Hunterwali Nadia becomes an international star

Fearless Nadia, the Super Star of Indian film industry from 1930s- 40s, is the subject of huge interest and curiosity among filmmakers as an Australian stage show 'Fearless N' (March 2008) portrays her life and rise to stardom at Theatre Kantanka in Sydney, writes Pervaiz Alam.

The writer of 'Fearless N' Noëlle Janaczewska says the Australian audiences love Nadia's story and the production team is now looking forward to receiving offers of sponsorship from India and the UK.

"We would love to take the show to either or both the UK and India. Would also be interested in taking it to Singapore, Malaysia and North America as well," says Janaczewska in an exclusive interview with India-EU Film Initiative (www.iefilmi.co.uk).

Known as Fearless Nadia and Hunterwali in India after acting in more than 35 films, involving stunts and bravery, Mary Ann Evans was born on January 8, 1908 in Perth, Australia. She made her debut in Hindi films with Lal-e-Yaman (1933) made by J.B.H. Wadia of the Wadia Movietone. She acted in one of the most popular films of all times in Indian cinema, Hunterwali (1935), leading producers to make a sequel Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943).

"When I first came across Fearless Nadia several years ago, and began to research her life and films—prior to approaching Theatre Kantanka with the idea and theatrical treatment—I heard rumours of a number of films—mostly features—about her. The Mary Evans/Fearless Nadia life-story is an intriguing, layered, and dramatic one," says the writer of 'Fearless N', Noëlle Janaczewska.

We at India-EU Film Initiative can confirm that a couple of filmmakers are figuring out how they can make a crossover movie on Nadia's dramatic life in collaboration with a Hollywood studio. The talks are in an advance stage, according to a producer who wants to remain anonymous.

Fearless Nadia- The Hunterwali 1908-1996However, IEFILMI can confirm that international producers Marian Bartsch and Mago Films from Australia have already started production of their documentary 'Nadia the Fearless', directed by Safina Uberoi.

According to Mago Films "In the one-hour television documentary NADIA THE FEARLESS ONE, director Safina Uberoi will explore Mary Evan’s career from the perspective of how ‘Nadia’, as the Hunterwali (‘the lady with the whip’), personifies an enduring icon in Indian popular culture – a powerful, evildestroying woman dressed in Western clothes who sits somewhere between traditional Indian warriorgoddesses and more modern images of the Englishspeaking, cigarettetoting vamp. As such, Nadia represents a fascinating tension between traditional and modern notions of femininity in Indian society, and her influence remains pervasive."

Last year, the director of 'Maqbool', 'Omkara' and 'Blue Umbrella', Vishal Bhardwaj was reported to be working on the same subject-Nadia, India's first 'superwoman' character and one of the world's few stuntwomen of her times.

"I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we’ll see her up there again on cinema screens. As for those of us involved in this Theatre Kantanka/Sydney Olympic Park production, well, I think we’ve all fallen a bit in love with Fearless Nadia in the course of developing and rehearsing our theatre production," says Janaczewska. However, he adds "We have not been approached (by any filmmaker), but—quite independently of our theatre piece—film-maker Safina Uberoi (who made My Mother India a few years ago) has a documentary about Fearless Nadia in development."

Australia's newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald in its review says: Imagine a Marilyn Monroe-esque glamour girl who performs her own stunts, speaks Hindi and carries Indian men over one shoulder as she balances on top of moving trains. Whether she is quieting lions with a stroke of her hand or jumping from the top of a waterfall, she is as immaculate as she is robust. She steals the hearts of young boys, men and women and is almost superhuman in her resolve.

The paper adds: Unable to meld with the colonial Britons and their cucumber-sandwich snobbery, Evans became a circus dancer, following in her mother's theatrical footsteps. She toured India with her gramophone and dance moves until Hindi film guru J. B. H. Wadia, the king of Indian action films, discovered her and ignited her cinematic career.

Nadia's film career lasted four decades. She was associated romantically with several men and got married twice. But her love affair with Homi Wadia, younger brother of senior Wadia who gave her break in the films, became a Romeo-Juliet fable in Bombay, and continued for almost 30 years. Finally, they got married in 1961 after the death of Wadia's orthodox Parsi mother who was opposed to their alliance.

The Australian show 'Fearless N' has been staged on a film set with live video feeding onto screens above the actors, giving a feel of the Hindi cinema of the yesteryears.

According to Mago Films: "Our documentary will also consider Nadia’s impact on India’s ‘psyche’ during the years in which it was struggling for independence, the outcome being not only independence but partition into Hindi and Muslim states. Was Nadia, as has been recently claimed, not only “a popular symbol of female emancipation [but also of] freedom from British colonialism” and somehow a catalyst for Indian radicalism? These are extravagant claims, but could there be a grain of truth?"

Nadia's story in itself is a Bollywood classic. She waited for Homi Wadia for almost 30 years. She got him but it was too late to have children from him. So Wadia adopted Nadia's son from her previous marriage. Nadia died in Bombay in 1996 only a day after her 88th birthday.

In 1993, Nadia's grandnephew Riyad Vinci, a filmmaker living in New York and Bombay, made a documentary of her life and films, called 'Fearless: The Hunterwali Story'.

His film charts Nadia's life with interviews from Homi Wadia, the producer/director/her husband, and John Cavas, who often shared the title role with her.

Hunterwali- The whip Woman (1936)

Synopsis: This stunt movie established the Wadias and Fearless Nadia. The story opens with a prologue showing Krishnavati and her infant son being thrown out of the house in a thunderstorm by the wicked Prime Minister Ranamal who also killed her brother. 20 years later the now adult son, Jaswant, is hit by a royal motor car and given a bag of gold in compensation. His refusal of the gift attracts the admiration of Princess Madhuri. When the nasty Ranamal, who wants to marry her, imprisons her father the king, she becomes the masked Hunterwali, 'protector of the poor and punisher of evildoers', and performer of stunts like jumping over a moving cart and fighting 20 soldiers at a time. She steals Jaswant's prize horse, Punjab, but returns it to him. Later they join forces and triumph over the villain. There are several bhajans by Govind Gopal, one of them (Hunterwali hai bhali duniya ki sudh leth) in praise of its masked star. Jaidev, later a noted composer, appears here as her sidekick, Chunnoo. J.B.H. Wadia's original scenario was developed by Joseph David, also known for India's first talkie movie Alam Ara (1931).

Hindi/1935/B&W/164 min
Production: Wadia Movietone
Direction & Screenplay: Homi Wadia
Story : J.B.H. Wadia
Music: Master Mohammed
Cinematography: Balwant Dave
Cast : Fearless Nadia, Sharifa, Gulshan, Boman Shroff, John Cawas,Master Mohammed, Sayani, Atish, Jaidev

Nadia Films

1930s: Diamond Queen (1940), Punjab Mail (1939), Lutaru Lalna (1938), Hurricane Hansa (1937), Miss Frontier Mail (1936), Pahadi Kanya (1936), Desh Deepak (1935), Hunterwali (1935), Noor-E-Yaman (1935), Lal-e-Yaman (1933).

1940s: Delhi Express (1949), Maya Mahal (1949), 11 O'clock (1948), Tigress (1948), Himmatwali (1947), Stunt Queen (1947), Toofani Tirandaz (1947), Flying Prince (1946), Lady Robinhood (1946), Sher-E-Baghdad (1946), Toofan Queen (1946), Hunterwali Ki Beti (1943), Mauj (1943), Jungle Princess (1942), Muqabala (1942), Bambaiwali (1941)

1950s: Queen of the Circus (1959), Diler Daku (1957), Fighting Queen (1956), Jungle Queen (1956), Carnival Queen (1955), Shamsherbaaz (1953)

1960s: Ek Nanhi Munni Ladki Thi (1970) and Khiladi (1968)