Noted film director Hridaynanda Agarwala passes away

Hridaynanda Agarwala, noted film director of Assam and youngest brother of the first Assamese film producer-director Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, died on Friday at his residence in Tezpur.

Hridaynanda Agarwala, noted film director of Assam and youngest brother of the first Assamese film producer-director Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, died on Friday at his residence in Tezpur.

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He was 93.

Agarwala was suffering from age-related ailments, family sources said

Closely associated with the making of the first Assamese film 'Joymati' in 1935, Agarwala was the assistant director of that film, the third talkie of the country and the first political film in Indian cinema.

In the early 1970s he chanced upon seven reels of the lone print of 'Joymoti' while cleaning his garage after the film was almost forgotten and lost since the Second World War.

He had engaged Dada Saheb Phalke awardee and eminent Assamese singer and director Bhupen Hazarika in 1976 to make the documentary 'Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad aru Joymoti' and incorporate the seven reels there by copying and remastering them, the sources said.

Agarwala had also independently directed two critically aclaimed Assamese movies 'Kesa Sun' and 'Dhoomuha'.

He along with his wife had set up the `Padma-Hriday Sanghralay' as a museum to house the memorabilia of Rupkonwar. Agarwala till his end was managing the state's first cinema hall 'Jonaki' established in 1939 by his brother Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla.

Predecessed by his wife noted social worker Padma Agarwalla, Hridayananda is survived by two daughters and two sons.