His meteoric career lasted only ten years. It was only seen in 14 films, and most of them were made by a German insider at the Nazi party who did not speak a word of Hindi. However, the very small Devika Rani marked Indian cinema with an indelible imprint.
- Around 1930
This photograph was probably taken in Switzerland in 1930 [ 1 ] . She introduces the young Devika Rani even before she starts a film career. For the moment, the young woman is only 22 years old and travels around Europe with her husband Himansu Rai.
Devika Rani was born in 1908 in a wealthy Bengali family. His father was General Surgeon General), and, by a surprising chance, his two grandmothers were nieces of Rabindranath Tagore. As it should be for a girl of good society, her parents send her to study in England at a very young age. At age 16 she was admitted to the Royal School of Dramatic Art (RADA), and later to the Royal Academy of Music in London. She studied theater and music in the mid-1920s. After that, she took architecture lessons and even found an apprenticeship with Elizabeth Arden, who had just opened her first show in London. She is not very decided on what she wants to do. It seems especially that she did not want to return to India to get married, as it was of tradition. Devika attends the circle of London Indians and meets the writer Niranjan Pal, Bengali like her,
It was during a cocktail in 1928 that she met Himansu Rai, a longtime friend of Niranjan Pal. Also Bengali and also from a wealthy family, Himansu was 16 years older, married and father of a two year old girl. He wanted to put India on the map of world cinema and had already managed to mount two indo-German co-productions in which he had played the main role: Prem Sanyas in 1925 and Shiraz in 1928. For his third co-production , Prapancha Pash , written as the two previous ones by Niranjan Pal, Himansu enrolls Devika as assistant of his cousin Promode to the artistic direction. In 1929, once the filming in India was over, Himansu Rai married Devika Rani [ 2] . The young couple then goes on stage and successfully plays the film's story throughout Europe.
- Devika Rani and Himansu Rai in Karma (1933)
The talking cinema has already established itself in Europe in 1930. Himansu Rai also wants to take the step and aims to produce the first Indian talkie . Unfortunately, the German studios are now in full restructuring and negotiations drag on. Devika takes advantage of this setback to take classes with UFA artists such as director GW Pabst or the great Marlene Dietrich. Finally, Karmawas signed with an English production company in 1932. Devika Rani made her screen debut in this film directed by JL Freer Hunt, a retired military. Himansu Rai is his partner in what will be his last acting performance. The film, released in 1933, is a moderate success, but Devika Rani marks spirits in England and India. The press describes it as "personified grace". She actually embodies a maharani truer than life, even able to shade the true Princess Sudharani Devi Burdwan who plays his friend in the film.
The following year, Himansu Rai returned permanently to India to found the studio Bombay Talkies. It aims at nothing less than to renew the Indian cinema thanks to an irreproachable technical quality, modern subjects sometimes controversial, a perfectly controlled communication and a rigorous management. He thus forms a tight-knit team comprising mainly German technical staff and actors largely from the theater. The success of film studios was based at that time on the female star under contract. This star will be his wife, Devika Rani.
The "hero" is less important, which may explain why the studio was chosen by Najmul Hasan, a tall, handsome young man from Lucknow who had just left law school to start in cinema. in Bombay. He is with Devika on the screen of Jawani Ki Hawa , the first Bombay Talkies movie to be released in 1935. The public rushes in droves to see this film vaguely inspired by the crime of L'Orient Express , the scandal around the director Saraswati Devi [ 3 ] is perhaps no stranger to the success of the film.
- Devika Rani and Najmul Hasan in Jawani ki Hawa (1935)
Himansu Rai is trying out an original format for the second production of Bombay Talkies: two medium-length films presented during the same session. Mamta and Miya Biwi cameout in 1936 with Devika Rani and Najmul Hasan still in the lead. This is a failure that does not prevent the start of construction of Jeevan Naiya, the third studio film still written by Niranjan Pal. It was then that a thunderclap sounded in the sky of Bombay. Devika Rani and Najmul Hasan suddenly leave the filming that had already begun. Himansu Rai simultaneously lost his wife and the two stars of his film. Shashdhar Mukherjee, then a Bombay Talkies sound engineer, himself a Bengali and friend of the couple, is sent to look for them. The story goes that he finds them in a hotel in Calcutta and manages to convince Devika Rani to return to Bombay.
Appearances are those of a romantic getaway that has come to an end and the scandal is considerable. In fact, very little is known about this incident. A recent hypothesis, much more likely, evokes a commercial difference that would have pushed Devika Rani and Najmul Hasan to join the New Theaters studio in Calcutta [ 4 ] . Be that as it may, you need a male star to take over the role played by Najmul Hasan. The choice is Ashok Kumar, a young laboratory assistant from the studio, incidentally Shashdhar Mukherjee's brother-in-law. The director is not convinced, no matter, the shoot resumes. Jeevan Naiya finally released in May 1936 but without being the hoped success.
The light will come in July of the same year with Achhut Kanya ( the untouchable girl ). Devika Rani interprets the role of Kasturi, an untouchable who ends up losing his life trying to save the young brahman she is in love with. The film is presented with great pomp. Nehru, the future Prime Minister, even attends the premiere of this reformist film clearly inspired Gandhian. Both spectators and critics are enthusiastic. Devika embodies yet a dalit at the antipodes of reality. She is made up and wears jewelry with a discreet elegance. She is 28 years old, but her charm and freshness carry the adhesion. She also sings her own songs that also conquer the audience.
Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar in
The following year, Devika Rani reversed the roles in Jeevan Prabhat by playing a young Brahman while Kishore Sahu interpreted an untouchable. The beginner then struggles to win against her, but this is actually of little importance. As in all his films, it is she that the public comes to see above all. The costumes she wears are all fashion engravings that sign Indian chic . Director Franz Osten and director of photography Josef Wirsching showcase it like no other Indian star has ever been. Baburao Patel from Filmindia or BG Horniman from the Bombay Chronicle never fails to praise. Soon it will be called "the first lady of the Indian screen" [5 ] .
In the meantime, even though the studio is making great efforts to rejuvenate it and time seems to have little grip on its delicate face, its characters are more and more often confronted with motherhood. She is thus a young mother in Nirmala that comes out in 1938. Once again, the film based on a play by Niranjan Pal addresses an important social issue. This is the superstition that incites gullible people to commit senseless acts. In 1939, in Durga , she mothered a baby and in Anjaan , in 1941, she is the governess of the two children of a widow.
Because, even though she plays in progressive films, she embodies a very stereotypical model of the Indian woman who is ultimately conceived as wife and then mother. Whether she is a villager or a big bourgeois woman, whether she plays in a film in costume or in an almost too modern Bombay, her character has little influence on events. Fate most often attacks her, and she owes her salvation only to a combination of circumstances. Although she is mischievous and sparkling, she remains above all subject to her own destiny.
This character of cinema forged by the studio is very different from the real Devika Rani that those who approached it call "the dragon lady". She does not hesitate to drink and smoke in public and her anger is legendary. But she is also adept at a strict discipline, for herself as for the employees of the studio of which she is actually the "boss". It is also seen to participate with good grace in the many socialities that dot the life of Bombay Talkies. The all-political and financial Bombay is busy every year at the grand birthday parties that Himsansu Rai organizes for her in the studio compound in Malad.
- Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar in Nirmala (1938)
England's entry into the war in September 1939 put an end to her career as an actress. The German technicians in the studio are interned and must be replaced at short notice. The well-honed mechanics of Bombay Talkies get infected. Indian technicians who had been trained by the Germans took over as best they could. Himansu Rai probably has a nervous breakdown and eventually died in May 1940 from a heart attack. Without its exclusive director or its founding producer, the studio that employs about 400 people is beheaded.
In an attempt to organize the Bombay Talkies estate, Devika Rani is appointed production controller by the board of directors, while RB Chuni Lall becomes the managing director. She has the upper hand on the artistic direction of a major studio in Mumbai, a first for a woman. It unfortunately takes a decision that will prove disastrous thereafter: it organizes two units of competing productions that share the technical resources of the studio. The goal was likely to maximize the operational efficiency of Bombay Talkies, but irreversible dissensions between the two teams eventually burst. Even as the studio knows at this time its biggest commercial success with movies like Bandhan , Jhoola, Basant and Kismet , a group led by RB Chuni Lall, Ashok Kumar and Shashdhar Mukherjee leave Bombay Talkies to found Filmistan in 1943.
He has been accused of favoring one of the two production units as much as his haughty behavior as an inaccessible star. But behind the quarrels of people and power, there was probably a deeper artistic difference. Pursuing Himansu Rai's idea of technical excellence, Devika Rani was actively campaigning for a change to color. But it was a very expensive process that could jeopardize the finances of the studio [ 6 ] .
The atmosphere of the studio becomes difficult to breathe after the split. Devika Rani plays her last role in 1943 in Hamari Baat . It's a moderate success, but the next three films, Char Ankhen , Jwar Bhata, and Pratima are bitter chess that put Bombay Talkies in trouble.
- Devika Rani and Svetoslav Roerich
Devika Rani finally throws in the towel in 1945. She remarries with Svetoslav Roerich, an exiled Russian painter, and finally leaves Bombay and the cinema. She first retired to Manali at the foot of the Himalayas and settled in the vicinity of Bangalore. She does not live totally in recluse, however. For example, in 1949 she was godmother of Saagar , a film by her friend P. Jairaj with Nargis at the head of the cast. She also participates in several events where she is seen with Nehru or her family.
The cinema does not forget it. The magazines question his sudden retirement years later. Anyaya , a montage of extracts of his films is even presented in 1948. It is decorated in 1958 by Padma Shri by the Indian government. She also received the first Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1969.
Devika Rani died in 1994, a year after her husband. She will not have children.
