''Kisan Kanya'' was a

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

which was directed by Moti Gidwani and produced by

Ardeshir Irani Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani (5 December 1886 – 14 October 1969) was a writer, director, producer, actor, film distributor, film showman and cinematographer in the silent and sound eras of early Indian cinema. He was the one of the greatest l ...

of Imperial Pictures. It is largely remembered by the Indian public on account of it being India's first indigenously made

colour film Color photography is photography that uses media capable of capturing and reproducing colors. By contrast, black-and-white or gray-monochrome photography records only a single channel of luminance (brightness) and uses media capable only of ...

V. Shantaram Shantaram Rajaram Vankudre (18 November 1901 – 30 October 1990), referred to as V. Shantaram or Shantaram Bapu, was an Indian filmmaker, film producer, and actor known for his work in Hindi and Marathi films. He is most known for films such ...

had earlier produced a Marathi film ''Sairandhri'' (1933) which had scenes in color. However, the film was processed and printed in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

''Kisan Kanya'' was, therefore, India's first indigenously made color film. Kisan Kanya was based on a novel by

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, ur, , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author born in Ludhiana, who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing ma ...

and focussed on the plight of poor farmers.

Cast

Padma Devi Padma Devi (1917–1983) was a popular Indian Bengali Hindi/Hindustani Film Actress and playback singer of Indian cinema, in the silent era and the early talkies. Starting her career with the main role in ''Sea Goddess'' (1931), directed by Dhi ...

as Bansri *

Jilloo Jilloo was an Indian Hindi language film actress born in 1905 in Bombay, India as Zuleka Ebrahain. She acted in ''Mother India'' and ''Mughal-e-Azam'', the two biggest commercial and critical successes of the 1950s. She also acted in many movies ...

as Ramdai * Ghulam Mohammed as Randheer * Nissar as Ramu * Syed Ahmed as Muneem * Gani Gani as the ''Zamindar'' (landlord)

Production

Film pioneer Ardeshir Irani, who had produced notable films as ''Nala Damayanti'' (1920) which was India's first international co-production (with Italy) and India's first talkie ''

Alam Ara ''Alam Ara'' () is a 1931 Indian Hindustani-language historical fantasy film directed and produced by Ardeshir Irani. It revolves on a king and his two wives, Navbahaar and Dilbahaar, who are childless; soon, a '' fakir'' (Muhammad Wazir Khan) ...

'' (1931) conceived the idea of producing a color film. The result of his efforts was the color film ''Kisan Kanya'' made with the Cinecolor process whose process rights Irani had obtained from an American company. The film performed moderately at the

box-office A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is freq ...

. Kisan Kanya was based on a novel by

and focused on the plight of poor farmers.

Songs

The film had music by Ram Gopal Pandey, and had ten songs:

Trivia

* The first Indian color film to be made entirely in India (the earlier Sairandhri (1933) was processed and printed in Germany). This film was also more favorably received than its predecessor.

References

External links

*
Kisan Kanya
on indiancine.ma {{DEFAULTSORT:Kisan Kanya (1937 Film) Cinecolor films 1930s Hindi-language films 1930s color films 1937 films Films based on Indian novels Indian drama films 1937 drama films Hindi-language drama films Saadat Hasan Manto