A Brief History of Indian Cinema Quiz

Answer: Dadasaheb Phalke

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke lived from 1870 to 1944. He is known as the Father of Indian Cinema. He was also the producer and scriptwright of this film. It was released on May 3 at Coronation Cinematograph, Mumbai. The entire cast was drawn from non-professionals. Phalke wanted to cast women in female roles, but no woman was willing to perform.

He made a remake of this film in 1917. The Dadasaheb Phalke award, initiated by the Indian government in 1969 is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of Indian cinema. Harishchandra is a renowned figure in Indian culture.

He sacrificed his wife, kingdom and son to keep his promise to Sage Vishwamitra. A Marathi film called Harishchandrachi Factory was released in 2009 that depicted the making of that film.

It was India's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2009-10 but it did not go to the final list.

Answer: Raj Kapoor

'Awara' was also popular in USSR, China, Turkey, Romania and Afghanistan. The film's music was composed by Shankar Jaikishan. Raj Kapoor was born in Peshawar in modern-day Pakistan. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian Government in 1971 and the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 1987. Raj Kapoor lived from 1924-1988. Ths film was nominated for the Palmes d'Or at the Cannes Fim Festival.

It starred artistes like Raj Kapoor, Nargis and Prithviraj Kapoor. Raj's own father Prithviraj acted as his father in the film as well! Prithviraj Kapoor acted as Judge Raghunath, Nargis as Rita and Raj Kapoor as Raj Raghunath.

Answer: 'Pather Panchali' ('The Song of the Road')

The films were adapted from stories written by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay. The music for these films was composed by the famous Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar, who died in 2012. 'Pather Panchali' was the directorial debut of Satyajit Ray. The three films of this trilogy were 'Pather Panchali', 'Aparajito' and 'Apur Sansar'. I made up the name 'Janmabhum'. It depicts the sad story of Apu, a boy living in a village in Bengal.

At first, no one wanted to produce his film. Finally, the then Chief Minister of West Bengal, Bidhan Chandra Roy, provided financial help to Ray. 'Pather Panchali' was nominated for the Palmes d'Or in the Cannes Film Festival.

The film also won several National Film Awards. The film stars Kanu Banerjee as Harihar Roy, Karuna Banerjee as Sarbajaya Roy, Subir Banerjee as Apurba Roy(Apu), Uma Dasgupta - Durga Roy and Chunibala Devi as Indir Thakrun. Satyajit Ray won a Lifetime Oscar award in the year of his death, 1992.

Answer: Mother India

'Mother India' is a remake of the film 'Aurat', which was released in 1940 and directed by the same director. It was internationally famous for its depiction of the nature of the traditional Indian girl. The film was also produced by Mehboob Khan. The film stars Nargis as Radha, the heroine, Sunil Dutt as Birju, Radha's rebellious younger son and Rajendra Kumar as Ramu, Radha's elder son.

In the film, Radha, a traditional Hindu woman who brought up her two sons well in spite of the poverty, is shown valuing the welfare of society more than that of her sons. Ramu is a virtuous man and is married off.

However, Birju, who later turns into a dacoit, or bandit, is constantly pestering the village girls. After repeated warnings, his own mother shoots him.

Answer: Prithviraj Kapoor

Prithviraj was Raj Kapoor's father. Prithviraj lived from 1901 to 1972. Apart from this film, his notable works include 'Awaara' (released in 1951), 'Anand math' (released in 1952) and 'Kal Aaj Aur Kal'. He was awarded the Dadasaheb. The film also starred Dilip Kumar as Jahangir, Durga Khote as Queen Jodhabai and Madhubala as Anarkali or Nadira.

It was directed by Karimuddin Asif and released in 1960. It held the distinction of being the highest ever grossing film for 15 years. It was produced by Shapoorji Pallonji.

The film won one National Film award and three Filmfare awards. It was the first Indian black-and-white film to be digitally coloured. In the film, their relationship was disapproved by Akbar and envied by a senior dancer Bahar, played by Nigar Sultana.

It had 12 beautiful songs, that were sung by famous singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.

Answer: Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar

Salim Khan later became the father of Salman Khan. Javed Akhtar later became the father of Farhan Akhtar. Salim and Javed's partnership later broke up. Apart from 'Sholay', other notable films whose scripts were written by them are 'Yaadon ki Baraat' (released in 1973), 'Haathi Mere Saathi' (1971), 'Zanjeer' (1973) and 'Deewar' (1975). Both Salman and Farhan became actors with Farhan also becoming a director.

The script and dialogue were the greatest foundations for this film. The beautiful music of this film was composed by R.D. Burman.

The film 'Sholay' was shot in 70 mm. The film was inspired by Akira Kurusova's film 'Seven Samurai'. The film had a mixture of romance, comedy, feudal costume drama and musicals. The film had six major artists - Dharmendra as Veeru, Amitabh Bachchan as Jai, Sanjeev Kumar as Thakur Baldev Singh, Hema Malini as Basanti, Jaya Bhaduri as Radha and Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh.

The film was produced by G.P. Sippy. The film was set in a village called Ramgarh. There, a policeman called Thakur Singh instructs a pair of thieves (Jai and Veeru) to catch Gabbar Singh.

There, Jai falls in love with Radha and Veeru with Basanti. The film won the National Filmfare Award for Best Editing (M.S. Shinde).

Answer: Mira Nair

The film was produced by Mira Nair and Gabriel Auer. The script was written by Mira Nair and Sooni Taraporevala. Mir and Sooni had spent two months visiting countless of homeless and parentless children in Bombay's denizens, in reform institutions, in jails and the alleys and bylanes of Mumbai. Out of them, 19 were chosen to act in this film.

The film is centred around Krishna, a bright-faced, 10 year old discarded by a travelling circus. He is soon drawn into the vortex of Mumbai, the melting pot.

He soon aspires to work and save 500 rupees to take to his mother (as a punishment for burning his elder brother's bike). While working as a Chaipau, delivering tea and bread to people at their workplaces, he encounters policemen, prostitutes, "madmen and middle men", drug dealers and patrons of drug and flesh.

The film was shot in the dingy streets, railway platforms, brothels and roadside tea-shops. The film stars Shafiq Syed as Krishna. The film won the prestigious Palmes d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film won the National Filmfare Awards for the Best Feature Film in India and for the Best Child Artist (Shafiq Syed). The film was the second film to be nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar and it made the shortlist. It was the second film to do so, after 'Mother India'.

Answer: Tamil

'Roja' means 'Rose' in Tamil. The film was later dubbed into Telugu and Hindi. The film recalls the real-life incident of a Kashmiri terrorist kidnapping an Indian oil official. The film starts with a Pakistani terrorist called Wasim Khan being arrested by Colonel Nayappa. To take revenge, the terrorists capture a Tamil cryptologist, Rishi Kapoor. Roja is his Tamil-speaking wife. Suddenly, she is left alone in Kashmir, where she does not know the local language. Rishi struggles to escape and is shown some sympathy by Liaqat's sister. Finally, she persuades a minister to release the prisoners.

Then Rishi Kapoor is released and is reunited with Roja while the leader Liaqat is humanized. The film stars Arvind Swamy as Rishi Kumar, Pankaj Kapur as Liaqat and Madhubala as Roja. A. R. Rahman rose to prominence due to the beautiful music he composed in this film.

The film won three National Filmfare awards for Best Music, Best Lyrics and for the Best Film of National Integration. The film was critically acclaimed for depicting patriotism towards the country.

Answer: Lagaan

The film was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. He also wrote the script. The film was produced by Aamir Khan and Mansoor Khan. The film was set in 1893, in the Victorian period. The film stars Gracy Singh as Gauri, Paul Blackthorne as Captain Andrew Russell and Rachel Shelley as Elizabeth Russell, Captain's sister.

In that period, the village had to pay agricultural tax, or lagaan, every year. But the rains had failed for the last three years, so, the headman requested Captain Russell to take back the order.

However, he was forced to extract double tax, or dugna lagaan. This caused protests among the villagers, especially Bhuvan (Aamir Khan). Finally Captain challenges them to a cricket match. A bet is made that if the villagers defeat the British, they would not have to pay taxes for the next three years. With the help of Captain's sister, Elizabeth, Bhuvan trains his villagers and ultimately wins the match. Though it made the shortlist for the Oscars, it narrowly lost out to the Bosnian film 'No Man's Land'.

However, 'Lagaan' won five national awards - for best Lyrics, best Music, best Art Direction, best Sound Mixing and best Costume Design.

Answer: Aamir Khan

Career aptitude and the rate of suicide of students in India are two of the important issues reflected in this film. It also promotes an innovation-based education system and speaks against mug learning. It is my overall favourite film. The film was produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

The film was loosely adapted from the book 'Five point Someone - What Not to Do at IIT' by Indian author Chetan Bhagat. The film stars famous actors and actresses like Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, R.Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Omi Vaidya and Bomani Irani.

In the film, Farhan Qureshi, played by R. Madhavan, and Raju Rastogi, played by Sharman Joshi, fondly remember their college days at the Imperial College of Engineering with Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchar. Later, they get to know that his actual name was Phunsukh Wangdu, a renowned scientist, played by Aamir Khan. Chatur Ramalingam, played by Omi Vaidya, was a boy who was always mugging up all the textbooks.

In the film, Phunsukh Wangdu fell in love with Piya (played by Kareena Kapoor), the daughter of the headmaster Viru Sahasrabuddhe (played by Bomani Irani).

It is a beautiful family film. Earlier, in 2008, Aamir Khan's film 'Ghajini' was the first ever Indian film to gross Rs. 100 crore (or 1 billion). Its record was finally broken by 'Chennai Express' in 2013, whose record was subsequently broken by 'Krrish 3' in the same year.