government to film the great Delhi Durbar a rare honor for an Indian film maker.

Hiralal Sen was born in Bogjuli village of Dhaka on 27th July 1869 ( 1866 or 1867 ?? ) in a rich family.

His father was a top lawyer. At early age Sen won a national recognition by winning a photography competition organized by Bourne & Shepherd . He went on winning seven all India best photography prizes between 1887 to 1898. His love for photography was soon to be converted into his love for handling a movie cinema.

When some European freelancers started showing films at various theatre hall of Calcutta , Sen became a frequent there as spectator and even tried to learn it from them. His success was minimum thanks to the non-cooperation from saheebs who did not like an entry of an Indian in that space. By paying frequent visits to Star theatre where one Stevenson regularly used to show films Sen tried his best to understand the language of cinema making .

Sen with his avid interest in film making got a chance to learn it little more from Rev Eugene Lafont of Calcutta’s St Xavier’s college. Sen got massive support from the man. It was an unexpected blessing to Sen.

By reading books on film making and with an imported camera Sen started a company named Royal Bioscope in 1898 which was finally registered in 1902. Meanwhile he and his younger brother Motilal had another show on 19th November 1898 again in Classic Theatre. Advertisements of the show were published in The Statesman and The Indian Mirror newspaper. Meanwhile Pathe Frere Company of France had a tie up with Royal Bioscope and it helped Sen to learn many technical aspects and tips of movie making.

In 1900 Sen made two films –One was actually a recording of a Bengali stage play named “Parasya Prasun” by Girish Ghosh and other was titled as “ A Panorama of Indian Scenes & Processions” which was a collection of few small random shots of Chitpur Road, bathing sequences in Ganges etc. This film was shown in Star Theatre of Calcutta on 10th December 1898 before a Bengali play named “ Sati Ki Kalankini “ ?

In the same year Sen made two trick films with his new camera – One film was shown to students of General Assembly which later known as Scottish Church College on 21st November 1900 in their reunion – It had a commercial release in Classic Theatre on 21st November 1900. Later on both the films had a commercial release on 2nd December 1900.

They first started commercial shows in Minerva theatre in 1899 and from 1901 Sen brothers started showing films regularly at Dalhousie Institute drawing huge crowd in every show. For commoners of Calcutta it was all new experience. A huge amount of appreciation on one hand and with good business prospect on the other Sen and his brother Motilal went on doing few more short films. Two more of Sen’s movie were made in 1901. Those were a part of the play named Duti Pran , Laxman Barjan and Moja. Last two were first shown on 3rd July 1901.

Amrita Bazar Patrika dated 9th February 1901 gives the evidence that Sen’s company is doing film shows of atleast seven plays of Classic theatre including Bramar, Alibaba, Sarala, Bridha O Sitaram etc.

In 1902 his company imported few more cameras from London and next year they got the Government contract of filming the celebration of Edward- VII ‘s coronation in India. This is considered India’s second news reel film after “ Return of a Wranger “ made by Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar Bombay.

The contemporary media was all praised for Sen’s work.

A report published in The Bengalee dated 2nd December 1902 reads ….” The Royal Bioscope Company, the company we understand have made a valuable addition to their excellent repertory of photo accessories. They have united a high class and beautiful finished machine for laking animated photography and they intended laking impression of Indian life and scenery’.”

The Bengali periodical “ Bangabashi “ also hailed Sen’s work saying it’s work deserves high appreciation.

Sen and his company stepped into history in 1903 when they filmed a complete Bengali play named “ Alibaba O Chollish Chor” and released the film commercially. This was also a filming of a stage drama and not based on an creative film script.

It’s advertisement proudly avowed “ Complete Drama – Vivid Drama – Flawless Drama”. This was what Hindu Patriot dated 23rd January 1904 published an advertisement. It is known that at this point of time Classic Theatre was closed for six months and it is believed that it was closed for public because Sen was filming the stage play in that period.

Important to note that it was the second time that they filmed Alibaba – Earlier Sen bothers filmed a part of the play mostly of some dance sequences and that was shown in 9th February 1901 as an additional attraction of stage play. Actors who were captured in that film were Amar Dutta, Kusumkumari etc.

This time it was a complete filming of that play.

If this “ Alibaba “ was really a complete feature film made by Sen and released commercially in 1903 then this is not only the first complete feature film made in India but the oldest film of the world Edwin Porter who made “ The Great Train Robbery “ also released in 1903. This is a huge honour for every Indian.

Many researchers doubted that this Alibaba may be an imported foreign film but film historian Somnath Roy after checking all volumes of Motion Pictures ( 1894-1949 ) published by America’s Library of Congress has concluded that no such film was made in Europe and America during that period – So Alibaba made by Sen in 1904 for the second time was indeed a complete feature film made by an Indian.

Sen touched one more milestone in 1905 when he made two advertisement films first of it’s kind in India. He made one of Batakrishna Paul’s “ Edward Anti-malaria Specific “ and other is CK Sen’s “ Jabakusum Hair Oil “. The first one was shot at Dumdum while second one was shot at Agarpara near Calcutta. In that sense Hiralal Sen is also the father of Indian commercial advertisement movie. Before Sen no one ever thought to do a commercial movie.

In the same year by filming nationalistic leader Surendranath Banerjee’s political meeting at Calcutta’s Town Hall Sen brothers made it of India’s first political meeting in motion picture. One Jyotish Sarkar took the charge of the camera in this project. Very unfortunately h these land-marking works now have no evidences. Sen brothers “ Royal Bioscope Company “ soon became the top travel cinema company doing all kind of entertainment.

Sen’s company started getting invitation to film private functions of rich and famous in Bengal, Orissa and Assam. They were called to film private parties of royal families of Bhawal and Baneli.

Apart from their regular shows in Classic theatre Sen also used to show his films in Minerva and National theatre and even with a foreign travelling theatre company named Unique. On 2nd February 1901 Sen had his cinema show in All India Industrial Exhibition and received a gold medal with grand ovation for his high quality cinematography skill. The grand success of Royal Bioscope inspired to come up plethora of new bioscope companies like London Bioscope, Oriental Bioscope, Imperial Bioscope etc and all of them had their primary learning of the art from Hiralal Sen.

Lord Curzon who had seen Sen’s work in one of the garden party at Malda was pleased to see his work. No wonder that in 1903 Delhi Durbar Sen was invited to capture moving moments in motion camera.

“ Royal Bioscope “ started facing tough competition from 1905 onwards when JF Madan entered Bengal to do the same business.

That was the time when Hiralal also failed to show his steel as a business man and failed to respond to Paul Royal the head of Pathe Frere on time for a joint venture. Pathe Frere was very interested to work with Sen in India but they were simply ignored him. In their absence that place was utilised by JF Madan who played smart to earn from single scope to make money and fame and he did it very well.

Last big project that Sen executed was filming of Delhi Durbar in 1903 and arrival British Royal Family George-V and Queen Merry ‘s arrival in Delhi in 1911. In 1913 his younger brother Motilal parted with him and Sen also left Royal Bioscope with bad memories.

He first formed a company named HL Sen & Co but soon left to join a new company named London Bioscope with a partner named Ram Dutta . They even opened a show house where present day Ganesh Talkie is situated. However Sen was soon financially cheated and lost everything. Sadly by this time or so he was detected with cancer.

Sen now jobless, near insolvent and suffering from cancer had entered into a pathetic stage of life. It forced him to sell out his house in Haritaki Bagan near Ultadanga and forced him to come in a rented house by the address 18 Blacky Lane.

In 1917 after making atleast 40 films of different form Hiralal Sen painfully saw his entire foundation work is consumed by flame leaving no evidences of his pioneering contribution finally died as an isolated and broken man. Even from his death bed Sen kept on giving free consultation to young film makers and even to JF Madan to whom he lost his empire.

In 1917 JF Madan became a giant in Indian film and Dada Saheb Phalke who started making film much later of Sen captured the crown of India’s pioneering persona.

In 1927 Government of India instituted a “ Cinematograph Enquiry Committee” under the presidency of Dewan Bahadur T Rangachari .This committee interviewed Dada shaheb Phalke on 13th February 1928 and based on Phalke’s claim that before him in India there was none who worked with cinema blindly and irresponsibly concluded that Phalke is the pioneer of Indian cinema. This narrative ravaged the truth that nearly 9 years before Phalke’s feature film Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra a man from Calcutta indeed made a complete drama on screen. This wrong narrative is now cemented.

Without belittling one this must can be said that Hiralal Sen is no doubt the father of Indian cinema but his own weakness and misfortune declined him the right position in history.

Roughly Hiralal Sen has made three advertisement reels, five news reels, eight documentaries including political meeting and various marriage ceremonies of rich families. He also made more or less twelve feature films which were all filmed version of stage plays.

Hiralal Sen is a legendary pioneer who did a tremendous job to popularise cinema in India .His life and work were very badly archived .Today just hundred years after his demise he is not even remembered by common cinegoers. There is not a single well researched biography of him available in the market. The fire at his younger brother’s house which killed his niece had also killed his entire achievement of life.

Today not a single film made by him is available to watch not even a single still photo and a photograph of himself. Only some paper cutting news, old advertisements, personal memories and few tangible evidences like his camera etc somehow protecting his name from getting banished into oblivion.