THE FIRST MARATHI TALKIE

‘AYODHECHA RAJA’

Ayodhyecha Raja literally "The King of Ayodhya",was the first Marathi talkie,released in 1932,directed by Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (V.Shantaram).It is based on the mythological story of Raja Harishchndra of Ayodhya ,double-version of the films was also been made as Ayodhya Ka Raja in Hindi dailogue.The first ever full-length feature film "RAJA HARISHCHANDRA" (1913) was made on the same storyline.  It was the first talkie film of Prabhat Film Company and also for its directoe V.Shanataram .It turned out to be a great hit for the film indusrty and along with the entry of Durga khote from the upper classes to enter the cinema and paved way for other women to enter the cinema.

Indian movies first began to speak in 1931 when the Imperial Movie tone’s Alam Ara was released at the Majestic cinema on March 14, 1931, thus not only catapulting the company’s owner and the film’s director Ardeshir Irani into the pages of history but converting the Indian cinema into a veritable Tower of Babel by opening up the possibility of so many fractured regional cinematographies. It was soon after this that the scramble to make films in one’s own regional language began and the universality of the silent film was lost. The fact the Alam Ara became the first Indian talkie was a mere quirk of fate for the much more powerful Madan empire was very much in the race to make the first talkie and given its extensive international contacts and business risk of making a talkie had he not been talked into it by his general manager R.G. Torney, who had just bagged an agency to market the Audio Camex Recording Machinery. Irani, of course, went ahead and installed the Tannar equipment to make Alam Ara.

However, it was Torney and his Audio Camex Recording Machinery that the Prabhat partners turned to when they decided to embark on their first feature film a scant six months later in order to be able to work in silence (the prime requisite for a sound film at least in those days when there were no dubbing facilities), the fledgling Prabhat Film Company shifted its base from its centre-of-the-city location at Managalwar Peth to the Tarabai Park, then  on the outskirts of Kolhapur. Titled Ayodhyecha Raja in Marathi and Ayodhyaka Raja in Hindi, it was decided to make the film in two language versions. This decision was crucial to not only Prabhat but the entire Marathi film industry since it set the pattern for much of the filmmaking on the western coast in the 1930s. These dual versions not only helped filmmakers reach a wider audience but made the limited-audience Marathi film a economically viable entity when its business was balanced with that of the Hindi version. Coincidentally the story chosen for the first Marathi talkie was that of the ever-truthful King Harishchandra who prefers to face all manner of tribulations merely to fulfill a promise the 114 same as that of Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra. It was natural that Prabhat’s star director V. Shantaram was selected to direct the venture which was to be photographed by K. Dhaiber with the technically-minded Vishnupantr Damle as the sound recordist. The fourth

partner S. Fatehlal was the obvious choice for art direction. Both the versions of the film were shot over a period of 19 days during which there were enough mishap and merry mix-ups to fill a book. However, none could match the near tragic comedy that took place on the day after the shooting. Soon after the film had been processed Shantaram sat down to edit it and to his horror discovered that it was totally out of sync. Both Shantaram, the director, and Damle, the technician, spent a sleeples night before Damle figured out that it was only a loose switch which had thrown a spanner in their works. The fault was corrected and Ayodhyecha Raja was ready for the world at large its Hindi version was shown as widely as Burma, Java and Sumatra. 

For many years it was believed that the first film to be made in the Marathi language was Prabhat Film Company’s Ayodhyecha Raja (1932). Evidence to the contrary was unearthed only recently in 1989 to be precise, while preparing a detailed year-wise Marathi filmography for the Chitra-Utsav organised by the Jagatik Marathi Parishad. Now the first Marathi film is believed to be Master and Company’s Sant Tukaram, written by Babajirao Rane of the Rajapurkar Natak Mandalim and directed by K. B. Athawale on the advice of none other than Dadasaheb Phalke. The film was actually a sound synchronised version of a silent film based on one of the more popular plays in the theatre company’s repertoire and was filmed on outdoor locations in Pune. At first it was thought that the film was nothing more than the filmed version of the stage play but still photographs from the film reveal that it was also filmed outdoors,Thanks to the archival foresight shown by the Prabhat partners a complete print of Ayodhyecha Raja is preserved at the National Film Archive of India, Pune.

Both films opened in Bombay (Mumbai) on the same day (February 7, 1932) Sant Tukaram at the Hindmata and Ayodhecha Raja at the Majestic. But while the latter ran for a phenomenal of14 weeks, Sant Tukaram sank without a trace after a couple of weeks. The fact that Ayodhyecha Raja was a bilingual (in fact, the first Indian bilingual, made in Hindi and Marathi) and starred noted artistes (Govindrao Tembe, who also scored the music, Durga Khote and Baburao Pendharkar) contributed to its fame and durability at the box office.In later years, the two Sant Tukarams must have been confused and Ayodhyecha Raja being the better-known film, the claim that it was the first Marathi feature film have gained currency while the Prabhat Film Company not only survived to make more films but actually dominated the 1930s.