Not many people of young age know about Smt Kanan Devi. Once she was the leading lady of Bengal Cinema. Honoured with Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1976. Thus many of young generation was not even born that time.
Title of her book is amazing, not many give such title? homage to All. So humble at heart. True to heart. down to earth all such words are coming to my mind in praise of her personality. while reading one gets more light of true self.
From Silent cinema to talkies she gracefully ruled in both medium. In her memoir she praised Jyotish Bandopadhyay. One who talked to her in nice words. But he said looking at her that silly girl, why you are crying?…… everybody will see you —- you will be famous. Later scolding her escort he said “ you can climb trees, can’t you? Go take a look at the guava tree. It’s full of fruit. You can jump up the tree and eat your fill. These kind words Kanan Devi as a girl heard for the first time when she went to seek work at a studio, and after sitting for a long time. She was scared, no body was even talking to her?
Now from these lines one can imagine how young was Kanan Devi ji. As she recalls she would have been nine or ten years old. But need to earn a living a child has to cling to whatever came her way to save herself and her mother from drowning. First film was joydeb, she received five rupees as payment. As she says it was like a lakh to me then.
That time as a girl she didn’t know about all this renumeration for working in film. Later she learnt that her payment was fixed at 25 rupees, but when payment was made by studio, only 5 rupees came to her hand. Where those 20 rupees gone? she never thought about that. She was in dire need of bread to eat so where was the time to know all this. Here I just wisht o pint out the extent of exploitation of girls in entertainment industry(read films) though there were other mediums too such as Jatra, Natak (Theatres- often in starting known as parsi theatre &Nautanki. Not to leave out the Mehfils or at Kotha or private mujra).
On shooting day she was dressed as Radha for the film, set was being readied but some how it was dragging for long so this little girl, The great Kanan Devi, ran outside into garden plucked unripe guava, climbed tree and while eating she slept. Meanwhile whole studio was searching for radha, after much time she was found sleeping on branch with half eaten guava in hand. What this tells us? A girl child, working hard, felt tired & hungry too, tried to get rest and fallen asleep on a spot where she felt the shadow from sun. What’s crime here? But she got a slap by the great master JyotishBabu, there too it was understood why? He was angry due to waste of time of studio and people in searching her?
She says in her memoir that she never told such things to her mother and sister. As she cannot see her mother to feel sad. So She always had a habit to keep everything inside her. She became introvert (if language finds that word appropriate) but actually she learnt to be self-respecting from childhood. Thus this tells that her conditions in childhood compelled her to become mature beyond her age. Later when she told everything to her mother, her mother consoled her, saying he cares for you that’s why he scolded you. And her mother also said Can anyone learn anything without being scolded? These were great teaching for young Kanan Devi. Later this all helped her as film producer, when actors and heroines tried to exploit her.
She was a great heart and mind as so much of suffering she suffered, but even then she remembered JyotishBabu in nice words, she says it was a great learning for her, in her career, it taught her to be more dedicated towards her work.
She says about her birth also. She remembered in her memoir that when his father died, how her mother had to suffer. Even in those days they had to struggle for one meal? Later she got a place to stay in a courtyard full of rooms on a rent. Few say that it was a brothel. In those days ladies without a home and without any family support, one can imagine, what kind of struggle they had to face? Where to live? What to eat? What to wear? From where all this will come? Her mother begged help from relatives, but no one cared for them. She says in her memoir that wherever they got shelter they had to work as domestic workers. Her mother used to work as servant in those relative’s house!! Tortured, broken in heart, they carried on for a while. Once a plate slipped mother’s hands and broken. All hell broke, they tried to beat her. Immediately young child KananDevi asked her mother to quit that house. Imagine that time and events, then you can think how was time? In which she had to struggle? It is story of all such families of girls or women who were orphaned, abandoned by relatives. We have read about Bengal of that time, Child widows, imagine in that society how such girls could have survived? Vidyasagar, BrahmoSamaj, Raja RamMohan Roy, and there were many. Child marriage, child widow and abandoned or doomed widows all these tells about our society of that times?
Then this sound came into films, with this came another disaster to many artists. They faded into poverty again. As she says, not everyone’s voice was found suitable in those sound machines. Many top level artists lost their jobs? But for Kanan Devi after initial nervousness her voice was found suitable thus her job was saved by her voice. She did learn singing under guidance of AllaRakkaji for quite some time. She got basic teachings of Hindustani sangeet and ragas from Ustadji. Later when the Gramophone Company invited her to cut a disc she met with NazurulKaziji, JN Ghosh introduced her to him. Being an actor she always felt that singing is more close to her. As in singing she felt freedom more that acting. She also felt self-confidence while singing. She had gone through bad phase in early life, as she describes. That shows the bad condition of women working in films and studios of that time. While reading her memoir one can understand the struggle of women in those times. Even I have read similar things about NatiBinodini, as she is known. She had to struggle a lot despite of this fact that she worked hard and brought life to stage arena. But people around her exploited her the most.
At one time in her career, she was shocked with an incident happened on set. While shooting was in progress, the hero near the end embraced and kissed her. This was not told to her by Director. She felt humiliated. As a young girl she felt bad, she wept but could not take revenge. She did ask director, he told that it was not told to you since they knew she would not agree. But such things should be taken by artists/actors lightly. Once actor also came to her and tried to hold her hand with malafide intention in garb of teaching her acting, as he felt that actors in English films did. Similarly a director also tried to get cosy with her. She had faced luring advances of males while she was trying to establish herself as heroine. But she was acting in films purely due to support her family. She had to face such exploitations during her growing years. But she succeeded in retaining purity honesty in her life till the end. She even managed to do some construction works herself while making her own house. Since the contractor was trying to be dishonest.
She later established Shrimati Pictures in 1949 and along with her husband Haridas Bhattacharya made few films.
Swayamkatha 