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Kanan Devi: Still More Of Kanan

A poor undernourished girl of about ten was brought to MADAN THEATRES by Tulsi Banerjee . She was just bone and skin, that too full of eczematous lesions. However, she had a beautiful face and J.J. Madan and director Jyotish Banerjee realized that with a little grooming she could prove to be an asset as a child artiste and gave her a prominent role as Srikrishna in JOYDEB (1926). The girl's name was KANAN. The next year she did a bit role in Dhirendra Nath Ganguly's SHANKARACHARYA. There was a gap of four years during which she was not seen on the screen at all. She was being trained in music, which in times to come left an everlasting effect in the field of Indian film music. Once established as an actress and singer KANAN practically stopped singing basic songs- a decision she regretted herself in later years…

Her reentry into films was in 1931 with films like JORE BARAT, RISHIR PREM, PRAHLAD and BISNUMAYA (1932). Society was male dominated and so was the world of films. Girls, specially the ones with looks and appeal were tools at the hands of the influential men, who expected their wild desires to be fulfilled by these girls, who were quite helpless and at the mercy of the strong just to keep a space in the unkind world of films and continue to earn a livelihood. Sacrifices had to be made and KANAN was no exception. She was undoubtedly one to have been exploited in the most nauseous manner and took the first opportunity to leave Madan Theatres and join Radha Films, where she could be free from the "leading lights" of her life. By then she had earned some recognition and was in a position where she could not be bullied. It was important however to get away from the clutches of two important personalities- the first, a hero who very soon had to change over to character roles and the second, a man who had betrayed her emotions as a young woman. This man however, continued to make good not only in Calcutta but also in Bombay, thanks to his talent as an actor, director , lyricist and music director. From her Radha films days KANAN was able to remain at a safe distance from the two villains…

KANAN's entry into Radha films was a turning point in her career. She was determined not to go back to her early life and carried forward with supreme confidence and determination and soon met with success, with the release of films like MAA, MANMOYEE GIRLS SCHOOL and KANTHAHAAR and not only did she forge ahead of her contemporaries but came to be recognized as the leading star of Bengal… the first glamour heroine of Bengal with a definite box office value. Offers poured in from outside Bengal and at one time she almost made up her mind to hift to Lahore, but finally decided that Calcutta should be her place of work and actually groomed herself to become an all India figure, without having to leave Calcutta at any stage of her career. Her joining the N.T. was only a matter of time. As the only star of the day she was inducted into New Theatres as soon as her contract with Radha approached it’s end and she had to pay a compensation of four thousand rupees to this company to terminate the contract a few weeks before the agreed period. With the release of her N.T. films, KANAN’s name turned out to be a household one and film magazines expressed surprise by the way the number of her fans across the country swelled. This was a peak period. Her films ran to packed houses and she had become an icon of Indian films and her records sold fast so that reprints had to be published regularly. Here she came to be associated with the great directors like P.C. Barua and Debaki Kumar Bose and had Raichand Boral and Pankaj Mallick to train her in music. The end with New Theatres came with LAGAN (1941) at the peak of her career but she showed very well that she could do well enough without the N.T. banner and swayed millions of filmgoers with her films SHESH UTTAR, JOGAJOG, JAWAB and HOSPITAL , where her popularity reached new heights with directors P.C. Barua and Sushil Majumdar using her histrionic abilities to the best and Kamal Dasgupta giving her some of her best songs. A period of slump did follow and it was only with CHANDRASEKHAR (1947) that she was back with a bang.

She knew the right time to do the right thing. After her marriage in 1949 and quick motherhood she started her own production unit and switched over to character roles and carried on successfully in these films, which expectedly revolved round the characters she played. Her retirement as actress came in 1959 with INDRANATH SRIKANTA O ANNADADI.

The timid girl, one of the many who had joined the industry, made her exit, leaving an impression that is hard to erase, her head held high. She had reached the moon, she had been through it all but in the end did not have to go back to the slums defeated……

Copyright © Dr. Jyoti Prakash Guha. All rights reserved. E-MAIL: jyotiprakasguha@rediffmail.com
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