ABSTRACT

The (sub)genre of the “devotional” movie1 has been vastly understudied, notwithstanding its popularity from the beginning of Indian popular cinema and its interesting links with progressive ideology. In fact, arguably one of the very first Indian movies could be said to belong to this genre, namely the 1912 silent movie Pundalik (d. Tipnis and Chitre, EIC 243). This movie was based on the story of a famous saint, and directly inspired by a Marathi stage play of the saint’s life.