Niranjan Pal

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Niranjan Pal (17 August 1889 – 9 November 1959) was an Indian playwright, screenwriter, and director in the Indian film industry in the silent and early talkie days. He was a close associate of Himanshu Rai and Franz Osten, with whom he was a founding member of Bombay Talkies.

Biography

Born on 17 August 1889 in

Madanlal Dhingra in London. By the late 1910s, he started writing and eventually wrote The Light of Asia and Shiraz, both of which were performed on stage in London. Both were commercially successful and attracted the attention of German filmmaker Franz Osten, who made screen versions in India. Himanshu Rai, then a lawyer, also acted in one of Niranjan Pal's plays Goddess also performed in London,[1] though some sources suggest that it was Devika Rani who first met him, through their common Brahmo Samaj connections, which paved way for his eventual stake in the creation of Bombay Talkies.[2]

Following the successes of

Achhut Kanya (1936), Janmabhoomi (1936), Jeevan Naiya (1936) and Jawani Ki Hawa
(1935). Of these Achhut Kanya was the most popular, and continues to be a landmark film as it dealt with the subject of untouchability.

He also collaborated with noted dancer, Uday Shankar to write a libretto for first Indian ballets, performed by Anna Pavlova and Uday Shankar himself.[3]

Family

Niranjan Pal's family is in the film industry, his son Colin Pal was a prominent journalist, and film historian, who wrote books, 'Shooting Stars' and autobiography "Aye Jibon: Such is life" won a National Award from the Indian Government in 2001. Colin died, on 28 August 2005, after a prolonged illness, in Mumbai, at the age of 83 [4]

Bibliography

  • "The Goddess;" a Play of Modern India, 1922.

References

  1. ^ Himanshu Rai Biography www.upperstall.com.
  2. ^ pib.nic.in/prs/iffi2007/birth.pdf Birth Centenaries - Devika Rani Biography
  3. ^ Arts of Transitional India Twentieth Century, by Vinayak Purohit. Popular Prakashan, 1988
    ISBN 0-86132-138-3
    ., Page 1023.
  4. ^ Colin Pal Obituary Screen, 2 September 2005.
  • Cinema Vision India, Published by s.n., 1980, Page 58.

External links

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