V. Shantaram: Remembering the pioneer filmmaker on his 116th birth anniversary

Widely hailed as one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, V. Shantaram was a successful director, actor and producer who played a vital role in introducing sound and colour to Indian cinema. (Youtube Grab)

Google on Saturday paid tribute to veteran Indian filmmaker V. Shantaram with a doodle on his 116th birthday. (Image Courtesy Google)

Shantaram was known for selecting movies with strong female characters. His film Kunku (Marathi), based on a successful novel, told the story of a young girl who, when forced to marry an ageing man, braves social ridicule by refusing his demands to consummate the marriage. (Youtube Grab)

His other famous films include Amar Bhoopali (1951), the musical Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) and the first Marathi film in colour, Pinjra (1972). (Youtube Grab)

In 1946, Shantaram directed and played the lead role in ‘Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani’, which had both Hindi and English (‘The eternal tale of Dr. Kotnis’) versions. It was based on a true story of Dwarkanath Kotnis, an Indian doctor who led a medical team to China to attend to the sick and wounded people, most of them victims of the China-Japan war. According to renowned film critic B.D. Garga, it was a “remarkable film, unabashedly patriotic and, strangely enough, satisfying to the colonialist government in India, the Communists and the Congress party”. (Youtube Grab)

In 1957, he made the critically acclaimed ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’, which bagged a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. (Youtube Grab)

In 1929, Shantaram, along with V.G. Damle, K.R. Dhaiber, S. Fatelal and S.B. Kulkarni, founded the Prabhat Film Company. (Youtube Grab)

Among his more important works in this early phase was the hit ‘Amrit Manthan’, made in both Hindi and Marathi, the first film produced by Prabhat Films in its Pune studio. (Youtube Grab)

In 1929, Shantaram, along with V.G. Damle, K.R. Dhaiber, S. Fatelal and S.B. Kulkarni, founded the Prabhat Film Company. (Image Courtesy Wikicommons)