1937

The studio order: New Theatres, Bombay Talkies, Prabhat and Ranjit with their house styles; the new craft of playback; film music flourishing even in the war's shadow. 1937 was also the year of Dadasaheb Phalke's final film (Gangavataran), the debut of Anil Biswas as an independent music director (Jagirdar), and Saraswati Devi — India's first female music director — scoring four Bombay Talkies films. Our archive holds 20 songs and 18 films of this year. Films: Duniya Na Mane, Kisan Kanya, President, Vidyapati (flagship); Gangavataran, Mukti, Jagirdar, Jeevan Prabhat, Izzat, Savitri, Kokila, Khan Bahadur, Prem Kahani, Wahan, Anath Ashram, Hurricane Hansa, Toofani Tarzan, Jagat Kesari (catalog).