'HARISHCHANDRACHI FACTORY' BY PARESH MOKASHI

- AN ANALYSIS

The movie is about a man from a lower-middle class who starts the trend of movie-making and establishes the movie industry in India.

Inspired by the movie ‘Amazing Animals’, the protagonist begins to film his own ‘moving picture’. Despite facing financial problems, we find him trying to make ends meet, balancing his family as well as keeping his dream alive. He gets so deeply influenced by his own ambition that he is not able to move from in front of the cinema, which was his source of inspiration. This, however, resulted in his acquiring an eye power. His apparent ignorance to the use of spectacles makes him believe that he has lost his eyesight.

As the movie goes on, we realize the most popular belief that was prevalent during that time, that of ‘losing one’s caste on stepping out of the native soil’ plays no part in preventing Phalke from going to London for ‘further studies’. In fact, the issue of caste has been entirely excluded from the movie content, as even sex workers and eunuchs have been given much prominence. However, the movie brings out the irony of the Indian society where a woman is not humiliated when she puts herself ‘on sale’, but she is definitely humiliated when she acts in front of a camera. It also brings out the myth that most of the sex workers are females, for no male has been depicted as being engaged in such activities.

The movie also projects the ‘civilising mission’ of the West, as Phalke undergoes a drastic change in terms of his clothing style, during his stay in London. We see him shifting from the traditional Indian dhoti to a tie-and-suit attire. However, Phalke refuses to let European thoughts influence his own, as he rejects the opportunity to shoot his films in London, believing that India needed to experience movie-making so that they could make use of this source of entertainment.

We realize that the protagonist does not lose sight of his objective and remains true to his roots, as he refrains from brewing up arrogance and ego within himself; Phalke remains humble throughout.

The movie also projects the initial unwillingness of the people to accept anything that is new and different from the conventional things. Thus, Phalke’s initiative to shoot his films was treated with a lot of suspicion and hostility, so much so that he was soon termed as a ‘madman’. The people had associated his craze for shooting with the impact of British influence on the people.

The movie also brings out the Indian belief of having a deep sense of belongingness towards one’s family. It brings out the fact that even a nuclear family can have a strong sense of togetherness. Usually it was seen that siblings, especially brothers, were not always in genial terms with each other. In the movie however, we see that the three siblings had a jovial relationship which also portrayed them being a strongly knit family.

Most importantly, though, is the fact that the movie shows the family as being a supportive backbone for Phalke’s ambition. No possible job can ever be completed without the support of family members. And so, despite facing financial loss, Phalke’s family pampered his dream till it was finally achieved. The movie also brings out the general idea that ‘behind every successful man, is a woman’.          

The movie also acts as an encouragement for parents to support the girl child and be happy for the birth of a baby girl. The movie does not project any bias towards the male child, but gives enough prominence to the baby girl.

It is also worth noting that Phalke’s work crazed mind is obsessed with meeting the deadline. Even the accident of his elder son does not stop him from discontinuing with his shooting. Though he was not being a careless father, he had still preferred his job over the well-being of his son. This showed the gradual inclination of mankind to overlook any kind of interference or interruption that may hamper with the ‘job-at-hand’. It showed the gradual assimilation of the Indian society into the rat race where competition is a predominant factor.

In terms of the technicalities, we notice that the actors in Phalke’s movie had made use of white sheets that acted as the fill light, key light being naturally present (the sun).

Lastly, the actors, while filming Phalke’s ‘motion picture’, were aware of the cinematic time and space, as they had rightly pointed out the presence of a jackfruit tree that would have hampered with the cinematic time portrayed through the script.