Nov 10, 2008 - Sale 2161

Sale 2161 - Lot 19

Price Realized: $ 2,160
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
PHILIP KUMAR DAS GUPTA (DATES UNKNOWN) CALCUTTA. 1938.
39 7/8x25 inches, 101 1/2x63 1/2 cm. The Calcutta General Printing Co., Ltd.
Condition B+: repaired tears and creases in margins and image; minor restored losses and restoration in bottom corners.
A stylish and fashionable street scene which, with a different title, could easily be an advertisement for a night out in London or Paris. The Metro Cinema, with its Art Deco facade, was the first real movie house in Calcutta. Opened on June 8th, 1938, the theater, which was owned by Metro Goldwyn Mayer and initially ran only MGM movies, signalled the beginning of the tremendous interest and influence that Indian culture was to have in modern cinema evidenced today in the second biggest movie industry outside of the US: India's Bollywood.