Bengal Elephants (in Blues and Greys)

Abstract

This article charts a narrative history of the studios situated in Calcutta, during the 1930s and 1940s. Through an exhaustive research of the studio documents and archival material, along with the study of the mesh of material found in the public domain, this article shows the collective function of disparate houses. It demonstrates the import of smaller stories, which are often appropriated to produce a larger national narrative. The purpose of this article is to look into specific production companies located in Calcutta, in the effort to recount the multifarious accounts of the Indian studios. Clearly, one of the methodological difficulties of writing histories for cinema from the sub-continent appears to be the zeal to produce a concise history of our manifold experiences. This article aims at confronting and disturbing such conjectures, and brings up new material and fresh methods in its attempt to write history of the ‘studio era’ in India. Within this framework, this article argues for a ‘shared history of Bengali cinema’, produced particularly by New Theatres Ltd., and Sree Bharat Lakshmi Pictures and describes it as ‘histories of elephant pictures’. Briefly, this article presents rare archival material and proposes new approaches of writing history.