100 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA....KANAN DEVI

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100 YEARS OF INDIAN CINEMA...KANANDEVI....WATERCOLOUR...A3...2013...Kanan Devi (Bengali: কানন দেবী) (22 April 1916 – 17 July 1992) was an Indian actress and singer. She was among the early singing stars of Indian cinema, and is credited popularly as the first star of Bengali Cinema. Her singing style, usually in rapid tempo, was used instrumentally in some of the biggest hits of New Theatres, Kolkata. Kanan was born on 22 April 1916 in Howrah, West Bengal. In her autobiography, entitled "Sabaray Ami Nami", Kanan has observed that those she considered as her parents Ratan Chandra Das and Rajobala lived together. After the death of her adoptive father, Ratan Chandra Das, young Kanan and Rajobala were simply left to fend for themselves. Her life story is a true tale of rags to riches. A well wisher Tulsi Banerji whom she called Kaka babu introduced Kanan when she was only ten to Madan Theatres/Jyoti Studios where she was cast in a small role in Jaidev (1926), followed by Shankaracharya in 1927. She was known as Kanan Bala. From silent film roles as a child artist Kanan made the successful transition into talkie films and was noticed with Jorebarat, Manomoyee Girls School, Khooni Kaun and Maa (1934) She worked with the biggest names in Indian cinema from K.L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Pramathesh Barua, Pahari Sanyal, Chabi Biswas and Ashok Kumar. M.P. Productions's Jawaab, was perhaps her biggest hit. Her song Duniya Yeh Duniya, Hai Toofan Mail was well received. She repeated the same feast in Hospital (1943), Banphool (1945), and Rajlakshmi (1946). Kanan Devi's last Hindi film was Chandrashekhar (1948) with Ashok Kumar. Kanan turned producer with Shrimati Pictures in 1949 and later launched the Sabyasachi Collective with the film Ananya (1949). Her own productions were mainly based on the stories of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Kanan married Ashok Maitra in December 1940. He was the son of the staunch Brahmo Samaj educationist Heramba Chandra Maitra. D