Book Review: Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion Book 5

Forgotten Artists of Early Cinema and The Same Name Confusion Book 5
Author: Arunkumar Deshmukh
Publisher: Professor toofaani publishers, East Lansing, MI, USA
Price (Pothi.com): ₹599 plus shipping (Paperback)
Copyright: © Arunkumar Deshmukh
Pages: 146

This is the fifth book in the series, and I have reviewed all the earlier books on this site. I am very pleased about Arunkumar Deshmukh’s output, as I used to say that Arun ji had many books in him. I have the satisfaction of my prediction coming right. Besides this series of books, Arun ji has also brought out some other books under other titles.

Arun ji has kept one feature common in this series of the books to maintain interest. In the picture on the cover page of every Book, at least one would be a familiar face and you are curious who are the other three. For example, in the Book 5, out of four thumbnail pictures I could recognise at least one – of Charlie at the top right-hand corner. He was a famous comedian of the early era, and Johnny Walker acknowledged that he was inspired by him. When Charlie was at the top, he earned more than many eminent heroes and he was wealthier than them.

However, I must mention right at the beginning that Arun ji has not maintained the same care in the content. As I glanced through the book, I had a nagging feeling that some material I had come across earlier. As I glanced, I found that at least two profiles had occurred earlier- RC Boral in Book 3 (p. 97) and Kamal Dasgupta in Book 2 (p. 85). Since the source material must be the same, the write-ups are more or less similar. There is some updation in Kamal Dasgupta, but RC Boral seems to be a cut and paste job.

But I am jumping ahead of myself. PART ONE of the book contains 48 profiles of “Forgotten Lesser-Known Artists”. This has to be understood in relative terms. Because some names are quite familiar to those aware of the broad history of our films, which would be the most followers of SOY. For example, Amirbai Karnataki, RC Boral, Himanshu Rai, Leela Chitnis, Vasant Desai, Timir Baran, KN Singh, Karan Dewan etc. There would be some in the middle. Some surely unknown, such as Ram Singh, Nayampalli etc. PART TWO contains five pairs or triads on similar names. They cause no end of confusion. Trying to remove the confusion has been a singular contribution of Arun ji. For example, among the same set of names I would strongly recommend Naseem Bano-Naseem Akhtar, and several Manohar’s (Manohar Sonik, Manohar Arora and Manoharlal Khanna). We are familiar with the perils of the same name confusion. It happened once with the famous singer Shamshad Begum. An intensely private person, there was a news item of the death of Shamshad Begum in 1998. The reporter and most people erroneously believed that the singer had passed away, But Shamshad Begum who had passed away was a small-time actress by that name who happened to be the mother of this Naseem Bano, and the grandmother of Saira Bano.

PART THREE titled “Look What I Found” contains four articles with catchy titles: “Why do film artists hide their first films/ roles, songs”; “Germans in Hindi film industry”; “Studios spoiled their careers”’; “How they died”. These titles indicate what they contain, these are quite informative and interesting. PART FOUR of the Book, “Special Articles” contains, as the name suggests some articles of special interest. These are also highly informative. I would especially draw attention to “Studios spoiled their careers”. Along with some others, Shantaram also figures in not very flattering terms in this respect. This would match with what I said in response to one of the comments on the review of the songs of 1939. The last “Special Articles” also has some very informative articles, such as “Failure of Star Sons”, “Animals in Films”.

Coming back to Para 3 of my review, with all the painstaking efforts the book has some careless proof-reading mistakes. For example, random use of small letters and capital letters are quite jarring. Why should Prithviraj Kapoor’s surname be written with small ‘k’ or if someone was suffering from cancer, why should it be written with capitals?

At this stage of his output, I dare to give some suggestions to Arun ji: Pause for a while and review what you have achieved. Make an Index of all the profiles you have written so far, so that you avoid duplications. Be consistent with small letters and capitals, and general proof reading. My congratulations all the same to Arun ji on his awesome achievement.