Gul-e-Bakavali (1924 film)
| Gul-e-Bakavali | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kanjibhai Rathod |
| Written by | Mohanlal Dave[1] |
| Based on | The legend of Gul-e-Bakavali |
| Produced by | Kohinoor Film Company |
| Starring | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7997 ft (approx. 140 minutes) |
| Country | British India |
| Language | Silent |
Gul-E-Bakavali (lit. 'Flower of Bakavali') is a 1924 Indian silent fantasy film written in Gujarati by Mohanlal Dave, directed by Kanjibhai Rathod and produced by the Kohinoor Film Company.[3] The film stars Zubeida as Bakavali and Khalil as Taj-ul-Mulk.[4] The film's story adapts a popular legend centered on a mystical flower believed to have healing powers, and a prince who seeks it to cure his father's blindness. Gul-E-Bakavali is described by film scholars as the first all-India super hit[5][6] and among the most successful silent films.[7][8]
The film was structured into 97 scenes and included elaborate fantasy elements distinct from the mythological themes common in Rathod and Dave's earlier works like Bhakta Vidur.[9] According to some sources, Gul-E-Bakavali ran in theatres for more than fourteen weeks and achieved unprecedented success by breaking all the records that came before it.[10]
Cast
The cast has been listed below:[11]
- Zubeida as Bakavali
- Khalil as Taj-ul-Mulk
- Fatma Begum
- Sultana as Memudu
- Noor Mohamed
- Savita
- Jamna as Lakhi
- Usha Rani
Origin and adaptations
The story of Gul-E-Bakavali is based on a legend with multiple origins.[12][13] One version attributes its introduction into India to Nihal Chand Lahori's translation of Izzat Ali Bengali's Persian narrative, influenced by John Gilchrist at Fort William College in Calcutta in the early 19th century.[14] Another traces it to the poet Abley Sheikh's 1513-couplet narration, later adapted by Kashmiri writers into Urdu masnavis. The legend was also popular on the Parsi stage, particularly for its dramatic episodes involving betrayal, transformation, and redemption.[14]
Following the 1924 film directed by Kanjibhai Rathod, Gul-e-Bakavali was adapted into several Indian and Pakistani films.[15] Some of them are the 1935 Tamil version starring V.A. Chellappa and T.P. Rajalakshmi, the 1938 Telugu version directed by Kallakoori Sathasiva Rao featuring B. Jayamma, the 1955 Tamil version starring M.G. Ramachandran, and the 1962 Telugu film Gulebakavali Katha starring N.T. Rama Rao. Hindi versions were released in 1932, 1947, 1956, and 1963.[16]
Legacy
A shooting script of Gul-e-Bakavali (1924) was discovered in the personal archive of film historian Virchand Dharamsey. The script, preserved in a bound notebook, contains detailed production information such as scene descriptions, shot lengths, intertitles, and others.[17] In 2012, it was translated and published in the peer-reviewed journal BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies, and it is considered the only known surviving script of its kind from India’s silent film era.[18][19][20] Film scholar Debashree Mukherjee notes, citing Kaushik Bhaumik, that the existence of such a document demonstrates that structured and technically detailed screenwriting practices were present at least in some films of Indian silent cinema, countering earlier views that such films lacked formal scripting.[21] However, scholar Rakesh Sengupta suggests that such isolated archival findings, while valuable, cannot be treated as proof of a sequential historiography of screenwriting.[22]
See also
Some later adaptations:
- Gul-E-Bakawali (film), 1939 Indian Punjabi-language film
- Gulebakavali (1955 film), 1955 Indian Tamil-language film
- Gulebakavali Katha, 1962 Indian Telugu-language film
References
- ^ Sengupta, Rakesh (2019). "Writing from the Margins of Media: Screenwriting Practice and Discourse During the First Indian Talkies". BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies. 9 (2): 117–136. doi:10.1177/0974927618813480. ISSN 0974-9276.
(p.17); Mohanlal Dave, the most prolific scenario writer from the silent era, was paid 1,200 rupees per script at Kohinoor Film Company. His success had inspired many young writers to send scripts regularly to film studios (Bhaumik, 2001, pp. 80-81). His script of Gul-e-Bakavali is the only extant script from the silent era (Dharamsey, 2012)
- ^ Thomas 2015, p. 59: Note 4.
- ^ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 245.
- ^ Rajadhyaksha 2016, p. 21–22, "Made with silent stars Zubeida and Khalil, who with Sulochana were India's first real movie stars, it adapted a well known theme from the Parsee stage: the folklore adventure. It drew on legends associated with the mythic flower Gul, the fairy Bakavali, and the eastern prince Taj-ul-Mulk, who wants the flower to cure his blind father. The legend itself varies from Persia to Kashmir, but takes its contemporary form from the theatre. Especially popular on the Parsee stage were scenes in which Taj-ul-Mulk faces his villainous brothers who have stolen the flower and turned Bakavali to stone, and her spectacular human re-birth.".
- ^ Thomas 2015, p. 9, The first all-India super hit, a storm across the country in 1924, was Gul-e-Bakavali (The Bakavali Flower, Kanjibhai Rathod), a fantasy film that was made and released a year before Douglas Fairbanks's Hollywood film Thief of Bagdad (Raoul Walsh, 1924) arrived to captivate India's audiences.
- ^ Rajadhyaksha 2016, p. 21, Gul-e-Bakavali was almost certainly the first truly national commercial hit in India.
- ^ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 245–6, One of the most successful silent films tells the legend of the fairy Bakavali (Zubeida), her deivi pushp (or divine flower) Gul known for its healing powers, and the Eastern prince Taj-ul-Mulk (Khalil), who wants the flower to cure his blind father.
- ^ Gooptu, Sharmistha (6 June 2012). "Hundred years of Indian cinema". The Times of India. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
There was also the genre of films like Gul-e-Bakavali (1924), inspired by the popular Parsi theatres of Bombay and Calcutta, and which also became the first blockbuster talkies.
- ^ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 245–246, "This version, made in 97 scenes, featured Kohinoor superstars Zubeida and Khalil. It was one of the first films to embrace the folk-fantasy mode as opposed to e.g. Rathod and Dave's mythologicals (Bhakta Vidur, Mahasati Ansuya, both 1921).".
- ^ _
- ^ BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies 2012, p. 196–7.
- ^ Mehta & Mukherjee 2020, p. 31.
- ^ Mukherjee, Sujit (1998). A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Beginnings-1850. Orient Blackswan. p. 121. ISBN 9788125014539.
- ^ a b Parthasarathy, Adhiraj (4 August 2024). "Persian prose meets pulp fiction: How an 18th-century fairy tale became a multilingual phenomenon". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 22 August 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
- ^ Siddique, Salma (2023). Evacuee Cinema: Bombay and Lahore in Partition Transit, 1940–1960. Cambridge University Press. p. 205–6. ISBN 978-1-009-17552-4.
The story of Taj-ul-Mulk's adventurous quest for the miracle flower Bakawali had its earliest known film version, Gul Bakavali (1924, Bombay), made by the Kohinoor Film Company. This was followed by its remake as a talkie in 1932 by Saroj Company. Remade in the subcontinent several times since and in several languages, Lahore got its Punjabi version by the city's cinema seth, Dalsukh Pancholi, in 1938. The Gul Bakavali of Pakistan was released in 1961 on the fourth anniversary of the 'Green Revolution, the first military coup of Pakistan in 1957, and was advertised as the latest 'revolution in Film Industry of Pakistan' for introducing colour technology into local films.
- ^ Guy, Randor (30 October 2010). "Blast from the past – Gulebakavali (1955)". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
- ^ Mukherjee 2020, p. 123–124, "A shooting script for the silent film Gul-e-Bakavali (Kanjibhai Rathod, 1924) was recently translated and published in the peer-reviewed journal Bio-Scope: South Asian Screen Studies. Part of the personal collection of film historian Virchand Dharamsey, this script consists of a bound notebook, 20 x 15.5 cm, with approximately 160 pages of Gujarati script handwritten by the screenwriter Mohanlal Dave. It gives the location, characters, scene description, shot size, shot length, and dialog inter-titles in separate columns for each scene.".
- ^ Nelmes, J.; Selbo, J. (2015). Women Screenwriters: An International Guide. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-137-31237-2.
In 2012, parts of 'the only film script available from India's entire silent cinema era', Gul-e-Bakavali (Kanjibhai Rathod, 1924), were published in BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies
- ^ Mukherjee 2020, p. 124.
- ^ BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies 2012.
- ^ Mukherjee 2020, p. 124, "The discovery of the Gul-e-Bakavali script is historic because, as Kaushik Bhaumik emphasizes, "Not only is it the first (and so far only) film script available for the silent film era in India, it also proves that, contrary to the opinions of respondents to the Indian Cinemato-graph Committee, 1927-1928, at least some silent films had detailed scripts".
- ^ Sengupta, Rakesh (2021). "Towards a Decolonial Media Archaeology: The Absent Archive of Screenwriting History and the Obsolete Munshi". Theory, Culture & Society. 38 (1): 3–26. doi:10.1177/0263276420930276. ISSN 0263-2764.
Sources
- Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (2014). Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-94318-9. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
- "The Script of Gul-e-Bakavali (Kohinoor, 1924)". BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies. 3 (2): 175–207. 2012. doi:10.1177/097492761200300206. ISSN 0974-9276.
- Mukherjee, Debashree (2020). Bombay Hustle: Making Movies in a Colonial City. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-55167-0.
- Thomas, Rosie (2015). Bombay before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-5677-5.
- Rajadhyaksha, A. (2016). Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-872309-7.
- Mehta, Monika; Mukherjee, Madhuja (2020). Industrial Networks and Cinemas of India: Shooting Stars, Shifting Geographies and Multiplying Media. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-29331-9.
- Gokulsing, K.; Dissanayake, Wimal (2013). Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-77291-7.