Sabu Film

[Agalia Valcin]

Bornin 1924 in Karapura, Mysore, Kingdom of Mysore, then a Princely State of British India,[2][7][8] His father was a mahout (elephant keeper/trainer). While most reference books list his full name as "Sabu Dastagir" (which was the name he used legally), research by journalist Philip Leibfried suggests that his birth name was in fact Selar Sabu.[9]

When he was 13, Sabu was discovered by documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty, who cast him in the role of an elephant driver in the 1937 British film Elephant Boy. This was adapted from "Toomai of the Elephants", a story by Rudyard Kipling. In 1938 producer Alexander Korda commissioned A. E. W. Mason to write The Drum as a starring vehicle for the young actor. Sabu is perhaps best known for his role as Abu in the 1940 fantasy adventure film The Thief of Bagdad. Director Michael Powell said that Sabu had a "wonderful grace" about him.[10] In 1942, Sabu played another role based on a Kipling story, namely Mowgli in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book directed by Zoltan Korda, which was shot entirely in California.[11] He starred alongside Maria Montez and Jon Hall in three films for Universal Pictures: Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Cobra Woman (1944).

After becoming an American citizen in 1944, Sabu joined the United States Army Air Forces and served as a tail gunner and ball-turret gunner on B-24 Liberators. He flew several dozen missions with the 370th Bombardment Squadron of the 307th Bomb Group in the Pacific, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his valor and bravery.[12]

His career declined after World War II. He was unable to secure equivalent roles in Hollywood that British films had offered. He occasionally did gain significant parts, such as roles in the British films Black Narcissus and The End of the River (both 1947). Through most of the 1950s he starred in largely unsuccessful European films. In 1952, he starred in the Harringay Circus with an elephant act.[13]

He was considered for the role of Birju in Mehboob Khan's 1957 film Mother India, which would have marked his debut in Hindi films, but was denied a work permit and the role ended up going to Sunil Dutt. Sabu never got to appear in a film made in his native country.[14] In 1963, he made a comeback to Hollywood with a supporting role in Rampage opposite Robert Mitchum. He played another supporting role alongside Brian Keith in the Disney film A Tiger Walks. This would turn out to be his final role as he died three months before the film was released.[citation needed]

On 19 October 1948, Sabu married little-known actress Marilyn Cooper (whose only film part, as Princess Tara in Song of India in 1949, was not credited), with whom he had two children. Their marriage lasted until his death. Their son, Paul Sabu, established the rock band Sabu in the 1980s. Their daughter, Jasmine Sabu (died 2001), was an animal trainer for the motion picture industry. [citation needed]

Sabu was the subject of a paternity suit. A dancer with whom he had appeared in Black Narcissus, Brenda Marian Julier, alleged that he was the father of her daughter Michaela, born in 1948. At the time of the trial, in October 1950, Julier had married Frank Ernst.[15] The jury found in favor of Sabu by a vote of 9 to 3.[16] However, in March 1952, an appeals court reversed the verdict and ordered a new trial, finding the trial judge's jury instructions were erroneous and prejudicial, and that Sabu's attorney had effectively put Julier on trial.[17] The day the second trial was scheduled to begin, in July 1953, the actor settled the case without admitting paternity. He agreed to defray Julier's costs, set up a trust fund, and pay monthly support until the child reached 21. At that time, Ernst stated his intent to adopt the girl.[18]

In November 1950, a fire destroyed the second storey of his Los Angeles home. Arthur E. Wall and Andre Perez were arrested for arson shortly afterward; Perez pleaded guilty in July 1951. He revealed that he was asked to set the fire by Wall, Sabu's friend, who told him the actor needed the insurance money. Sabu's insurer, Northwestern Mutual, had originally paid out his claim, but sued him in November 1952 after learning about the purported arson.[19]

Sabu's brother, known as Shaik Dastagir, managed his career.[20] In 1960, his brother Shaik was shot dead at his home during a botched robbery. The perpetrator, 18-year-old Jimmy E. Shields, was a former employee at the brothers' furniture store. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 1 to 10 years in prison.[21]

I am interested in exploring different ways documentary and media can engage social issues, and vice versa. This means expanding and updating the visual language of the social issue documentary, including into new media, as well as thinking through how social issues are affected by and embodied in film form itself.

Unbroken Glass, Kartemquin Films, 2016. Director, Co-Producer

Feature-length personal documentary about my journey to understand the lives and deaths of my parents.

Seattle South Asian Film Festival, Dallas VideoFest, Driftless Film Festival, Austin Asian American Film Festival; PBS Broadcast on America ReFramed May 2017.

Britain's first above-the-title film star of Indian origin - indeed, for many years India's only truly international star - Sabu's own life story was as unlikely and fantastic as that of many of the characters he played. Despite his lack of acting experience and a less than perfect command of English, it's easy to see from his opening straight-to-camera narration alone just why the veteran documentarist Robert Flaherty was literally charmed into casting him as Toomai, the title role of Elephant Boy (1937).

His full name is the subject of some controversy. Most reference books have it as 'Sabu Dastagir', but his son Paul confirmed that his real name was Selar Sabu, although his brother's was Sheik Dastagir. Sabu was born on 27 January 1924 in Karapure, Mysore, in southern India and his early life has many parallels with Toomai's: his mother died when he was very young and he was raised by his father, a mahout, or elephant driver. When he too died in 1931, the six-year-old Sabu was taken into the service of the Maharajah of Mysore, first as a stable boy, then as a mahout in his own right, and it was when riding one of his beloved elephants that Flaherty first saw him when looking for someone to play Rudyard Kipling's Toomai of the Elephants (from 'The Jungle Book').

The film had a troubled two-year gestation, with Flaherty being replaced by Zoltn Korda mid-production and Sabu shipped over to England for six weeks of studio scenes. Although the end result garnered mixed reviews, Sabu's performance was universally praised and the film a box-office hit, and Alexander Korda quickly signed him up to a long-term contract.

The first fruit of this was The Drum (d. Zoltn Korda, 1938), his first Technicolor production, though as Korda wanted to keep a much tighter rein on the budget it was largely shot in Wales. But Sabu's winning performance as heroic young Prince Azim showed that he had real range as an actor, cemented by his third, best-known role as Abu, The Thief of Bagdad (1940), a notoriously piecemeal production shot on both sides of the Atlantic and with six directors holding the reins (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell and Tim Whelan credited, along with Alexander and Zoltn Korda and William Cameron Menzies). It is not entirely thanks to Sabu that none of this is apparent from the finished film, one of the most richly imaginative fantasies ever put on screen, but he certainly deserves a major share of the credit.

Sabu remained in Hollywood for the duration of World War II. He made a final film for Korda, The Jungle Book (US, 1942), which brought his London Films career full circle in that it returned to the source of Elephant Boy, the actor being as natural as Mowgli as he had previously been as Toomai. He remained in Hollywood after his contract expired, signing with Universal Pictures to make a quartet of films opposite Maria Montez, becoming a US citizen in 1944 and flying several missions for the US Air Force as a tail-gunner towards the end of the war.

Returning to Britain in 1946, Sabu teamed up with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger for his last two British films. By far the best of these, the exotic Technicolor extravaganza, Black Narcissus (1947) cast him as the young general, a relatively brief but pivotal role in which he sports the scent that gives the film its title and runs off with young village girl Kanchi (Jean Simmons). The End of the River (1947) gave him another leading role, but this Powell-Pressburger production directed by former editor Derek Twist was over-ambitious and under-developed, and failed to make much of its authentic Brazilian locations. That said, Sabu acquitted himself very well in the complex part of Manoel, a young Amazonian Indian sucked into a world of moral and political corruption.

After this, Sabu left Britain for good and spent the rest of his career making relatively undistinguished Hollywood films and building a successful career in property. He died of a heart attack at a shockingly young 39 shortly after completing his first Disney film (A Tiger Walks, US, 1963), and was buried in Hollywood's famous Forest Lawn cemetery.

They take a boat to another kingdom where Ahmed falls in love with the Princess (June Duprez) the moment he sees her. Abu wants to take the boat and explore the world with Ahmed, but Ahmed now only wants the Princess. Naturally their friendship suffers some duress.

The film suddenly snaps out of its flashback (about halfway through the runtime) and one of the harem girls tells Ahmed she knows the Princess and that she is in an enchanted sleep. From then on Ahmed tries to reach the Princess and regain his sight.

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