The first Showman Himself A Parsi Wife Muslim and Making Films in The Glory of Hindu Culture

Life Sketch Of The First Showman Of Hindi cinema

The first Showman Himself A Parsi Wife Muslim and Making Films in The Glory of Hindu Culture

#SohrabModi #SohrabModiBiography #DramaSeriesIndian

Sohrab Merwanji Modi was born on 2 November 1897 in Bombay. After finishing school, he became a traveling exhibitor in Gwalior with his brother Keki Modi. At 16 he used to project films in Gwalior's Town Hall and at 26 set up his Arya Subhodh Theatrical Company.

Sohrab began as a Parsi theatre actor with some experience in silent films. He earned quite a reputation as a Shakespearean actor, traveling throughout India with his brother's theatrical company and enjoying the tremendous sense of fulfillment every time the curtain came down and the audience applauded. However, with the advent of sound film in 1931, the theatre was declining. To rescue this dying art, Modi set up the Stage Film Company in 1935. His first two films were filmed versions of plays. Khoon Ka Khoon (1935) was an adaptation of Hamlet and marked Naseem Bano's acting debut. The second, Said-e-Havas (1936) was based on Shakespeare's King John. Both films failed at the box office.[2]

Personal life
Sohrab Modi was born into a Parsi family on 2 November 1897. His father was an Indian civil servant. He spent his childhood in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh where he developed a liking for Hindi and Urdu languages.[4]

Sohrab Modi was married to Mehtab Modi,[2] an actress born into an aristocratic Muslim family from Gujarat, who began her career in his movie Parakh (1944). They married on her birthday on 28 April 1946. They had a son, Mehelli, from this marriage[5] who settled in the UK in 1967, where he would later found the British arthouse DVD label Second Run.[6] Mehtab had a son, Ismail from her first marriage, who lived with them.[5][4]

There is an incident about Sohrab Modi's visit to Kolkata. Here he met with the Holy Mother Sarada Devi. Sohrab went to her for diksha but was denied permission. He reportedly asked to holy mother, "Maiji kuchh kijiye jisse khuda pehchana jaye". The incident of their meeting was not less than surprising. During her last days, none was permitted to come near the Holy Mother. But the day Sohrab had come for diksha, Maa Sarada could feel that someone has come for diksha from her saintly powers without anyone telling about him to the holy mother. She asked to send Sohrab to her and gave her many lessons which would be later helpful in his life.

Biography
He launched Minerva Movietone in 1936.[4] His early films at Minerva dealt with contemporary social issues such as alcoholism in Meetha Zaher (1938) and the right of Hindu women to divorce in Talaq (1938). Though the films did well, what attracted Modi was the historic genre. Minerva Movietone became famous for its trilogy of historical spectaculars that were to follow – Pukar (1939), Sikandar (1941) and Prithvi Vallabh (1943), wherein Modi made the most of his gift for grandiloquence to evoke historical grandeur.

Pukar (1939) was set in the court of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir and is based on an incident, perhaps fictional, that highlights Jehangir's fair sense of justice. Many of the key scenes were filmed on location, at the magnificent courts and palaces from the Mughal era, which gave the film an authenticity that studio-built sets could never achieve. The charisma of its stars, Chandra Mohan and Naseem Bano, and Kamaal Amrohi's oration, with its literary flourish and innate grace, ensured the film's popularity.[4]

Arguably Modi's greatest film was Sikander (1941), which immortalized Prithviraj Kapoor playing the title role. This epic film was set in 326 BC when Alexander the Great, having conquered Persia and the Kabul Valley, descends on the Indian border at Jhelum and encounters Porus (Modi), who stops the advance with his troops. Sikander's lavish mounting, huge sets, and production values equaled Hollywood's best, particularly in its rousing and spectacular battle scenes. The movie was rated by a British writer as "well up to the standard of that old masterpiece The Birth of a Nation." Its dramatic, declamatory dialogue gave both Prithviraj Kapoor and Sohrab Modi free rein to their histrionic proclivities.
(Courtesy- Wikipedia)

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