Karma

Karma (1933)

The simple plot has the maharani (Devika Rani) fall in love with the neighbouring prince (Rai) despite her father's disapproval. It is presented as an Orientalist fantasy with a, by Indian standards, scandalously prolonged kiss. It was described as 'a sort of American romance done against an Indian background'.

Date of release
1933-05-14
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 8m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
John Hunt

Casting

Interesting facts

Karma is a 1933 bilingual film starring Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai. The film was directed by J.L. Freer Hunt and was a joint production between India, Germany and United Kingdom. Karma featured a four-minute kissing scene between the lead actors, Devika Rani and Rai, the longest in an Indian film. However, this has been incorrectly reported, the kissing scene features a series of kisses and is less than 2 minutes long.

Production

The female lead Devika Rani, the grand niece of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore was professionally associated with Rai even before the two married in 1929. Impressed by her talent, Rai decided to cast her in the film alongside him. Abraham Sofaer was cast in a pivotal role as a "Holy Man". The screenplay was co-written by Rai and Freer Hunt. The music was composed by German composer Ernst Broadhurst.

Karma, an "Indo-German-British" collaboration, was released two years after the Alam Ara (1931), the first Indian talkie. Karma was made targeting the international audience. The film was entirely shot in India while the post-production process was carried out in Stoll Studios, London. The film was the first talkie produced by Rai.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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