"Maya Mahal" could easily be a moniker for cinema itself. A darkened theatre with a white screen on which light flickers like a phantom and conjures up visions of faraway people and places... what is that, if not a "Palace of Illusions"? Let's explore the facets of fantasy...
Escaping the Realism
Priya Paul's collection of film memorabilia represents an eccentric mix of films. Many of these films have not been considered socially or artistically significant by elite standards. Maya Mahal does not intend to celebrate the realist strain in Hindi Cinema. We present to you an alternative history which is decidedly excessive, melodramatic and utopian.
Fantasy
The first section takes us back to the earliest impulse of filmmakers, to experiment with the relationship between magic and the moving image. Special effects that could be achieved in-camera had proved very popular in the first decade of silent cinema and we see tales of fairies, sorcerers, gods, monsters, and djinns dominate right through the 1950's.
Hatima TaiPriya Paul Collection
These fantasies never completely vanished from the cinemascape and they crop up periodically as evident in the 1990 film Haatim Tai.
Chakravarty VikramadityaPriya Paul Collection
The fantastic has many avatars. For some, fantasy is deeply tied to the modern miracles of science and technology; for others it is the lost idyll of pre-civilization man that is wondrous.
BamaPriya Paul Collection
The "mighty jungle thriller," Bama (Akkoo, 1952) features cannibal chiefs and impossibly strong heroes. Aadam Shashtra (R. Suresh, 1998) takes the jungle fantasy to its erotic limit in a soft porn film celebrating "forest life with no language."
Devil's DaggerPriya Paul Collection
Zimbo (Homi Wadia, 1958), another jungle adventure, combines the science and nature theme. Professor Chakravarty has been working on a formula for eternal life in his top-secret forest laboratory. When he is killed buy by some wild animal, his orphaned son is brought up by the jungle in Tarzan fashion.
All these films try to evoke a feeling of horror for the spectator. Monsters of various natures abound here. Particularly striking is the composite photograph of a giant Hiralal trying to crush the Taj Mahal Hotel with his foot (Doctor Z, Jal, 1959). The present day resonances of this image will not be lost on the viewer.
Hatim Tai Ki BetiPriya Paul Collection
Then we have a whole host of magical and legendary characters from widely known Persian love stories and Arabian dastaan. Paris, djinns, ayyars, and Majnus roam freely in exotic "other" worlds.
Hatim Tai ki BetiPriya Paul Collection
In an essay for Tasveer Ghar, Rosie Thomas points out that: "Magical worlds and superhuman feats have a long history within India's mythological traditions, both its Hindu religious epics and the stories and legends of the Islamic world, including qissa-dastan. Such imagery also permeated the mythology of a 'mystic east' that fired the Victorian imagination across Europe."
Aladin and the wonderful lampPriya Paul Collection
Thus we draw a connecting line through films derived from the Arabian Nights story cycle, films playing on Islamicate visions of architectural grandeur, and Hindu mythologicals.
Given the abundance of such material in the Priya Paul collection, it is no wonder that Thomas calls this an "Aladdin's cave of an archive."
Babubhai Mistri
Babubhai Mistri is known as "India's first and most influential special effects expert." This Gujarati from Surat started his career as a poster painter and explored art direction on the side. He has said that he never read a single book on trick photography and picked up all his skills through experimentation on sets. When the Hollywood film Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933) was released in Bombay, the director Vijay Bhatt (Prakash Pictures) gave Mistri a few rupees to go check out the special effects. This viewing experience led to Mistri's improvised effects in Khwab ki Duniya (Vijay Bhatt, 1937) and earned him his first on-screen credit as a "Trick Photographer."
Bharat MilapPriya Paul Collection
You will see Mistri's diverse talents at work in many of the films represented in Maya Mahal.
Har Har GangePriya Paul Collection
He played a major role in establishing the fortunes of Homi Wadia's Basant Studio and is also remembered for his Hindu mythologicals such as Bharat Milap (Mistri, 1965) and Har Har Gange (Mistri, 1968).
Hatima TaiPriya Paul Collection
Much later in his career he was hired as the special effects consultant for the popular television serial, Mahabharat (1988).
Of the many films directed him, one of his personal favourites is featured on the cover: Haatim Tai (1990), "which had talking snakes perched on a man's head."
