A little known story

1. Gooptar writes that Sayed Mohammed Hosein was a licensed Hindi interpreter and a Muslim Divorce Officer from San Fernando and the first president of the Anjuman Sunnat-ul-Jamaat Association (ASJA) incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1935. Little was it known that when Hosein was sent to India to recruit a Muslim missionary — Moulvi — who could “positively strengthen the wilting spirit of the Anjuman”; he would meet the renowned engineer Ranjit Kumar in Punjab who took him to see an Indian movie. Hosein would convince Kumar to travel to Trinidad to find a job and the two men, who wanted to bring an Indian movie to Trinidad as a business venture decided to form the Hindusthan Trading Company. In Bombay (Mumbai) they bought a print of Bala Joban (A wayward youth), a 13 reel, three-hour movie, a musical black and white movie with 15 songs which came to Trinidad in late 1935 in a tin box called a strong box. The film cost them 2000 rupees, approximately $200.

Other ASJA members were instrumental in bringing Bala Joban to the cinemas writes Gooptar. One of these was Port-of-Spain businessman Mohammed Ibrahim who helped clear Bala Joban through Customs. With Ranjit Kumar stranded in Spain after going ashore in Barcelona and returning to find his ship sailed, in his absence Hosein and Ibrahim set out to get Bala Joban into Trinidad cinemas. Having been turned down by William Pettigrew Humphrey, who Gooptar describes as a local film distribution magnate, they turned to fellow ASJA member Haji Gokool Meah who owned the Metro Cinema in Port-of-Spain — the cinema being built in collaboration with MGM studios of the USA. It was the largest cinema in Trinidad and the Caribbean but after disputes over whether the Metro could screen non-MGM movies, Meah parted ways with MGM and the Metro became the Globe. The Globe in Port-of-Spain would join the cinema Hall of Fame by becoming the first movie theatre to screen Bala Joban which was also shown at Meah’s Globe Cinema in San Juan. All the shows were sold out.

Gooptar reveals that “between December 1935 and May 1937 …. The film was continuously exhibited at local cinemas” and up to 1944 was drawing huge crowds in San Fernando. It paved the way for the now booming Indian movie business in TT.

Bala Joban he says became a new identity symbol for the East Indian community, a slice of India served up to them in Trinidad. In it they could feel proud of their culture, their religions, and their music. Interestingly Bala Joban also influenced fashion. Young Indian men began to grow their hair long and women and girls wore the long Bala Joban earrings named chokha earrings. Bala Joban the author says represented the first tangible and most significant connection with India for East Indians in Trinidad after their Kala Pani crossing into the country. And this history was made possible because ASJA sent one of its members to India to look for a Muslim missionary.

Three and a half decades later another Muslim, attorney and politician Sham Mohammed, would play his role in the promotion and development of Indo Trini culture by launching Mastana Bahar in 1970, a TV talent show whose aim was to promote and broadcast the best talent in the traditional Indian performance arts of singing, dancing and playing musical instruments. The first winner in 1970, Parvati Khan, is now a pop star in India and via Mastana Bahar late chutney icon Sundar Popo first shot into the spotlight with his song “Nana and Nani”. Mastana Bahar is TT’s longest running television talent series.

Little is traditionally said of the Muslim community’s significant support of and contribution to Indian arts and culture and thereby their overall enrichment of Trinbagonian culture and today we salute them and we wish them a blessed celebration as they end their month of fasting. Eid Mubarak.