ABSTRACT
Like many Gujaratis of the early 20th century, Fatma Begam – British India’s first female director, producer and scriptwriter – moved from what is present-day Surat to Bombay, to form its film industry. Unlike Dadasaheb Phalke, the ‘father’ of Indian cinema, her contribution to Indian cinema to date remains obscure within film history. Her absence within film history has partially to do with her absence within film archives, demanding from us, transgressions towards media and legal archives as incidental sites of film history. This chapter looks at the multiple kinds of networks and mobilities that are brought into play for us via Fatma Begam: her own migration to Bombay which involved various negotiations of social mobility; the methodological mobilities demanded of the film historian when faced with fluid and imperfect archives; and the retrospective possibility of imagining the history of Indian cinema as it wasn’t written: that is, originating from its commitment to heterogeneity and plurality.
