Happy Birthday, Franz Osten! Born today in 1896 as Franz Ostermayr, this German actor, writer and director was among the first retainers of Bombay talkies.
This was along with Indian actor, director and one of the pioneers of Indian cinema Himansu Rai.
Osten had partnered with Rai on a number of India's earliest blockbuster films like the 1934 Indian Hindi black and white Bollywood/melodrama film 'Jeevan Naiya' and the 1936 Indian Hindustan black and white drama film 'Achhut Kanya' ('Untouchable Maiden').
Born in Munich, Germany, Osten, years later, trained to be a photographer like his father and gave acting a try.
After an education as a photographer, Osten shot at the beginning of his film career often documentations, later followed films for the cinemas.
In 1907, Osten founded a traveling cinema called the "Original Physograph Company".
This was with his brother, German film producer, screenwriter and film director Peter Ostermayr, who later established the predecessor to Bavaria Film Studios. Today, it is one of Germany's largest film studios.
Amongst other films, Osen showed the silent black and white documentary short film 'Life in India', about the Munich carnival. However, the run was not very successful.
Three days after the opening, the projector exploded in flames. Afterwards, Osten decided to make films.
In the early 1910s, Osten directed his first feature. Thi was with the 1911 German silent black and white film 'Erna Valeska'.
However, his career was interrupted by the start of the Great War (World War I). During this time, Osten worked first as a correspondent, and then later became a soldier.
After the war, Osten made peasant features. This was with the 1920 German silent black and white historical drama film 'Der Ochsenkrieg' ('The War of the Oxen').
He later followed this up with the 1921 German silent black and white drama film 'Die Kette der Schuld' ('The Chain of Guilt'). This was for the public company Münchener Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka) in Munich. The 1920s followed his most successful period in Germany.
Osten later partnered with one of the pioneers of Indian cinema Himanshu Rai. This was on a number of India's earliest blockbuster films. Osten had already been contacted by Rai in the middle of the 1920s.
In India, Osten worked together with Rai, whose wife, Indian actress Devika Rani Chaudhuri (usually known as Devika Rani), along with Osten, shot many Indian features.
Together, along with Rai, Osten belonged to the co-founders of Bollywood. Today, this is a bigger industry than Hollywood itself.
Rai wanted to realize films which broached the issue of the East for the West film industry; on the other hand, he also wanted to launch an own film production industry in India. Osten was stoked by the idea, and later traveled to India in 1924.
This was where he realized the 1925 Indian/German silent black and white drama film 'Prem Sanyas' ('Die Leuchte Asiens', 'The Light of Asia').
Osten had co-directed the film with Rai, who also starred. The feature dealt with the life of Buddha.
Staying in India, Osten quickly picked up on Indian language, and even became acquainted with Mahatma Gandhi.
Osten then went on to make acclaimed films in collaboration with Idian artists and filmmakers, all fo which have become immortal in the history of Indian cinema.
Very successful were Osten's adaptions based off of the homeland novels written by German writer Ludwig Ganghofer.
In 1926, 'The Light of Asia' was shown to King George V. Afterwards, the press reported a positive reaction by the Royal Family.
Osten's silent films told varieties of Indian stories. Aside from 'The Light of Asia', his 1928 Indian/British/German silent black and white drama/romance film 'Das Grabmal einer großen Liebe' dramatizes the events that led to the construction of the Taj Mahal.
This was along with the film of which Osten is best known for directing, being the 1929 British/Indian/German silent black and white drama film 'Prapancha Pash' ('A Throw of Dice'). Aside from starring in the film, Rai co-produced it as well.
It tells of two neighboring Indian kingdoms, of which are ruled by cousins King Ranjit (Charu Roy) and King Sohat (Himanshu Rai). Unbeknownst to Ranjit, Sohat is plotting to seize control of his kingdom.
The two kings vie for the love of a hermit's daughter, the beautiful Sunita (Seeta Devi).
However, the two kings both share a passion for gambling and decide to play a game of craps to determine who will marry her.
Sunita wishes to marry Ranjit, but Ranjit loses the game to the nefarious Sohat, and as a forfeit becomes his slave. Despite this, Sunita soon uncovers the truth about Sohan's evil deeds.
To escape punishment, he hurls himself off of a cliff into the rapids below. Afterwards, Ranjit and Sunita are then reunited and married.
'A Throw of Dice' was based on myths and legends, drawn from legendary Indian author's Vyasa's epic 4th century B.C.E religious text Mahabharata.
The longest poem ever written, comprised of two hundred thousand verses, this is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa.
It was those three aforementioned films that contributed to increasing the understanding of eastern religions and offered visual splendour and escapism. They featured live elephants in festive decoration and also utilized thousands of extras.
During World War II in 1936, while still living and directing in India, Osten joined Germany's Nazi Party.
After the war, he retired from the film business and worked as a director of the tourist board in Bad Aibling. This is a spa town and former district seat in Bavaria on the river Mangfall.
In 1939, Osten's film career came to an abrupt end when World War II broke out in Europe. He was later arrested in India by the English.
Osten's already started feature, the 1939 Indian black and white drama/romance film 'Kangan' ('The Bangle') had to be finished by Indian film workers.
After his arrest, Osten was released in 1940 but had to return to Germany where he did not realize films as a director.
He later worked as a personnel manager for Bavaria Film, which had emerged from the former production company Emelka.
Sixteen years later, Osten passed in Bad Aibling, Bavaria, Germany on December 2, 1956. He was 79. This was just three weeks after his birthday.
Since the early 2000s, there has been a revived interest in silent films in general and the trilogy of Osten were in focus.
'Shiraz' was shown at the popular San Francisco movie palace Castro Theatre at the 6th San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2002.
This later included a screening of 'The Light of Asia' at the same festival in 2005, and 'A Throw of Dice' in 2008.
The latter was re-released in 2006. This was in honor of the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, and the film was digitally restored.
Upon its re-release in 2007, a review in The New York Times stated, "There’s hardly a frame in the 1929 film “A Throw of Dice” that doesn’t provide a surge of visual pleasure."
The following year, it was then re-released at the Luminato Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on June 13, 2008. Thi was with a new orchestral score by British Indian musician, producer and composer Nitin Sawhney.
He had described the film as "A cross between Chaplin, Cecil B. DeMille and an early Bollywood movie."
On many occasions, 'A Throw of Dice' has been compared to a film by Cecil B. DeMille for its levels of extravagance.
Five years later, Indian sitar player Nishat Khan composed a new orchestral score for the film, which premiered on April 25, 2013.
The was part of the 100 Years of Indian Film festival at the premiere multi-auditorium complex of Government of India Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi, with Khan playing sitar and singing, accompanied by the Bollywood Orchestra.
Pioneers are not always the ones who go against the grain or blaze the trail for others. Some pioneers leave behind an impression that often gets diluted with the passage of time but whose influence continues to endure. Osten was one such trailblazer.
One of the world’s first Orientalists, Osten’s contribution as a filmmaker, film historian and most significantly as a bridge between cultures has gone unnoticed for a long time.
In fact, for someone who practically invented the typical Hindi film pattern without which much of the high drama of the 1940s, 1950s and to a great degree even the 1960s, and without whom Hindi cinema would have been much different than what we today know it as.
With that said, Osten ought to be celebrated or at least acknowledged more.
Osten had been active from 1911–1939.
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