A Road in India (1938) - Jack Cardiff | BFI

A Road in India (1938) - Jack Cardiff | BFI . Subscribe: bit.ly/subscrib...
A tribute to the great British cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who died in April 2009 aged 94. For more information about Jack's life and work see www.screenonlin...
The sights of India as seen from the perspective of a dusty road. This portrait of 'the enigmatic and disturbing East' is big on exoticism and cliché, but Jack Cardiff's Technicolor cinematography makes for typically compelling viewing. Cardiff later won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the India-set - though filmed in the UK - 'Black Narcissus' (1947).
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[@akshaykumarakubatoor8841]

Those who are complaining that this documentary is staged, be thankful at least we have a source to look back in the history,

[@mirarshadurrahman755]

Absolutely true...

[@Kali-Mirchi]

"No documentary can be 100% unstaged. Theoretically that thing doesn't exist."

[@noname-cu2xh]

Born in 1992, I grew up as a child in Uttar Pradesh. Some of my experiences in the 90s and early 2000s are more similar to these times than to the totally transformed India of today. This goes to show how rapidly India has changed over the last two decades, and how resistant it was to change until the liberalization of the Indian economy.Very strange how i can find similarities between my time as a child in 1990s in uttar pradesh village to the viedoes from 1938, just insane.

[@mmulbatoora653]

One similarity they still worship shivlund and Parwati Yoni. Lol

[@juliuscaesar564]

​@@mmulbatoora653 go follow your child r*pist muhammed, a tradition dating back to the first degenerate chuslims 🤡

[@thephoenix8244]

@@mmulbatoora653 And childfu**ker paedophile mohaaamond as well .. 😅 olla o ubar..

[@anjanpratapsingh727]

​@@mmulbatoora653That's better than to be part of the cult of a genocidal cult

[@punisher419]

​@@mmulbatoora653dont you guy's worship roadbreaker for a god???? Halala born opinions don't matter

[@sureshpandey9485]

NO TV, No mobile, no phone, no scooty, no pizza, no momoes, no plastic, no expressways. Easy life and people were satisfied. No pollution. Such easy life existed till 1980's. People used to read novels, and other books

[@TheVibhavbisht92]

A beautiful window to the past! While some of content seems staged/misappropriated (possible due the the british target audience of that time), the story telling style is beautifully poetic. Thanks for sharing this beautiful ornament from Indian History.

[@a.v.p7996]

India has come a long way in 86 years. The best part was i witnessed both the modernization and also enjoyed a culture similar to this in my village back in early 2000s. It's was blissful

[@shamsalfarabi6107]

For at least 2,500 years, the Grand Trunk Road has linked the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia. It runs from Chittagong, Bangladesh west to Howrah, West Bengal in India, then across Northern India passing from Allahabad (Prayagraj) it goes through Delhi, passing from Amritsar towards Lahore and Peshawar in Pakistan, finally terminating in Kabul, Afghanistan covering 4900 kilometers.

[@nischaymiglani2617]

Grand Trunk road is more than 5,000 years old.

[@nischaymiglani2617]

Actually this road was spread across to Myanmar also.

[@sabbirahmed1483]

চুপ কর জঙ্গি

[@AshishSharma-is4ur]

How beautiful and open road and Innocent people in our Country!!

[@AshishSharma-sd8fn]

Hmm😊

[@elchoya100]

Black Narcissus 1947 is cardiffs color masterpiece.wow this is beautiful color of india.

[@jimjiminy1929]

roselyn rajoo it was filmed in a studio in England. Plus the girl you are talking about was mix race. Have you even seen the film?

[@Kumarlalitaditya23]

No #plastics wastes no heavy pollution, no mobile Very good life

[@ricks1129]

still the life expectancy in those times was abysmal compared to today

[@Kumarlalitaditya23]

@ricks1129 life was not long but big and grand

[@Raaddller]

I grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai in the late seventies. I remember, bread was ₹1.80 a loaf and rickshaw minimum was ₹1.80. There were 5p candies. Above all, there were trees and thickets in Mumbai, where a leopard could be lurking at night. There were paddy fields beyond Thane, where people would grow crops. There were Gulmohar and Mayflower trees everywhere in mumbai. It looked so beautiful in late April - May. So pretty, was my Mumbai.

[@user-id5fo5fv8r]

In the late 70s NO bread was as expensive as Rs 1.80 a loaf. It was less than 1 rupee. Modern or britannia.

[@ishagupta4]

Wish we could go back to that era

[@Raaddller]

@@ishagupta4 how I wish too. All the riches in this world is useless.

[@Nassirkhan0987]

15 year ago i was 10 year old today im 25 watching this vedio... Ah!!where those days were gone. Where my old India has gone. Long live my beautiful country 🇮🇳🙏

[@tunderbomber]

These were the days not much different from those in Kipling 's time. (Kim). I (Dutch) travelled India and Pakistan extensively by road in the 70 's and 80's.. A little more noise, a little more danger , but still as scenic as back then.

[@capteagle9]

Cool...you should visit now sir..india has changed a lot and hasnt changed also😂we havent forgotten our culture and youll still see the scenic beauty but development has happened at very fast rate...

[@ranjittyagi9354]

@@capteagle9 development or destruction of culture, ways, manners and environment? Kindly, be honest at least to ur own self!

[@capteagle9]

@@ranjittyagi9354 im being honest..india has improved quite a bit

[@EIPepe305]

im in india as i type this and it's still the same

[@amnnn-b3p]

hm

[@pocoapoco2]

The technical quality of this footage is unbelievable. It's 70+ years old for crying out loud. The only thing I could possibly knock it for if I wanted to would be that it's a bit contrasty and has a slight magenta cast both of which could be due entirely to the age of the footage. I have to wonder what this footage was like when it was freshly shot.

[@no22sill]

I want to go back and breathe in the unpolluted air

[@vageducationalconsultancy7775]

Yup but can't survive there .....

[@KT43124]

If you go back you will die with common diseases because no medical science was not developed... Also you will be so much frustrated with inequality, caste system, poor situation of women and superstition.

[@no22sill]

@@KT43124 you lose some, you gain some.. not that everyone died of disease back then.

[@saubhikbhattacharjee6023]

@@KT43124 oh really? Then all of us wouldn't have seen our grandparents...in name of advance medical care pharma companies r looting people.

[@ANUSHRIVAN]

Me too

[@akashmengi7731]

In what a devastated state did they leave our country. with virtually no domestic industry. And what an impossible task was presented to our early leaders who kept the country from falling apart from within.

[@britishfilminstitute]

Legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff was born 100 years ago today. Experience his work in glorious Technicolor: bit.ly/1rfSq3d

[@debalmajumder8952]

the world was so beautiful then !

[@vishnutripathi3675]

raja looks like kabadi, 😂😂😂 or some type of comedy seen of hindi movie

[@BlindObedienceBrutal]

I am not an Indian. But I thank God for Indian Independence, since it has allowed Indians to take the microphone and camera and speak about themselves rather than depend on foreigners to portray them. As well-intentioned (or not) as these old films are, and as valuable as they are as (flawed) depictions of the past, they still come across today as mighty ridiculous. Still, I am reminded of what Satyajit Ray wrote about the actors in Pather Panjali. None were poor rural people. They were either acting students, professional actors, or intellectuals from Calcutta. On this he wrote, “… in films it was the end result that mattered and the fact that the characters were faked implied no lack of sympathy for the people portrayed.” So inevitably it is not a question of whether art is faked, what matters is the perspective of the artist and the extent to which the artist understands his or her subject and wants to and *succeeds* in portraying it authentically. Judging from many of the comments, this film arrives at that goal only minimally.

[@latham29]

No, this is an early Technicolour film so was always in colour! It's one of a series of Technicolour shorts made by Jack Cardiff. You should read the blurb about the film. There's another great one on this channel called Delhi.

[@sssshivsss1]

This hardship of my people....just make me more cry 😢😭

[@eyeofthepyramid2596]

These are rural areas. Nothing changes irrespective of the ruler

[@souban2008]

RIP Jack Cardiff. Marvelous documentory. 🙏

[@bsingh5860]

Divided we fall united we stand 😢😢

[@pim1234]

You keep amazing me with the films you find...thanks !!

[@vijayrana3161]

TIME is very powerful thanks BFI

[@moonday4868]

India, outside the big cities, used to look like this until the late 1960s. India's population in 1938 was 307 million, about a quarter of what it is today. One human walking around for every four today. It was much prettier.

[@ranjittyagi9354]

We are now 1.5 billion in 2024, unofficially. One human back then for every five now. Most Disgusting.

[@konrad7086]

@@ranjittyagi9354 What is disgusting about it?

[@ishagupta4]

@@konrad7086high density and noise and people everywhere. We are more than the land can support

[@ishagupta4]

300 million in 1930s was also very high population compared to the world. The problem is we always produced way more children due to good weather, our cultural mindset of having a male child and lack of women empowerment. All these factors led to high fertility rates and poor standard of living.

[@ishagupta4]

Everything was made using sustainable material, from houses to tires. People seem to be relaxed, content and in harmony with nature. While there was poverty the environment was very clean and people seem to be content with what they have.

[@shaanshokie]

It all look so staged to showcase it in front of the european masters, especially the so called yogis sitting beside the road and meditating, and also the Raja and the Rani and ofcourse the dancing girl..

[@SanjayTyagiNY]

You are absolutely right. They are surely not going to any cool hill station as the commentary says. Much of it must have been staged. Nonetheless it is amazing to see the people and land from 80 years ago.

[@popefrancis8153]

Rajas used to travel a lot back then

[@chittodnaresh9568]

This is a movie bhai not a docukentry.

[@doctorshawzy6477]

So whar

[@amnnn-b3p]

hm

[@prakritijeyaprakash2032]

No bikes, cars. No pollution. No big building.

[@surinderdalal3974]

india was dirt poor then, thanks to british

[@CampingMaster11]

Still better roads then now

[@Max7770_0]

lol.no

[@amit4Bihar]

Andriod Tips no. We have 6 lanes 10 lanes road etc and on much larger scales

[@eyeofthepyramid2596]

😅

[@prata1019]

Look at how many elephants are just lined up and how the narrator says that there are too many tigers lurking 😥

[@bhav6358]

No internet, no mobile phones, less communication, less trouble. the more communication power for humans the more trouble.

[@akhileshsajeev4240]

The way the narrator speaks, seems more like a poem than a narration 😂😂 Old is gold

[@championmaterial5014]

Old British accent 😂😂

[@mohammedaadil4591]

I love my India😁😁

[@DubMastiandmimicry]

many people are wearing hand watches. Unbelievable.

[@charananekibalijaun8837]

I am curious. Is it different nowadays?

[@DubMastiandmimicry]

@@charananekibalijaun8837 This is staged by Britishers to coat good picture of India.

[@charananekibalijaun8837]

@@DubMastiandmimicry hand watches? 😂

[@charananekibalijaun8837]

@@DubMastiandmimicry it's not a documentary pal

[@amnnn-b3p]

hm

[@vivekdombe8262]

was that barber using a machine while cutting the other mans hair....crazy at 8:32

[@suhaskumar7515]

yeah even i saw .. astpunding

[@Sachin-bc5fs]

Vivek Dombe .....its a manual one....but yeah it is machine u can say without battery or electricity 😊

[@raunee100]

India used to be so scarcely populated. Everything looks static and peaceful. On the other hand people look deprived and engulfed in poverty and the soul reason was the rulers who did this. The Britishers were having the feast of their lives London was thriving like never before and all of this on the cost of Perpetual adversity of the people of India. Anyways; many thanks to *BFI* it wouldn't be possible for us to look in those times and experience it first hand if it weren't for you.

[@pritpala]

Raunak Dubey India is now a bigger sh!t hole than it ever was.

[@raunee100]

infal0890 and who are you Monsieur?

[@Meena-bb1fb]

Peaceful and pollution free India.

[@hmjg182]

That’s totally true

[@saigonpunkid]

Modernization is stripping away ancient traditions in India more than the British ever did.

[@shivampatnaik2000]

Which of the traditions portrayed in the video do you wish to retain? Bullock carts? Chained elephants? Palanquins borne by men? Petty rulers accompanied by simpering dancing girls? Snake charming? Women walking miles carrying pails of water? It's a good riddance that most of these (except, sadly, the last one) are either gone or are very near to becoming extinct. I'm all for preserving traditions but this particular video doesn't show much that I'm particularly inclined to preserve (except for the clothes that the people are wearing. I'd very much like Indian clothes to survive the onslaught of westernisation).

[@saigonpunkid]

Shivam Patnaik that traditional wedding, why not?

[@shivampatnaik2000]

@@saigonpunkid Hindu weddings are still traditional in India although embellished with many modern additions. The core remains the same as it was several thousand years ago (Vedic hymns are chanted whilst the priest, the bride and groom and their fathers sit next to a fire altar). But I didn't see any wedding in the video. Where is it?

[@harshthakur1]

@@shivampatnaik2000 well we should have kurta pajama as uniform for schools and offices

[@shivampatnaik2000]

@@harshthakur1 Kurta and pyjama are not the traditional male garments in "my region" though. Dhoti and a blanket draped like a shawl are. There were some stitched garments too that are extinct now and I'm not entirely informed as to what they looked like.

[@muheadalam6320]

Thank you So much

[@amolpathak9736]

Hope this narrator is still alive to see a Indian British PM.

[@adityashukla7849]

Y'all have problems with TikTok. These guys staged a whole documentary back then.

[@splatharackal1337]

What a poor Raja and Rani... Thanks to those british, who shot this film and enabling Indians watching it, after 85 years

[@ranjittyagi9354]

India was a beautiful landscape once. Gone for ever in the name of the glorious "development".

[@journeythroughlens9886]

This is called time travel, 1938 omg ..nothing have been left now , but still they are immortal by this video.

[@nirajandata]

since, it was 85 years ago, some people who are still living over 100 years old maybe in that footage i guess

[@narang4554]

My beautiful country

[@maunangpatel88]

Yes we gain a lot in last 70 years

[@maynk7096]

We are still the same people , sociologically we are the same - technologically we are updated.

[@StarTreeTravel]

Loved watching this video

[@adrianjackson2696]

Colour in 1938 when colour was in its infancy

[@facts.nfigures]

Amazing to see in colour

[@keerthi321]

sounds of dynamics never got beyond wheels. WOW Good thing that British dont think about India in same way now.

[@CalciteRhomb]

Amazing

[@JunaidKhan-up2nb]

unfortunately, around 50% of our Indian population is still living the same as they used to live in 1938. 😥😥😥😥

[@pushkarverman]

Well, learn some maths and spare time to develop your rudimentary brain to be competent... ..dawg

[@elcastorgrande]

It only needed Kipling. "There's a regiment a-comin' down the Grand Trunk Road."

[@jaspreetmail]

I liked this video so much.. I like old things.

[@rohitsandroid1655]

@4:08 rajas entourage is a jokingly staged procession😂,far far away from real luxury and riches of Indian kings

[@nirajandata]

bro, that's a local raja. During british india, local raja didn't had much wealth unlike maharajas

[@shadab_30]

Watch it again it is said he is a local King not a chakravartiye samrat. Perhaps he has a ruling over few villages.😂

[@Priyagurja]

Can nature be peaceful again in the same form

[@uddiptalukdar]

Colours in 1938! Had no idea.

[@jigarshah9214]

Kindly confirm which location of india and also the year of shoot

[@TeachfinanceX]

I wonder if anyone from this video is still alive

[@no22sill]

the dog most certainly isn't

[@harshthakur1]

manmohan singh was born in 1932 also there are lots of people alive from that era though can't about people in this video

[@Kanexy07-bq8ei]

I think the yogi in saffron who's hand was in air as tapasya. I have seen a old yogi who's hand has taken that form of being in air. Due to so many years of penance his hand had become stiff in air. I think he is the same yogi.

[@AnkitKumar-cn8mv]

Trees

[@dhksrksalem]

pure

[@bikramjitbiswas9478]

the fact that some women in certain parts of india still have to carry water for miles is an outrage- shambolic

[@ravimishra9825]

Great to See 1938 Road in India..marvelous documentary Bharat Mata Ki Jai🙏🏻🌹❤

[@avanishsharma1701]

In the last shots, two women from haryana are passing through the frame

[@siddharthtube429]

Which state is shown in this video?

[@mohmmadbilalmajidkhan5639]

I am indian muslim. hear for look how my people live old days transport

[@broski_654]

Lol that time your women didn't even leave holes for eyes and hands in burkha 😂 4:59

[@nadznadz2951]

Who knows if the boy at 4:34 is still alive ?

[@FazzyKVlogs]

1:18 that's ' Matka peer" . Just google matka peer in delhi" on google. It's a shrine in Delhi

[@manttest]

It’s not raw video, it has edited lot

[@martinsantosh1597]

Good video

[@doctorshawzy6477]

Well governed by the British

[@jony7057]

very rare and unique documentry of my land ,which place in india could you please mention??

[@harshthakur1]

must be rajashthan

[@singhaditya317]

india was less populated then

[@Faisalwarraich]

Hmmm... Thank you very much dear, to correct me.

[@dominiquebrodoteau5135]

Which state of India is this?

[@952v67]

Location ?

[@Nerinav1985]

I : INDEPENDENT N: NATIONALIST D: DEMOCRATIC I : INVINCIBLE A: ARYANS

[@zarmaltiktoker5618]

All people in this video are in grave . 😭

[@firedup643]

@VineetaSastry Exactly! And not to mention the fact that those men were wearing turbans, which Muslim men seldom do!

[@noshulal]

Wearing Turban has been the traditions in Muslims Specially in Punjab, Haryana, Mewat, Rajasthan and some parts of UP also.

[@shadab_30]

Many sects of muslim men do wear turbans not as the cultural thing but as a religious thing also. Don't have a stereotype that muslim men wear only jaalidar topi or ghalib style, there are many different headgears they use as per the geography and culture.

[@ANUSHRIVAN]

"during hard fast of Ramadan no true Mohammaden of India may eat meat" ... Did I hear correct??

[@ANUSHRIVAN]

@ather zaidi did I wat I listen is mentioned??

[@ukin237]

No traffic jams and plastic!

[@no22sill]

yes man

[@food4u598]

Nyc sheep.

[@rameshgovardhanagiri533]

Subtitles are quite irritating blocking the screen...

[@andysvehiclehistorychannel]

I wonder if this was filmed anywhere near Peshawar ?

[@ranjittyagi9354]

Rajasthan

[@jaibhartjaiaryavert666]

𝙄𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝘽𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙩.

[@akshun9517]

This must be Sindh as lots of Muslims can be seen

[@mintusaren895]

Now not to speak only golden deer.

[@sailordoc2007]

Laughable depiction of the so called ' Indian Raja' and his ludicrous 'dancing girl' - it's so obviously staged. The film wants the viewers to believe that the 'cool hills are a short walk from his regular palace...besides no maharani of those days would have travelled on an open road on an open palanquin without being in purdah I can imagine the 'polite society' of britain lapping all this up back in those days - fools

[@adas19581024]

sailordoc2007 In fact the entire film is seems to be scripted . In fact it's an enacted documentary

[@shikhab2250]

I feel so sad to see all those rickety malnourished animals lugging such heavy load and after all these years is still the same 😢

[@SonuYadav-ql6cw]

India shows as Elephant 🐘 slow but powerful but now indian government think become like Tiger Bengal

[@MrYazzful]

fantastic,, i think this footage been colored now,, the original should be b/w..lol can u post the original one plz..yasser from u.k

[@AdityaShinde-js1ft]

My village was like this until 2005 then government highway went near the village and the picture changed

[@chetanvenkatesh6051]

"enigmatic and disturbing east" wtf

[@noshulal]

Beautiful Film Matka Peer

[@sahir313]

I wonder back then our population was OK. How come so much people nowadays. just some decades that's all.

[@salilnair2614]

Constant barrage of condescending, bordering on racist commentary. Its OK though.. the guy doing it has no idea he is doing it.

[@rohitsandroid1655]

Video is staged

[@UP-xw7hn]

Raja rani kha se pakad laaye the 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@goognamgoognw6637]

this looks like a stereotyped and small view of india, like someone who went to one village and staged some quite insignificant scenes and then pretends he has seen india. Quite britannic.

[@calicocentric]

colorised?