Niranjan Pal (17 August 1889 – 9 November 1959) was an Indian playwright, screenwriter, and director in the Indian film industry in the silent and early talkie days. He was a close associate of

Himanshu Rai Himanshu Rai (1892 – 16 May 1940), one of the pioneers of Indian cinema, is best known as the founder of the studio in 1934, along with Devika Rani. He was associated with a number of movies, including ''Goddess'' (1922), ''The Light of Asia ...

and

Franz Osten Franz Osten (23 December 1876 in Munich – 2 December 1956) was a Bavaria, Bavarian filmmaker who along with Himansu Rai was among the first retainers of Bombay Talkies. Osten partnered with Rai on a number of India's earliest blockbuster film ...

, with whom he was a founding member of

Bombay Talkies Bombay Talkies was a movie studio founded in 1934. During its period of operation, Bombay Talkies produced 40 movies in Malad, a suburb of the Indian city of Bombay. The studio was established in 1934 by Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. After Ra ...

Biography

Born on 17 August 1889 in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, Niranjan Pal was born in an illustrious

Sylheti Sylheti may refer to: * Sylhetis, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group in the Sylhet division and South Assam * Sylheti language Sylheti ( Sylheti Nāgarī: ; bn, সিলেটি ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by an estimated 11 mill ...

family, his father was the noted freedom fighter,

Bipin Chandra Pal Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “L ...

, and Niranjan himself as a teenager was briefly involved in the Indian freedom struggle during an association with

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (), Marathi pronunciation: �inaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ also commonly known as Veer Savarkar (28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966), was an Indian politician, activist, and writer. Savarkar developed the Hindu nationalis ...

and

Madanlal Dhingra Madan Lal Dhingra (18 September 1883 — 17 August 1909) was an Indian revolutionary, pro-independence activist. While studying in England, he assassinated William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, a British official. Early life Madan Lal Dhingra was bo ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. By the late 1910s, he started writing and eventually wrote ''The Light of Asia'' and ''Shiraz'', both of which were performed on stage in London. Both were commercially successful and attracted the attention of German filmmaker

, who made screen versions in India.

, then a lawyer, also acted in one of Niranjan Pal's plays ''Goddess'' also performed in

, though some sources suggest that it was

Devika Rani Devika Rani Choudhuri (30 March 1908 – 9 March 1994), usually known as Devika Rani, was an Indian actress who was active in Hindi films during the 1930s and 1940s. Widely acknowledged as the first lady of Indian cinema, Devika Rani ha ...

who first met him, through their common

Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ( bn, ব্রহ্ম সমাজ, Brahmô Sômaj, ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance. It was one of th ...

connections, which paved way for his eventual stake in the creation of

. Following the successes of ''

The Light of Asia ''The Light of Asia'', or ''The Great Renunciation'' (''Mahâbhinishkramana''), is a book by Sir Edwin Arnold. The first edition of the book was published in London in July 1879. In the form of a narrative poem, the book endeavours to describ ...

'' and ''

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...

'' 1928, Pal moved back to India with his English wife, Lily, and son Colin Pal, and embarked on a career as the screenplay writer for

. He also started directing films, and made among others ''Needle's Eye'' (1931), ''Pardesia'' (1932), and ''Chitthi'' (1941). His career as a director was however far less successful than his work as a screenwriter, in which role he wrote some of India's earliest blockbusters ''

Achhut Kanya ''Achhut Kannya'' ( en, Untouchable Maiden, italic=yes) is a 1936 Indian Hindi film. Among the early super-hits in the Bombay film industry, the film deals with the social position of Dalit girls and is considered a reformist period-piece. T ...

'' (1936), '' Janmabhoomi'' (1936), ''

Jeevan Naiya ''Jeevan Naiya'' is a 1936 Hindi film directed by Franz Osten, and produced by Himanshu Rai for his studio Bombay Talkies. It is famous for being the screen debut early superstar Ashok Kumar. The film is about the ostracism of dancing girls. Th ...

'' (1936) and ''

Jawani Ki Hawa ''Jawani Ki Hawa'' is a 1959 Hindi film directed by M. Sadiq. It stars Pradeep Kumar, Vyjayanthimala, Johnny Walker in the lead roles. Plot In a Bombay bound Mail Train, Lata (Vyjayanthimala) a spirited girl, playing hide and seek with the T. ...

'' (1935). Of these Achhut Kanya was the most popular, and continues to be a landmark film as it dealt with the subject of untouchability. He also collaborated with noted dancer,

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar (8 December 1900 – 26 September 1977) was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbued with elements of Indian cl ...

to write a libretto for first Indian ballets, performed by

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20th ...

and Uday Shankar himself.

Family

Niranjan Pal's family is in the film industry, his son Colin Pal was a prominent journalist, and film historian, who wrote books, 'Shooting Stars' and autobiography "Aye Jibon: Such is life" won a National Award from the Indian Government in 2001. Colin died, on 28 August 2005, after a prolonged illness, in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, at the age of 83 Colin Pal Obituary
''

Screen Screen or Screens may refer to: Arts * Screen printing (also called ''silkscreening''), a method of printing * Big screen, a nickname associated with the motion picture industry * Split screen (filmmaking), a film composition paradigm in which mul ...

'', 2 September 2005.

Bibliography

* ''"The Goddess;" a Play of Modern India'', 1922.

References

* ''Cinema Vision India'', Published by s.n., 1980, Page 58.

External links

*
Niranjan Pal films at ''Library of Congress''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pal, Niranjan Bengali people Brahmos Film directors from Kolkata Indian male screenwriters 1889 births 1959 deaths 20th-century Indian film directors Indian silent film directors People from Habiganj Sadar Upazila 20th-century Indian screenwriters 20th-century Indian male writers