`Maya Mahal` exhibition marks century of Indian cinema

Kolkata: Celebrating a century of Indian cinema through posters, lobby cards, song booklets and magazine covers of mainstream and rare B-movies, the "Maya Mahal" exhibition began here Wednesday. The 19-day exhibition provides an alternative history of Indian cinema and helps track the art of film publicity. It is set to conclude Jan 27. The exhibition also showcases old stunt-based films, and brings to the public a gamut of paper artefacts from entrepreneur Priya Paul`s personal collection. The display includes song booklets of V. Shantaram`s 1932 celluloid venture "Maya Machindra", as also posters and lobby cards of lesser known movies like India`s first 3D movie ‘Chhota Chetan’, starring Dalip Tahil. Highlighting alternative genres, posters and publicity booklets of stunt movies like ‘Stunt Queen’ (1947) and ‘Daaku Ki Ladki’ (1933) were major crowd-pullers. "I think the exhibits are unique. There are so many movies before our time including pre-Independent era films, particularly the stunt movies," remarked renowned Bangladeshi author Farah Ghuznavi. IANS