Title:WITH THE SIRMOOR SAPPERS: OBSERVING THE HOLI FESTIVAL IN SIRMOOR [Allocated Title]
Film Number:MGH 4830
Other titles:AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
Summary: Amateur film without titles shot by Major Masterton of the Indian Army's Sirmoor Field Company, depicting the Hindu Holi festival in Sirmoor State.
Description: 02:12:40:11 [B&W] Parade; mounted lancers pass. Brass band passes. Indian senior officers (? poor light). An inspection (of a guard of honour?) a large, squat building with domed roof. Landscape views with rugged forested terrain. In a built-up area, looking towards a large building (a palace?) overlooking the cameramans position; two Muslim women walk towards and past camera. Pan trees and landscape with ornamental lamps (like street lamps) entering foreground. Tilt up facade of the building. Pans of the building and grounds. Indian troops clapping and singing; one man plays a harmonium or similar. A civilian man, apparently performing conjuring tricks for an audience of dignitaries and troops. Some senior personage receives garlands. Pan of a group of men, presumably senior local civil and military figures, including the man now covered in garlands. [colour] People dancing to music; one may or may not be a woman (dressed in bright red and blue), one man is wearing a large false beard and another is wearing a tall, sharply pointed conical hat. A different dance. British officers, apparently having been marked with red dye, watching. Dancers passing camera. Dancing; mountains rise in the distance. [B&W] More dancing. Vigorous sword dance. Musicians playing. Dancing. Procession, led by some of the dancers already seen. Troops awaiting the start of a running race; their vests are marked with a dark rectangle. Officers. Troops running past camera and past spectating troops; some of their vests are marked FFR (Frontier Force Regiment or Frontier Force Rifles?). Troops playing hockey. Troops smoking a hookah. Man being shaved. Men standing outside a building (a sick bay?). 02:24:37:14
Alternative Title:AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR MASTERTON [Alternative Title]
Colour:B&W
Digitised:No
Object_Number:MGH 4830
Sound:Silent
Access Conditions:NON-IWM
Featured Period:
Production Date:1942
Production Country: GB
Production Details: Masterton, W F (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Indian Army, Sirmoor Field Company (Indian State Forces) (regiment/service)
