At Filmi Ladies, friend of the Gutter Pitu Sultan and the Gutter’s own Beth Watkins watch Harishchandrachi Factory!

“To mark our 200th—yes TWO HUNDREDTH—episode, we chose a film that celebrates cinematic history. Harishchandrachi Factory is a Marathi film about the making of the very first feature film in India, and it’s a peculiarly light-hearted approach to an event with massive consequences. Dadasaheb Phalke is portrayed as a less crabby Willy Wonka, surrounded by people who mostly say yes, easily, to all his whims. This film is missing much commentary on the significance of Phalke’s work beyond ‘it was the first feature film’ and spends no energy investigating anything juicy—what was it like to undertake such a project as a person of color in a subject area of the British empire? what sacrifices were made to appease investors? what was it like to shoot on location?—but it’s a very enjoyable presentation of time period and a group of people that all of us movie-mad folks should know more about.”

Read more here.