Indian Scenes

Remarkable early documentary turning the camera on life in Kolkata and Mumbai

This is, for 1906, a strikingly ambitious proto-documentary travelogue filmed in and around the cities now called Kolkata and Mumbai. It's full of precious, occasionally startling images, from an extended 'phantom ride' down busy Calcutta streets to thronging port life, street trading, even the cremation of a human body (05:27-07:09) and the ritual decapitation of lamb on a Bombay street (09:32-10:42) - scenes some viewers will find upsetting.

This is a French production but like many of the 'exotic' travel films so popular in early cinema it travelled widely itself – hence this version, with English language intertitles.