Discover Dadasaheb Torne, the pioneering Indian filmmaker who produced Pundalik (1912), the first full-length feature film in India. After Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar‘s silent film The Wrestlers, released on 7th July 1896 in Mumbai, another filmmaker Dadasaheb Torne from Maharashtra, made headlines with the release of his full-length silent feature film Shree Pundalik. The film was released on 18 May 1912 at Coronation Cinematograph, Bombay.
Dadasaheb Torne, aka Ram Chandra Gopal Torne, was born on 13th April 1890. He was born into a Maratha family in Malwan village in Konkan, Maharashtra. At ten years, he quit school and moved to Mumbai, pursuing the dream for art and creativity.
Dadasaheb Torne’s Film ‘Shree Pundalik’
It may be noted Dadasaheb Torne’s film Shree Pundalik was released just a year before Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra, which was released on May 3, 1913. Yet Dadasaheb Torne does not get the credit of being the father of Indian cinema? Annoyed by the wrong interpretation of history, the two sons of the late Dadasaheb Torne have filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking that their late father, Dadasaheb Torne, be awarded the honor of Father of Indian Cinema!! The PIL has documents about the film Shree Pundalik’s advertisement in Mumbai’s Times of India.
Why is Shree Pundalik not considered India’s first silent film?
In 1969, the Maharashtra. Information Center, Government Of Maharashtra, published a book on Indian cinema. It confirmed Shree Pundalik was 8000 feet long, around 1.5 hours, thus a full-length feature film.
Well, though the documents submitted are correct, some technical errors make Dadasaheb Torne’s contribution to the history of Indian cinema unrecognized. So what are the reasons behind Dadasaheb Torne losing the honor?
The Profound History Of Shree Pundalik
Well, film historians argue Dadasaheb Torne’s Shree Pundalik was not shot like a film; instead, Dadasaheb Torne directly filmed a popular Marathi film on camera! Torne just fixed the camera on one platform on the stage and recorded the play. Thus Torne’s Shree Pundalik did not have the basic film techniques like editing, close-up, long shot, etc. Hence it failed to satisfy the norms of filmmaking. The cameraman, a foreigner named Johnson, was not Indian.
The film was processed in London. In contrast, Raja Harishchandra was entirely indigenous, so Dadasaheb Phalke is rightly called the Father of Indian Cinema.
Though Dadasaheb Torne may have lost the honor of Father of Indian Cinema, he played a lion’s share in popularizing films in India. He started importing film-related instruments like cameras, roll, film, etc. Later, Dadasaheb formed his own company named ‘Saraswati Cinetone’ in Pune. Torne was instrumental in introducing many Hindi and Marathi legends like Mehboob Khan, Balaji Pendharkar, C. Ramchandra, Jayashree, Dada Kondke, Zubeida, and more.
Dadasaheb Torne had two sons, elder son Vijay Torne and younger son Anil Torne. On 19th January 1960, Dadasaheb Torne died in his sleep.
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