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Nov 22, 2014

Seeta Devi and Himansu Rai in Prem Sanyas - 1925

The translation of the Dutch text on the back of this postcard reads: “Seeta Devis plays in the new Indian film by Emelka: ‘Boeddha, De roeping van een koningszoon’, the role of Princess Gopa. Like all the other actors in the film she is not a professional, but was especially for this part discovered by director Franz Osten. When Osten heard that she would be the perfect type he was looking for, he traveled for 56 hours by train through burning hot India. And he made this beautiful, only 16 year old Indian girl a film star.” In fact the birthname of Seeta Devi (1921) is Renee Smith. She made her film debut in this film, officially called Prem Sanyas (or Die Leuchte Asiens, 1925). This German production was co-directed by Franz Osten and by the other actor on the postcard. Himansu Rai. Seeta Devi would act in ten more films.

Himansu Rai (1895-1940) was born into a wealthy Bengali family. While training as a lawyer in London in the early 1920s, he began acting in plays. In London he met his later wife Devika Rani who designed film sets and who continued to work with him. In 1933 he joined forces with IBP of England and wholly produced Karma (1933), a bilingual in English and Hindi. But the Nazi seizure of power in Germany caused Rai to abandon international co-productions and so he decided to concentrate on the domestic film market in India.In 1934, he formed Bombay Talkies Ltd. and built a studio. Under his painstaking supervision, it purchased the most modern equipment from Germany. Franz Osten and a handful of technicians came down from England and Germany to work with him. By 1935, a stream of Hindi productions had begun to emerge from the studio. The advent of World War II meant that the studio's German technicians as well as director Franz Osten were interned by the British, which crippled the studio. Overwork and mental strain eventually took its toll on Rai, who suffered a nervous breakdown which he never recovered from, and he died in 1940.

Sources: IMDb and postcard.

Scene from the Movie Prem Sanyas / Die Leuchte Asiens - 1925

The translation of the Dutch text on the back of this postcard reads: “Gotama’s Palace in the garden of wonders. One of the scenes, playing in the old historic India that gives the Emelka film ‘Boeddha, de roeping van een koningszoon’ (Prem Sanyas / Die Leuchte Asiens, 1925) such a special charm. Thanks to the cooperation of the Indian royalty it was possible for Franz Osten to film all the scenes on historic locations. He used all the buildings with their unforgettable architectural beauty, and their wealth of sculptures and reliefs, splendidly. That’s how a film was produced that will be unsurpassable. ‘Boeddha’ will be shown from Friday 26 March in Theater Tuschinski” Theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam is still the main movie palace in The Netherlands. These special postcards for the release of Prem Sanyas (1925, Franz Osten and Himansu Rai) proved that this German-Indian film must have been a big, commercial production at the time.

Prem Sanyas or Die Leuchte Asiens was an adaptation of an Orientalist epic (1861) by British author Edwin Arnold. It opens with documentary shots of tourists in Bombay watching street performers. Then a white-bearded old man sitting under the bodhi tree tells the tourists the story of Gautama (Himansu Rai), son of King Suddodhana and Queen Maya, who left his consort Gopa (Seeta Devi) and became a wandering teacher credited with founding Buddhism. The religious epic, with its idealized figures, takes up the narrative in flashback and ends with Gopa kneeling before Gautama asking to become his disciple. The film exhibits a strange but fascinating hybrid between exoticism and authenticity.

(Sources: IMDb and postcard)