The nine-minute 1920s film titled Docker and the Rose was produced by Shanta Rao Dutt, who left Mumbai in 1896 to follow the pioneering Lumiere brothers to France, and later went on to produce a series of films for the British Raj.
Dutt was knighted in 1945 for his services during the Second World War, but returned it the next year after his son, Kiran, was deported for spying after leaking information to leader of the Indian freedom struggle. Dutt died in 1987 at the age of 106.
The silent comedy film was produced when Dutt was in Liverpool to shoot a newsreel about the Indian Lashkars campaign for equal rights. Dutt found himself inspired to shoot his first fictional love story on the Liverpool docks.
Dutt cast a young Indian Docker as his hero, and the chambermaid from his boarding house as his heroine. During filming, Dutt fell in love with his leading lady, Mary, and married her. Despite its light-hearted comedic tone, the authorities banned the film. Amid the controversy, Dutt and his new wife were forced to flee England for the US.
The print of the film was lost in the course of their hasty departure, until it was discovered in an antique shop in Liverpool in 2006.
The film was found by Ajay Chhabra and his wife, Simmy, who lead the prominent London-based cultural organisation, nutkhut. They hired equipment to watch the film and began a journey to piece together the work and life of the unknown film-maker who they discovered was Shanta Rao Dutt.
Chhabra said: "We entered the world of a man of principle, a member of the working class from India”. He left Mumbai in 1896 to follow the Lumiere brothers to France, then travelled the world documenting life and making short films. At the time he shot Docker and the Rose in Liverpool he worked for the Government shooting news reels for the cinema. He was sent to Liverpool to document the dispute between dock owners and Lashkar and other immigrant sailors. It seems to have been partly inspired by Dutt's fascination with Russian avante-garde and Futurism. The Docker and the Rose was his first fictional film and is based on a docker, Raam, falling in love with the owner's daughter Rose.
"It was a compelling find. I still can't believe our luck. It seems only right now that we bring the film back to where it was created for its premiere." Marion Hewitt, director, the North West Film Archive, who was closely involved in the conservation and digital conversion of the film, said: "This is a very exciting and important discovery. Dutt made a significant, but little known contribution to film which nutkhut and a group of enthusiasts are starting to put on the map."
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