By Prasanta Talukdar
Gauripur of Dhubri district in western Assam is said to be the leading centre of music, drama and culture of Assam. The ruling zamindars of Gauripur Estate made impressive contributions to the development of music, drama, fine arts and indigenous culture of this region. Rai Bahadur Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua was a famous zamindar and the main patron of music, drama, fine arts, sports and indigenous culture of western Assam.
Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua himself was a patron of learning, promoter of music, drama, arts, sports and local culture and contributed a lot to the growth of Goalpariya Folk songs.
Pramathesh Chandra Barua, the pioneer of Indian cinema, was the eldest son of Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua. Born on October 24, 1903, Pramathesh was into drawing, singing, and photography and was especially attracted to drama and theatre from his childhood.
Prabhat Chandra had deep interest in drama and he provided his son all support to bloom as an artiste. Pramathesh directed a drama ‘Fulshor’ at Gauripur and his father was the music director. He encouraged and assisted Brother Union Dramatic Club by providing them a permanent stage and a drama hall. He even donated dresses and musical instruments to this club.
Being a member of the royal family, Pramathesh was elected twice as representative to Assam Legislative Council. But he opted for a cultural life and devoted himself to the development of the cinematography.
He did graduation in science from Presidency College, Kolkata, in 1924. He was also a member of Senate of Calcutta University. But nothing could attract him more than the cinema world.
Pramathesh started his film career as a member of the ‘British Dominion Film Company’ in 1926. In 1929, he appeared for the first time on the silver screen through a film named ‘Panchashar’. But as an actor his first film was ‘Takay Ki Na Hay’, which was released in 1931. Then, he went to Paris to study film technology. He gathered knowledge in cinematography in Paris. He learned a lot about lighting. When he returned home, he brought with him some important instruments for filmmaking.
Pramathesh founded his own unit of film production known as ‘Barua Film Unit’ and began production of film with his own direction and production. Under his own unit he produced films like ‘Aparadhi’ (1931) and ‘Ekada’ (1932).
However, his film unit did not last long and in 1933, he joined the ‘New Theatre Limited’. Under this unit, a series of great films, like ‘Ruplekha’ (1934), ‘Devdas’ (1935) and ‘Grihadah’ (1936), were produced.
His breakthrough came through Devdas. The film was first made in Bengali, with Pramathesh playing the title role. In 1936, he remade Devdas in Hindi with KL Saigal in the lead role.
The Hindi version became a craze all over India and cemented Pramathesh as a top-notch director. He reached the zenith in the film world and he popularly came to be known as ‘Devdas Barua’.
Pramathesh introduced modern systems in Indian cinema and brought a revolutionary change to it. He first introduced artificial light in shooting of a film. Before that all the shooting were done in natural light. He was the inventor of the flash back system in cinema and introduced outdoor shooting in film.
In ‘Mukti’ (1937), he first applied outdoor shooting and most of the shooting were made in Gauripur Palace and its surrounding areas. Kabiguru Rabindra Nath Tagore named the film as ‘Mukti’. Concerning filmmaking, Pramathesh observed strict discipline and did everything systematically. He emphasised more on songs in film for which he is said to be the pioneer of the new trend of films where songs are an important ingredient.
Pramathesh Chandra Barua was the first Assamese who occupied so high position in Hindi as well as Bengali cinema. None can deny the valuable contribution of Barua to the evolution of Indian cinema.
In most of his previous films, Pramathesh Barua had a tragic hero. But in 1939, he made a movie ‘Rajat Jayanti’ that made people burst out with laughter. This film is considered to be the first Indian comedy cinema. In 1940, Pramathesh made ‘Shapmukti’ which greatly appealed to viewers.
Pramathesh is remembered for his creative role in cinematography. He was a dramatist, writer, editor, recorder, photographer, cinematographer, director and producer all in one. It is to be mentioned here that the people of Assam had some grievances that being an Assamese by birth and spirit, Barua had not made a single film in Assamese. However, he was about to start making film in Assamese but before its completion, he died on November 29, 1951 at the age of 48.
Pramathesh Barua is not only the pride of undivided Assam but also his creativeness, sacrifice, love, affection and devotion to the Indian cinema conquered the hearts of film lovers. He is remembered for his own style in Hindi cinema that was called ‘Barua style’. But in the wave of time, many may have forgotten this cultural legend from undivided Assam.
(The author works with Tattva Creations)