FilmIndia (1943)

THE SOPHISTICATED AND THE RUSTIC
THE CLEVER AND THE SIMPLE
ALL FUSED TOGETHER IN A NEW
STREAMLINED SYMPHONY OF

THE SCREEN.

Starring: CHANDRAMOHftN, SARDAR AKHTAR, NAND KISHORE,
KAMPTA PRASAD, BHUDO ADVANI, NAZIR KASHMIRI & OTHERS.

PRODUCED BY:

FAZLI BROTHERS

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B Y APPOINTMENT T O
THE MOST HONOURABLE
THE MAROUESS OF
LINLITHGOW VICEROY
AND GOVERNOR
GENERAL OF INDIA

James Carlton Limited London, England

JANUARY 1943

VOL. 9 NO. 1

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filmindia

PROPRIETORS
FILMINDIA PUBLICATIONS LTD.
55, SIR PHIROZESHAH MEHTA ROAD, FORT, BOMBAY
Telephone: 26752

Editor: BAKU RAO I'ATEL

(yltantalam ICeeps His Promise I

The year 1943 will become a memorable milestone
in the history of the Indian film industry when years
hence some one finds time to write one.

And that memorable milestone will also perpetuate
the then revered memory of Mr. V. Shantaram, India's
greatest director.

For years I have been quarrelling with Shantaram
over men and things in our film industry. With his
usual grace Shantaram has always considered these
quarrels as heated discussions. I have been asking him
to do things. He has been requesting me to wait.

He had promised me progressive social pictures
when he was producing
spectacular mythological sto-
ries. He produced "Duniya-
na-Mane," "Admi" and "Pa-
dosi" and kept that promise.

He had promised me to
take up new faces and not
put all his hopes in the rot-
ten star baskets and he gave
us artistes like Chandramo-
han, Shanta Apte, Shanta
Hublikar and others.

He had promised me to
come down to Bombay and
produce pictures. His new
Rajkamal Kalamandir is a
visible evidence of that pro-
mise.

Mr. V- SHANTARAM
India's Greatest Director

He has promised me many other things — big and
small — and one by one, I am sure, he will fulfil them.

But the one big thing he had himself sworn to do
was to found the Film Academy of India where the future
youth of the country may get the right training to fulfil
its aspirations in art and the artistic.

I still remember those depressing moments on the

3

YR AVEL LIGH¥ f

toad fei lenq (JcuHnhs

TAKE YOUR FOOD WITH YOU !

January 1943

FILMINDIA

lonely moors surrounding the Prabhat Studios in Poona,
when Shantaram would recount to me, with tears in his
eyes, the grim and tragic story of his own hard training
in film work.

Beginning his life as an ordinary bell-boy in the
Maharashtra Film Company of Kolhapur, every one ex-
pected him to end his career as the chief errand-boy of
the studios. Precious little education had that bell-boy
with only a nodding acquaintance of the English langu-
age.

It was an uphill task for the boy with extreme po-
verty nursed as a family ghost for generations. His
meagre monthly earnings of a few rupees helped the
family expenses and Shantaram went without an after-
noon lunch for years, for the simple reason that ho could
not spare the six pies for even a cup of tea.

All round him more fortunate people created new
art every day. The struggling Maharashtra Film Com-
pany, guided by the genius of Baburao Painter, was
fast making a big name in the film production field.

Between the two tinkles of the office bell calling the
faithful to attention, Shantaram decided to learn new
knowledge primarily to fight grinding poverty.

Holding the slate before the camera — his first direct
job in motion picture making — Shantaram gradually
advanced through the most grinding mill to become the
first assistant to Mr. Baburao Painter, the producer-
director of the Maharashtra Film Company .

This uphill journey was punctuated by innumer-
able obstacles as the film industry was then in a primi-
tive state and every one had to learn by the method
of trial and error. A poor boy had no resources for
his own experiments, but he watched closely the trials
of others and learned from their errors.

It was one continuous grind of toil and tears on an
empty stomach and even now when Shantaram recalls
those times big beads of perspiration crop up on his now
fortunate forehead

Having learnt all he had to, he had to wait for a
long time for an opportunity.

Inevitable human rivalry, the cause of so many hu-
man miseries in this competitive age, withheld that op-
portunity from Shantaram for a long long time, till one
day he broke the shackles and with faith as his only
capital founded the Prabhat Film Company with a few
colleagues as his partners.

The rapid success of Prabhat is one of the most re-
markable romances of the Indian film industry. The
part Shantaram played in building this great institu-
tion will only be appreciated now after his departure,
when his absence will be felt more than when he was a
part and parcel of that great concern.

Shantaram's remarkable genius in motion picture
production had by now become the pride of the nation
and the one envy of his competitors. His glorious strug-
gle was crowned when the Government of India ap-

Believe It Or Not

(The following letter is addressed to Editor Baburao Patel by Mr. Jayant
Desai, senior-most Director of Ranjit Movietone. The letter is provoked by
our recent editorial: "The Snake And The Snake Charmers" and provides
interesting reading. — The Editor.)

"My dear Baburao,

I appreciate your courageous stand
against the producers and the distri-
butors in your latest editorial "The
Snake And The Snake Charmers".
But one thing I would like to sug-
gest is that a bad review usually
does more harm to the director of a
picture than to the producer.

When a picture fails the producer
abuses the director even if the pic-
ture is a good one, but if it clicks at
the box offices and even if it the re-
views are bad, the producer would
not give any credit to the director
but would pat his own back.

I consider you as the best critic
and so I feel that you should treat
the directors very sympathetically.
After all directors are more in your
line than the producers and the dis-
tributors who are getting rich on the

talents of others.

Your editorial is really a fine
stand against the capitalists of our
industry. If you can keep up the
same spirit you will do a lot of good
to everybody. Don't be afraid. I'll
be the first person to buy your ma-
gazine at Rs . 5 - per copy just as,
at present, I am paying a rupee for
it at the stalls.

I don't want that you should be
put to any financial loss and I don't
think the producers and the distri-
butors would stoop so low as to
cause you a loss by stopping their
advertisements. But my instinct
tells me that you will be a superb
critic — with dynamic language and
constructive suggestions — when all
the advertisements are stopped .

"Well, I wish you even greater
success in your career because we

Director Jayant Desai, Ranjit's
money-maker, who has given great
hits like "Shadi", "Tulsidas" etc.

want people who can stand and
fight in this weak and capitalistic
industry.

Yours sincerely,
JAYANT DESAI.

5

1943
YOUR BEST
RESOLUTION

WILL BE

To go RCA all the way

PHOTOPHONE

H$h WMity

Distributors for Northern India : Messrs. Empire Talkie Distributors

Karachi, Delhi, Lahore, Calcutta.

Authorised Exclusive Dealers; Messrs. Famous Pictures Ltd..

Bombay, Bhusawal.
Special Agents; Messrs. AM A Limited, Bombay.

&4jjufirnjLmjU ltd.,

PHOTOPHONE HEADQUARTERS

9.MARINE LINES B OM BAY.

January 1943

pointed him as their Film Producer— a unique recog-
nition for a man who began as a bell-boy twenty-five
years ago.

For a year Shantaram went off his own production
and threw himself headlong into the production of some-
doubtful short subjects to prop up the war-efforts of the
country .

But the blue and the purple of the State soon chok-
ed the artistic soul of our artist. Once again he re-
belled and became free.

Rajkamal Kalamandir is the new temple where this
unique devotee will burn new incense from day to day
at the Altar of Art.

Yes, Shantaram will travel fast and true on his
glorious journey to immortality, but very often he looks
back at the rough road he has left behind and as he looks
back he sees the huge boulders which once blocked his
way and trembles at the thought of other travellers hav-
ing to stumble against them.

Out of this sympathetic fear for his fellowmen Is
born India's very first Film Academy for which Shan-
taram apologises as follows: "What use is my success
and money and for that matter my very existence, if 1
cannot help others along the journey and make it a bit
easier for them. I must do my bit. All human effort
must contribute to lessen the misery that has filled the
world today."

Vcena, chic and coy provides new thrills in 'Yad', an
Asiatic Picture.

FILMINDIA

Shahzadi — a popular dancer — is seen to advantage in
"Haso Haso-c-Duniyawalle" a social picture of Soubhagya.

Those are the words of a very human artist who
has not forgotten his own past on the crest of his crowd-
ed hour.

The year 1943 therefore brings into existence India's
first Film Academy where students of motion picture art
will be initiated into the mysteries of motion picture
production by the unique method Of practical training
in a live studio.

This will be specialised training in a commercialised
art which pays fabulous salaries to its employees. And
yet the training fees are kept a reasonable minimum
and the recurring losses in establishment expenses for
the first five years will be met from the private purse
of Mr . Shantaram .

Elsewhere in this issue is published the trade an-
nouncement of the Film Academy of India and those,
who have been anxious to join the Indian film industry
in one department or other, have now the opportunity
to do so.

In the meanwhile, let film enthusiasts remember
that India's first Film Academy owes its existence to a
bell-boy who built his life between the two tinkles of
the office bell.

Thanks, Shantaram, for keeping another promise.

BABURAO PATEL

7

International Talkie Equipment Company,

Phone -.20892. 17, New Queen's Road, Bombay. Gram: "SOUNDHEAD."

Branch otficc; Mount Road. Madras Agents t (HAMRIA TALKIE DISTRIBUTORS, Madras h Bezwada Desai S Co-, Lahore & Delhi.

This section is the monopoly of "JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about
things which he likes. The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still
they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job.

A PAINFUL PARTING

The frivolous quarrel which started over Amiya
Chakravarty, director of "Basant", between Rai Baha-
dur Chuni Lall, the General Manager of the Bombay
Talkies, and Mrs. Devika Rani Rai. Controller of Pro-
duction, seems to have reached its unfortunate climax,
as Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall is reported to be resigning
from the 2nd of January 1943 and severing his connec-
tion with the Bombay Talkies.

With the Rai Bahadur is going Producer S. Mukher-
jee whose unique success in production has already
made new motion picture history. Ashok Kumar,
V. H. Desai and some other leading technicians and
artistes are also leaving to join Rai Bahadur's new pro-
duction company.

Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall, with the help of the
most important p.-oduction unit in the country today, is
bound to make his new business as big a success as he
did with the Bombay Talkies.

Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall was one of the founders of
the Bombay Talkies with Mr. & Mrs. Himansu Rai.

For the first four years, the Bom-
bay Talkies struggled for a preca-
rious existence and when Mr. Hi-
mansu Rai died suddenly in May
1940, the company had debts am-
ounting to over three lakhs of ru-
pees.

Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall inherit-
ed these debts along with what little
Rai Bahadur chuni L.11 success the company had achieved
till then. Taking in hand Producer S. Mukherjee, the
Rai Bahadur soon produced "Kangan" which proved a
terrific success. Then came from Producer Mukherjee
"Bandhan", "Naya Sansar" and "Jhoola", all great
money-makers which helped the Rai Bahadur to turn
the financial scales favourably for his company. Very
soon the accumulated dividends of seven years on Pre-
ference Shares were paid and another 10 per cent was
paid, for the first time, on the Ordinary Shares of the
Company.

Today, when Rai Bahadur is leaving the Bombay
Talkies Ltd., he is leaving behind a very prosperous
company with a huge bank balance and a new picture

like ''Kismet" ready in hand, to wish all god-speed to
the company.

In the film circles there are no two opinions about
Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall's organizing ability and
business acumen and his inimitable services and devo-
tion to Bombay Talkies will never be forgotten.

We hope, Devika Rani makes good use of her new
opportunity by using the present substantial resources
of the company and add more in future to the glory
and success of the Bombay Talkies Ltd.

No longer will the genial Rai Bahadur, with his
inevitable flowering button-hole, preside over Devika
Rani's birth-day parties nor will he be there to garland
her on the steps of the Roxy Cinema on premiere
nights of Bombay Talkies.

It is a pity.

Kanan can always claim beauty of lovely music if not
anything else. Avd she gives plenty of music in
"Jmrah"

Now that film
is scarce

jgECAUSE millions of feet of Kodak Film are
being used for war purposes and because
shipping space is limited, supplies to amateur
photographers are not as plentiful as before.
So make the most of your film by avoiding
the common faults we all make sometimes !

If occasionally you find that your Kodak
dealer is out of your particular size of film,
please be patient. And when fresh stocks
arrive please do not be unfair to others by
buying more than you really need.

1 Keep the camera steady; use a tripod or othet
firm rest if possible

2 Don't underexpose; it is better to be on the safe
side and err by overexposure

3 Be sure you are not cutting off part of your picture

4 See that the sun does not shine into your Uns

5 Remember to wind the film on after exposing I

KODAK ltd

BOMBAY

(Incorporated In England)
CALCUTTA - LAHORE

- MADRAS

K SiasX'*3 cols. 'A':Campaign December U2

January 1943

FILMINDI A

GLAMOUR BOYS OR GARBAGE MEN?

Nowadays when you go round the town seeing
Indian pictures, in a single day you come across a
single actor working in four pictures at a time. When
all these pictures are social stories, you find the same
actor dressed in a common social costume and doing
practically the same type of work through all the four
pictures .

This is how Indian producers present variety in en-
tertainment—the same blasted face of the hero in four
different pictures of four different producers.

This is the tragic crop cinema fans are gathering
nowadays as a result of the vicious free-lancing done
by some of our leading film actors.

Art and its idealistic pursuits have already been
thrown to the winds. Our actors no longer believe in
the time-honoured adage: "Art for art's sake". Some
of them have become heartless racketeers with their
first to fourth preferences operating with heartless ac-
curacy .

If these actors think that they are smart, they are
very much mistaken By working in several pictures
at the same time, they are shedding their glamour very
fast — glamour which took them years to build. Too
frequent appearances of a popular star dissipate his po-
pularity and a stage is reached when people get dis-
gusted with his face.

If actors wish to be selfish, they must also be wise.

There was a time when Motilal, Chandramohan.
Prithviraj, Kumar, Jagdish, Jairaj and .others used to
draw crowds. The reason lay in 'their appearance on
the screen at long intervals .

Today, none of these one-time well-known actors
draws any crowds. They have all appeared in so many
pictures, so frequently and so unfortunately that people

1 \

'', "bhakta kabir"

^ .. As we go to the press, we get the good news ^
| that "Bhakta Kabir", produced by Unity Pro- |
^ ductions and released through the Bharat ^

2 Pictures Ltd., has been exempted from the En- ^
v V
'/ tertainment Tax by the Government of Bombay, s

V V

^ The Governments of the Punjab and Sindh £

^ had long since exempted this picture from the ^

^ Entertainment Tax, because of its Hindu-Muslim ^

^ unity theme of which the picture makes no |

2 secret. But this is the first time that the slow- £

^ moving Government of Bombay has ever offi- ^

£ cially blessed a picture thus and we congratu- ^

^ late the Government for this enterprise and ^

| thank our Ex-Sheriff M. R. A. Baig for his good |

^ efforts on behalf of a deserving Indian picture. ^

"Bhakta Kabir" is a picture our nation badly ^

2 needs just at this time. 2

y i
y <y

Chic Sadhona Bose keeps the rhythm of the bells
echoing through "Paigham", a social story of Amar
Productions.

are tired of their faces. People don't like to be over-
fed, however excellent the offering.

Chandramohan once bragged that his pictures never
failed and yet "Jhankar", a story built round him, fail-
ed to be popular.

Motilal is very popular with the producers and
keeps on collecting new contracts every month. But
being popular with the producers is one thing and with
the public quite another. When producers realize the
grim fact that even Motilal's pictures fail, they will stop
offering contracts to Motilal.

Take the case of Kumar. When he first came to
Bombay after his classic role in "Puran Bhakt" he was
quite a craze with the people and the producers. Pro-
ducers paid him big sums to star in as many rotten
pictures as possible. Today, Kumar has to produce his
own pictures to get for himself an acting chance. And
as a producer he dare not take a chance with himself,
so he takes in Chandramohan or prithviraj to help him
out.

That is what is going to happen with our glamour
boys of today . They are going to be garbage men of the
future. It seems quite wise to make hay when the sun
shines. It may be a useful proverb in other walks of
life but not so in this glamour industry where the con-
tinuance of the sun is more important than the making
of the hay.

11

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r 9

January 1943

FILMINDIA

Producers are heartless capitalists at all times. The3*
will pay as long as it pays them to pay, but once an ac-
tor stops pulling, they will have no use for him.

It is for our popular actors to realize the folly of
their present ways. With the present free-lance rac-
keteering they may reap a few temporary benefita, but
in the long run they will find themselves thrown on the
garbage heap.

THE TELEPHONE NUISANCE

The Indian film industry was never very much
known for its politeness. The average film man, what-
ever branch of the film industry he may be working in,
was never lucky in being called a polite person.

This attitude continues to be obvious in all the
fields of work: production, distribution and exhibition.

Ring up a studio and try to inform a producer that
his wife is dead. You shouldn't be surprised to hear the
telephone operator say: "So what? He is busy and
you can't talk to him."

Even the poor wife's dead body will have to wait,
till the producer is free. Not that he is always busy.
For all we know, he might be just having an afternoon
nap. But what do the telephone operators care? They
keep on being rude call after call.

Our studios have not yet understood the function of
a telephone. They consider it to be a nuisance link
between the public and themselves.

9

Mumtaz Shanti radiates a new personality in "Kismet",
the new social picture of the Bombay Talkies. Ltd.

Slow-growing Vasantee plays another baby-role in
"Dukh Sukh" a social story of Ranjit.

Admitting that there are plenty of idle people who
keep on phoning the glamour boys and girls and who
deserve some sharp retorts, it is still necessary that the
studios employ sweet-spoken, polite telephone operators
with enough horse-sense to distinguish a business call
from an idle inquiry.

The other day I was trying to get through to Mr.
V. Shantaram at the Rajkamal Kalamandir. The voice
that greeted me seemed to belong to a she-man — if at all
there is a creature like that.

That man had never heard of Shantaram before
and did not know where and how to get in touch with
him. He banged the receiver down.

I had to dial again but no sooner the she-man heard
my voice, he flew into a temper with, "I told you, he is
not here. Close down" and before I could do so, he fol-
lowed his own orders.

That is the politeness you get in a Shantaram con-
trolled studio and Shantaram is supposed to be a po-
lite and efficient man. How much worse must it bs at
the other studios?

Another studio telephone problem is the single con-
nection which carries an overload of nearly four hun-
dred calls a day.

390 calls out of these are usually useless inquiries
but they succeed in keeping the telephone busy. And

13

January 1943

FILM1ND1A

when someone in business wishes to get at the producer
urgently, he just can't do it because of an overworked
busy line.

Can't the producers have a private line for serious
business? They can, if they will only care.

SAME DAMNED FACES

Perhaps the most familiar faces on the Indian screen
are those of the extra girls who appear in our dance for-
mations and in the screen's birthday parties and crowds.

All told the entire — Indian filmdom can claim about
fifty female laces in these ranks — ranging between
seventeen and seventy in age — all ugly in varying deg-
rees— and these faces keep on making their regular ap-
pearances all at the same time, in pictures produced by
the Bombay Talkies, Ranjit, Wadia Movietone, Kardar
Productions and umpteen other producing companies.

Very often the same females act as fashionable city
women in the first reel and appear in the seventh reel
as village belles in the very same picture.

Having worked in a studio, I know how exactly our
producers manage this clumsy trick. When a direc-
tor requires extra girls, the production manager is asked
to get them.

This commodity is available in two or three groups
under different chaperons. The chaperons are inform-
ed and he gets his crowd at Rs. 5|- per head per day if
the crowd is not working elsewhere on that day.

At this rate the same faces keep travelling from
studio to studio from day to day and very often we find
these very same females as wedding guests in different
pictures of different producers at different cinemas all
at the same time.

Isn't that some enterprise on the part of our pro-
ducers? And they talk of giving us novelty every time.

WHAT A WOMANHOOD ?

Another important aspect of this commodity of ex-
tras is its varying degree of ugliness.

In Hollywood, they say that the extras are more
beautiful than the stars. Not so in India! In India the
stars are not beautiful and the extras are ugly beyond
tolerance.

The main fault is in our star selection. Barring a
couple of happy exceptions, almost all our stars are re-
markably ugly women. Some are old women with half-
a-dozen kids — some have Mongolian features with pock-
marks and pimples — -some have extra long noses and
cat-eyes — some have fat-punched noses with midget
figures — some are long-nosed fat cows — some have pol-
ly-noses with horse-hips and some have negroid lips
and over-sized breasts. You can't strip one of them to
find the body beautiful.

And these women are often called upon to play
classic beautiful roles like: Seeta, Meera, Nur Jehan

etc. ru

It was alright in the early stages of our film indus-
try, when new talent was shy, to take whatever one

got. But now after thirty years of film-making it is
a pity that these poor types have to represent the fair-
sex of India.

When the principal stars of our pictures are so
ugly, one should not be surprised at the degree of ugliness
found in our extra girls who are usually picked from
the worst slums of the city.

Somehow, producers don't seem to realize that a
beautiful face is a very great attraction on the screen.
When cornered, they let out the periodical wail: "Where
are the new faces?"

I would like to ask them what attempts have they
made to get them. None! When a good-looker occa-
sionally strays into the film field they try to jump on
her all at once and spoil her talent by raising her price
to giddy heights through sheer competition.

There is plenty of good talent waiting to enter the
field, if the producers will only guarantee them con-
genial environments for work.

No producer has yet given a public guarantee of
this though in private conversations they proclaim it
with a vengeance.

The first producer who openly guarantees safe and
excellent working conditions for our educated girls and
puts all his cards on the table is going to get an ex-
cellent response from our fast-growing college girls.

As long as this is not done, we must continue to
"enjoy" ugly and mis-shapen heroines and still uglier
and more twisted women as extras through birth-day
parties, weddings and funerals of the screen.

In "Kaljug" a social picture of Hind Pictures, Nazir and
Sitara play the usual love game.

1 1

LTS. 73-284-100

LEVER BROTHERS (INDIA) LIMITED

FILM AC A II I

FOUNDER

M.

//

BOARD OF HON

BABURAO PAT EL
DEWAN SHARAR
BABURAO PENDHARKAR

SUBJECTS

Group "A"

(1) Motion Picture Production

With general training in all
departments. Course of 3 years.
Maximum admission tiva
students.

Group "B"

Mr. V. Shantaram

C

(1) Motion Picture Direction

(2) Cinematography

(3) Audiography

(4) Photoplay and Dialogue

Writing

Course of 2 years in each sub}(
with a maximum admission oj
students per subject.

(5) Art of Acting
Maximum admission of
persons (both male a\
female )

^XXXXXXXXXXXXXXVXVXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.

kCVXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX^

Z A course of two years constitutes a general detailed study $
£ of Motion Picture Production through practical training ^
^ with specialization in any one of the above subjects. ^

^\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX^

General Admission Fee Rs. 200 - payable before admission.

In addition to the General Admission Fee, Special Course Fees in any one subject from
the Groups A. B. C. D. will be charged as under

Group "A" — Rs. 600/-

„ "B" — Rs. 500/-

"C" — Rs. 300/-

"D" — Rs. 100/-

per term — 2 terms per year
2

11 11 i' ii 11

The ACADEMY guarantees a fellowship of Rs. 50/- per month for six months practical train-
ing with any recognized production unit in Bombay for each candidate after completion of his
course or even before if his progress is satisfactory in the opinion of the Board of Advisers.

Write for Special Application Fori

FILM ACADEMY «

MY OF INDIA

R ARY A D V I S E R S

Mr. VISHRAM BEDEKAR
D. 0. TENDULKAR
B. M. TATA

SUBJECTS

Group^C"

(1) Art Direction

(2) Film Processing

(3) Mounting & Editing

(4) Music

(5) Distribution of
Motion Pictures

Course of 2 years in each sub-
ject with a maximum admission
°f four students per subject.

Group "D'

(1) Exhibition And Projection

(2) Settings & Costumes

(3) Still Photography

Course of 2 years in each sub-
ject with a maximum of 4
students per subject.

c

XXXXXXXX\XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX\\\XXXXXXXXXX\>>

Practical

Practical
Training in
The Different
Rrts of motion
Picture making

.xxxxxxxx\ssxxxxxxv I

1 V.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

1ST TERM : MARCH TO JULY — 2ND TERM : JULY TO JANUARY

Admission open only to a limited number of students as the actual training will take place at the
Rajkamal Kalamandir Studios and on the sets of "Shakuntala", the picture directed by Mr. V.
Shantaram, as also on the sets of the other selected pictures under production at the Rajkamal
Kalamandir Stud:os. Only persons having special aptitude for the various motion picture arts
should apply.

Periodical lectures by prominent film personalities
will be arranged for the benefit of the students.

FINAL CLOSING DATE : 1st FEBRUARY 1943

Selected candidates will have to appear, at their own expense, before the
Board of Advisers for ascertaining general aptitude before final admission.

by sending '/8/- in postal stamps to:

F& IV Ife I & llnjknnuil Knkmian«Wr.
•■• ^ w fil Parel, « O 31 BAY - 12

w'mmm a

JUST 72 years ago, at a time when life insurance was practically
unknown in India, the Bombay Mutual, the oldest Indian Life
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today it can rightly feel proud of a splendid record of most
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last 72 years the fiercest of wars ; the most ravaging of epidemics
and economic depressions of long durations. But thanks to the
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have shown a consistent increase.

It will cost you nothing to learn what Bombay Mutual has done
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of your daughter ? Do you want your wife to have an income
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A 184

BOMBAY MUTUAL

LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY LIMITED

BOMBAY MUTUAL BUILOINC, HORNBY ROAD, BOMBAY |

POLICYHOLDER - A SHARE HOLDER

Agents All Over India, Ceylon & British East Africa

SHANTA APTE —

She seems to be in a quarrelsome mood even in a photograph. Here she is in
"Duhai" a social melodrama of Sunrise Pictures.

FIRS1 PRIZE t
Rf.8rOOO

+ R5. 500 MONTHLY
FOR 12 MONTHS

R,.ii,ooa

I

Rs. 6,000

EXTRA PRIZES

Gift for each One Error loUer. Useful Present for each Two Error
solver. Merit Bonus for each Three & Four Error tolver.

«* COMMONSENSE CROSSWORD 99 No. 260

With as few strokes of the pen as it will take to write out your cheque, you can fill in an entry square
that will bring you First Prize. Don't try to be too clever ! Simply use your commonsense. And
remember that many big First Prizes in Commonsense Crosswords have been won with entries containing
two errors. The First Prize in this Competition is : Rs. 14,000, of which Rs. 6,000 will be spread over
12 monthly payments ; or Rs. 13,000 cash down. A further Rs. 6,000 will be divided among Runners-up ,
and, in addition, there are unlimited Extra Prizes in which you will share with even four errors. But
practice makes perfect, so get busy NOW on the Square below.

CLUES ACROSS

1. Commonsense Crosswords are men-
tally this

8. Sharp

9. Puts in place

10. Unit of measure

13. Afresh, again

14. Gained in contest

16. Makes loud, deep sound, like lion

18. Top of arch of foot

19. Short form of professional

20. Smooth, hard coating

22. One is indeed very like another,

as a rule

23. Spendthrift wife sometimes

makes good-natured husband
this to his friends

25. Bully seldom attacks person who
clearly has strong one !

27 Timid man usually tries to keep
in with such a person

30. Jumbled spelling of auk.

32. Modest young women don't like

strange men to this them

33. Probably war causes more

people to this than anything

else does

34. Thinking of what he this some-

times spurs man to greater
efforts

35. Man who is this merely to help

his fellows seldom gets
gratitude he deserves

36. Gambler often is

CLOSING DATE, JANUARY 22nd.

N.B.— The Entry Fee is Re. 1 per Entry Square.
Every two Re. 1 Entry Squares submitted by
the same entrant entitled the latter to one
"Half Fee" Square. The Square below is for
practice purposes only.

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Copyright of this puzzle strictly

reserved by

260

Compiler

FOR FULL PARTICULARS SEE
THE ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY 29
OF INDIA

of January 3rd or 10th

VOPiliS AVAILABLE FU031 ALL NEWSAGENTS

CLUES DOWN

2. Blood runs through these

3. Small country hotel

4. Warning

5. Makes skin brown, as with

sunburn

6. Frozen water

7. More recently bought, less worn

11. Move with body close to ground,

or stealthily

12. Jumbled spelling of unhoped

14. Envy and jealousy sometimes

tend to make even attractive
women this

15. Single in number

17. Scarcity of this usually hurts

poor people most
19. Clever this sometimes defeats

ends of justice
21. Sudden this is apt to frighten

nervous baby who is alcne
24. Come into view

26. Whether one has a this day-

depends largely on oneself, as
a rule

27. How often is it that dwelling on

little things makes a person
this !

29. When wayward, usually great
anxiety to conscientious
parents

When a man is this he is usually

respected to some extent
Naturally, social climbers this
snobs !

31.

[In this section, the editor himself replies to queries
from the readers. At thousands of letters are
received every month — some anxious and several frivolous — it is
neither possible nor convenient to attend to all. Selected letters are
usually treated in an informative and humorous strain and no offence
is meant to anyone.']

NIRMAL KUMAR LAHIRI (Patna)

I congratulate you on your taking up a very cultur-
ed Indian lady as your secretary . Is she the first Indian
to be employed thus by you?

j beg your pardon! I have never employed a

foreigner yet. Thanks for your congratulations.

Do not the film stars ask you questions like your
readers?

People who live in glass houses cannot afford
to throw stones at others. Their own life happens
to be one unanswered question.

P. N. MATHUR (Jaipur)

Who is the best singer on the Indian screen?
Saigal. What he does not sing is not music.

MUTHU ISMAIL (Bezwada)

Is it true that Mr. Dalsukh Pancholi is not a well-
mannered man?

That depends on what you want out of him.
Every man has a good stock of both — good and bad
manners — and Dalsukh is no exception.

E. WINFRED (Marikuppam)

Why do film stars marry, when they play husband
and wife in the pictures? I think the play itself ought
to satisfy their ambitions.

Marriage is not play-acting. It is a different
game not played on the screen but behind it. Film-
stars often come on the screen with the solitary ob-
ject of going behind the screen some day.

K. S. BHATNAGAR (Indore)

From the number of pictures advertised by Mr.
Kardar — viz: "Namaste", "Bindiya", "Shah-Jehan",
"Kanoon" and "Sharda" which one is being actually pro-
duced?

"Sharda" has been produced and already re-
leased at Karachi where it is reported to be draw-
ing large crowds. "Sharda" is a streamlined come-
dy with a tiny pretence of instruction. It is a
breezy picture which entertains every minute. Kar-
dar produced this picture within three months — a
feat he found difficult to achieve when working
for other producers. Kardar. is now busy with
"Namaste" as his next and 'Kanoon' as his third.

NAVAL KISHORE MALAVIYA (Cawnpore)

Will you please ascertain why Snehapraba Pradhan

hesitates to send her photo to one who really
ciates her?

appro-

The last time she sent a photo out, it fell in the
hands of Kishore Sahu, who "really appreciated"
her. You know what happened. How do you ex-
pect a wise girl to take another chance?

M. A. ABBASI (Cawnpore)

Do you know that Neena has French blood in her
veins? Her grandmother's father was an emigre to In-
dia. Does that account for her rare talent?

This fellow — Baburao Pendharkar — had to come between
them. He seems to be round the corner when girls are
about — and this time in a Burmese costume. This oc-
casion was when Sushila Rani graced the sets of "Nagad
Narayan" and met Leela Desai. the heroine.

21

FILMINDIA

Ah, this deepens the Neena Mystery. I do not
know whether what you say is true. By the way,
has the French blood a different colour?

KHADER SHERIFF (Bezwada)

Many say that you are a selfish man because you
always praise the man who pays you money.

Never mind what many say. All must admit
that it is difficult to sell abuse while praises sell
themselves. How much of praise do you actually find
in "filmindia" every month? The producers search
for it with a microscope.

DEWAN ( HANI) BANSAL (Delhi)

I dropped a letter to Miss Daniel (Manorama of
"Khazanchi" fame) requesting her to send me an au-
tographed photo but I regret to say that the reply was:
—"At this time I have four new poses, so send me twen-
ty rupees by registered post; then I will send you four
beautiful poses with my autographs." What does it
mean?

It means C.O.D. (cash on delivery) and no long
credit. If yon think that the goods are worth it,
buy cr forget everything about them.

D. L. DUDANI (Larkhana)

In which studio will Jamshed Wadia now produce
pictures?

'<&..-■■ WmKBSSk tWm.

It is not Kisiiore Sahu's usual picnic. It is a shot front
"Raja" a social picture, directed by Kisiiore, in which
he takps Rani Bala for a spree

22

January 1943

This is Lcela Chitnis in "Rekha" a social story of Romnik
Productions.

"Gentle" Jamshed will now become a paying
guest at the Rajkamal Kalamandir, the new studios
of Mr. Shantarcnn.

R. N. MURTHY (Bangalore)

What has happened to Atre pictures?

Notliing in particular. They recently gave
birth to 'Vasantsena' and both — the mother and the
child-are reported to be needing some nutrition.
Who are all the stars working in Shantaram's "Sha-
kuntala"?

In Shantaram pictures no one stars but Shan-
tar am. Even if his wife Jayshree agrees to play
Shakuntala, Shantaram will still insist on saying
that he played the role.

KISHAN CHANDRA JAINI (Roorkee)

After seeing 'Jawab' I have come to the conclusion
that Barua should now stop wasting producers' money
and losing his own fans. Why don't you advise him to
stop directing?

No one likes free advice. Besides 'Jawab' help-
ed the producer to multiply and it is quite likely
that the thundering success of this picture may en-
courage Barua to produce another of its type. As
long as there are people like you, ready to see such
pictures, this type will keep on coming to the screen.

NARENDRA SINGH (Ajmer)

Who is an excellent swimmer, rider, driver and
boxer from among our Indian male stars?

None! Though all of them have text-books on the
subjects.

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FLOORS witkct CARPETS

Are Like WalL Wi tliout Pictures

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best moinn & perssrn carpets

HUGE SELECTIONS ON VIEW

INDIAN CARPETS

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MEASUREMENTS MADE TO ORDER AT REASONABLE RATES

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Excelsior Film Exchange

presents

A Rollicking Comedy of Modern Life

"T AS VEER

Produced By ; Atre Pictures, Bombay.

I

Starring: £
Motilal, Durga Khote, Swarnalata,
Azurie, David, Navin Yagrik j

I

Directed by : NAJMUL HASAN NAQVI
Music by : RAMCHANDR A PAL

Screen-play by.- Principal P. K. ATRE

Sole Rights controlled by: j

Excelsior Film Exchange (

<5overdtian Building, Parekb Street. Bombay Ho- 4. i

FILM INDIA

January 1943

KRISHAN KUMAR BAHL (Amritsar)

I shall be highly obliged if you will please print a
half-pose of Snehaprabha Pradhan in your next issue.

Which half?

MISS S. E. ROSE (Guntur)

Why is Rama Shukul, who is very handsome, some-
times given a villain's role?

In real life villains are often more handsome
than the heroes, and Rama's casting as a villain is
probably intended to secure more realism. That
doesn't mean that I accept Rama Shukul as a hand-
some man.

M. JAIGOPAL NAIDU (Hyderabad)

People say that you are a bigamist. How far is it
true?

People are really very charitable.

N. JAIN (Aligarh)

You may be perhaps aware that Sikhs, as a rule,
resent taking off their turbans in cinemas. The reason
for the request is obvious as persons sitting behind
them cannot conveniently see the screen. I have res-

pect for their resentment, but at the same time I would
request you to suggest a way out of this, because many
a time the hall is so packed that it is not possible to
move to another seat. With all due respect to our
Sikh brothers, whose size being normally a little big-
ger, can a request be made to them for removing their
turbans in cinemas?

A request can be made to friends and foes
alike. Friends respect the request, foes don't. The
good-hearted, rustic and hefty Sikh is always a
problem, not only in the cinemas but in many
walks of life. The only language he can under-
stand is that of request. Argument always fails
with these sturdy sons of India. I don't think by
removing the turbans, — if at all the Sikhs ever
agree, — the problem will be completely solved, be-
cause inside their turbans is a huge knot of hair
standing erect in military formation — quite suffi-
cient by itself to screen the screen. A better plan
would be to reserve some last rows in every cine-
ma with a prominent board reading: "Reserved for
the tall and martial races of India." This will ap-
peal to the natural vanity of our Sikh brother, who
may charitably occupy one of the reserved seats.
And yet there is no guarantee.

^tiee/ y&u usitA a, Sony

DAWAT

Directed b\

M . NAZIR (Ajmeri)

Produced by

R. S. LAKH AN I

(iNViTATiON)

24

January 1943

FILMINDIA

K. BUX SALEEM (Hyderabad)

I hate a little saving, say about two thousand ru-
pees, which I wish to use for the development of our
film industry.

Use it for your own development, as crores

which have been sunk so jar, have not helped our

industry yet. Two thousand won't buy you even a

small salute from an 'extra'.

MASSAND J. G. (Shikarpur)

I received the Divali Number without the photo of
Sushila Rani. Don't you think that this is the mis-
chief of postal employees? What action are you going
to take against them?

In peace times I would have sacked the whole
lot including the Post-Master General. But, we have
a war on hand and I would not like the entire pos-
tal system to be disorganized. I hope you don't
mind ij I don't sack them at present.

How much do you gain from 'filmindia' every
month?

A couple of silly letters from you.

Don't you think that Shobhana Samarth is very, very
charming? What is your personal view about her?

I have not had a personal view of her, but I am
sure she must be charming.

MINOO E. TODIWALA (Surat)

What part of the cinema do you usually sit in and
why?

The box. Because of the company.
Which filmstars do you dislike most?

Those that insist on playing romantic roles
with half a dozen children shouting for mummy at
home.

What is the secret of the well-dressed actress?

That she is intensely popular with her produ-
cer.

S. S. RAMAN (Kadiri)

What became of the divorce question between Sne-
haprabha and Kishore Sahu?

The question is being thrashed in the Nagpur
High Court. .For a report of proceedings divulging
the gruesome details, read some of the weekly film
rags.

J AIR AM GURDASMAL (Rohri)

Tell us in short the life story of Dewan Sharar

Forty-five years ago in Amritsar, a baby was
born with the cry. "If you don't mind I would like
to intrude upon you for some years." Since that
day, politeness has been Dewan Sharar's only re-

MAYA BANERJEE. JAYANT. RAJNI KANT. SHOBHA. SHAKIR. BADRI PARSAD
Miss. GULAB. Miss. SHANTA. MUNSHI KHANJAR and AGHA

MUSIC ! MIRTH ! MELODY !

Music by VASANT KUMAR

ASents

INDIA HLM BURtM)

25

January 1943

FILM INDIA

V. Nagiah, SouLh India's best in acting, features in
•'Bhagyalakshmi", a social picture in Telugu of
Renuka Films.

ligion. No one heard him crying during childhood.
They say that he always smiled when the naughty
one snatched the cake from his hand. In youth he
became a graduate and secured scholarships in Urdu,
Persian and Arabic. He wrote stage plays and pro-
duced them in Urdu and English. Then one day
he came to Bombay for eleven days and returned
home after nine years' stay in England. In Eng-
land, he wrote hundreds of short stories and some
novels, the most popular being, "The Gong of
Shiva." He broadcasted from the B.B.C. regularly
and told his stories to the young and the old; car-
ried out official historical research in ancient In-
dian Culture; came to India in 1939 for three months
and is still here writing stories, giving broadcasts,
writing photo-plays and entertaining an ever-in-
creasing circle of friends. Ever graceful in speech,
scintillating in wit, Dewan Sharar vunctuates his
brilliant conversation often with subtle sarcasm
which is lost on fools but loved by intellectuals. A
remarkable spendthrift, Dewan Sharar makes a
bad business-man. He sells his goods but forgets
to collect the money fearing that the. customer
would consider the procedure impolite.

A friend to all he has few friends. An adopt-
ed child of the West he is not quite at home in the
East. Craving to go back yet unable to move; try-

ing to settle down yet continuously escaping; spend-
ing incessantly yet earning stupendously; feeling
the injustice of the world yet fearing to express,
Dewan Sharar, author, playright, journalist, is a
very charming, loveable and complex personality.
By his own existence he denounces Kipling and
proves that the East and the West can meet to
create a new harmony of life and thought in the
individual.

The last words of this man to the world will
be: "If you will please excuse me, I shall now de-
part," and friends will say: "A gentleman has died."

RAJMOHAN NANDKEOLYAR (Patna)

Is it true that Miss Maya Bannerji has gone to the
Middle East to entertain the soldiers?

Is it necessary to go so far to do that? Maya is too
good an artiste to be spared for the Middle East.

R. P. SAXENA (Moradabad)

Did you pay something for showing your palm to
Sadhona Bose?

Compliments. And she returned them with
a lovely tea.

Lalita Pawar gives a rare emotional performance in
"Gora Kumbhar" a social story of Chhaya Pictures.

27

January 1943

FILMINDIA

KHURSHEED AHMED (Bangalore)

Who is the greatest director of the year?

With or without pictures, Shantaram still re-
mains the greatest director of India through all
years so jar.

You are criticised more and more every day by
jther film magazines?

Isn't that sufficient proof that I am doing better

everyday?
N. VARADACHARI (Tirupati)

Whom do you like better: Rita Carlyle or Sushila
Rani?

I love the present and remember the past.

SURESH BEHARI (Agra)

Who is Mr. D. G. Tendulkar often writing articles
about the film industry in the U. S. S. R?

He is a Russian-Indian with divided loyalties. A
patriotic field worker, Comrade Tendulkar can
understand everything Russian better than any-
thing Indian. He has graced the prison several
times for entertaining this faith, but just at present,
with Britain shakmg hands with Russia, Comrade
Tendulkar, with his overhead porcupine growth
constantly standing to attention, has become a
favourite toast of the clubs. A man of few needs
the Comrade remains untouched, and still falls back
upon propaganda writings for a living. As a non-

In Navyug's "Ever Yours", Vatsala Kumptekar gives
some popular music.

iMalathi — who attracted attention in "Sumangali" — now
plays the title role in "Bhagyalakshmi" a Telugu
talkie of Shri Renuka Films.

violent Russian, Comrade Tendulkar deserves the
Lenin-cum-Gandhi prize. .Only the British can de-
liver that.

LILO A. LALCHANDANI (Hyderabad)

What is your opinion about "Ekta'? Is it not plot-
less?

But "gentle" Jamshed of Wadias said that there
was a plot. Probably being a plot it was kept a
secret. Why not try some Sherlock Holmes methods
and beat "gentle" Jamshed at his game?

MAQSOOD SOLANKI (Khurja)

I wish to have correspondence with a filmstar.
Please name one and be kind enough to give her ad-
dress .

Bai Jaddan Bai, Chateau Marine, Marine Drive.
Bombay.

D. SATYANARAYAN RAO (Chakradharpur)

What is your advice to the youth of India: to marry
the girl one loves or to love the girl one marries?

If one marries the girl he loves, he soon dis-
covers that he had loved her wrongly. As regards
loving after marriage, the only married woman
that is loved by a man is the neighbour's wife.

29

Showing From 7th January '43

Paragon

Saraswathi Picture

Palace
Rajeswari Talkies
RoyalPicturePalace
Jaya Talkies

Poorna Theatre
Minerva Talkies

. Madras

. Bezwada

. Secunderabad

. Bellary

. Rajamundry

Majestic Talkies
Bombay Talkies
Vinayak Cinema
Krishna Cinema
Sreedhara
Talkies

Cocanada
Guntur
Nellore
Vizianagaram

Kurnool

And from 14th January '43 at :

Masuttpatam S&cvat/ a/ SAGAR, CDangafor

THIi VAUHINI PICTURES LIMITFD,

MADRAS

BEZWAPA

TADPATRI

HE

January 1943

FILMINDIA

There are some happy exceptions but they only
contribute to prove the rule. The institution of
marriage in India is an unhappy combination of an-
cient, mediaeval and modern notions and love
which is an honest emotion dies a pitiable death
when it enters the portals of this institution. Love
requires a constantly beating and fluttering
heart to fan the divine flame. In the cold, lethal
chambers of matrimony, made colder still by social
and economic conditions in the country, the flame
of love dies without even a struggle.

What you consider to be love between a mar-
ried couple is merely an affectionate habit acquir-
ed together under common circumstances. Hypo-
critical human nature saves its face and calls it
love to keep up appearances. At best, it is a love
for home-making — a primitive desire in the aver-
age human being. But the divine love which
thrills the heart and shakes its walls at the sight
of the beloved, is only experienced prior to the
conventional matrimony. After marriage, it tastes
like ashes in the mouth, and if anyone tells you
that a certain married couple is happy in love, re-
member that the partners of that wedlock love
themselves more than each other, and, thus, silently
conspire to maintain appearances. For, after all done
and said~, marriage is a mutual bondage that does
not permit a free expression to love, and love bet-
ween slaves is no love at all.

Under these circumstances my advice is: don't
marry if you can help it. The social and economic
conditions in the country do not contribute to make
a marriage happy nor does the nation require any
addition to the population. However, if you can't
help it, marry the girl you love as there would be
a better chance to both the parties in this marriage
to survive at least on the memories of pre-marital
love.

In case of the other alternative, namely, loving
the girl after the marriage, all that a man may ac-
quire is merely the love of a warm bed from a duti-
ful and affectionate wife. But that is not the love
about which poets have sung through centuries.

KR. RAJENDRA SINGH (Agra)

How is it our film companies have not been af-
fected by petrol-rationing?

I am afraid they have been and rather badly.
Now-a-days I do not see the directors' and the pro-
ducers' cars stranded on lonely hill-tops, with
beautiful occupants.

S. MOHANLAL (Belgaum)

Do you think that Motilal is India's best, most po-
pular and highest paid actor?
No.

M. MADHAVA MURTHY (Anantapur)

Why do so many of our male actors assume a pale
face and a retiring disposition in the presence of sweet
society girls?

A film actor is usually a rough-and-tumble man
who has to do many a thing for a living. His ex-
pression in society is therefore a plea to society to
accept him as one of them. That expression seems
to say: "Though a film actor I am not as bad as
you imagine."

NARENDRA SINGH (Ajmer)

After National, what is Director Mehboob doing?

Mehboob has become a producer now and has
started a company called Mehboob Productions. His
maiden production under this banner will be
'Najma' a Muslim social story.

HARD-EARNED MONEY

One way to spend your hard-
earned money wisely is to see
pictures reviewed in "film-
india". You know in advance
what you are going to see. . .

In "Raja" the maiden production of Purnima Pictures,
Protima Das Gupta works well under the handling of
Kishore Sahu, the director.

31

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and that is why

Indian Movietone News

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The overwhelming ovation which greets
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Indian Movietone News

proves that the men behind this Organ izaticn
know what the Indian Cinema-goers want

Indian Movietone News

is pledged to keep you fully informed through
the medium of the newsreel with what is
happening to-day in India and the World

INDIHII mOUIETODE REUS

Telephone: 33031

Metro House, Esplanade Road
BOMBAY

Telegrams: "NEWSREELS"

Editor Horniman Supports Sushila

Rani

"Kissing Is The Thing" Sags The Ueteran

Journalist

( By A Special Correspondent )

"Give us a real kiss! That's an
excellent slogan for the Indian
screen. I fully support it."

These are not the words of con-
vention-defying Editor Baburao
Patel or of a hot-headed youth with
new-fangled ideas or of a fire-eat-
ing college girl champing at the bit
and out to create a brave new world
after her own heart. They are the
cool, considered words of Bombay's
journalist No. 1, elegant-looking
Benjamin Guy Horniman, the dread-
ed editor of the dreaded Bombay
Sentinel, spoken in an interview.

B. G- lives in a tastefully fur-
nished flat with an oriental odour
about it. This odour, I soon dis-
covered, came from a bunch of My-
sore agarbathis burning on the ta-
ble. B.G., as Editor Horniman is
popularly known, has not only
adopted India as his own home, but
likes to live in Indian style. An
Englishman, he often used to appear
in just a Khaddar lungi and shirt in
his more stormy past, even now
wears that costume at home, can
squat on the floor for an Indian
meal and can speak with authority
on the relative merits of 'Dosai',
'Bhajias', 'Samusas' and many other
choice things from the Indian
kitchen .

But I did not quite expect him to
speak with equal authority on In-
dian films though I knew that
B.G., like his more famous country-
man Bernard Shaw living six thou-
sand miles away, was once a music
and dramatic critic. I knew too
that he loved art. But I was doubt-
ful whether he had ever taken any
interest in Indian films, beyond the
rumour that he was. once or twice,
found dozing through an In-
dian picture. At most, I had
hoped for a few casual criti-
cisms on films in general, a

few vitriolic remarks on the sub-
ject of Indian films and a few sug-
gestions, based mostly on second-
hand knowledge, but served up with
the usual Horniman punch .

Here I had reckoned wrongly.
And, for the first time, I felt a lit-
tle shaky in the presence of an
Englishman who had seen about
75% of the pictures produced in this
country, who was himself a film cri-
tic in the 'silent' days, and a direc-
tor, to boot, on an Indian film-pro-
ducing company .

REMEMBERS THE FIRST
PICTURE

B. G. was in a pleasant, remi-
niscent mood . As the smoke from
his cigar went up in spirals and
formed quaint designs in the air,
his mind travelled back, back
through years of ceaseless struggle,
clashes with the bureaucracy, fight
for the underdog, his deportation
and the last war, back to the period
when pioneer Phalke was showing
his first silent picture, "Harish-
chandra" in the city.

"That was the first Indian pic-
ture, I saw," said B.G. "It produc-
ed a deep impression on my mind .
I can never forget it."

He saw another picture too at
about the same time, wherein there
was a demon-god or somebody
equally pre-historic, who ran amuck
and scared people with his power to
destroy people with fire. One par-
ticular scene he could not forget.
He had heartily laughed over it,
then and he could not help laughing
over it again as he recalled how a
group of washermen and women,
face to face with the demon, started
scurrying away with unwieldy loads
on their backs; what was known
in those days as a "screen chase" .

Editor B. G. Horniman.

"It was a very funny sight," he add-
ed, "though not intended to be".

PRAISES DEVIKA RANI

The 'speechless' pictures of the
early days seemed to have exercis-
ed a great fascination over him.
He had nothing but praise for them,
if only for the simple reason that
they were speechless and did not
therefore inflict on the audience the
"bad diction and enunciation" of
either the stage or the later inno-
vation, the talkies.

But the Indian talkie, he hasten-
ed to add, was a minor sinner in
this respect when compared to its
foreign prototype. "I am no pan-
dit in Hindustani," B. G. remarked,
"but I can make bold to say that
the dialogues in the Indian pictures
are clearer than, for instance, in the
American pictures or the English.
Speaking a foreign tongue, in the
English picture "Karma" Devika
Rani outshone many American and
English stars in the matter of enun-
ciation and there is none who can
excel her."

But B.G. finds too much serious-
ness and tragedy in Indian pictures.
He would like to have more come-
dies of the type popularised by
Bombay Talkies. "India," he said,
"has a peculiar attitude in these
matters. And that is why I wonder,
sometimes, whether Indian pictures
can appeal to a foreign audience.

35

ennobling siory-ideas or complete dramalic scripts
for short publicity films. Stories must be rational, human
and true to life, showing how the war affects the nation and

the individuals, upholding all noble human emotions for service,
sacrifice, heroism, comradeship, dignity of labour, coolness in
face of danger, patriotism and humanity, but treated non-contro-
versially. Rs. 100/- to 400/- will be paid for accepted stories
and ideas. Script should be submitted in English to the Con-
troller of Film Publicity, Department of Information and
Broadcasting, New Delhi.

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79, SUTAR CHAWL, BOMBAY 2.

January 1943

FILMINDIA

Englishmen are said to be very in-
sular in their outlook on life. But
Indians themselves. ..."

"Are just peninsular," I cut in.

B. G. smiled gravely and, I
thought, a bit reprovingly too.
"Whatever that be," he continued,
"I am one of those who believe in
Oscar Wilde's dictum that art is for
art's sake. Religious leaders tell
us so many things. But how many
of us live religiously? I for one
cannot see art being mixed up with
questions of ethics or morality."

SUPPORTS SUSHILA RANI

Though B. G . is nearly seventy,
he has still a young, vigorous mind
which hates all kinds of cant and
hypocrisy. His attitude to romance
on the screen is refreshingly pro-
gressive. "We want more and more
of romance," he said plainly, "That's
the right stuff to give the young.
Youth must develop a romantic at-
titude towards life. It will do them
a lot of good."

Even the prospect of kisses on the
Indian screen does not strike terror
into his heart. He does not think
like some that the moment a young
man sees two people kissing each
other on the screen, he will straight-
away take the road to perdition. On
the contrary, he thinks that the
chances are that the young will take
the road opposite.

When I told B. G. of the unceas-
ing campaign carried on by Editor
Baburao Patel for realism on the
Indian screen, he heartily welcomed
it.

When I told him of Miss Sushila
Rani's outspoken demand for real
kisses on the screen, he remarked.
"That's the thing! I should think
she has done a great service to
the Indian film-world by her cour-
ageous article. And that is the
correct attitude, for, after all, ro-
mance and kisses will continue
to dominate in the world, whether
some people like them or not."

Then the talk turned on so many
other things. We discussed good
pictures, stars, theatres and film
critics. B. G.'s favourite star is

Devika Rani . He very much appre-
ciates her restrained and polished
acting. Prithviraj, Chandramohan,
Motilal and Ashok Kumar are some
of the male stars he likes. The last
one he prefers to refer to as the
"non-violent hero" of the Bombay
Talkies in the true Filmindia style.
"It was a happy idea of Baburao to
call gentle Ashok so," he comment-
ed.

THE INIMITABLE MUMTAZ

He has great admiration for Mum-
taz Ali. "Mumtaz", he said, "is a
great artiste because his art is more
to him than himself. I regard him
as one of our greatest artistes, both
as an actor and a dancer, because
he gets right into the hearts of his
public in such a way that they can't
help loving him."

We talked and talked in this strain
until about noon. B. G. glanced at
the clock on the wall. I knew it was
a courteous hint to me. Still I could
not resist the temptation of a tew
parting questions.

"Have you any suggestions for im-
proving the Indian screen?" I ask-
ed. He thought for a while and

said, "I wouldn't presume to dictate
any improvements. I don't think
1 need suggest any. My opinion is
that, on the whole, Indian pictures
are progressing on healthy, artistic
lines. "

"What do you think of the stan-
dard of film criticism in India?"

"It is either ecstatic or criticism
for the sake of criticism," he rep-
lied.

Lastly I asked, "Would you like
to be a film director yourself?"

There was a ring of regret in his
voice as he answered back, "I
would like to be so many things. I
would like, for instance, to be a
Prime Minister."

The death occured at Kol-
hapur of Mr. Vishnupant Aun-
dhkar, well-known dramatist,
photoplaywright and artiste,
on Tuesday 15th December
from heart-failure. For the
past seven years, he was very
closely associated with the
Indian film industry. His re-
cent photoplay was "Bharat
Milap".

Here is a solid photograph of Pahari and Leela Desai, the leads in "Inkar'

a Laxmi picture.

37

THE TRIPARTITE
ALLIANCE

DIRECTOR

SHRUKRT HUSSEin

(of * Khandadn ' fame)
★

PUBLIC FAVOURITE No 1

mOTIIiRb

( hero of many successful pictures )
★

people's blessed

mumrnz shriiti

(of 'Basant' and 'Kismet' fame)

soon greet the picture - goers in

NAVIN PICTURES'

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— A KIRTI RELEASE —

ouu occupying the floors at
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HYDER BAN Dl & OTHERS

Dialogues & Songs :

PANDIT BHUSHAN

MUNSHI DIL'S

UNFORGETTABLE SOCIAL EPIC

"RBbR-KI-SHRKTI"

Slaninq; KHALIL & J AHAN ARA
BEGUM <KAJJAN)& OTHERS

DIRECTED BY:

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MUSIC:

CHAELA L A L L and
USTAD HUSANO KHAN

For Bookings and Territorial Rights apply to :

MAN PRAKASH TALKIES

Jaipur City - Rajputana

"I Rm R Ulorshipper Of Art" Says Sarojini naidu

India's nightingale On India's Films

She Loves Films Though Mahatma Gandhi —

Anybody would have thought it
presumptuous to see Mrs. Sarojini
Naidu when she was right in the
midst of the inaugural meeting of
the Tagore Society at Cowasji Je-
hangir Hall. Even though I knew
her quite well, I thought it some-
what awkward to see her there
about an interview. Of late she has
not been staying in Bombay, but at
Hyderabad (Deccan), her home
town, and it was always difficult to
get her. She was expected to be
busy with the A.I.C.C. meeting for
two days and she had planned to
go back home immediately. As a
matter of fact she was arrested the
next day after the last meeting of
the A.I.C.C. and had I not seen her
right there, 'filmindia' readers
would never have read the follow-
ing lines.

Mrs. Naidu evidently recognised
me as an old friend and colleague
on the Bombay Provincial Congress
Committee as she looked at my
visiting card, which I had passed
on to her through her daughter,
Padmaja. She beckoned to me and
on approaching her presidential seat
at the meeting she made fun of me
—at least so I thought— for she ask-
ed me if I wanted to pay my tri-
bute to Rabindranath Tagore. I
told her Tagore was perfectly al-
right in her hands, whom she had
succeeded as President of the Indian
P.E.N. "I want only a few minutes
with you after this meeting and I
see you as representative of the
'Filmindia' I said. "Oh! 'filmindia'!
But where is the time?" she grum-
bled but asked me to wait till the
close of the meeting.

I knew that Mrs. Naidu had not
to undergo any very special exertion
to roll off a few sentences. An ini-
mitable artist and devotee of Art
in its varied manifestations, Mrs.
Naidu was bound to say something
fascinating by way of admiration of
the filmic art. And so she did.

As we drove off to Taj Mahal

Hotel foT lunch, the mother and
the daughter on either side of me,
Mrs. Naidu said "You naughty boy,
you should have asked for a more
quiet hour to speak about films.
Now you will not let me take my
lunch quietly and find me talking
rather than eating." "I am very
sorry, mum, but you don't stay
much in Bombay now-a-days, and
I had to do the job this way" I sub-
mitted.

"Alright. What can't be cured
must be endured" she said with a
mischievous twinkle in her eye and
a broad smile. She is such a past-
master at patting and patronising
and making fun of you. "So what

Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, poetess and
patriot.

do you want me to do?" She was
getting down to business.

I LOVE FILMS

"Do you like films? Tell me all
you can about them within the time
at our disposal."

"Do I like them? Of course, I do.
I love films. It is my favourite
pastime. Any one can recommend
me a good film, and I will see it.
Any one can offer to take me to a
good picture and I shall not refuse
to go. I would go with you this
evening and Padmaja would join.
Won't you Padma? (she nods yes)
had it not been for the A.I.C.C.
meeting which I must attend. Any
new picture in town today?"

"Yes, there is a good picture at
the Roxy," I said, ' So make up
your mind about that or the
A.I.C.C."

"I have made it up already; I am
not going to any picture. Indeed,
this moment is typical of my whole
life. I had so often to choose bet-
ween artistic pursuits and higher
duties. In cases of conflict, I have
always decided in favour of Duty.
For me pursuit of duty has not al-
ways been pursuit of Art. So it
must be tonight — mind you, I am
not saying it with regret or remorse.
I am pleased that I am able to
do this. Yet I tell you quite frank-
ly that I do not love the life of a
recluse, a life of hardships, difficul-
ties and poverty. I really hate all
that. I love all the good things of
life. Good food, good clothes, beau-
tifully built houses, delightful music,
but I realize that I must not be a
slave of these things. I must not
sell my soul to secure them. Nay,
I must give them up if they inter-
fere with what I regard as my
higher duty. And I have always
considered patriotism and its active
work, service to my fellowmen as
paramount."

"Is that why you have given up
writing poems nowadays?"

39

It Takes Us Nearer To Freedom-

screens Greatest

Contribution To The
Nation

unity Pzodudions*

BHHKTH KRBIR

THE DRAMATIC STORY OF
INDIA'S GREATEST SAINT
WHO SUFFERED FOR REA-
LISING THE DREAM OF
A UNITED INDIA...

"IT IS THE GREATEST SHINT PICTURE
EUER PRODUCED," Say Critics.

Starring Mehtab, Bharat-Bhushan,
Mazharkhan, Padma & Boy Kabir

Direction

R. Sharma

Music

Himansu Dutt

NOW IN THE

10™ WEEK

MINERVA

BOMBAY

Distributors THE BHARAT PICTURES, LTD.

BOMBAY

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D E L H

LAHORE

January 1943

FILM INDIA

"Not exactly. But Muse does not
favour me as easily now as she did
before. A more busy and more tur-
bulent life should give rise to tur-
bulent poems but that does not seem
to happen now. Nowadays I pre-
fer the direct, prosaic form to give
expression to my feelings and peo-
ple do compliment me as speaking or
writing quite inspiring, poetic prose.
So why worry?"

Lunch was ready and I requested
Mrs. Naidu to excuse me from par-
ticipating. But she would not
listen. That was good, because she
went on talking between morsels of
food.

NOT SO ORIENTAL

"The Cinematic Art is the synthe-
sis of so many arts. And therefore
it is the Art of Arts. Cinema is the
most triumphant symbol of modern
civilisation, a pleasing combination
of man and machine for production
of human pleasure. The poets, the
musicians, the actors, the dress-
designers, the painters as well as
the composers, the photographers,
the sound recorders and a host of
men and women of intelligence
combine to produce a single, com-
posite article. The co-operative cha-
racter of the whole business is
again symbolic of modern civilisa-
tion or its higher phase, for which
nobler minds, skilful architects,
powerful brains all over the world
are working. If humanity is to
attain a higher form of civilisation,
more and more co-operation must
yield to less and less competition.
The film industry is, consciously or
unconsciously, blazoning the trail
to superior human culture.

"So you would like more of In-
dia's young men and women to join
the film industry to help it rise to
a higher status?"

"Most certainly" she replied, with
her big black eyes becoming blacker
and bigger as she said this. "My
own sister is a cinema artiste. My
brother is an advocate of the Peo-
ples' Theatre. We are all a band
of worshippers in the Temple of
Art. I do want men and women
with ideas and ideals to invade
every branch of the film industry

and save it from the stranglehold of
mere moneybags. Only then will it
serve a useful, patriotic purpose of
awakening and educating the peo-
ple. Cinema is the most powerful
of all mediums that I can think of
and it must make its full contribu-
tion towards popular education.

"Cinema can do to a whole peo-
ple what a loving and devoted wife
does to an erring husband. To root
out superstitions, to make the peo-
ple rational, to make them better
informed and to give them useful
entertainment the cinema can be
put to the best use as it is actually
done in some of the American short
films. Newsreels, travel talks, film-
ing of highlights from the world's
literatures are at once delightfully
entertaining and healthily instruc-
tive. If Indian Film Industry is to
justify its existence and fulfil its
purpose it must plan on sound prin-
ciples and we must all help it do
so."

"So the films are not your des-
pair as they are of Mahatma Gan-
dhi?"

"No. They are my love and hope.

You had better leave the Mahatma
alone to his own ways. You see, I
am not an oriental obscurantist. I
believe in the harmonious fusion of
the East and the West. I want In-
dia to absorb all the benefits of the
Western civilisation and yet keep
her spiritual heritage. By spiritual
heritage, I only mean a kindly, ge-
nerous, altruistic attitude and not
an otherworldly attitude. I want
Indians to be more and more of the
earth, more and more human. I
want them to live a full, happy life,
all their material desires satisfied.
I do not believe in starving oursel-
ves and feeling moral. I am mate-
rially-minded in the sense that
every human being has a right to
receive all good things of life. I
do not believe in a whole nation cut-
ting down its wants and singing
hallelujahs to poverty. In my scheme
of things, films have a positive
place."

With a sudden jerk on looking at
her tiny wrist watch and with an
air of bidding goodbye she said,
"Isn't that enough for you, at least
for the time being?"

Suvarnalata is worried about this old guy in "Pratigya"

Chitra Productions.

a social story of

41

ALLURE — GRACE — CHARM
VIVACITY PERSONIFIED!

* SHOBIIAIVA SAMARTH

In the Role of Her Career!

HINDUSTHAN
CINETONE'S
Scinti Hating
Romance !

Worthy Successor to "MUD" !

Co'Starring : —

* PREM ADIB

* K. N. SINGH
MAJID, ZILLOO, KEKI,
ADAJANIYA etc.

suinminnTH

DON'T fail to see it it's a treat!

At: LAMINGTON TALKIES, Bombay.

Bookings :

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LIFE STORY OF SAINT SAVANTA MALI.HE
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H. R. G. C'S SREE PICTURES' GRANDEST SOCIAL PHOTOPLAY

"VAN I" - "VIOLINIST"

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Presenting : — Sangitaratna Asthana Vidwan T. CHOWDAIAH - The Ace Violinist of

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Bellari LAITHA the ideal Singing Beauty, and Starring a host of other talented Artistes

*

A Picture Which You Will Never Forget

Executive Producer : Music Direction : Production :

G. R. Ramaiah Sangitaratna T. Chowdaiah Sahukar T. S. Sivabasava Swami

Story & Direction: K. HIRANNAIAH & M.N. GOPAL.

For Particulars ;

The Managing Agent

ILUCS SfeEE PICTURES, fendhi Square, Mysore.

SITUATION VACANT!

FROM THE DRAB " WANTED " COLUMNS OF A DAILY
PAPER SPRINGS ONE OF THE MOST FUNNY COMEDIES
OF THE SCREEN

Rcharya Bit Productions9
THIRD PICTURE (as yet untitled)

IS ON THE SETS NOW

Starring

MOTILAL with A SENSATIONAL NEW STAR

Supported By

Mubarak, Anjalidevi, Misra, Amritlal, etc.

Produced & Directed By

N, R. R CHARYA

Sole Distributors ;

BHARAT PICTURES LTD

BOMBAY

AKOLA

DELHI

LAHORE

Ratan Bai Challenges Our men

Producers

"Deep Thinking" Is Her Only Hnbby

By. Sushila Rani

As she came in, I thought Lady
Godiva had walked in — of course,
without the horse and with the
clothes on. The significant thing
about her was her long flowing hair
touching the ground.

It puzzled me a lot to find a star
preserving that length in these
days, when different hair-does are
in vogue. I asked her how she ma-
naged all that growth and Ratan
Bai replied: "My mother looks after
it" . At least, that is one more thing
good about having a mother.

I was a bit nervous about meet-
ing Ratan Bai, as I had thought that
she would floor me in a minute with
her excellent Urdu doled out through
the poems of Zafar or Ghalib. Not
so! Ratan Bai had a surprise wait-
ing for me in her remarkably beau-
tiful English accent which suggest-
ed that she had just escaped from a
college.

I was puzzled remembering what
Baburao had once told me that eight
years back Ratan Bai did not know
a word of English.

Catching my thought in its flight
Ratan replied, "You are surprised
that I talk English. Everyone who
comes from Baburao is always sur-
prised. Yes, he must have told you
that years back I did not know a
word of English . He is right .
Eight years ago, when I came to
Bombay all that I knew was a
"Good-morning," and I often used
it in the evening. But Baburao
laughed at me so long and so loud
that I took up the challenge and beat
him at his game of English."

Suddenly she turned round and
with an infectious smile asked me,
"Am I good now?" I admitted that she
was good — too good — but with Ratan
Bai languages should come in easi-
ly, because she is almost a linguist,
seeing that she already knows
seven languages. As regards Urdu,
what Ratan Bai speaks is Urdu — the
rest — is Billingsgate. I still remem-

ber the huge mouthfuls of beautiful
Urdu which she flung at one and all
even without provocation in that
beautiful picture, "Yahudi-ki-Lad-

|M.»

That was years back. Since then
Ratan has travelled a long way
through sheer sweat and toil to reach
the heights of stardom.

A STAR OVERNIGHT

Born at Patna on 12th June 1912,
Ratan is a home-educated product.
As a child, she was fond of seeing
pictures, as a woman she is making
them today. While still a kid, she
was taken to Calcutta, but it was
not till May 1932, that she got her
first chance for acting with the New
Theatres in "Yahudi-ki-Ladki" .

Ratan Bai, film star and producer,
now features in her own film ,
"Saheli", a social story.

Ambitious at all times, and at ail
hours of the day, Calcutta soon be-
came a small place for Ratan. So
in 1934, she landed in Bombay with
a contract for Eastern Art Produc-
tions. Her very first picture in Bom-
bay "Bharat-ki-Beti" captivated the
audiences and disarmed the critics.
Next year she made two more pic-
tures for the Kolhapur Cinetone,
but again in 1936 she returned to
Bombay to act in some more pic-
tures for the Imperial Film Com-
pany.

Since 1938 Ratan has become a
free-lance artiste and has starred,
off and on, in several pictures, but
today she is making her own pictures
and is therefore known as a produ-
cer— rather a doubtful recognition
tn these times.

In India, considering the fact
that women have not been allowed
the same status as men, Ratan's dis-
tinction in this field is really praise-
worthy. For besides hard work and
perseverance, this charming ladiy
is endowed with a rare business
acumen which will take her a long
way in life.

Her maiden effort as a producer is
called "Saheli" in which she plays
the lead opposite Sanyal. Of course,
like other producers she threatens
to give us more pictures and we only
hope that they are good.

She is modest when she says that
her acting has not yet reached the
standard she has in mind. Ratan
Bai is not a bragging sort, like some
other film girls I have met but
from what I have seen of Ratan's
acting, I feel that she is far above
many, many, whom I have seen
making faces on the screen. Ratan
feels that tragic portrayals suit her
best. I agree.

BELIEVES IN LOVE AND HOME

Though a star, forging many a
love-scene for the screen Ratan be-
lieves in love — the real stuff that
comes along once in a lifetime, —
and incidentally she also votes for
the traditional warm and happy
'home'.

Married at fifteen, she has con-
tributed to her home two sturdy
sons who are fulfilling their mother's
intense desire of English education.
It is difficult to draw things out of
Ratan Bai. Every question is ans-

49

OLD^MGU))

W»tm:

CHINTAMANRAO KOLHATKER
MASTER VITHAUSUMAT! 6UPTE
tHNKER KAMANNA

""'""bUALCPEHDHARKAR

HEELUM MANSION, L-AMINGTON ffOAO, BOMBAY*'

January 1943

FILMINDIA

Baburao Pendharkar doesn't mind being alone with that sweet charmer
— knowing that the dog can't tell others — in "Nagad Narayan" a social

comedy oj New Huns.

wered after a long look into the
future — as if that question would
some day come out of the past again
and haunt the future. Ratan Bai
was therefore very reserved when I
prodded her to secure a personal
story for this interview. Those
lips of hers were sealed hiding her
usual spontaneous smile. My at-
tempt therefore to find the skele-
tons in the family cupboard was
foiled.

In other respects Ratan is a bold
woman. When I asked her, if she
liked any director in particular she
replied quickly, "Nowadays it has
become a fashion to praise Shanta-
ram. 'filmindia' began it and others
have turned it into an epidemic. Of
course, I do like his pictures because
they are good."

Amongst the stars, she loves
Devika Rani and Durga Khote,
these two she thinks are as good as
Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo of
Hollywood .

FOND OF A CAT

With Ratan Bai, everything seems
to be methodical like her talk. She
does not go to the races, does not
smoke, does not drink, does not
overeat, learns something new every
time, keeps slimming every minute

and thinks every half-a-minute.
She has a good bank account, has
purchased property, invested in life
insurance, and yet she earns nearly
Rs. 3000|- a month.

Her favourite hobby is, according
to her, "thinking deeply", for a cou-

ple of hours . I wonder about whom
— and about what. She likes pets
very much and introduced "Lallu"
to me — a pretty cat I thought — I
think she considers these pets to
be more reliable than men, though
I wonder why a sweet woman like
Ratan should display such a distinc-
tive liking for cats, leaving dogs and
the men severely alone.

There is no nonsense about this
woman and she seems to be having
a pretty well-balanced mind. In her
casual talk, she uses all the histrio-
nics she is capable of and there is
more drama in her conversation
than is found in half a dozen Indian
pictures .

Full of energy and optimism, ver-
satile every minute, charming at
will, coy under necessity, and firm
without provocation, Ratan provides
a wonderful example of a self-made
woman — out to conquer the world
with her two little hands.

Incidentally she is the only woman
producer that we have producing a
picture with her own resources and
brain and telling us in addition that
she has already earned forty thous-
and rupees, as net profits in her very
first picture.

Is that not something for the
bragging men to think about?

Pathan and Punjabi dresses are coming into vogue and Ashok Kumar be-
comes a sweet Pathan in "Kismet". Mumtaz Shanti, ofcourse, hopes for the

best from this screen Pathan.

51

For Bookings & Territorial rights:

CHITRA PRODUCTIONS

F. AMINGTONRD. * ♦ ♦ ♦ BOM B]A Y No. 4

Girl-gazing Film Star Of I he Indian

Screen

Kumar Often Unemployed yet Ewer
So Papular

By •. Sushila Rani

"Syed Hasan Ali" — What an un-
glamorous name for Kumar, the hero
of "Puran Bhakt"! And yet, truth
is stranger than fiction because
Kumar, the popular star of the In-
dian movies, was born with that
name on 23rd September 1906 at
Lucknow in a good middle class
family .

It is not considered polite in Luck-
now to abuse a person whose name
begins with Syed and has Hasan
and Ali also in that name. The ob-
jection seems to be semi-religious
so they found a way out to shower
some choice words on Kumar by
giving him a pet name of "Mijjan".
So it is Mijjan to friends and foes
alike, and poor Kumar is often dis-
appointed when no abuse follows,
the sound 'Mijjan.'

I found him quite a tame boy,
though people had whispered to me
that he was wild once. Dressed in
rather a loud style, he was at con-
siderable pains to make a good im-
pression on me, and he used his
scanty English with painful delibe-
ration, whenever he spoke to me.
But behind the manly mask of po-
liteness I found a child almost pe-
tulant,— constantly crying, — "I was
again begging for a job."

A GIRL-GAZER

This was Kumar's continuous re-
frain throughout my interview with
him. Strange as it may sound, this
popular film star, has had more pe-
riods of unemployment than other-
wise. At 18, the parents could not
take him beyond the fifth class in
school studies. Kumar says, "Stu-
dying was such a nuisance." while
the school teachers said, "Kumar
was such a nuisance . " As both par-
ties could not make up their minds
they parted friends. And Kumar
soon monopolised a particular spot
In Aminabad Park of Lucknow. and

settled down to the doubtful hobby
of "Girl-gazing."

The parents looked at him with
distress but as he was one of the
two, saved from a crowd of 15 chil-
dren they often gave him a long
rope to hang himself with .

Kumar did not disappoint them
in this, for in 1927, he joined the
Urdu stage, on a salary of Rs. 75 J —
per month, and went play-acting to
Rangoon. The dramas of Agha
Hasher gave Kumar the chance of a
lifetime to air his excellent Luck-
navi accent. Of all people Kumar
did not like the behind-stage-atmos-
phere and within a year, he kicked
the stage off and returned to his
girl-gazing occupa-
tion in Aminabad
Park.

The little money
that he had saved
was invested in
some bright co-
loured suits, but the
girls who passed
the Aminabad Park
corner were so daz-
zled by the bright
ties and the bright
,suits of Kumar
that they did not
wait to see his face.
Kumar could not
whistle any "Kha-
zanchi" tune to at-
tract them as tal-
kies were not pro-
duced till then .

More' often unem-
ployed than other-
wise, Kumar still
remains a very po-
pular star right
with the top-liners
His latest is "Bha-
lai" a social story
of Silver Films.

So he took a ticket to Bombay and
landed in the Imperial Film Com-
pany. That was in 1930. This
clumsy, good-hearted boy when
he came face to face with the
roaring Khan Bahadur Ardeshir
Irani, the boss of the Imperial, he
gave a two-handed farmer's salute,
and was summarily dismissed for
lack of elegance.

But having come to Bombay, he
wanted to tempt the fates and he

took work as an extra in the Kohl-
•

noor United Artists, where in his
very first picture, "Ranchandi", he
had to act a corpse for several mi-
nutes in the morning and was choice-
ly abused in the evening in another
picture for looking at the camera
by Director Narayan Devare. Thai
was on Rs. 30 ] — a month.

THE HERO'S CHANCE

Destiny had played enough with
Kumar by now and in 1931 Camera-
man Krishna Gopal wired him back
to Lucknow to act as the hero In
Debaki Bose's picture "Shadows of
Death.'" It was a silent picture and
its success also remained silent.

53

JAGAT TALKIES. Distributors: SOUBHAGYA PICTURES/

LAHORE - DELHI - KARACHI KATHOK .LODGE, Dadar, BOMBAY, m.

January 1943

FILMINDIA

After this Kumar was again un-
employed, and he returned to his
girl-gazing occupation at Amina-
tad Park. Within six months how-
ever, the kindly Krishna Gopal
again summoned him to Calcutta to
work in New Theatres' "Zinda
Lash". This boy whose very first
appearance on the screen was in the
shape of a corpse was now acting,
the "living dead" in "Zinda Lash"'.

After "Zinda Lash" he featured in
'Subeka Sitara', doing four different
roles in a single picture, and doing
everything else they told him to do.

Early in 1933, his big chance came
along when Director Debaki Bose
gave him the title role of 'Puran
Bhakt' . The remarkable success of
'Puran Bhakt' made Kumar a star
overnight. And even Baburao Pa-
tel, the sternest critic of the indus-
try, extolled his work in his previous
paper 'The Cinema Samachar' .

Then came 'Yahudi-ki-ladki' after
which Kumar left Calcutta having
gone up in the scale to Rs. 450]- in
his monthly earnings.

IN BOMBAY AT LAST

In 1934 he came to Bombay and
people said that "Puran Bhakt" had
come to Bombay. The Sagar Film
Company signed him down for seve-
ral pictures and Kumar's first pro-
duction, 'Anokh-Ki-Mohabbat', soon
came to the screen and became a hit.
Then followed, 'Lure of the City'.
'Judgment of Allah', 'Vengeance is
Mine', and then he again moved
along to join 'Eastern Art' where he
did a couple of pictures. Very soon
the Imperial Film Company took
him up on Rs. 850[- a month — the
same man who was refused only a
few years back . Kumar made four
pictures for Imperial and was
again taken by the Sagar people to
play the leading role in "Watan".
The picture was a terrific success,
but at the end of it Kumar says, "I
was again begging for a job."

Resting on his oars for a time.
Kumar came under the notice of Di-
rector Kardar who took him to
Ran jit's lo produce 'Kick' and 'Nadi-
Kinare'.

Once again after these 2 pictures.
Kumar was 'begging for a job'.
Next he strayed to the Circo Studios
to work in 'Laxmi', 'Suhag', 'Madh-
sudhan' and to reach for the first
time a remuneration of Rs. 1600 j -
per month . And once again he was
'begging for a job.' after this series
of productions was over.

Then came that fateful picture,
•Taj -Mahal', produced by Mohan

Pictures in which Kumar acted the
role of Emperor Shah-Jehan. The
technique of the picture was so mys-
terious and antiquated that even
Noor-Jehan failed to recognize Shah-
Jehan. Having played that Shah-
Jehan, it was no wonder that Ku-
mar kept "begging for another job"
for eight months afterwards.

His next lot fell with Vishnu Ku-
mar Vyas, the producer amongst

By Appointment 10

55

Mrs. Kamlabai Manglorekar

TAKES HIDE IN PRESENTING
A MOST SENSATIONAL

UURR - R UIRR

WITHOUT HORRORS e? ARSON

R HFinliy UIRR, FUlib OF URUGHSIe

Featuring—

VAKIL
SAHEB

PRRDEEP PICTURES

u i ins

Miss Madhuri, Trilok Kapoor,
Shahzadi, Rajkumari Shukla,
Gulam Rasool, Pandit Badriprasad
Wasker, Baby Rajrani etc.

Direction —

MR. MOHAN S1NHA

Apply to i-

PRADEEP PICTURES,

213, New Charni Road, Bombay, 4

Distributors /or Sind & Baluchistan :■

Shree Laxmi Film Service, Karachi.

January 1943

FILMINDIA

Here is an outside-the-club mix-up from "Chowranghee" a social story of
Fazli Brothers directed by young S. Fazli.

vika Rani are his special favourites.

Kumar had a lot to say about the
dialogue writers of the screen. He
thinks that half of them are not sure
half the time about what particular
language they are writing. Accord-
ing to Kumar, Vajahat Mirza re-
mains the most successful screen
writer. Asked about film critics, he
swears by Baburao Patel. Probab-
ly because Baburao was in the same
room when this interview was be-
ing taken.

Strange as it may sound, this oft
unemployed film-star has still made
twenty-three pictures in the eight
years that he has been in Bombay —
that is an average of three pictures
a year. And yet, when he is unem-
ployed he sits in his quiet cottage,
'Le Bijou', Mahim Cross Road, Ma-
lum, Bombay and says that he
smokes cigarettes and watches the
spirals of smoke rising to the ceiling
of his drawing room. Obviously, he
has stopped girl-gazing now.

producers, and Kumar was soon
playing the leading role in 'Suha-
gan'. Once again kicked about by
fate, Kumar was 'begging for a job'.
This time he had to become a pro-
ducer with the one single aim of
getting an acting job. He therefore
produced "Jhankar" a picture though
inaugurated by the great Shantaram,
lived only as short a time as it took
one to pronounce the name.

ARTISTE FIRST AND LAST

Now Kumar is working in several
pictures namely, "Kaljug" produced
by Hind Pictures, "Najma" produced
by Mehboob Productions, "Bhalai"
produced by Silver Films and "Du-
hai" produced by Sun Rise Pictures
and yet he is afraid that after all
these, he will be once again 'begg-
ing for a job'.

Kumar prefers to remain an ar-
tiste to being a producer. He thinks,
"It's a hell of a job to be a produ-
cer." While he feels that Debakl
Bose can exploit his emotional urge
Of art, he thinks Shantaram to be
the greatest director in India be-
ing a "harmonious combination of
art and commerce." One of Kumar's
unfulfilled ambitions is to work un-

der Director Shantaram in whatever
role he gives.

Among the actors, he likes Chan-
dramohan for his acting and Motilal
for his diction. While, among the
female stars Durga Khote and De-

We regret to announce the
sudden death of Mr. Ismail
Dharamsey, the popular ma-
nager of the Imperial Cinema,
Bombay on 6th December
1942.

Character-actor Nagendra gives another good performance hi "Pratigya
a social story of Chitra productions.

S7

On the Threshold of
its Silver Jubileel

SCREEN PLAY & DIRECT/ON BY:

AMIYA CHAKRABARTY

that held their
Chains !

Made La
the
Team

of
J utilee
makers.

7lte man ivlto mabe tttlee
iilms that mabe, |(/m hUtolxj -

Producer S. MUKERJI
Now gives us his fourth masterpiece

KISMET

Starring

HSHOIf KUmRR

mummz shhrti

in his smartest

role ever !

lovelier and

more charming!

with

SHAH NAWAZ, MUBARAK, PRALHAD, DAVID,
MOTI, P. F. PITHA WALLA, BABY KAMLA, JAGAN-
NATH AURORA, KANU ROY, CHANDRAPRABHA

and
V. H. DESAI.

Screen Play and Direction by GYAN MUKERJI.

Scenario and Dialogues by
SANTOSHI, SHAHID LATIF, B. C. VARMA

Lyrics by Pradeep; Music by ANIL BISWAS.

Cameraman: R. D. PAREENJA.

Sound Engineer: S. B. VACHA.

Dialogue Director:
S. I. HASAN.
Film Architect:
L. H. CHORIDIA.
Film Editor:—
D. N. PAI.

BASANT

&ietw at

MAJESTIC

Bombay

Cinema

AND ALL OVER INDIA

JUNMARKAR
V. V. BOKIl

A TALE OF TENDER ROMANCE

"EVER YOURS"

( T U Z A C H )

A TALE FULL OF ROMANCE, MUSIC & DANCES

now running; at KRISHNA talkies

"IT'S A PEERLESS RELEASE"

Siintt in

RAJKAMAL KALAMANDIR
(Bombay)

Producer-director Shantaram is a
very busy man in and outside the
studios. He has changed the old
Wadia Studios into a wonderland by
renovating everything in the com-
pound. Go where you like, you
can't smell anything of the old Wa-
dia atmosphere in the new Rajkamal
Kalamandir .

For "Shakuntala", Producer Shan-
taram has signed down Chandramo-
han and is steadily making up his
mind to star his wife in the stellar
role. Friends are trying their level
best to help him to make this deci-
sion, but with his usual obstinacy
Shantaram is taking his own time.

"Shakuntala" will go into shoot-
ing sometime early in January and
is expected to be ready by the end
of May.

FAZLI BROTHERS (Bombay)

Producer-director S. F. Hasnain
is rarely seen nowadays and people
suspect that he is very busy. He
should be, with "Fashion" a social
picture on the sets.

Producer Hasnain's brother, S.
Fazli — the man with the Paul Muni
face- — is secretly busy with his pic-
ture called "Bhai Bahen" . This
picture is likely to go into shooting
in the middle of January and we
hope they invite all, as they did
last time, to share the Muhurat cake
which looked like a birth-day cake.

SHALIMAR PICTURES (Bombay)

Believe it or not, Producer-direc-
tor W. Z. Ahmed is at Poona at the
Saraswati Cinetone Studios shooting
the new picture "Mun-ki-jeet" and
he is so busy that he does not get
time to reply to friends' letters. The

nett result of his activities is that
there is a serious strain on
the telegraph office because W . Z .
Ahmed, when he can't write letters,
resorts to telegrams.

Producer Ahmed has got two pic-
tures in making, the other being
"Film Actress", a social story cen-
tred on the struggles of a society
lady while entering the film indus-
try.

BOMBAY TALKIES (Bombay)

By the time this is in print "Kis-
met" is expected to be released at
the Roxy Talkies. With the release
of this picture Producer S. Mu-
kherjee will have left the Bombay
Talkies along with Rai Bahadur
Chuni Lall, the General Manager.
Almost a complete unit will sever
U>eir connection with the Bombay
Talkies and start their own produc-

ing company . This is an unfortu-
nate event to report and yet it can-
not be helped.

No one knows what are the plans
of the Bombay Talkies for the fu-
ture, but we only hope that they
will be constructive enough to be
enterprising and businesslike.

INDIA FILM CIRCUIT (Bombay)

Their social story "Sunbai" has
been released in the Central Pro-
vinces and other stations where it
had good reception. They expect
to release this picture in Bombay
very shortly. Another picture which
they have in hand is called "Kal-
jug" produced by Hind Pictures and
starring Sitara, Nazir and others.

CHITRA PRODUCTIONS (Bombay)

With "Kisi-Le-na-kahna", their
maiden production, awaiting release

Radha Rani provides charming sex-appeal in "M«;«q" a social picture of

Raja Movietone.

61

January 1943

F I L M I N D I A

in Bombay, Producer Gvalani is
busy with his second one called
"Pratigya" featuring Motilal and
Suvarnalata . This new picture will
be completed during this month
and Producer-Gvalani is already
busy with the paper work of the
third one.

SOWBHAGYA PICTURES
(Bombay)

This new producing company can
be called a small company with ra-
ther ambitious aims and it is gra-
dually making a headway towards
achieving these aims.

After "Duniya-Ek-Tamasha" they
have just completed "Haso-Haso-E-
Duniya Wallo" which is a hilarious
comedy featuring Gope, Shahzadi
and others.

The new picture on the sets,
though it is not christened yet, is
a social story featuring Motilal and
Hari Shivdasani and, moreover, it
is also directed by Hari Shivdasani.

NEW HUNS PICTURES (Bombay)

The devotional people of Bombay
liked "Damaji" which completed a
successful run at the Swastik Tal-
kies in Bombay. The new picture
which is on the sets, in two ver-
sions: Marathi and Hindustani, is
called "Cash And Carry" or "Na-
gad Narain", featuring Lila Desai
and Baburao Pendharkar. This
picture is in the hands of an intel-
lectual director, Mr. Vishram Be-
dekar, who gave us "Pahila Palna",
the almost perfect Indian comedy
on the screen.

SRI RENUKA FILMS (Madias)

Under the competent guidance
and experience of Mr. Nagiah,
South India's greatest actor, this
new company is producing a picture
called "Bhagyalakshmi", featuring
Malati and Nagiah himself.

Nagiah is an ambitious person
with the right type of head on his
shoulders and we are sure that he
will make the most of his opportu-
nity at production.

PRADEEP PICTURES (Bombay)

This new producing company, re-
cently established in Bombay, is
producing a social picture called

"Vakil Saheb". This is a remark-
able melo-drama with humour and
is expected to go well on the Indian
screen .

NAVYUG CHITRAPAT (Poona)

"Ever Yours" has been released
on the screen in Bombay at the
Krishna Talkies and is reported to
be doing well

At the studios they are producing
another social story called "Pahill
Manglagaur" featuring Snehapra-
bha Pradhan and Shahu Modak.

NATIONAL STUDIOS (Bombay)

By the time this is in hand the
National Studios will have releas-
ed "Jawani" at the Swastik Talkies
in Bombay.

They have still two more pictures
"Apna Paraya" and "Lalaji" await-
ing release.

SILVER FILMS (Bombay)

Producer-actor A. M. Kumar is
sweating well on his new produc-
tion enterprise and is busy with
"Bhalai", a social story, which, he
says, is better than his previous
'Jhankar". Kumar is slowly be-

coming quite a good producer and
we hope that when he becomes a
full-fledged one, he won't be as bad
as some of the ones we already have.

ASIATIC PICTURES (Bombay)

We have not seen Producer-direc-
tor Mazharkhan recently as he
keeps himself a lot to himself. The
people say that he is busy with a
social picture called "Yad" which
he has almost completed and whicli
features Veena Kumari and, of
course, himself.

UNITED FILMS (Bombay)

This new producing company is
busy with a picture called "Ghi-
ronda" and they say that the name
does not mean "The Nest", but "The
Toy House" which we see children
building on the sands. With Sheikh
Mukhtar and Anis leading a very
useful cast this picture is expected
to be quite a good hit and not mere-
ly a toy-house.

RAJA MOVIETONE (Bombay)

Do what you like, you can't stop
Zahur Raja from producing a pic-
ture. He is now at another called
"Mazaq" which, as its name sug-

S7

KUMAR

MEHJABEEN^ SHMAM * SHANTI NAN DA ,

OOIPIE

Rooking for',' Bomhay* Presidency!

ME HER TALKIE DISTRIBUTORS

Tinwala lihls. Tribhuvan Rd., BOMBAY 4.

SILVER FILMS

DADAR MAIN ROAD, DADAR BOMBAY m-

January 1943

FILMINDIA

gests, is a remarkable comedy. With
himself leading the cast, he has Ra-
dha Rani and her charming sister
Anita Sharma to lend him moral
support.

POORNIMA PICTURES
(Bombay)

Director Kishore Sahu says that
he, is making film history once
again. We don't remember his
having done so before, but we take
him at his word when he says so
now.

Just at present he is producing a
social satire called "Raja" featuring
himself and his never-to-be-let-
alone companion Protima Dasgupta.
Kishore says that "Raja" is going
to be an outstanding picture of 1943.
We wish that it becomes an out-
standing picture of all times.

BHARAT PICTURES (Bombay)

In his own quiet way Mr. Choksi,
the General Manager of this Com-
pany, is busy arranging a release
date for "Swaminath". Under his
clever chaperoning "Bhakta Kabir",
that excellent Hindu-Muslim sub-
ject, has revived interest in the
cinema-goers at the Minerva Talk-
ies. We hope that he pays the same
attention to "Swaminath", a picture
which has been lying with him for
some time now.

OPERA PICTURES (Bombay)

This new distributing office has
secured Mazhar Khan's first picture
"Omar Marvi", a social story of
Sind. The firm is in the market for
securing more pictures and we will
be able to report some new progress
in the near future.

RAN JIT MOVIETONE (Dadar)

''Bhakta Surdas" was released
during the month at the Royal Opera
House and the release attracted
huge crowds. With Saigal and
Khurs'heed in the lead this picture is
expected to go very well all over
the country.

At the studios they have started
shooting "Shiva Parvati", a mytho-
logical story, "Tansen" a historical
biography and they have also com-
pleted "Dhiraj", "Faryad" and many
other social pictures.

KARDAR PRODUCTIONS

(Bombay)

This man Kardar is a marvel.
When he used to work for other
producers, for some reason or other,
his pictures were delayed and they
never came out for months on end.
But now that he has become a pro-
ducer himself, within two and a
half months he has produced a social
story called "Sharda" which picture
is doing roaring business at Karachi.
This is quite a nice comedy and,
being a fast one, entertains every
minute. Already people are trying
to buy off the world rights of this
picture at four lakhs of rupees, but
having tasted success, Kardar does
not favour selling it out.

The second picture which Kardar
has already in production is called
"Namaste" which is, once again, a
social story in the hands of Messrs.
Sunny & Sadiq, the two little Kar-
daris with Kardar. No sooner this
picture is half way on its journey
Kardar will take up "Kanoon", an-
other social story which he hopes
to complete by the end of March.

EASTERN PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer Ramzan Lakhani is quite

a busy man these days as we see
his huge self running about the
town with regard to his social pic-
ture "Dawat". "Dawat" which ia
directed by Mr. M. Nazir has al-
ready been secured by the India
Film Bureau for their circuit.

The next one to go into shooting
is another social story called "Bhai".

fl.R.G.C.'S SREE PICTURES
(Mysore)

This is a new producing concern,
of Mysore which has just announc-
ed a social story: "Vani" or "Vio-
linist" for production in the Kana •
rese language. They say that top-
Line artistes headed by Sangitaratna
Asthana Vidwan T. Chowdiah — the
Musician of the Royal House ol
Mysore are working in this picture
and the producers expect the pic-
ture to be an outstanding success.

PRAKASH PICTURES (Bombay)

"Panghat" a social story has been
completed by this studio. Director
Vijay Bhatt is now busy with "Ram
Rajya", the mythological spectacle,
which he is producing as a worthy
successor to "Bharat Milap."

January 1943

FILM INDIA

SUN RISE PICTURES (Bombay)

"Duhai" featuring Shanta Apte
ha? been completed and will be on
the screen very shortly, while "Nar-
gis" featuring Nur Jehan is now
getting the finishing touches and it
should be in hand by the end oi
next month-

Producer V. M. Vyas, is busy
with the script work of "Sati AnU-
suya" which will go into shooting
probably by the end of January.

SELECT SERIAL SUPPLY
(Bombay)

Distributor Bachubhai Raval has
been lying quiet for some time, but
he seems to be wide awake again.
He has recently released "Gora
Kumbhar" the maiden production of
Chhaya Pictures at the Super Talk-
ies in Bombay. This picture had a
remarkably successful run in the
country and is expected to do well
in Bombay.

SWASTIK INDIA LTD. (Bombay)

Murari Pictures have handed over
their new social picture called
"Badalti Duniya" to Swastik India
for distribution. Under the efficient
management of Mr. Pandya and
with his long experience in the film
industry, the affairs of Swastik India
seem to be very progressive.

MOHAN PICTURES (Andheri)

Under the name of Ramnik Pro-
ductions these people are floating a
new picture called "Rekha" which is
a social story featuring Leela Chitnis
and Harish in the principal roles.

Still another one will go imme-
diately on the sets, this time with
Leela Chitnis and Ashok Kumar in
the cast.

NAVIN PICTURES (Bombay)

Under the guidance of P. B. Jha-
veri, the producer amongst produc-
ers, still another picture has been
launched called "Mohabbat". It is
difficult to keep pace with the pro-
duction speed of Producer Jhaveri
and it is difficult to print the names
of all the pictures he has under pro-
duction owing to shortage of paper.
But we can say that Producer

Jhaveri is a very busy man and he
does not make a secret of the fact.

SUN ART PICTURES (Bombay)

Old and experienced director
Chimanlal Luhar has at last launch-
ed on his own as a producer. His
first for Sun Art Pictures is called
"School Master" which is a social
story which he is shooting at the
Central Studios. In this story Maya
Bannerjee and Kaushalya are fea-
turing and Producer-director Luhar
tells us that in addition to the
subject being serious it has plenty of
comic element in it. And we be-
lieve him.

STAR PRODUCTIONS (Bombay) .

Producer-actress Ratan Bai has
already made a profit of Rs. 40,000
on the first picture "Saheli" and is
now busy with the second one call-
ed "Dharm". And, after 'Dharm,'
Ratan Bai will depart on the pro-
duction of "Dasi" which, in all pro-
bability, will be directed by Mr.
Asher.

D.R.D. PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Producer D. R. D. Wadia is very
confident of his maiden production
"Ishara." Seeing that the story has
been written by that well-known
writer Dewan Sharar and consider-
ing that the picture is being direct-
ed by Mr. J. K. Nanda, whose re-
markable technical excellence in
"Kurmai" was a talk of the town,
we are sure that "Ishara" is destin-
ed to be a very successful picture.

A feature of this picture will be
the melodious tunes of Khursheed
Anwar, the singing man from the
Punjab, who has been specially
brought, over to give popular music
for 'Ishara.'

Mr. Nanda expects the picture to
be completed by the end of January
and already good offers are pouring
in for distribution of the picture.

EXCELSIOR FILM EXCHANGE
(Bombay)

The enthusiastic proprietor of this
distributing company, Mr. Lim
Bilimoria, has managed to secure
the distribution rights of "Tasveer".

a social story which is directed by
Najmul Husein Naqvi for Atre
Pictures.

The picture features Durgabai
Khote, Suvarnalata and others and
it is expected to be a successful
box-office production.

VAUHINI PICTURES (Madras)

Vauhini Pictures — that little big
Company of the South are now re-
leasing this latest picture "Bhakta
Potana". This picture is directed
by Mr. K. V. Reddi who has been
chief production executive for all of
their earlier productions. With his
experience, though short, it is re-
markable that he should have pro-
duced such a good picture. Another
good Director has Vauhini found in
him. With this addition Vauhini
Pictures should be able to make
more good pictures.

Mr. B. N. Reddi who was voted
as the best Director in the recent
Ballot conducted by the Andhra
Film Journalists is the Captain steer-
ing the Ship of Vauhini. He has
already planned for his next Social
in Telugu to be directed by him.
This is titled "Swarga Seema".

AMAR PRODUCTIONS (Bombay)

Producer-director Surendra Desai
is giving his final finishing touches
to "Paigam", a social story directed
by himself and starring Sadhona
Bose and Surendra. This picture
is expected to be a wonderful piece
of workmanship.

Another picture which is on the
sets is "Adab Arz" featuring Nalini
Jaywant, a social story which is be-
ing directed by Virendra Desai.

WADIA MOVIETONE (Bombay)

Producer "gentle" Jamshed has
completed "Shobha" featuring Shahu
Modak and Shobhana Samarth,
while another social story called
' Ankh-ki-Sharm" is now receiving
finishing touches at the hands of
Director Balwant Bhatt. After these
two pictures are finally completed
"gentle" Jamshed will embark on
the production of "India Calling",
his second enterprise in the English
language.

67

Stars Inherit Traditional Suspicion

H Plea For Broad-minded Outlook!

By: Hyacinth

The breath of scandal blows har-
der over film people than it does ovei
any one else. It is a sign of their
importance — of the tremendous in-
terest they evoke in people the
world over. Their lives, their loves,
their indiscretions provide juicy
reading matter for the man in the
street and make Mrs. Grundys of
the most discreet of us. Where it
would be considered bad form to
"talk scandal" about any ordinary
person, it is considered quite the
thing to gloat over the latest divorce
of a popular star.

In the eyes of the world once
a man or a woman joins the
acting profession he or she be-
comes not "quaite naice". How
far this judgment is deserved
it is hard to say. Certainly it
is a prejudice which has ex-
isted for centuries. Probably
that is why in the early days them
were no actresses and men had to
play women's parts.

In many cases this blackening of
the characters of film people is pro-
bably undeserved and yet on the
whole it seems as though film people
try hard to live up to the world's
poor opinion of them.

Perhaps they feel they are expect-
ed to provide a little excitement for
their public or perhaps they just
can't help themselves. Certainly
publicity good or bad helps a star's

career and a little scandal has never
been known to 'kill' any star's ca-
reer. Charlie Chaplin has changed
wives several times and has hardly
teen a paragon of virtue but he is
still considered one of the greatest
living comedians. The public may
shake its head in apparent disap-
proval at the latest misdeed of a
popular actress but this does not
make the erring glamour girl any
the less popular with her fans.

In any case film people are sub-

It is considered quite the thing
to gloat over the latest divorce
of a popular star.

A large salary and the adulation
of thousands point tempting
short-cuts from the paths of
righteousness.

ject to so many more temptations
than we smaller fry, so we can hard-
ly afford to judge them when we
cannot prove we would act diffe-
rently under similar temptations. A
large salary and the adulation of
thousands point tempting short-cuts
from the paths of righteousness.

The Indian actors and actresses
start on the road to demoralisation
with a handicap. They are children
of a nation which has many more
social safe-guards than Western
countries. Family ties and influen-
ces are stronger in India, drink is
not a noticeable vice and there is

less freedom between the sexes.
Yet it is these very moral safe-
guards which make the average In-
dian into a prude when it comes to
condemning the young woman who
wants to be an actress .

The film business has not been in
existence long enough to be accept-
ed without suspicion by Indians.
When a young man shows signs of
wanting to be an actor he is looked
upon not as a young man wanting to
find work which he would like but
as someone who is hankering after
a life of wordly pleasures and vice.
When a young woman decides to
become an actress she is a hussy
and anything else that the fertile
minds of gossips can think up.

I am not trying to say that our
stars are beyond reproach. We have
no really informative gossip papers
to keep us informed of the doings
of our actors and actresses but the
local Grundys are efficient and I and
about 10 million others know many
stars' lives would not bear looking
into.

But what we must remember is
that the public's attitude has prob-
ably turned many a good girl into
an actress of doubtful character.
She is dubbed 'bad' the moment she
Joins the industry so why should
she bother to be good, she thinks?
She has probably been out-casted
by her family and friends so she can
lose nothing more by living up to
the public's opinion of her.

If the so-called 'nice' people avoid
her then she is thrown upon the
company of the not-so-nice and be-
comes not so nice herself.

The sooner the public's attitude
towards the film business becomes
more broad-minded and tolerant the
sooner nice — really nice people will
join the industry.

The present stars good, doubtful
or bad in character are for the most
part so incredibly dull that it would
be interesting to see if the new re-
cruits to a 'cleaner' industry are an
improvement on them. Certainly,
if a new public attitude will tempt
better-educated and more intelli-
gent people to become stars in ano-
ther sixty years we may even find
we have a Sarah Bernhadt in our
midst!

69

THE

UNITED FILMS

Sheikh Mukhtar

ifs/O

and

Anis Khatoon

GHIRONDA

Or

THE TOY HOUSE

ft

with Yakub, Satish, Gope and N A J M A

£D;«c!«uy: S Khalll ^u,;e Vasant Kumar <£j»cj S. Murad

Booking with —

Northern India ; Shree Saraswati Talkie Distributors, Delhi.
Sindh: CINE TRUST, Bunder Road, Karachi

THE UNITED FILMS,

JljOTl STUDIOS,
Kennedy Bridge, BOMBAY

PUWMA PRODUCTIONS

KISHORE SAHU

PROTIMA Das Gupta

RANI GALA
MONI CHATTEFUl

lilt/ng tunes /
riotous romance //
eyqu/s/te dances ///

KISHORE SAHU

fOK BOOKINGS & T E66ITONAL MGUTS: -

FUR MIMA PRODUCT I OX

160, HORNBY ROAD. FORT. BOMBAY

OUR REVIEW

"Damaji" more Stagy Than ftScreeny,y !

Bhal Pendharkar's Poo* Show !

Baburao Pendharkar Saves The Picture

Here is an old old tale produced
with a modern flavour. It is a po-
pular devotional story amongst the
masses in Maharashtra and has ap-
peared on the screen at regular
intervals .

Another effort to bring it on the
screen could have been justified
only if the producers had made full
use of the present up-to-date cine-
ma technique in story-telling and
direction .

Unfortunately there is no evidence
of this justification as the picture
betrays production ideas Indian
producers used fifteen years ago.

In sharp contrast with "Pahila
Palna" the maiden production of
New Huns, the present picture looks
like a crude attempt at motion pic-
ture making.

Director Bhal G. Pendharkar does
not seem to have grown out of his
old ways of production. Sketchy
scenes, long orations, little action,
stagy diction, old tunes and other
obsolete methods, which Indian pro-
ducers chucked off long before, are
all there in "Damaji", to provide a
pitable reminder of what we used
to do years ago.

In this respect the picture has a
documentary value. We need not
go fishing for old pictures to know
what we did then. It would be
enough to see "Damaji" directed by
Bhal G. Pendharkar.

AN OLD OLD TALE

The plot opens in famine stricken
times in Mangalvedha, a small dis-
trict in charge of Damaji under the
sovereignity of a Mahomedan Em-
peror .

In picture-making famine has to
be shown pictorially and not got rid
of in dialogues, as easily as the direc-
tor has done, people can only feel
what they can see. A mob mostly
consisting of sturdy people and few
bone-bundles does not provide a
sufficient evidence of a famine-
strickfn land.

The only good thing about these
famine stricken scenes was the very
thin all-bony man once shown in
one of the shots. That man, inci-
dentally, is a bad advertisement of
the 150 years of benign British
rule.

The story soon takes a semi-reli-
gious, semi-communal and quasi-po-
litical complexion when Vithu Ma-
har chastises the Brahmins of the
town who refuse ordinary and com-
mon decencies to the untouchables.

Damaji and his beautiful wife,
both ardent devotees of God, insist
on their humanitarian work despite

DAMAJI

Producers: New Huns Pictures
Language: Marathi
Story: Bhal Pendharkar

Photography: Pandurang

Naik

Audiography: Goipat Molay
Cast: Baburao Pendharkar,
Lalita Pawar, Leela,
Londhe and others.
Pieleased At: Swastik Talkies
Date of Release: 7th. Nov.

1942.

Director
BHAL PENDHARKAR

the opposition from their own com-
munity. In every story, there is a
villain and this story is no exception.
Mujumdar another petty officer is a
corrupt person and as such jealous
of Damaji's popularity.

He starts his machinations and
soon succeeds in framing up Dama-
ji on a charge of thieving and allow-
ing the people to ransack the royal
granaries. Actually, these grana-
ries were thrown open to the people
to save them from utter starvation
by Damaji without waiting to receive
the royal sanction.

Damaji is arrested and taken a
prisoner and now the story takes
the usual legendary turn and travels
with punctuations of miracles.

Vithu Mahar who robs the Mu-
jumdar of all his wealth is on his
way to pay the money to the Em-
peror but he is arrested on the way.
The remaining part of the journey
is resumed by the Lord in the dis-
guise of Vithu.

In the court of the Emperor, Vi-
thu (The Lord) empties a huge pile
of gold mohurs, convinces the Em-
peror of Damaji's innocence and
vindicates his honour.

Damaji returns to his suffering
wife and with a message of love
and devotion to his people.

CARELESS HANDLING

The theme has a powerful human
appeal inherent in it. Had the pho-
toplay been written by a progres-
sive person, the story would have
been more purposeful and more ef-
fective. But in the hands of Bhal
Pendharkar if has still remained the
same story which old grannies told
a hundred years ago by the fireside.

If "Damaji" has not become a po-
werful motion picture, it is because
the story-writer and director has
failed to deliver the goods.

While photography is tolerably
good, the sound recording is faulty,
having failed to record satisfactori-
ly the higher notes.

Baburao Pendharkar goes a bit
stagy at times, otherwise his per-
formance is quite in keeping with the
crude role and the spirit of the
times.

Leela looks sweet as usual, sings
well some insipid stage tunes but her
dialogue delivery is so stagy that her
action becomes unconvincing.

Londhe as "Damaji" fails to create
a spiritual and devotional atmos-
phere, his face lacking the invisible
glow that characterises such roles.
He looks an unconvincing type.

Excepting Baburao Pendharkar
and Lalita Pawar the histrionic
performances are poor, seeing that
they were made to fit the old and
obsolete stagy mould.

After the interval the picture tra-
vels a bit fast and gathers more
drama, but before the interval it
becomes rather boring.

Well, it is quite a good thing to
see for the devotionally blind who
know the story already.

73

immortal story of Sindh on
the Silver Screen

NATIONAL ARTISTS' PICTURE

Directed by MAZHARKHAN

Starring: Mazharkhan, Kaushalya,
Hari-Shivdasani, R. 'Hassan, Nazir,
Majid Gope & Meera

Distributors :

OPERA PICTURES LTD.

NEW QUEEN'S ROAD, BOMBAY

OUR REVIEW

Prabhat Produces fl Headache !

"Ten O'clock" Becomes Dull And Insipid !

Raja Nene Fails In Direction I

There are certain producers who
need a sympathetic review to in-
spire them to greater effort. But
in case of Prabhat no sympathy is
asked and none given, because
Prabhat's have been at the top of
the ladder all these years and with
their experience and success, peo-
ple expect only outstanding pic-
tures from them — more so because
of their time-worn boast of pro-
ducing only prlo^essive and pur-
poseful pictures for the good of
the country and its people.

"Ten O'clock" is neither a pro-
gressive nor a purposeful picture.
It is a silly college romance pro-
duced in a slip-shod manner and
it neither entertains nor instructs.

Raja Nene, its director, had the
unique opportunity of being train-
ed for years under Mr. V. Shanta-
ram, India's greatest director. But
after seeing "Ten O'clock" with a
critical eye, one is forced to the
conclusion that young Raja Nene
seems to have either wasted his
time all these years when he had
the opportunity to learn or lacks
the executive capacity to harness
his training for the practical direc-
tion of a picture.

OPENS WITH BOREDOM!
The picture opens with an
awfully boring scene of a prize
distribution gathering at a college.
The scene was intended to intro-
duce the heroine. Asha and the
hero, Dilip, who is incidentally a
great scholar inspite of his poverty.

This could have been done very
effectively, without boring any one,
within a hundred feet of film. But
Raja Nene, evidently a passionate
lover of details, has shown the
whole painful procedure throwing
in some ceremonial but tiresome
lectures by "sundries". Before the
prize-distribution scene is over, every
one in the audience looks fed up
with it all.

The story is that Asha a co-
student, daughter of a wealthy
man is in love with Dilip, a bril-
liant scholar but poor in worldly
belongings.

Dilip, as shown in the picture,
looks like the average college
pansy -boy whom we meet so often
in the streets — complete with the
dreamy vacant look and little effe-
minate gestures which replace
manly good manners. As a type
representing reality, the portrayal
is good but as the hero of a social
picture, paresh Bannerji fails to
appeal.

TEN O' CLOCK

Producers: Prabhat Film Co.
Languages: Hindustani &

Marathi
Review of: Hindustani Ver-
sion

Story: Kashyap & Pawar
Hindi Dialogues: Ashant
Cameraman: E. Mohammad
Sound: S. Damle

Cast: Urmilla, Paresh Ban-
nerji, Manajirao,
Vasant Thengdi, Baby
Shakuntala etc.
Released At: Central Cinema
Date of Release: 21st Nov.

1942.

Director:
RAJA NENE

"Asha" acted by Urmilla is an-
other disappointment. She is sup-
posed to be a college girl but her
accent of the few English words
she speaks is awful and her per-
formance betrays the fact that all
is not what it should be. Her ap-
pearance is also not suitable for a
heroine's role. People are used to
seeing pleasant faced heroines and
not a nose stuck on a dried pome-
granate.

LOVE ON THE RUN

Asha is in love with Dilip and

Baby Shakmtala provides the small
relief we get in "Ten O'clock".

Dilip reciprocates that love. But
Asha's father, as was expected, has
the usual material complex and
arranges Asha's marriage with Dr.
Ramesh, an England-returned sur-
geon with a good family tree and
money in addition.

This creates the usual love com-
plications seen in a thousand pic-
tures before. Asha agrees to marry
Dr. Ramesh for the sake of her
old father, but on the day of the
wedding, she faints and the wed-
ding has to be postponed. Through
a subsequent illness Dr. Ramesh
nurses Asha back to health and
Asha soon ends the suspense by re-
fusing to marry Dr. Ramesh and
calls him a brother.

Dr. RamOsh, acted by Vasant
Thengdi, is a pretty ridiculous por-
trayal. Dr. Ramesh does not even
seem to know how to carry a suit
though he has spent years in Eng-
land. Dr. Ramesh seemed to have
collected weight on his hips which
weight only lends effeminate grace
to his gait. There is nothing of
the surgeon in him — in his poise,
in his gait or even in his face be-
yond a pair of rimless spectacles.
Why don't these actors study the

75

1943

brings you TWO GEMS

of INDIAN FILMDOM

Cl/t i a t S/^'c lulerf

MAMMOTH PRODUCTION

IP A 1 € A

Co'Starring

THE DANCING & SINGING IDOLS OF INDIA

SADHONA BOSE & SURENDRA

with

Anandprasad, Anil Kumar, Protima Devi, Ansari

PRODUCER-DIRECTOR

SURENDRA DESAI

sfiL e

AD AB ARZ" # "BIRADARI" @ "Miss HITLER

// //

omit^O

/9 . 6Z> j ... ,
eJLaxnii c/ zoaiiciic/i,)

MIG H.T Y OFFER

INKAR

STARRING

L I L A DESAI
AND PAHARI SAN YA L

JAGDISH &SUVARNALATA

DIRECTOR

SUDHIR SEN

ALSO UHDEP PRODUCTION " SHHRRFflT

// ~ //

mOHRBBRT

KRDRmBRRI

PARTICULARS

SUPREME FILM DISTRIBUTORS

• BOM BAY, 14 •

January 1943

FILM1NDIA

real types in life before they start
playing specialized professional
roles?

This Dr. Ramesh gives a really
funny expression when Asha calls
him a brother. He doesn't protest
though the girl was almost married
to him once, he just opens his fat
mouth and keeps it open through-
out.

Very soon the girl revolts and
tells her father that she loves Dilip
and would marry only him
Strangely enough she gets this
courage after an actual marriage
rehearsal and not before when she
agrees to sacrifice her own life for
her father. One wonders whether
the necessity for that sacrifice had
ceased to exist when the girl re-
volted.

Now the long expected accident
takes place and Dilip is struck by
an obliging motor car and carried
to the very hospital with Dr.
Ramesh in charge.

And now begins the time-worn
tussle between duty and love and
in a silly, unconvincing scene in
his room. Dr. Ramesh comes out
triumphant in his heart and soul
struggle. He operates on Dilip and
saves him.

The operation scene provides an
other cause of boredom. Raja
Nene probably thought that pic-
ture-goers in India had never be-
fore seen an operation, so, he sets
out to show every little detail with
the result that the audience gets
bored stiff.

The picture soon ends on a high
romantic note at which all ob-
stacles disappear and Asha and
Dilip march hand-in-hand towards
the audience with a song on their
lips.

VULGAR PRECOCITY

In the picture is introduced a
child role in the little sister of
Dilip. This role is very well play-
ed by a newcomer, Baby Shakun-
tala and incidentally this little girl
is a good addition to our screen
talent.

The only objectionable feature of

this little girl's portrayal is the
vulgar precocity in which the child
is allowed to indulge at the time of
singing a song.

A girl of eight, she anticipates
procreation as an inevitable result
of love and though the words of
her song create a little cheap
laughter, yet the idea of seeing a
little girl of that age so vulgarly
precocious is revolting to the mind.

Looking at the picture as a whole,
one is surprised that Prabhat, with
their mature experience in motion
picture production, should have
selected such a stupid story for
production.

Raja Nene's direction is stupid
at places and unimaginative
throughout. Barring Baby Sha-
kuntala, no one gave a good per-
formance. The dialogues have
neither life nor literature in them.
The song compositions do ;not at
all appeal. The music of Keshav-
rao Bhole is far far from satisfac-
tory. It is never snappy and never
attractive throughout the picture.
Bhole's idea of a "gazal" is so pro-

vincially Maharashtrian that a
"gazal" sounds like a village
"lavni".

Photography is good throughout
and excellent in parts. Sound is
quite satisfactory. The settings
are as usual very attractive and
artistic.

If Prabhats intend to produce
pictures of this type in future, they
may as well stop picture produc-
tion now rather than lose their
well-earned reputation in the long
run.

"Ten O'clock" is a childish
affair as a motion picture and may
appeal to the pansy-boys and bud-
ding butterflies from our colleges.
For the intellectual there is noth-
ing in the picture.

WITHOUT FEAR OR
FAVOUR

"Filmindia" reviews all pic-
tures worth reviewing, whe-
ther they are advertised in
"filmindia" or not. The idea
of doing so is to provide cor-
rect guidance to the readers.

Shahu Modak beats the girls in grace every time. Here Snehaprabha pales
before him in "Pahili Manglagour", a Social picture of Navyug.

77

GROWS GREATER & GOES STRONGER

J. B. H. WAD I A

Presents Compliments and sends

NEW YEAR GREETINGS

To All His Patrons & Fan Friends
With Wishes For

HAPPY & PROSPEROUS YEAR 1943

FROM FILMLAND —

— To Its Haven of Established Popularity
Comes The Wadia Argosy laden with
ATTRACTIVE CARGO

3 GREAT SOCIAL SPECIALS

IN HINDI

AND

the second indian english talkie for
International broadcast

INDIA CALLING

WADIA GROWS GREATER & GOESi STRONGER

OUR REVIEW

new Theatres9 Disappointing "Meenakshi"

Picture Provides No Entertainment

Murdering K. C. Dey Once Again I

That Warner picture, "All This
And Heaven Too" has given birth
to a number of ill-shaped and
twisted Indian "babies", all over
the country. Some pictures, like
"Anjan" of Bombay Talkies, have
inherited more of the physical
shape from the parent picture while
others, like "Meenakshi", are spiri-
tual children.

When a country's traditional
culture goes begging for a foster
parentage to a foreign land, pic-
tures like "Anjan", "Basant" and
"Meenakshi" are produced.

These illegitimate products bring
home a sense of shame to those
enthusiasts who take a patriotic
pride in the progress of our film
industry.

It seems that our producers
haven't the common horse-sense
even to copy well.

Because month after month, we
see clumsy, twisted copies made
of great foreign pictures.

("Meenakshi" is one such abor-
tive attempt made by New Thea-
tres to revive their old glory in
motion picture production. Of
course, the producers have stretch-
ed their imagination and exercised
their intelligence to cover the
tracks, but in doing so, have lost
their way with the net result that
"Meenakshi" becomes an awfully
boring picture throughout its
thirteen thousand and odd feet of
length .

The man who brought the first
dancing girl to the screen, seems
to have done the greatest harm to
our industry. Because, if a dancer
Is cast in a picture, the director
forgets to tell the story and keeps
his girl dancing in his picture. To
find illustrations in support of this
statement, pictures featuring Sa-
dhona Bose, Leela Desai and Sitara
may be seen.

It does not seem to have occur-
red to these directors that dancing

is merely an additional asset to the
acting talents of these dancing
heroines^ For some (mysterious
reason, these directors keep im-
posing on the public one or two
dances by these dancers in their
pictures without any rhyme or
reason and at the sacrifice of the
fundamental story.

One such dance has also been
put in, in 'Meenakshi', and this
dance does not help the story even
a wee bit to move forward. The
dance is supposed to be a vision,
brought before the eyes of the
students, from a story which Sa-
dhona as a school teacher tells to
her pupils. Only Modhu Bose
could stretch his imagination so
much .

A SILLY STORY

"Meenakshi" contains perhaps
the silliest story ever produced on
the Indian screen. "Meenakshi" is
an orphan child under the guard-
ianship of her uncle.

An aged ophthalmic surgeon Is

MEENAKSHI

Producers: New Theatres Ltd.
Story: Manmatha Roy

Language: Hindustani
Photography: Bimal Roy

Audiography: Bani Dutt

Songs: Pandit Bhushan

Music: Pankaj Mullick

Cast: Sadhona Bose,

Ahindra Chowdhury,
Najmul Husein, K. C.

Dey etc.
Released at: Krishna
Cinema, Bombay.
Date of Release: 1th Nov.

1942.

Director:
MODHU BOSE

supposed to have fallen in love
with her when he was called to
examine her eyes. A marriage Is
discussed Imd arranged and the
uncle decides to hand over the girl
to the old man for five thousand
rupees.

On the wedding day, Meenakshi
escapes in search of her maternal
uncle, who does not make an appear-
ance at all in the picture, and meets
Amitabha — a gay and wealthy
bachelor.

And now begin, the most supine
and unconvincing romantic inter-

In "Bhalai" a picture of Silver Films, Sitara and Prithviraj make a new
emotional team. Prithvi's above-the lip decoration, however, looks a bit silly.

79

are honoured by your kind patronage and your film gets the honour and
satisfaction of being processed at the oldest and most up-to-the-minute Film
Laboratory and being handled by the most qualified and gone-grey-in-the-
profession staff of Technicians.

Famous Cine Laboratory

Telgr
FAMOUSCINE

160, Tardeo, Bombay.

Telephones:
42350, 42549

STAC PRODUCTION/

SOCIAL SAGA of SURGING SENTIMENTS
SURCHARGED with SUPREME SACRIFICE /

DRAMATIC conflict between the LOVE for
a TRUE COMRADE and the BELOVED!

RATANBAI and PAHARI SANYAL

in

"SAHELl

95

with

PRAMILA, YAKUB, ZILLOO, SHAHZADI, SYED AHMED & others.

Directed by.-S. M. YUSOOF. # Produced by— RATANBAI BEGG

STAR PRODUCTIONS

Forthcoming Productions : —

"DASl" STARRING RATANBAI
& SULOCHANA

Next Change at : —

IMPERIAL

(Lamington Road, Bombay, 7.)

Bombay Presidency Bookings With:
Meher Talkie Distributors.

Tinwala Bldg., Tribhuvan Road, Bombay 4.

FOR BOOKINGS & TERRITORIAL RIGHTS WRITE TO:

STAR PRODUCTIONS, JYOTI STUDIOS — KENNEDY BRIDGE — BOMBAY 7.

FILMINDIA

January 1943

ludes between the girl and the boy.
After some tame and long-distance
love-making, they fall in love with
each other and, probably, to prolong
the picture the girl runs away for
a time, leaving the boy heart-
broken as usual.

The girl takes the job of a
teacher and of all the damned spots
in the world, with the strangest
coincidence, she finds a billet with
the mother of the hero.

The mother, as was expected,
loves Meenakshi as if in anticipa-
tion of making the girl her future
daughter-in-law.

By this time, the hero has com-
pleted his penance of love, and
now it is his turn to make an ap-
pearance. True to the expectations,
he gate-crashes in that time-worn
situation of the hide-and-seek
game, and the heroine helps the
audience to guess correctly by
holding the hero's hand.

Another interlude of romance is
brought in to raise new hopes of
permanent happiness m a conjugal
union. Had the drama ended here,
the picture would have been too
short. Probably realising this.
Director Modhu Bose saves the
situation by chewing the gum a
little longer, even though .its
flavour had long disappeared.

With a sudden and yet remark-
able ingenuity, Meenakshi loses her
eyesight. That she would lose hot
eye-sight sometime during the pic-
ture was known to everyone in the
very first reel of the picture. And
yet, the audience sympathetically
conspired with the director to con-
tribute some drama to the hide-and-
seek game started in the first reel.

Meenakshi, of course, runs away,
urged by love and its inherent sacri-
fice. And again strangely enough,
she falls into the hands of the very
same eye-specialist who had bar-
gained to marry her.

And now comes another sacrifice
of love in which the surgeon takes a
great risk and operates on Meenak-
shi's eyes. Once again, in keeping
with general expectations, the

"dangerous" operation becomes suc-
cessful— a miracle in a million. By
this time, the entire misunderstand-
ing disappears and the hero comes,
smilingly, to claim his victim — the
heroine.

It is a tall story. And if Man-
matha Roy' and Modhu Bose want us
to believe this, they must tell us
another.

SADHONA FAILS

Sadhona Bose is the centre of
attraction. As "Meenakshi" she has
nothing to do beyond looking rural
and carrying a suit-case. She does
this well. The single dance which
she gives in the picture could be
removed and placed in any other
picture and it would fit in well
there too. From what we see of
Sadhona in this picture, she seems
to have forgotten what little acting
talent she had before.

Najamul Husein as 'Amitabha',
proves a sore disappointment. Even
before delivering his dialogues, he
seems to swallow them. At mo-
ments his features give you a
glimpse of the owl and those, who
have thought that Najamul would
make a handsome hero of the screen

are compelled to revise their im-
pression in a hurry after seeing the
owlish expressions.

The happiest man in the picture
is K. C Dey. Never was blindness
a greater boon than in case of Dey,
who is saved by nature the mis-
fortune of seeing his emotional mur-
der from picture to picture on the
Indian screen. If sight is granted to
K. C. Dey for two and a half hours,
he will pray for blindness again
after seeing 'Meenakshi', wherein
this great artiste is turned into a
singing mendicant without the least
pretence of even attempting to give
him a logical existence in the story.

None of the other artistes does
anything worthwhile even to merit
a criticism.

The music of Pankaj Mullick lets
you down six times in the six songs
of the picture, while, the less said
about Modhu Bose's direction, the
better.

In short, 'Meenakshi' miserably
fails as a motion picture either In
entertainment or in instruction and
in both. It will be a waste of good
money to see a picture like this,
merely because it is produced by
New Theatres.

Ashok Kumar is improving faster than you expected. Here he is wooing
Mumtaz Shanti in "Kismet", a social story of Bombay Talkies.

SI

PRAK ASH'S Coming Socio

RATNAMALA

THAT OUTSTANDING HEROINE OF
" STATION MASTER " AGAIN
SHINES WITH MORE CHARM IN

PRAKASH'8

Direction: K. J. Parmar & Mahesh Chandra

Featuring : Ratnamala, Umakant, Jeevan, Sushil
Kumar, Pande and others.

Await Its Early Release

Announcing !
The Light of 1943

CHIEF AGENTS :

IRmiSRd

Direction:

V1JAY BHATT

EUERGREEn PICTURES, New Queen's Rd., Bombay 4.

Do not miss To Hear Enchanting Rod Lonely Songs

OF

TAMANNA 9 STATION MASTER

( in Hindi )

KITI HASAL

( in Marathi )
AND

JYOTSN A BH OLE S

Songs In Marathi Drama

KUL-VADHU

ON

YOUNG INDIA RECORDS

Apply for catalogues and particulars :

The National Gramophone Record manufacturing Co., Ltd.

3ftS:'£'AHjftf HO. Wedoius Street, Port, Bombay I wadSK'h-w

OUR REVIEW

Dalsuhh Pancholi Produces Another

Thunder !

'Zamindar' Draws Huge Crowds Rt West End

Baby Akhtar's Sweet Performance

Once again Punjab's leading pro-
ducer Dalsukh Pancholi has given
another box-office success after his
remarkable hits in "Khazanchi" and
"Khan-daan" . Purely from the
production point of view, the new
picture is a decided improvement
over the previous ones, and day by
day Dalsukh Pancholi threatens
to improve till one day he will wrest
the supremacy of production from
the old stagers in the industry.

The plot of the story is built on
too familiar lines in which a bad.
Zamindar grinds down his poor far-
mers and exploits them mercilessly.
This theme has come in a number
of pictures recently on the Indian
screen, and the course and the end
of the story are well anticipated by
the audience all throughout leaving
no dramatic suspense to maintain
the continuous interest of the spec-
tator .

THE USUAL STORY

The property of Ganesh the Za-
mindar has been faithfully and loy-
ally looked after by Raghbir, his es-
tate manager. Raghbir has a grown-
up daughter in Rupa.

But suddenly the Zamindar re-
turns, takes charge of the property
and dismisses Raghbir, who is
thrown back into the lap of poverty
to struggle as best as he can.

Ganesh has a grown-up son in
Karan and a grown-up daughter in
Tara. Though both children are
modern, they are more kindly souls
than the father. So when Ganesh
tries to buy up the lands of the far-
mers by coercion and through the
agency of Baini, the children pro-
test vehemently.

Baini is a crook and a low type
who is also anxious to double-cross
Ganesh to make his own profits. In

securing lands, a lot of blood is shed
and a little child is also killed. The
son, Karan, rebels against his father
and leaves the roof of his father in
disgust. The farmers decide to kill
Ganesh to end his tyranny and op-
pression. In a blind ballot it falls
to the lot of Raghbir to shoot Ga-
nesh, the Zamindar.

All along, in the shadows of the
Zamindar's mansion has been liv-
ing a sweet, blind girl by the name

't. ZAMINDAR i

^ Producers: Pancholi Art £

Z Language: Hindustani i

v v
^ Screenplay: Imtiaz Ali Taj ^

f Music:

Ghularn Haider £

2

£ Photography: M. N. Malhotra f

£ Audiography: lshan Ghosh $

Z Cast: Shanta Apte, Z

Manorama, 4

z Baby Akhtar,

V s

^ and others. %

i Released at- West End, %

v.

J Bombay, f

t Date of release: 18th Dee. '42. Z

Director
MOTI GIDVANI

of Rambha. This is a beautiful touch
in the story which portrays a con-
trast showing that right in the sha-
dows of wealth lives grim and blind
poverty holding precariously to hu-
man life.

On the eve of Ganesh's murder,
this blind girl meets Ganesh acci-
dentally and gives some sound ad-
vice. Ganesh repents and decides
to make amends for his past beha-
viour. No sooner he does so, he is
shot in the back by some mysterious
person .

For a while, Raghbir is suspected,
while Karan is actually put into

Producer Dalsukh Pancholi who
seems to have secured the knack of
producing box-office hits one after
another.

the lock-up, because his gun was
found on the scene of the murder.
But ultimately, it all clears and
Baini is hauled up for the murder
of Ganesh . It is unnecessary to
mention that Rupa and Karan being
the younger brigade of artistes lead
the team of romance. In the end
they get each other.

GULAM HAIDER FAILS

This familiar tale is unfortunate-
ly told also in a very familiar strain
leaving no novelty in situations or
presentation .

The direction of Moti B. Gidvanl
is a considerable improvement over
his work in "Khazanchi". At places,
his technical direction has helped
quite a few emotional situations. The
photography could have been better
with a little more care. The sound
was quite satisfactory.

Ghulam Haider, the much-boost-
ed music-director has entirely fail-
ed to deliver the goods. We feel
that his stock of music is exhausted
the way he used old "Khazanchi"
tunes in the back-ground. This
man's idea of giving oveiioud mu-

83

The Qreatest'Saint Picture of All Times!

Devotional — Thrilling — Sublime — Magnificent

The Saint of Saints Whom
Great Saints like DNyANESHWAR
and NAMDEO and SAVANTA MALI
Honoured and

GOD SERVED !

"BOHR KIMIBHRR"

Story by: S. A. SHUKLA. * Music: KOREGAONKER.

Direction: ANAND KUMAR. Camera: Vasant Jagtap.

'CHHAyA' Chitra e? 'SELECT' Release
Now In 2nd MONTH At The SUPER (Bombay)

Starring 6 Stars of Repute

* LALITA PA WAR * RATNAMALA * NANDREKAR

★ MAHINDRAKAR * SHAKUNTALA * BAPURAO PA WAR

Distributors:— SELECT SERIAL SUPPLY, BOMBAY, M.

Spectacularly Ch a rm in g -
Magnificently Delicious

DANCES—

To match Hollywood

Such As You Have Yet
not seen on the Indian
Screen iv ill he the
HIGHLIGHT SPOT of

MURLI PICTURES

Maiden Hit

" Badalti-Duniya"

Starring M U M T A Z SHANTI

( of "BASANT" and "KISMET" Fame)

Distributors for Bombay., C. P., C. I:

SWASTIK-INDIA, LTD.,

Chowpatty Chambers, BOMBAY. 7.

Direction:

MOHAN SINHA

with Trilok Kapoor, K. C. Dey

Shahazadi of "Jhoola" fame
Rajkumari Shukla, Gulam Rasool, Wazkar,
Jaykumari (The Dancing Damsel), Pt. Badriprasad

Distributors For Sindh & Baluchistan :

SHRI LAX VI! FILM SERVICE, Bunder Road, Karachi

January 1943

FILM INDIA

sic is far from happy. Doing so
creates a terrific din in the audito-
rium, and the spectators cannot en-
joy the finer shades which are a
principal feature of Indian music.
Dalsukh Pancholi should look out for
another music director, if he wants
more novelty of music in his new
pictures. One gazal by Baby Akh-
tar and one tune sung by Miss Pan-
day were however quite attractive.

Miss Madhuri Panday gave a
sparkling dance full of sex and vi-
gour. This dance incidentally be-
comes a highlight of the picture.

The dialogues were in the usual
inimitable 'Imtiaz' style. Only
sometimes they sounded too pedan-
tic, especially when high-sounding,
literary words were spoken by the
blind girl.

SHANTA APTE FAILS

Shanta Apte was the main attrac-
tion in the picture. As such her
work deserves close scrutiny. Her
performance as an actress was en-
tirely disappointing; her music

more so than ever before, while her
dialogues were spoken in an accent
which is foreign to Urdu. From the

picture we find that Shanta Apte
has developed a potato face which
registers emotions rather slowly.
Add to this face, her already extra
thick lips and imagine the hideous
shock you get, when her big close-
ups are presented on the screen.

Narang, the hero of the picture, is
another great disappointment all
round. He speaks a Punjabi Urdu
with rotten accent, that takes the
beauty off the well-known writer's
dialogues. He has in addition no
cinematic action whatsoever.

The best performance in the pic-
ture was given by little Akhtar
whose sweet and sympathetic face
won the heart of one and all. Ma-
norama had a very nice role to play
and she could be said to have dene
pretty well. The rest of the lot were
just so-so, with M. Ajmal being
stereotyped .

And yet, with all these defects,
"Zamindar" is produced in a popular
strain and has enough entertain-
ment in it to draw crowds for weeks.
The picture is worth a visit to see
little Akhtar give her sweet and
sympathetic performance.

Khursheed plays the beautiful Chintamani in "Bhakta Surdas", a Ranjit
super production, now running at the Opera House, Bombay.

85

RMI1NIK
PRODUCTIOnS

announces the early
release of this great
series of

MAGNIFICENT

SOCIAL

PICTURES

Bookings

RAMNIKLAL
MOHANLAL6-C0,

Khetwadi Main Road BOMBAY 4.

79^/3 please

LI L A CHITNIS

HARISH
Moni Chaterji

Direction

Mahendra
Thakore

Lila Chitnis

&

Ashok Kumar

in

A picture that will hold
you spellbound by its
sheer power

DULHAN

Co'Starring
SHAHU MODAK
YASHODHARA KATJU
with

KANAIYALAL,
RAJKUMARI

Direction:-
G U N J A L

SUNRISE PICTURES'

2

"DUHIII"

A subject based on the human short
— comings that make life so miserable.

MIGHTY SOCIAL PICTURES

Story by:
Dialogue:

M. G.DAVE
ZIA SARHADY

Direction - V. M. V Y A S

STARRING:

* SHANTA APTE KUMAR

NUR JEHAN ANSARI

MIRZA MUSHARAFF ZARINA

SHORTLY TO GO ON
THE SETS

SATI ANUSUYA

An Unforgettable Drama of
Devotion !

"RRUKRR"

A cine-treat on a grand scale
Mohamedan social subject.

Story by:
MUNTO

Direction:
SHAUKAT HUSAIN

STARRING:

* CHANDRA MOHAN

* SHOBHANA SAMARTH

* YAKUB

* BALWANT SINGH
lie NUR JEHAN

FOR PARTICULARS WRITE TO: SUNRISE PICTURES

Lamr t^o f?o_<l

5 v PAY A

OUR REVIEW

Good Theme Wasted In "Churiyan"

Poor Direction makes H Poor Picture

Maya Bannerjee Gives Good Work

Here was a good story idea which
could have become an excellent emo-
tional drama if only the story-wri-
ter had a little more imagination
and intelligence.

The village bangle-seller, a com-
mon institution all over the country,
was a happy figure to be glamouris-
ed for the screen. It could have
provided a popular box-office angle
in addition to the ever-moving dra-
ma that surrounds the village ban-
gle-seller. But the writer's pen
seems to have stuck to the paper in
an highly unimaginative rut, with
the unfortunate result that "Churi-
yan" has become a poor series of
topical village shots bereft of any
drama or deeper human emotions.

"Churiyan" is a tragedy of a gol-
den opportunity lost. - The photo-
play writer is in a large way respon-
sible for the failure of the picture
as a motion picture story and the
final grace has been delivered by
the inefficient and unimaginative
work of the two new directors.

Had the photoplay script been
written by a man with more expe-
rience, imagination and intelligence,
"Churiyan" would have become an
emotional masterpiece with its in-
herent human theme.

As it is, it is a slipshod produc-
tion, which, though it does not ex-
actly bore you stiff, yet leaves you
dissatisfied and a little angry with
the story- writer .

A VILLAGE STORY

The story is simple. Anwar
Chacha, the village bangle-seller,
though a Mahomedan, is loved by
all the maidens in the village. He
has grown old with the village and
sighs and smiles with its inhabitants.

Shyamali is the young, pretty
daughter of a poor widow and being
the heroine, naturally the most at-
tractive person in the village. She
is in love with a young village lad,
Kishan. Kedar Babu, the estate
manager, inspite of his being a mar-
ried man, cultivates an eye for

Shyamali and wants to marry her
by hook or by crook. When the hook
fails, he takes to the crooked me-
thods and defames Shyamali . Shya-

,\\\\\\\\ XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXNX^

I

CHURIYAN

2 Producers: Prakasli Pictures i

5 y

^ Language: Hindustani %

^ Story: V. Aundhker ^
% Cinematography:

f G.N. Shirodkar ^
T. K. Dave.

/.

Om Prakash /.

y

Sharma £
S. N. Tripathi %

£ Audiography
i Dialogues:

Music:

2 Recorded on: R. C. A. Photo- Z

\

'j Songs:

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L. J. BHATT.

Mr. P. B. Zaveri, a new producer,
who threatens to monopolise the
entire production field by mass
production.

mali and Kishan become rebels and
they are encouraged by Anwar
Chacha, the bangle-seller, who calls
Shyamali his own daughter. This
triangle keeps expanding and con-
tracting through thousands of feet
and through the time-worn situa-
tions so often seen on the Indian
screen and ultimately Kedar Babu's
attempt to marry Shyamali is foiled

In "Saheli" a Star Picture, Ratan Bai and PramiUa team together to give a

thrilling drama.

-7

FILMINDIA

January 1943

and when he rushes with a gun to
the wedding ceremony of Kishan
and Shyamali, we automatically
wait for the last moments of Anwar
Chacha, who true to expectations,
faithfully intercepts a bullet from
the villain and dies in saving the
hero as did Ebrahim in "Khan
Daan."

The hero and the heroine are unit-
ed and the villain gets his dues.
And in the end to show that Anwar
Chacha has not been forgotten, the
Important parties pay a well-behav-
ed homage to his grave.

BAD RECORDING

The picture has numerous pro-
duction defects. The sound record-
ing of the songs is so subdued that
what little charm one could have
got from the music is also lost. The
recordist must be given a walking-
ticket and not allowed to indulge in
such expensive experiments. The
music is just so much new wine in
old bottles — and the bottles have
not been scraped clean of the old
labels. Barring the first song which
has some meaning and purpose in
It, though less poetically worded,
and the last one which had some

poetically emotional flight, the rest
of the songs are just words stuck
together to crowd a musical metre.

Photography suffers from too
much light at places and the field
back-grounds used in indoor shots
to lend an out-door effect are too
obviously artificial. The painted
backgrounds being flat lack deptli
of perspective. For such effects a
contrastive scheme of painting is
more useful. Add to this some care-
less processing and imagine the copy
on the screen straining the eyes.

"Art Suggestion" by Kanu Desai.
a well-known artist of Gujarat,
seems to have remained at the sug-
gestion stage and not travelled to
the screen „

The dances by Chiman Seth would
have become more effective if their
accompanying music had been
louder. Here again the recordist
ruined the effect.

THIS PREM ADIB

Reviewing the artistes' work, Ma-
ya Bannerjee attracts the most at-
tention because of her vivacious
and sparkling performance. Sha-
kir as "Anwar Chacha" is a good
cast and does well — very well at

places .

Jeewan as "Kedar Babu" over-
acts all the time and becomes a loose
fit for the portrayal he was expected
to give.

Prem Adib, as usual, is the big-
gest disappointment. This boy just
couldn't act even the simple village-
boy role which he was asked to play.
He just kept on making faces and
bad faces at that.

Gulab, our seasoned veteran, was
good as usual as the mother of
Shyamali.

Baby Tara has a face, I would not
like to see on the screen again it
the producers keep on calling her a
baby. Some of her scenes were
precociously vulgar for her age and
bored me stiff.

Well, though "Churiyan" doesn't
entertain one fast enough yet it
doesn't bore. It is a slightly crude
and clumsy motion picture with a
splendid basic idea and at any time
it is a better picture than Prabhat's
"Ten O'clock" or New Theatres'
"Meenakshi."

If the readers have some spare
cash for the week-ends, they may
as well spend it on "Churiyan."

FREE

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88

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" MAN & WIFE »

in Hindi and Marathi

Written by: VIBHAVARI SHIRURKAR

Do you know —
that Bhakta Damaji

is running to capacity
houses at the Swastik, Bombay;
Krishna, Poona and half a
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directed by
VISHRAM BEDEKAR

A poignant tale of
a Hindu wife's life

5CREEH

printed by Baburao Patel at the New Jack Printing Works, 75, Apollo Street, and published by hirn
for "Filmindia" Publications Ltd., from 55, Phirozeshah Mehta Road, Fort, Bombay.

RUNNING TO PACKED HOUSES AT THE

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SHANKARSNET ROAD • POONA,

JUNE 1943

VOL. 9

NO. 6

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Editor: BABCRAO PATEL

Planning "fob VicicMj

The Government of India has issued a communique
assuring the Indian film industry substantial supplies of
raw films during 1943-44 provided the new supplies to
India would be used for the advancement of the war
effort and the maintenance of morale in general.

To supplement this assurance the Government of
India has issued a Defence of India Rule as follows:

"The Government of India have decided that from
September 15, 1943, all cinemas and theatres should
include in their programme films approved by the
Information and Broadcasting Department, of a total
length of not less than 2000 feet."

No government in the world is expected to do a
ssnsible thing at the first shot — and never the Indian
Government — which bungles things for a long time and
then stumbles sometimes into a right thing.

Before we comment on the latest wisdom of the
Government let us first point out the glaring inconsist-
ency in the Defence Rule above quoted:

The Government wants every cinema in India to
show a minimum of 2000 feet of war propaganda with
every show. Well and good. In fact, almost a year ago
— in our June 1942 issue to be precise — we wrote:

"Why can't the Government, however, make

the exhibition of F.A.B. shorts a compulsory affair?

It is only a matter of one communique under the

Defence of India Rules.

Now that the F.A.B. has become an inevitable
item of public expenditure, let the people see at
least what is being done with the money paid in
taxes every year.

We want to know from Sir Frederick Puckle.
the big noise in Delhi, whether we are fighting or
fooling through this war.

If this is a total war, as we are told hundred

3

BomBRy rniiKiES' pride i

I

i

T

<S/cvy, S

cenauo and

Ukeclion by

Amiua Chakrabarty

Heading for a Golden
Jubilee A Unique
Honour Achieved for
the First Time by a
Hindi Picture.

with

Seven Silver Jubilees

Already Scored at,
BOMBAY, KARACHI ,
DELHI, LUCKNOW,
HYDERABAD <Dn.),
CALCUTTA and POONJ5.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

Hansa Wadkar comes to the screen in "Apna Paraya",
a social story of National Studios.

times a day, why the hell don't we put in a total
effort in every direction?

Yes, Sir Frederick, we need one more Defence
of India regulation to make our exhibitors show
our war shorts for which our tax payers are foot-
ing the bill. And we also need a change in the
distribution department of the Film Advisory
Board".

It took our efficient Government twelve long months
to throw off the mask of democracy and to realize that
we were fighting a total war.

And actually now when it has stumbled into the
right direction we find that most of the leading cinemas
in the country are already showing nearly 2000 feet
of war propaganda per show if the Indian Movietone
News and the F.A.B. footage is to be added.

What the Government has failed to clarify is whe-
ther the Indian Movietone Newsreels are being counted
as an item of war propaganda and whether its footage
can be included in this 2000 feet margin.

We can not understand why the Government can
not draft a single Defence Rule efficiently, precisely
defining its full scope and why must it always be vague
and uncertain in the phraseology used.

We would like to know whether the 2000 feet now
decreed is to be in excess of the F.A.B. shorts and news-

reels footage already being shown in our theatres, or
whether the new Defence Rule covers these already
existing items.

That calls for a new and revised Defence Rule and
if the Government of India can't find the right people
to draft the new rule, "filmindia" will not mind oblig-
ing the Government by sending a new and precise
draft.

Coming to the ultimatum conveyed in the com-
munique that the raw film supplied will be conditional
to the Indian film industry producing war propaganda
films, on principle we condemn the coercive element in
the said communique. It is anti-democratic for the
Government to coerce its subjects whilst shouting from
the houses-tops that it is fighting a war for the freedom
of the world.

And yet fully realising the actual mood in which
the Indian film industry is with regard to this war, we
are inclined to condone the Government measure
inspita of its inherent element of coercion.

To put it frankly, the Indian film industry has con-
tributed nothing towards this war to bring the victory
nearer — nothing willingly.

While the American film industry has gone all out
to support the country's war effort by producing several
war propaganda films and by sending out its famous
stars to collect huge funds, the Indian film industry has

As "Parvati" in "Shanker-Parvati", a Ranjit picture,
Sadhona Bose gives some celestial dances.

5

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The First Choice Of fill Cinegoers.

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Thrilling Romance of Life and Love

Rick in Qction - £onjs - Tllusic
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Starring:'

Ashok Kumar
niumtaz Shanti

Shah Nawaz

Mubarak
V. H. Desai
P. P. Pithaiuala
Jagannath Aurora
Day id
Moti
P r a h I a d
(handraprabha
etc;

June 1943

F I L M I

neither given money nor produced a single short which
has contributed to bring the Victory nearer.

On the other hand the little cooperation which some
producers were extending at one time as Honorary
Advisers on the Film Advisory Board was also brought
to an abrupt end by the membors resigning in a body
ever a petty quarrel.

All this while, during full four years of war, the
Indian producers, despite the increased cost of production,
have bsen making tons of money in their productions
because inflation of the rupee and more employment
have been taking more people to the box-offices. In
fact, these years have been the peak years for money-
making in motion pictures. Money has become cheap
in the Indian film industry and we have now six times
more producers than we had in 1939.

Whatever our quarrel be with our British Rulers,
we can't escape from the grim reality that we must
win this war. After the war we can revive our feud
with the British and start our own fight for freedom
once again But just at this moment all our resources
must contribute to a complete victory.

We are sorry to repeat that the Indian film industry
has not contributed even an iota towards the ultimate
victory for the democracies. And it is a shame.

In pursuance of the new policy of the Government
we understand that Mr. P. N. Thapar, Jt. Secretary of
the Information Department of the Government of
India, discussed the problem with the Secretary of the
Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association and sug-
gested to him the possibility of Indian Producers turn-
ing out full length features for war propaganda and
thus contributing substantially to the war effort of the
country.

When the secretary reported these discussions to
the members of the Executive Committee of the Pro-
ducers' Association, some of the members went into
hysterics.

In the meeting held on the 18th May at 7 p.m. at
the Association Offices, Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall, the
President is reported to have said that it was not
necessary for the film industry to yield to Government's
threat that the raw film will not be supplied to the
industry unless the producers gave a definite assurance
that they would produce a sufficient number of full
length feature films for war propaganda.

The Rai Bahadur is reported to
have further argued that the distri-
butors would not take up such pro-
paganda films and would never pay
for them. It is reported that his
own producer had advised him to
close down the business rather than
make a propaganda film.

We are open to be corrected by
Rai Bahadur Chuni Lad the Rai Bahadur if our report is

wrong. But if what is stated is true, and it seems trufe
in view of the subsequent decision taken by the Pro-
ducers' Association, we are surprised that of all people
Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall, who knows what a war
means at close quarters, should turn round and talk like
that.

The producers have decided that it is impossible for
them to cooperate with the Government in producing
such propaganda pictures as they are afraid that they
will be losing money in doing so.

It is an unfortunate decision and most probably
Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall will convey it personally to
the Government in New Delhi.

We disagree with this decision, because its funda-
mental premises are not correct and it shows a bad
spirit in addition.

As Indians we have two alternatives before us: win
the war, continue to be with the British and fight our
own fight of freedom with them or lose the war and
suffer Axis domination. The former is a lesser evil
and gives Indians a better chance of obtaining freedom
by fighting a ruler of 150 years of acquaintance.

The argument that distributors won't pay for pro-
paganda films is just so much silly balderdash. Rai
Bahadur Chuni Lall doesn't know what is meant by a
propaganda film.

A propaganda film for war does not mean the stuff
that has been produced by the F.A.B. fools who ask us
to grow vegetables in our backyards. Nor does it mean
shouting from the house-tops and asking the people to
die in the battle fields in their millions.

A war propaganda picture is not so simple as that.

Propaganda to be effective must be subtle and can
be served with the most human story a human brain
can think.

We are giving below a list of some of the war pro-
paganda films which the foreign producers have already
produced:

By Warner Brothers: "Confessions of A Nazi Spy";
"Underground"; "Dive Bomber"; "Sergeant York";
"International Squadron"; "Captains of The Clouds";
"Yankee Doodle Dandy"; "Across The Pacific".
By M.G.M.: "Escape"; "Mortal Storm"; "Mrs. Miniver".
By Paramount: "Wake Island"; "Pacific Black-out".
By 20th Century-Fox: "Pied Piper"; "This Above All";
"To The Shores of Tripoli".

By United Artists: "The Great Dictator"; "So Ends Our
Night"; "To Be Or Not To Be".

By British Studios: "In Which We Serve"; "Pimpernel
Smith": "Desert Victory".

By R.K.O.: "The Navy Comes Through"; "Joan of Paris."
Bv Columbia: "The Invaders".

7

gECAUSE Sh ips must carry
war materials, supplies of
film are now restricted. But we
can relieve this shortage to a
large extent merely by taking
care to cut down wastages. We
all make mistakes, so here are
a few points to remember :

the film lo the nexl number immediately after
you've made a picture;

let your background spoil the definition of your
subject;

camera steady, and hold it level, too;

lens, the camera's eye, clean for clear bright
pictures.

to others and do not buy more film than is abso-
y lutely necessary.

KODAK ltd

( Incorporated in England )

BOMBAY - CALCUTTA - LAHORE - MADRAS

June 1943

FILM INDIA

By Universal: "Eagle Squadron"; "The Saboteur".

By Russian Producers: "In the Rear of the Enemy";

"Fortress of Volga"; "Moscow Strikes Back".

Does Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall know that all these
and many more are purely war propaganda pictures?

Does the Rai Bahadur know that all these pictures,
without an exception, have been accepted by the distri-
butors all over the world, including India?

Can't the Indian producers do what the Hollywood
producers have done — business plus national service?

So far, we have given facts about the problem of
producing propaganda films. Now we propose to give
a plan for the future, as briefly as possible.

(1) The film industry does not need a subsidy
from the Government except the guarantee of a regular
supply of raw films, both for propaganda and commer-
cial purposes, and a regular shipment of machinery and
spares.

(2) As every war propaganda picture can have a
human drama, the picture will pay its way and if it is
well produced it will show more profits than the average
silly social film produced in India.

(3) That the Government should straightaway
control all the raw film stock imported into the country
and not allow it to be sold unless to certified licensed
stage owners as also stop the stock from drifting into
the Black Market.

(4) That the Government should forthwith issue
licenses to the 52 sound stages now in active use in the
country and stop all unlicensed stages from operating.

(5) That the Government should impose a limit
of 4 pictures per sound stage per year to be produced
both for propaganda and commercial purposes.

(6) That a 12i/2% of the total number of pictures
produced in India should fce exclusively dedicated to
the war effort.

(7) That the owner of the sound stage should be
made responsible for his annual quota of propaganda
films according to his space — whether he himself pro-
duces the same or gets them produced by independent
producers.

(8) That independent producers, distributors and
other people should not directly get the supplies of the
raw films. Independent producers who wish to pro-
duce their own films may attach themselves to one of
the licensed sound-stages and take their raw film sup-
plies from the studio owner.

(9) That the Government should fix up a maxi-
mum limit of 50,000 feet of sound and picture negative
each for a single picture and permit just enough positive
film to make 25 copies of each picture.

Only by planning the future thus can we harness
the Indian film industry for doing some useful war pro-

paganda which we so badly need, seeing that the F.A.B.,
the Information Films of India, the National War Front
and the hundred and odd war publicity committees
spread all over the country have failed miserably.

We don't expect the Government to follow this plan.
The reason being: it is wise. But one day, the Govern-
ment will realize that we had meant well — as they did
in the case of our year-old suggestion to compel exhi-
bitors to show war propaganda shorts.

A wise and efficient government is a myth and India
is so much a land of mythology.

MISSING COPIES

When you don't get your copy of 'filmindia',
don't blame us because we employ three persons
to check the dispatch. Blame the postal and
the railway employees, some of whom seem to
have taken to pilfering as an additional occu-
pation. We can't even replace the missing
copies as no extra copies are printed. Subscrip-
tions are accepted on the clear understanding
that we are not responsible for such losses in
transit.

A role he should have played long before is given to
Saigal in "Tansen", a Ranjit picture.

9

YOU ENJOY PICTURES MORE
AT THEATRES WHICH USE

&

ecause —

THERE yOU HEAR SOUND RT ITS REST

"Next time you go to the Theatre look for the RCA High
Fidelity plaque. It is the sign of the best in Sound Pro-
duction Your assurance that the show will go on well."

Distributors for Northern India ; Messrs. Empire Talkie Distributors, Karachi, Delhi,

Lahore, Calcutta.

Authorised Exclusive Dealers : Messrs. Famous Pictures Ltd. Bombay, Bhusawal.
Special Agents : Messrs. AMA Limited, Bombay.

This section is the monopoly of "JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about
things which he likes. The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still
they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job.

A PAIR OF INTREPID PRODUCERS

It is a very difficult job to combine commerce and
ideals. Many wish to do so but not all succeed. The
weaker ones lose, the ideal, others lose commerce.

In the film industry it is infinitely more difficult
to give a higher purpose to the trade of motion pic-
ture production. And that is one reason why we find
so many rotten, purposeless pictures on the screen,
which, however, become good money-makers from the
commercial point of view.

But merely making money should not be the end
of all human effort. There are other values in life
more precious than money. Only great minds realize
these higher values of life and when we come across
a motion picture producer who puts a higher social
purpose in his trade, the intellectuals in the country
hail him with admiration.

Mr. V. Shantaram has been one such man in our
motion picture industry. While putting his work on
a higher ideal of life and giving it a missionary pur-
pose he has also made money — perhaps more money than
some of the sausage manufacturers whom we charit-
ably call producers in our country.

We have recently discovered another production
team following in the footsteps of Mr. Shantaram. It
consists of two young intellectuals: Rameshwar
Sharma and Lahori Ram Parasher — both from the
Punjab who recently gave us that excellent motion
picture 'Bhakta Kabir' under the banner of Unity
Productions.

Millions who appreciate this powerful propaganda
picture for Hindu-Muslim unity do not realize with
what trembling hearts the picture was produced.

The religious fanaticism of some of our Hindu and
Muslim audiences always hangs like the sword of
Damocles over the heads of our producers. As a rule
producers fight shy of taking up controversial sub-
jects for production and in the case of 'Kabir' who was
a Muslim Saint striving for a better spiritual under-
standing between the two sister communities of
India, the danger in motion picture production was all
the greater owing to the religious susceptibilities of
both the communities being involved in the subject.

Many a producer had toyed with this particular
subject at some time or other during the last twenty
years but could not muster up enough courage to go
into actual production.

When Sharma and Lahori
Ram actually took up the
production of 'Bhakta Ka-
bir', people in the industry
stamped their ambition as
a foolhardy venture. Yes,
it did require some fool-
hardy courage to produce
that picture. But without
their courage India would
have lost an excellent pic-
ture with a vibrant message
for the Hindus and the
Muslims to unite.

The national importance
of this picture was so
much appreciated all over the country that almost all
the provincial governments in the country pinched
their revenue pockets and allowed the picture to run
free of the entertainment tax. The theme of the

FAMESHWAR SHARMA

Nur Jehan, our old sweetheart, comes to the screen
again in "Nadari", a story of A. B. Productions.

L3

A WORLD-FAMOUS TRADE MARK

Home entertainment has changed a lot in the last 40 years.

Time and research have wrought profound changes, loo, in Ihe type,
design and construction of "His Masler's Voice" instruments for home
entertainment. But with all these changes, the aims of "His Master's
Voice" remain the same. Their instruments embody the same high

quality of materials and superiority of workmanship every one of

the hundreds of components is subject to the most rigid tests before
anything bearing this World-famous Trade Mark, is allowed to go
into the world.

If you would have the unquestioned best
whether in Records, Gramophones, Radios or
Refrigerators, you must have " H. M. V."

* *

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★ ft

HIS MASTER'S VOICE

RECORDS * GRAMOPHONES * RADIOS * REFRIGERATORS

June 1943

FILMINDIA

LAHORI RAM PARASHER
between our two great

picture seems to have appealed even to the alien gov-
ernment in our country.

That picture 'Kabir' must be shown to our
valiant troops all over the world — on different fronts
where they combine in an unique spiritual brother-
hood to face death to win freedom for unknown
people. The propaganda department of the Govern-
ment of India should purchase several copies of
'Kabir' and send this picture on front line duty imme-
diately. Our soldiers would like to know that back in
their homeland the two sister communities were
trying to patch up their differences created by foreign
rulers and self-seeking politicians.

Not content with their
national achievement in
producing 'Bhakta Kabir'
Messrs. Sharma and Lahori
Ram of Unity Productions
have sworn to devote their
future production activities
to similar subjects of na-
tional importance.

Right on the hot trail of
'Kabir', their 2nd production
'Bhai Chara' has been com-
pleted. It is also a Hindu-
Muslim unity subject bring-
ing home the virtues of
good neighbourly relations
communities who have common traditions in history
and culture.

It is high time that other producers should emu-
late the example of these intrepid producers and give
our motion pictures a greater social purpose than
hitherto.

BAD BUSINESS

We are told that in spite of the shortage of im-
ported feature films, the distribution offices of foreign
films in India are doing swell business in the
country.

Considering that nowadays more people see
motion pictures, the shortage is well compensated by
the increased takings at the box-offices.

An undesirable feature of these foreign distribu-
tion offices in India has been their foreign manage-
ment. The foreign manager often takes three times
the combined salary given to the entire Indian staff.
In fact these management posts have been considered
good, soft jobs where the incumbent has hardly ever
to work and get the whole thing done by the Indian
assistants.

The war has changed the landscape slightly. The
Warner chief in India having taken military service,
the Warner organization is now managed by an Indian
named Nadkarni. Business with Warners is brighter
than ever before and everything seems to be going on
as smoothly as before.

The same thing could be done in other foreign
distributing offices like: M.G.M., 20th Century Fox,
Paramount etc., where the management is still in the
hands of foreigners, however efficient.

In no other country in the world is this practice
followed except in India. The writer, when he
travelled round the world, found that different coun-
tries had their local people in charge of such distri-
buting offices. For instance in Japan there were
Japanese managers selling pictures for American pro-
ducers.

While the local man is able to sell better and more,
a lot of local goodwill is also secured by following the
practice of appointing local managers instead of send-
ing a white man from overseas to boss over the
Indians.

Some of these overseas managers are absolutely
unapproachable as they soon acquire local colour pre-
judices and many an exhibitor from the distant
station does not even get a chance to forward his com-
plaints to these managers. Always at the mercy of
the slavish subordinates, he soon loses interest in the
product of the firm and the general business suffers
in consequence. It is strange that American business
men who call themselves such wise guys cannot realize
this state of affairs.

A firm of producers that has followed the correct
practice all along in India has been the Columbia Pic-

Rama Shukul, the son of a Police Superintendent, has
an aptitude for this uniform and he carries it well in
"Iqrar", a story of Ranjit.

15

CASABLANCA

NEVER ANYTHING SO EXCITING!
HUMPHREY BOGART • INGRID
BERGMAN .:, PAUL HENRIED

OtORGEW»SHIMBTON

S» L t K T HERE SHERIDAN • CHARLES COBURN

You saw and Cheered
YANKEE
DOODLE DANDY

ACROSS THE PACIFIC
DESPERATE JOURNEY

. .the munificent

AIR FORCE

Uea

4.A //*

YEAR'S BIGGEST "SPECTACLE WITH
JOHN GARFIELD . GIG YOUNG
HARRY CAREY .. GEORGE TOBIAS

irou

of Warner films
with Top Star Names
Timeliness.. Action
Intrigue.. Suspense
Beauty . Drama
Romantic story e Locale
Superb Performances

Top Production Values
will give \ou more evidence of

Warner

rship

June 1943

FILM INDIA

tures of America. All along since 1935, the Columbia
distribution offices have been very efficiently managed
by Mr. N. C Lahiri, an Indian, and at half the cost
that would have to be paid to an overseas manager.

Jos Albeck who was the Columbia Far Eastern
sales chief in 1935 often loudly thought that it was a
good policy to trust local men if more business and
better goodwill were to be secured. That has been
the keynote of Columbia's success in India.

War was a good opportunity for American pro-
ducers fox' changing over to the Indian management
but only a couple of firms seem to have taken advant-
age of this god-sent opportunity. The others are still
perpetuating the old order which is so unpopular and
so unbusinesslike in this country in these days of a
national awakening. It is a pity Americans are be-
coming bad businessmen.

FUNNY DRAWING ROOMS

Film architecture in India, especially in our
social films, is becoming less realistic every day.

In several recent pictures we were surprised to
see middle-class drawing-rooms having staircases
and mezzanine floors inside them after the fashion of
royal country houses in England.

After seeing these creations by film architects we
went in search of similar drawing rooms and in a
month's frantic search, we could not find a single
house with a broad staircase and a mezzanine floor
inside the drawing room.

These people who prepare our film sets are cheap
copyists who get their inspiration from foreign decor
magazines. But the fools miss one essential point
that these foreign magazines portray architecture in
foreign countries and not in India.

A film must be a mirror of actual conditions
obtained in the country, especially when producers
seek to portray realism on the screen. Will the film
architects show a little more sense and imagination?

BLACK MARKET AND INCOME-TAX

Producers, distributors and almost every one con-
nected with the Indian film industry will have soon
to face a terrible headache when this year's income-
tax returns are scrutinized by the income-tax officers.

It is a well-known practice that the income-tax
authorities require genuine vouchers for every small
purchase made and when expenditure is not supported
by such vouchers, the authorities refuse to accept the
items as expenditure and add them up to the total
profits for taxation.

Pursuing this practice rigorously during the nor-
mal times would be justified but we do not see how
this method can be enforced in the present times
when almost everything has to be purchased in the
black-market and the black-market racketeers don't
print any stationery for giving vouchers.

Producers have been buying wood, nails, paints,
raw films, paper, motor tyres, petrol and many other
things mainly from the black-market as nothing is
available from the regular dealers. Even the regular
dealers carrying stocks permit their goods to drift into
the black-market to make a little extra money for
themselves.

When we discussed this problem with some income-
tax fellows they blandly replied: "Don't buy in the
Black-Market." This is more easily said than done.
Producers who have several lakhs locked up in their
business have to keep the show running at whatever
sacrifice. Like the income-tax officers they don't get a
government dole at the end of the month. Motion pic-
ture producers have to stake their money and use their
wits all the time to earn some living in a highly com-
petitive trade.

When supplies are not available from legitimate
sources, producers are compelled to buy from the Black
Market to maintain a semblance of business with huge
overheads. Black Market has become a necessity if
one is to survive.

This problem of income-tax has become a com-
munity aftair as almost every producer in the country
is affected by it and it will be in season for the Indian
Motion Picture Producers' Association to tackle this

ojb. tie no y

Shamim is seen in almost every second picture of
Ranjit. This one seems to be from "Gowri" another
Ranjit picture.

17

FILM INDIA

June 1943

affair institutionally and come to some practical under-
standing with the income-tax authorities.

Unless the Black Market purchases acquire an
official hall-mark, the people in the industry will have
to pay black-market taxes to the income-tax depart-
ment. And black-markets are primarily due to Govern-
ment inefficiency in conserving and regulating the coun-
try's supplies.

A TOPICAL BOOK

In little less than a hundred pages, "Comrade" D.
G. Tendulkar has given us a social and cultural account
of Russia in his, "30 Months In Russia", a book pub-
lished by the Karnatak Publishing House, Bombay.
Tendulkar 's love of Russia and anything Russian has
becomei his second nature and that seems to be suffi-
cient provocation for writing this book.

The book is written in a simple style and each
chapter is concise while at the same time informative —
from the Soviet child to the military and economic
structure of the country. Fine photographic illustra-
tions by the author himself and an impressively got-up
cover make the book attractive.

While reading the book, one is inclined to feel that
in Russia everything is great and good — a veritable
Paradise on earth. In some places, it sounds like a pro-
pagandist airing his views.

Inspite of this, one does gain a good deal of know-
ledge about Russia — particularly about the manner in
vmich the Soviet State looks after the welfare of the
children. The Russian slogan, according to the, 'Com-
rade' seems to be 'everything for the child.' Not only
are there kindergartens, creches where the children spend
most of their time while their mothers go to work but
libraries, cinemas, parks and theatres specially organised
for the children. And the Children's Publishing House
publishes 53 newspapers purely for children.

Then again, in a chapter on 'Comrade Eve', D. G.
Tendulkar tells us about the status of women in Soviet
Society. "In the U.S.S.R. on the other hand, there is
no position which a capable woman cannot reach." One
is an authoress, another a Commissar of Finance, several
women captain Soviet ships and there are judges in
Soviet courts, and women are found scattered in every
department of industry, education etc.

In the last chapter, the author tries to impress the
leader by saying that there "are ugly elements in Soviet
life", and that "many things require an overhaul." But
the reader is made to feel that the achievements of the
Soviet Union are colossal. Anyhow, those who are pre-
judiced against Russia will do well to read this book to
see the other side of the coin.

BAH! WHAT A BANKER

Most of our cinemas audiences are not known for
their good manners. An Indian picture is often seen
between hoots and catcalls and the people who indulge
in these noises often forget that others who have also
paid would like to enjoy their entertainment in peace

18

and quiet. Our audiences seem to forget the funda-
mental fact that to hear clearly the noise which our
talkies make, the audience must themselves observe
strict silence.

Masses can not be trained in a day to cultivate bet-
ter theatre manners. What, however, surprised me was
the rude behaviour of a local banker some days back
at the Excelsior Cinema in Bombay. Accompanied by
a couple of his stooges, this worthy banker kept up a
constant flow of conversation in Gujrati thereby disturb-
ing people all round him. A "March of Time" film was
on the screen and it could hardly be followed with the
thin, effeminate extra commentary going on behind.
And sometimes all three of them, missing their cue,
talked simultaneously creating an unholy din which
drowned the language of the picture.

Another thing I discovered that day was that most
of our people do not know how to laugh. They do not
know the difference between a smile and a laugh. Most
of them never smile — they only laugh and they erupt
so loudly that little bits of betel-nut in the mouth go
flying into the air and often settle uncomfortably on
another man's neck.

That banker and his stooges gave a good perform-
ance of some horse-laughter, but in doing so they prov-
ed that they lacked good manners and good bringing-up.

Mubarak acts the emperor in "Tansen" a Ranjit picture
and looks every inch of it.

Young . . . lovely . . . clever . . . and wise, for
she uses Lux Toilet Soap regularly to keep her
skin clear and smooth, fragrant and beautiful.

LUX TOILET^SOAP- C&t&e+i <$t{ ^ ^uaA^ beauty /

1.13. et-JM-lW

LCVEB BROTHERS (INDIA) LIMITED

Settling Down

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break for the man who settles down with TENOR
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time you settle down to a smoke . . . light up a
TENOR. James Carlton Ltd. London, England.

AC. T. 30

EASTERN LICENCEES, POST BOX NO. 902 9, CALCUTTA

MUMTAZ SHANTI—

In Gitanjali Pictures' maiden production, "Sawaal", Mumtaz Shanti brings new

music and dance to the screen.

V

JO

D I RE C TED B V

ASHOK KUMAR

SITARA
VEEN A
KUMAR
YAKUB

E H B 0 0 B

Bombay Presidency. (• P- and (• I. :
Northern India, Sind and Baluchistan
Bengal Circuit . :
Southern Circuit Including Nizam Dominions:

DISTRIBUTION WITH

CALCUTTA FILM EXCHANGE, BOMBAY 4.
MANORANJAN PICTURES. DELHI. LAHORE. KARACHI.
KAPURCHAND LIMITED. CALCUTTA-
SELECT PICTURES CIRCUIT. BANGALORE CITY.

FOR OVERSEAS: MEHBOOB PRODUCTIONS, TARDEO, BOMBAY 7.

[In this section, the editor himself replies to queries
from the letters. As thousands of letters are
received every month — some anxious and several frivolous — it is
neither possible nor convenient to attend to all. Selected letters are
usually treated in an informative and humorous strain and no offence
is meant to anyone.]

P. B. Mobar (Agra)

Who are our best dancing stars?

One who really knows what is dancing is
Sadhona Bose. In old times we had a couple more
in Auzurie and Sitara, but they seem to have mixed
their steps so much that what they do now can
hardly be called dancing.

B. T. Nath Sahaya (Chupra)

Can you say something about Mumtaz Shanti?

Yes, she is reported to be the wife of one Walli
who wrote the songs of 'Khazanchi'. The rest is
his secret.

Is Renuka Devi a Mahomedan?

Yes. Her name is Mrs. Khursheed Mirza and
her husband is a policeman.

Mohan Shahani (Hyderabad)

Who gave the best performance in Prabhat's 'Nai
Kahani'?

Ahmed Abbas who sold the story. Seeing the
stuff I think it was a pretty good performance in
salesmanship.

H. Hoque (Dumka)

I wrote several letters to Naseem Banu requesting
her to send a private pose to adorn my drawing room
but—

People don't hang private poses in drawing
rooms. No wonder, Naseem refused.

Miss L. M. Kajee (Poona)

K. Ahmed Abbas writes in some magazine: "Today
the aim is to make big pictures like, "Pukar", "Sikan-
dar" and "Tulsidas". 'Big' they sometimes are but
'great' none of them has succeeded in becoming." By
the way, was his "Nai Kahani" by any stretch 'great'
or, for that matter even a 'new' story? When he knows
what sort of pictures are called 'great' why does he not
try writing one?

You must not take Abbas seriously. He is really
quite harmless. Half the time he does not under-
stand what he writes. He is our impractical ideal-
ist, whose mind keeps swaying between the grocers'
bills and a frustrative ambition to do something
thundering and great. He ends by paying the.
grocers' bills regularly and to do that he has often
to write that way.

T. B. Bamaswami (Chittoor)

Divorce is very common in the North Indian film
world? What is the cause?

Bless your heart, we had only two cases so far.
One was Leela Chitnis when she divorced Dr.
Chitnis and married C. R. Gvalani and the other
is the recent one of Snehaprabha Pradhan who sent
Kishore Sahu about his business. Now that is not
'very common' and not as bad as some of the things
that happen in some of your South Indian studios.

G. Venkatasubbaya (Chittoor)

Which is better of the two; To select a story and
then search for the artistes or select the artistes and
then write the story to suit them?

In "Paighum", an Amar picture, Sadhona gives some
rarely graceful work.

23

Subject:

SHIVKUMAR

Direction:

ANANDKUMAR

Art:

LACHHMAN

Music;

K. DUTTA

Picture:

K. H. KAPADIA

Sound:

J. B. JAGTAP
*

Cast :

DURGA KHOTE

KHURSHEED
DAVID, NAZIR
NAVIN. KHALIL
BISHWAS

ANAND BROTHERS

ZAMIN

The Wealth - Must - (ome - First - Story
Of A Greater Grip and Greater Interest!

The Earth Turned On-

- SALT,

-OIL AND

- MUCH MCCE

AND MADE THE SIMPLE PEOPLE SHREWD
AND THE SHREWD WICKED —

Distributors:

PEERLESS PICTURES, BOMBAY.

i:

SEXENA & CO., DELHI.

BOMBAY:

NORTH:

Anand Brothers,

- DCMBAy - HA I At . P. C.

June 1943

FILM INDIA

In India producers generally do neither. They
don't select. They take a story and shove in the
artistes and you people push one another to see the
result. Producers have been what they are because
people who see the pictures have been what they
are — just blind fools.

V. Sukumar (Bombay)

Is Barua joining the Bombay Talkies?

Heavens, no! He has started his own pictures
under the banner of 'Barua Productions' and his
first will be 'Subeh Sham', of course with Jamuna.

M. Chandra Kumar (Delhi)

I love Sushila Rani dearly.

You do, eh? So do I. Now keep off.

M. Madhav Moorthy (Anantapur)

What has the Film Advisory Board done for the
Indian film industry?

Given our industry a superiority complex
which it lacked in comparison with the Hollywood
films.

What, at present, is engaging Shantaram's atten-
tion?

Mr. V. Shantaram — that is the only subject
that matters to him.

T. L. Balu (Bangalore)

How many 'Nazirs' and 'Casshyaps' are there in the
Indian film industry?

Every one of them seems to be one too many.
Only one Casshyap matters, the guy who was with
the Bombay Talkies.

V. M. Balachandran (Palghat)

Is there any way for us to get rid of those well-
known but extremely boring Tamil comedians, Krishnan
and Mathuram? For humanity's sake, please find a
way out and we shall call you our deliverer.

Don't you people have motor accidents in your
part of the country? If this is not convenient, I
should suggest your boycotting their pictures to
enable these artistes to die a natural death. But
this is your side of it. Probably those two come-
dians may be having sufficiently humorous justifi-
cation for their existence.

V. M. Sukumar (Palghat)

Why don't you introduce a 'Filmindia Award' for
best performance, best direction, best photography, best
sound recording etc.?

If I do this, I'll have to give all the awards
to V. Shantaram on the pain of losing his friend-
ship. So, where is the sense in having a race in
which only one horse runs from the pillar to the.
post — and an odds-on favourite at that.

Anand Prakash Agarwal (Aligarh)

Many a beautiful and delicate 'nightingale' was
terrified to see Chandramohan in 'Roti' due to his lion-

8AIWAH1 fM6M<-
.WLIPBOSI '>!•—>

WW DES A I

PARAYADHAN
VI CHAR

SHREE

RSNMUJA

BIMAN BANf RJCE
CHHAYA DEVI * ItADHA RANI

NITIN BOSE DEBAK] BOSE

A Supreme Release — SUPREME FILM DISTRIBUTORS, Bombay 14.

25

Barua s Another Smashing Hit J

THOUSANDS
OF CINE-GOERS
ARE

SHOWERING
FLOWERS ON
THIS NEW PICTURE
OF BARUA

Starring

* BARUA

* J A M UN A
KALAVATI

and others

Music-
K AM AL
DASGUPTA
Who Gave
The Tunes in
" J A W A B "

Released From

4th JUNE At
Your Favourite Theatre

Super Cinema

(Near Charm Road Tram June.)

MMC

Direction; PC. BARUA

Released Through: EVERGREEN PICTURES. BOMBAY No. 4.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

like roar, cat-like eyes, and wolf-like personality. Why

don't you ask him to change himself?

Chandramohan is a great artiste, and he would
have changed himself if he could have, because con-
stant changeability is considered a great talent in
acting. I think that because of these animal re-
commendations, as given by you, Shantaram thought
it safe to cast him against his own wife, Jayashree,
in ' Shakuntala' .

A. A. Hameed (Madras)

What about Mehboob's, "Ashok the Great"?

With Pakistan in the offing Mehboob is now
likely to produce 'Kardar the Great'. Mehboob is
so much surprised at "Sharda's" success that he
cannot help but dedicate a picture to Kardar.

A. R. Seshadri (Bangalore)

In reviewing Ranjit pictures, you have constantly
written that sound has been bad. Hasn't Chandulal
Shah any money to change the sound equipment?

Looks like that. I would however suggest a
cheaper method; changing the men behind the
machines.

K. N. Murthy (Bangalore)

Please give the life-size sketch of Miss Mehtab!

How can I do that? I've always met her fully
dressed and even with her face covered.
If Sushila Rani takes to the screen, will she excel
in music or in acting?

In both, my boy. But there Is such a big 'If
seeing that Sushila Rani is soon destined to play
the traditional heroine's role which brings so many
crying babies to our theatres.

V. M. Nandakeolyar (Patna)

Is it true that Mumtaz Shanti has someone else to
sing for her in 'Basant' and 'Kismet'?

As far as I know, the songs of both these pic-
tures have not been given by Mumtaz Shanti. I
think, one Mrs. Ghosh sang Mumtaz's songs In
'Basant', while in 'Kismet' her songs were sung by
Amir Bai Karnataki. It's quite likely that I may
be wrong. , t

H. Bhavanilal Jain (Bangalore)

Will you please give me the address of Sushila
Rani?

C/o Baburao Patel, Editor; 'filmindia', Fort, Bombay.
V. J. Shah (Chorvad)

What is the height of Sheikh Mukhtar?

It is difficult to measure the mental stature of
film actors, but physically this fellow is somewhere
near 75 inches.

P. B. K a ware (Nagpur)

Will you please let me know why Indira Wadkar
has been left behind in her screen career all these
years?

Because, Baburao Pendharkar, her best friend,
has taken to singing on the screen.

Massand J. G. (Rohri)

I have a poor friend who is anxious to join the Film
Academy of India. As he cannot afford to pay, will
the great Shantaram be kind enough to give him free
training?

No. Shantaram gives nothing free — not even
a sentiment.

Viiendra Bhalla (Aligarh)

Where has Miss Rose disappeared from the screen?

She had gone to tell us a 'Nai Kahani' but
came out with an old story.

Is Mumtaz Ali of Bombay Talkies a married man
with children?

Yes, and respectable in addition.

R. N, Miledha (Lucknow)

Which actor is the best make-up artiste in our
country?

Mazhar Khan who is reported to be having a
hundred faces.

R. Kumar (Aligarh)

Why do people love when they know that love's
ultimate result is often separation?

One can't be all-wise and all-knowing about
love. Love is a spontaneous emotion which comes
straight from the heart and suffers no intellectual

Madhuri and Trilok Kapur make a good team in "Vakil
Saheb", a social story of Pradeep Pictures.

27

Drawing Crowds at LAMINGTON TALKIES

PRAKASH Now/ ]Wnt5

ONE MORE ROMANTIC SOCIAL ^ -/ ^

Q Ikvel theme full joj ^

K. J. PARMAR
MAHESHCHUNDER

Starring
Ratnamala, Umakant,
Jeevan, Lila Pawar, Sushil
Kumar, Pande, Rajkumari
Shukla, Baby Tara

Dialogues :

Pandit Indra pa„dii indrI!' ramesh

Audiography;

T. K Dave

GUI'TA

Editing
PR A TAP DAVE

Music ;

G. Ml 115(H) K IK

Fhotography ;
TR1PATHI

Dance:

Chiman Sheth

AN EVERGREEN RELEASE

June 1943

FILM INDIA

limitations of thought. It's a flame that burns,
while it warms. And ultimate separation of the
beloved is an inherent aspect of it seeing that what
burns must destroy one day. In story books and
legends we read of eternal love. That is ideal love,
as poets would have it, which never takes birth in
real life. Nevertheless, love, though it's a tem-
porary phase in human life, provides a warm in-
centive to human beings to raise themselves to
spiritual heights of nobility and sacrifice when the
beloved makes a demand. When separation comes,
as it ultimately must come, it brings in its wake
an agonising ache of memory which while it hurts,
strangely enough, also soothes the aching heart.
Only in one human emotion, love, is embedded both
the ache and the soothe at once. It is for this rea-
son that poets have raved over it through centu-
ries. A human heart that has suffered through
love has lived a life-time. A heart that has not
been touched at all may be considered as still-born.
It is silly to be wise in love. So let us love when
we can, fully and completely, and weep and be
wretched when the time comes as both the present
joys and the future sorrows are but just offerings
at the pedestal of love.

Rashid Ahmed (Lahore)

Who is this fellow S. H. Manto who has been writ-
ing stories for the screen?

He also specializes in short story writing and
broadcasting. The last screen story of his which
I remember was called 'Mud'. Young and intelli-
gent, this boy is a bit of a progressive writer who,
like all other progressive writers in the country,
has also realised that earning money is also a part
of progressive writing. Manto is one of the modern
preachers with strong lopsided views. He belongs
to the tribe of our modern young men, who do not
like the way the present world is planned and who
want to change things without a plan of their own.
The pity is that these fellows who criticise others,
even without provocation, do not themselves know
what they want. Let us call them 'progressive'
writers and be done with them.

A. R. Singh (Champion Reefs)

Which is the best way to lead a happy life as a
bachelor?

By living in the shadow of a good-looking
neighbour.

A. L. Mahendra (Simla)

Who is considered to be the best film-music director
these days?

After the remarkable success of 'Jawab', essen-
tially due to music, Kamal Das Gupta hits you in
the eye as the best one in form now.

Jyotl Studios, - Kennedy Bridge, - Bombay 7.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

S. C. Misra (Almora)

Under what cover is Bibbo hiding herself?

Matrimony. Her husband's name is Imdad
Bhutto.

V. K. F. Rahman (Bangalore)

I have a beautiful story on the Hindu-Muslim
Unity theme. I am anxious to sell it to a studio that
will do it full justice.

After 'Padosi' the Hindu-Muslim Unity theme
has become a popular subject for motion picture
production. The most remarkable picture in this
regard, is 'Bhakta Kabir' which grappled with the
problem most courageously and without worrying
about the fanaticism prevalent in both the commu-
nities. In reviving the message of Kabir on the
screen, the producers not only lent to the screen a
higher purpose but they also rendered a yeoman
service to the Hindu-Muslim problem in our coun-
try. The very same producers are now producing
'Bhai Chora', another picture on the same theme
and they hope to make it equally dynamic and
vibrant in its message as 'Bhakta Kabir'. Other
pictures on the same theme planned at present are;
'Akbar the Great' by Kamalroy Pictures and Unity
Productions; 'Bhai Bahen' by Fazli Brothers; and
'Bhalai' by Silver Films. I do not think there is
any necessity of adding one more to this crowd,
seeing that Pakistan Town-crier M. A. Jinnah does
not see Indian pictures and thus denies to himself
the chance of self-improvement.

Kr. Rajendra Singh (Agra)

How is that not a single picture has been produced
supporting widow re-marriage?

How do you expect stories on this subject to
be written when we have old-fashioned fossils like
Mohanlal Dave fashioning our future? Add to this
lot our money-making Kardars who exploit the
orthodox Hindu sentiment by extolling the virtues,
real and imaginary, of the traditional Hindu wife.
As long as these people continue to exploit our old-
fashioned customs and usages for individual bene-
fits, the screen will never step out of the rut in
which it is found now. Why are you worrying?
Have you by any chance found a good-looking
widow in the neighbourhood? If so, take her *o
the altar despite what Daves and Kardars may like
to show on the screen.

Will Jayashree be able to speak correct Hindustani
in 'Shakuntala'?

Though little Jayashree looks a charming
woman, she is really a parrot by profession. She
can reproduce all kinds of noises, the condition be-
ing that Shantaram should make them first. I am
sure she will give a good account of herself in
'Shakuntala' and may even eclipse that cat-eyed
actor Chandramohan.

M. M. Moorthy (Anantapur)

Pictures which run in one town are often banned in
another. On what grounds and principles are pictures
censored in our country?

The grounds are imperialistic, the principles
are capitalistic. If you expect any co-ordination
of intelligence in our officials, you will be sadly
disappointed. Most of our pictures are censored on
sentiment — and local sentiment at that.

Why is Khursheed now-a-days growing thinner and
thinner every day?

There is a shortage of wheat in the town and
she has to carry a greater weight of responsibility
now-a-days.

Miss Indira Dewan (New Delhi)

The Film Academy of India of which you happen
to be an Honorary Adviser offers opportunities only to
the few rich ones, leaving the poor ambitious ones
struggling. Isn't it strange that a self-made man like
Mr. Shantaram, who rose from poverty to plenty, should
give birth to an institution where only the rich can be
trained?

Your father Dewan Sharar also happens to be
an Honorary Adviser of this Film Academy. You
should have asked him this question. I agree with
you in so far as the ambitious poor are denied
opportunities to take a training in this Academy.

In "Angoori", a picture of Indian Art Pictures,
little Kaushalya blossoms into a glamorous womanhood.

31

With Sfai+vCj in,
UuikKcnl&UJU,

' V ,4 THE BRSflriT PAIR

MUMTAZ SMNT/
S UlLHAS

GITANJALI PICTURES

5AWA

HE GRERT

RADHA RANI, NIRANJAN,
SADIQ, AGHA & others

A GREAT DRAMA

ol Hove, I/ife, l-iiughliiT
an tl irnrs.

• Story; SARADINDU BANERJI

Lyrics: WALI SAHEB
Music: PANNALAL GHOSH
Direction: NIRANJAN

Out 7lext- D | L

GANDHI STUDIO

Distributors ;

Sowtfi India- C. P.. C. 1- North India-

RATILAL BROS., BANGALORE POPULAR FILMS LTD., BHUSAWAL. SITARA FILMS LTD., LAHORE

for other territories, apply: bhopatkar theatres, Milam Mansion, Lamington Mi Bombay.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

But do you know the number of ambitious poor we
have in this god-stricken country? The Film
Academy gives specialized vocational training which
will cost a good bit to its founder Mr. Shantaram.
You can therefore see that it is not possible for one
man, even if he wished, to help all the poor in the
country. And yet, if there is someone talented
enough who deserves an opportunity, let me assure
you that it will be given free of charge. But the
Film Academy is not going to be turned into a
playground for adventurers — poor or rich.

A. D. Patel (Pretoria)

What has happened to our ever popular Dalsukh
Pancholi?

Nothing is known of his recent production pro-
gramme and he seems to be intent on keeping it a
secret. Dalsukh himself seems to have been lost
in the maze of new firms which his agent Baburao
Pai has established recently.

S. V. Panambore (Mahim)

Which of the film studios in Bombay allow out-
siders to see actual film shooting?

None. And it is no use seeing it either as
behind the screen a motion picture is not an
attractive sight,

Shrt Ram Y. (Jaipur)

Is it not a great pity that there is only one picture
house in Jaipur under the wise premiership of Sir Mirza
Ismail?

It is a monopoly and in this democratic age a
monopoly becomes a pity of pities.

What about Ratnamala after 'Panghat'?

During 'Panghat' she filled her pot at the well
and gave birth to a bonny son called 'Jai' Raja
Pandit. The little one has already become a motion
picture star by playing the little baby in 'Shaktm-
tala'. He could be called the youngest baby star as
he was only a month old when he played his role.
How is that we gather very little news of the Pra-
bhat Film Company since the last two three months?

News went out of Prabhat after Shantaram's
departure. Now they tell old stories which they
modestly call 'Nai Kahanies'.

T. A. Saify (Bombay)

Is Kajjan (8 feet in height) suitable for the role of
a college girl as shown in 'Ghar Sansar'?

Eight feet is a slight exaggeration for the tall
and stately Kajjan. Neither the producer nor the
artiste has ever been to college and we shouldn't
wonder if this role is miscast.

What was the necessity of showing an aged Bohri
and an aged Parsi in the college picnic in 'Ghar San-
sar'?

Producer Vyas probably wanted to show to the
rest of India how silly the Bohris and the Parsis
looked on the screen. Being minorities and belong-
ing to quiet and respectable communities the suf-

A glimpse from " Shakuntala" . The first pang of love always expresses itself in the desire to write a

love letter. Shakuntala at her first love letter.

33

INDIAN ART PICTURES

34, WARDEN ROAD. BOMBAY, 26.
DISTRIBUTORS: EVERGREEN PICTURES, BOMBAY 4
NORTH INDIA AGENTS: DESAI & Co., DELHI & LAHORE.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

Padmadevi comes in a new Bengali picture
"Chhadmabeshi" .

ferers don't complain even though they are painted
in such frivolous colours. But they should.

G. Gokhale Rao (Madras)

Are the Hindus and Muslims treated equally in film
studios?

The film studios never recognise these two
communities. Like the film they use having two
distinctions — the negative and the positive — the stu-
dios are also divided into two communities, the
male and the female. The female of the species is
infinitely more attractive than the male one.

Mrs. K. K. Gaur (Sitapur)

In India we can't leave children in charge of the
ayahs and we have to taka them along to Indian pic-
tures with us often to see nonsensical love stories with
absurd and uniform plots all the while. Can't anything
be done to improve our motion pictures?

Listen, dear lady, nothing can be done by
merely writing to me but I shall suggest an idea
which educated ladies like you in different towns
can follow with effect. In your little town of Sita-
pur you should organise a local Social Censor Com-
mittee, members of which should see every picture
prior to general release in the town. Unless the
members certify the picture as proper for general
release, steps should be taken to organise an oppo-
sition against the picture by way of house to house
propaganda, picketting at the theatre and by appeal
to the good sense of citizenship of the people. By

this method in time to come you will not only save
money by eliminating rotten pictures but you will
also compel the producers to produce good ones in
their place. If a hundred towns in India organise
such oppositions producers will have to sit up and
take notice. So the remedy is in your hands if
you only have the will to use it.

A. Jamal Ibrahim (Uganda)

A friend of mine is dying for Neena.

Please write to us when he is dead and we
shall all mourn his loss. Neena Is worth the trou-
ble.

Madan Mohan Agarwal (Mahendragarh)

When Motilal sings it appears to me that he brays.
Why do the producers lessen his glamorous influence
by exposing one of his defects?

'Braying' that is the right word for Motilal's
singing. Whenever I talk to him about his music,
out of sheer stupid stubbornness, he starts braying
more. Motilal probably thinks that by keeping a
lot of musical instruments at home and by feeding
a music teacher, he is going to be a musician. In
case of Motilal, I don't blame the producers as no
producer can force him to do something which this
fellow doesn't want to do. So Motilal is shedding
his own glamour.

Neena comes to the screen again in "Prcm Sangeet",
a social story of Shalimar.

35

r fa

'■

m

fiet tie NATION/

IGAM

5ADH0NA BOSE* SURENDRA

ANAND PRASAD*ANIL KUMAR - PRATIMA DEVI

PRODUCER-VfRZCrOKlSWRENVM VISAI

HHH

Parifcii/ars: SUPREME FILM DISTRIBUTORS, Bombay, 14.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

Khursheed graces the screen once again in "Chhoii
Ma", produced by Ranjit.

R. P. S. K. Maniar (Madras)

Even though I earn and contribute my share to the
family budget, my father abuses me when I take my
wife to see a picture. He calls me ungrateful and other
names and openly repents for giving me birth. Do you
think it is fair? Shouldn't we occasionally see pictures
to escape from the, realities of life?

Your father seems to be a relic of the old order
of tyrants. Tell him that in your birth there was
no design of his. He went to his wife for his own
fun and your birth has been the accidental liability
born out of that pleasure. If every man who goes
to a woman has a child in view, the world would
soon become a small accommodation. Birth is
always an accident and social conventions define it
as a happy accident and glorify it. No child should
be grateful to his father for his birth nor should
the father expect gratitude for his wages of plea-
sure. If a man could have a child at will, there
i wouldn't be millions of barren parents craving for
children.

Nursing and growing up a baby to manhood is
merely acquitting one's duty as a parent. There
again the father should not expect his son to be
grateful. On the other hand the father should be
grateful if the son behaves well and educates him-
self properly and thus helps the parent to fulfil his

obligations and to pay off his debt to society for
bringing into the world one more human being
while indulging in his own pleasures of flesh.

Those fathers who expect their sons to be
grateful for their own primary duties are vain and
selfish tyrants without a social conscience. And such
bragging fathers must be suppressed and ridiculed
by every decent son.

Though man is one of the causes of human
life, he performs merely a biological duty in the
process of creation and the part he plays takes a
fraction of a time in comparison with the months
of subsequent feeding and nursing done by the
woman for the child.

Spiritually and physically, the mother is the
only parent of the child. After the solitary act, the
father becomes merely an advertising wall-poster
for social purposes.

But the selfish, brutal man, by virtue of his
strength, usurps to himself all the pride for the
child forgetting the pain and the labour through
which the woman went in giving it birth. A child
is born in a father's pleasure bed but not so with
the mother. And yet in this cruel man-made
world, the father provides the index-card for the
child's recognition. It is all a cruel and unjust plan
and the earlier the mother is given her due place
the better for humanity.

Your father belongs to this vicious gang of men
who think that they are sent by heaven to shower
charities in this world.

Break away if there is manhood in you. Rather
than give slavish allegiance to this old tyrant, nurse
your own individuality wisely and remember your
own correct duty to your own children when in
your turn you become a father.

Your fatherhood will be as accidental as your
child's birth and there is nothing in both to be spe-
cially proud of. Even dogs become fathers with
their beds in the streets.

A father can only be proud of himself after
he has paid off his debt to his son by nursing him
through childhood and putting him on his feet dur-
ing youth. But the father who brags is a low, mean
coward and not worthy of being a father.

By all means, take your wife to the pictures as
many times as you like and you can afford to. Don't
listen to that old fool. Let him abuse and waste
his breath.

FOR AN ACHING HEART
All diseases of the heart are not cured by
medicines. Quite a few of them are cured by
music, provided that music thrills the soul.
Sushila Rani gives glorious music that soothes
an old ache and gives a new one.

See for yourself in
H.M.V. Record No. N.26199.

37

Beverley Dichols Praises Sihandar'

Commends Prithviraj, Sadhona Hnd Sohrab

(By: Our Special Representative)

Ever since slim, sensitive author,
Beverley Nichols put his troubled
foot into the placid waters of Indian
life, ripples of controversy have been
spreading far and wide. Some of
them have even swelled into waves
of threatening size.

Even when he moved behind the
scenes, shunned publicity, quietly
partook of Viceregal hospitality,
privately developed foot-trouble and
didn't speak a word about it at all,
there was a controversy and that was
about his mysterious silence. When
at last he did open his mouth, the
controversy only raged more fierce-
ly, because he had started saying a
thing or two about India. Every-
thing he talked about from Bombay
newspapers to the Bhag&vad-Gita,
from Back Bay houses to the Vicere-
gal Lodge and from Gandhiji's
"Quit India" slogan to the duty of
the Britisher to stick on, lecame a
controversy. He could hardly let
fall a word, but there would be

journalists eager to swoop on it, tear
it to pieces and see what was with-
in.

Yet a part of this controversy
could have been avoided if Mr.
Nichols had eschewed politics for
the present. Mr. Nichols is an
enthusiastic art-lover, a writer of
great merit who dared to produce
an autobiography at the age of
twenty-five and provoked many
politicians of the time, the idol of
London society for years and a zea-
lous gardener. He is not a politi-
cian nor a diplomat to know the art
of dodging and speaking in oracles.

It was on a hot afternoon that I
went to his flat at Cuffe Parade to
get his views on his favourite sub-
ject— art. But already there were a
couple of Bombay's ubiquitous news-
hounds, who were busy picking him
to pieces on all sorts of political
questions. It was full two hours
before they left him — fully bored
and fully exhausted!

Kishore Sahu is a regular killer where women — young ones — are concern-
ed. Here is one facing his third degree romance in "Raja", a story of

Purnima Productions.

Mr. Beverley Nichols who stepped
too lightly on our sacred soil and
got a bad foot.

T at once switched the conversa-
tion on to art. His tired face beam-
ed and his eyes shone with obvious
relief when he exclaimed, "At last
there is one man who wants to talk
about art! If only people took a lit-
tle more interest in art, many of our
problems would be easily solved. I
am rath% tired of political contro-
versies."

Being tired, he spoke only for a
few minutes, but he spoke with
keen interest and zest. To him
India was a mystic land of glorious
culture and civilization, the ancient
home of music, dance, sculpture and
the other fine arts, of age-old lite-
rature, of yoga and science. He had
read a lot about her grand achieve-
ments in these fields and was only
too eager to see them with his own
eyes and enter into the ageless spi-
rit of a great nation.

Tagore's "Gitanjali", he said, was
one of his earliest introductions to
the treasure-house of Indian culture.
"Gitanjali" was his first prize-book
in his school days. Ever since he
read it. his heart had yearned to
wander into the land of beauty that
was India. His desire had at last
been fulfilled, but the poet was no
more. Even then, he was keen on
visiting Shantiniketan and spending
a few days in the institution which
was associated with a great memory
and which had a rich heritage.

3H

June 1943

FILMINDIA

LIKES INDIAN PICTURES

He had seen Uday Shanker too,
casting spelis ^f oriental charm over
crowds of Westerners by his exqui-
site dances. He hoped some day to
visit Sharker's Culture Centre at
Almora .

The lover of art that he is, Mr.
Nichols has lose no time in visiting
Indian picture houses. In spite of
his troublesome foot, his pressing
duties and his daily round of engage-
ments, he has managed to see quite
a few Indian pictures. "Oh, I like
them very much," he told me.

One of the pictures that impress-
ed him most was Minerva's "Sikan-
rlar". "In its spectacular effect, its
acting and its dramatic intensity",
he said, "it compared very favourably
with the best Western pictures of
the type. India has a weaith of his-
torical material which could go to
the making of more such pictures."

Another picture that impressed
him deeply was Wadia's 'Raj Narta-

Mr. Fateh Din, proprietor of Din
Pictures, who is now producing
"Koshish".

ki'. Sadhona Bose's dances and her
restrained and dignified acting and

Prithviraj's performance seemed to
have attracted him specially. See-
ing that picture, he said, was like
living in India's dim past, when she
was a model of progress and culture
to less fortunate countries.

Mr. Nichols could not understand
why actors and actresses of the
calibre of Prithviraj, Sadhona Bose
and Sohrab Modi should not go to
Hollywood and win world recogni-
tion. I told him that one of them
at least seemed to have that ambi-
tion, but the war had come in his
way. He replied that as soon as
normal conditions returned, artistes
from India should go out of their
land and broadcast their cultural
message, for that was one of the
most effective ways to make their
country known outside.

And then about music. Though
accustomed to Western music, he
could react most favourably to
Indian songs. Mr. Nichols has him-
self composed some songs and light
music. But he is sad that he has

A glimpse from "Shakuntala": King Dushyanta forgets to recognise her though once he loved Shakuntala

39

FILMINDIA

June 1943

not been able to devote as much
time to music as he would, thanks
to his literary preoccupation. Music
was his first love and he hoped to
return to it sometime in the future.

He told me that some of the songs
that he had enjoyed in the Indian
cinema were among the best he had
ever heard, especially the marching
song'in "Sikandar".

"But why don't you write down
your music as we do?" he. asked,
"I think it can be easily done. And
if you do so, it will be helpful not
only to you, but to foreigners too
who want to learn Indian music."
He had, in fact taken down the
marching song of 'Sikandar' and
even offered to play it for me some
day. Mr. Nichols had formed such
a high opinion about that marching
song, that he said, "It deserves to
be sung all over the world!"

The pictures he had seen had con-
vinced him, he stated, that India
could rightly claim a place on the
screen map of the world. According
to him, the standard of Indian pic-
tures did not in any way yield to that
of Western pictures, though one com-
plaint might be made, that they
were a bit too long. There was
nothing but a bright outlook for
Indian films. And it would be
worthwhile, he suggested, to produce
pictures like "Raj Nartaki" for the
international market.

Mr. Nichols has no doubt that
Indians are artistically inclined.
Their art might have gone through
a temporary eclipse, he said, but
there were already signs that they
were trying to make up for lost time.
Art was blossoming afresh in the
country. And artistes like Uday
Shanker and Madame Menaka were
making an able effort to revive
India's old glory. By the way,
Mr. Nichols seems to have great
admiration for Menaka, whom he
considers to be not only an accom-
plished dancer, but a highly cultur-
ed and pleasant lady.

Then the talk turned on India's
architecture. He has seen the Taj
Mahal and marvelled at the skill

that had produced that thing of
beauty. But New Delhi, the Gate-
way of India and the buildings of
Bombay gave him a nauseating feel-
ing. New Delhi had an outlandish
air about it; the Gateway of India
was just a huge pile of stones; and
the buildings of Bombay deserved
only the unsettling impact of a series
of bombs. If he had any power, he
would, without delay, set up a
Ministry of Fine Arts at Delhi so
that in future, at least, such mons-
trosities might not come into exis-
tence .

SNATCHES "FILMINDIA"

Then Mr. Nichols talked about
his books. As I have said before,
Mr. Nichols is a keen gardener and
he once wrote a whole book about
gardening. This book had become
popular in Germany, when the
Nazis came to power. They at once
scrutinized it carefully for objec-
lionable passages and decided that
several paragraphs, especially, those
relating to his dog should be cut
out, — perhaps because they were
subversive! Talking about his plays,
Mr. Nichols said that they had not
succeeded well in Britain, but on

the Continent they were much
sought after.

Mr. Nichols would have continued
in this strain longer, but he felt too
fatigued and had to recline on his
bed. I felt that it would be unkind
to persist any further and secured
from him a promise that I would
get another interview at some future
date.

When about to start, I remember-
ed the copies of "filmindia" I had
taken with me. Hardly had I taken
them out, he snatched them from
me saying: "Oh 'filmindia'? I have
been wait'n^ to read that magazine
for some time. They say it gives
the correct insight into the Indian
film and art world . " He went
through some pages and said, "Beau-
tifully got-up job."

Days passed by and I hoped to
interview Mr. Nichols again. But,
meanwhile, tie waves of controversy
had risen so high they seemed about
to engulf him. So when I reminded
him of his promise, he wrote back,
"For the moment I want to lie low
and let others cto the talking!"

Rather a rough situation from "Nagad Narayan" where Babnrao Pendharkar
probably gives his moral suppjrt to a damsel in distress — as usual.

40

SABITA & CHANDRAMOHAN —

In "Fashion" a streamlined social picture of Fazli Brothers. Sabita
Chandramohan come together for the first time.

HE SCORNED THE RICHES ...

AND

SHE SCORNED THE ROMANCE. ..

A. SILVER SCREEN EXCHANGE RELEASE.

Starring

O^OJJDUHllR and

Supported &y.

BIURAM KAPUR VANMALA
K.N.SINGU AUZURIE
PRAM BALI
LILA MI5RA

Produced at
CENTRAL STUDIO

TAR DEO BOMBAY

Directed By:
Music By :

USTQD JUBNDE KUOH

Screenplay i>v.

DEWAM SUARAR
PMDITMDRft

Mr. K. F. Nariman, lawyer, politi-
cian, and patriot who once 'dredged'
the backwaters of the Back Bay
Scheme.

You have known Mr. K. F.
Nariman as a hero of a hundred
battles with the government. You
have known him as an intrepid
member of the old Bombay Legis-
lative Council who did not allow
quiet sleep to Sir George Lloyd, the
author of the Back Bay Reclama-
tion and the Sukkur Barrage Scheme
and made such stalwarts as Sir
Chimanlal Setalvad, Sir Cowasji
Jehangir and Sir Ibrahim Rahim-
tullah tremble in their pants. You
have also known him as a Corpora-
tion member and Congressman and
Mayor of Bombay. Above all as a
successful lawyer of the criminal
courts of the city. But you never
knew him as a producer of films.
As I was listening to his desultory
and rambling remarks on films and
their functions in society, he quiet-
ly glided into telling me that he
once produced a film around a topic
of national awakening and showed
it publicly to a few hundred people
in the Jinnah Memorial Hall, be-
cause no exhibitor would do it and
no producer would adopt it.

Said Mr. Nariman, "It was a film
around some young men and women
carrying on Congress propaganda
in our countryside and awakening
people to their sense of self-respect

K.F.nflmmnn ns Fium producer!

Condemns Rnachronisms In Indian Films

Praises Sohrab Modi For 'Pukar' and 'Sikandar'

(By: Our Special Representative)

and self-assertion. There were in it
some scenes like unfurling the tri-
colour, salutation, a drill of volun-
teers and kesarias and a dose of
patriotic sentiment in the dialogue.
There was nothing in it that would
go counter to the provisions of the
Indian Penal Code and there was
no reason whatsoever why the Cen-
sor Board should object to it. But
it did and I decided to show the
film publicly, after giving the
officers of the law due notice and
taking the consequences. Nobody,
however, actually bothered to take
up the challenge and prosecute me.

Today, under the Defence of India
Rules, anything mig!ht become
objectionable but under the ordinary
laws propaganda for political, social
and economic freedom could not be
legitimately objected to. Recently
I have seen in several pictures such
themes tackled and such scenes as
I described, portrayed in films. Not
that this has been very satisfactorily
or effectively done, but the effort is
there. My story dates back to 1933-

34, when I was in charge of the
City Congress Committee and
Chairman of the Reception Com-
mittee of the 1934 Bombay session
of the National Congress."

That is how Mr. Nariman reveal-
ed the civil resister, the political
agitator and the public-spirited
patriot in him even when speaking
about films for about half an hour.
Even though he has fallen from
grace of what is known as the Con-
gress High Command, he has carved
out a niche/ for himself for all time
in the heart of every Bombay man
and the most noteworthy expression
was probably given to this popular
feeling when Mr. Kher, canvassing
support for Mr. Joachim Alva from
Bombay and Subjurban Christians
referred to Mr. Alva as "He bears
the Nariman stamp. I have seen
him hurling defiance at our jailors."

Mr. Nariman told me quite
frankly that he often went to see
films. Whenever he had leisure, he
considered going to pictures as a
good pastime. On being asked whe-

Saigal and Khursheed come together again in "Tansen", a Ranjit picture.

47

SUANTA APTE

PAHARI SANYAL

JAGDISH
YASHODHAKA KATJU

I^MAl TALKIES

SUPREME FILM DISTRIBUTORS, Bombay 14,

June 1943

FILMINDIA

ther he had any general preference
in favour of English films coming
from America or Britain as against
Indian he said, "I hate a number of
British things, but I have no such
prejudice against the English
language and their pictures. I find,
however, that British pictures are
most often, not superior to our own
productions. American pictures, on
the whole, are of a better quality,
both technically and as entertain-
ment fare. Even among these, you
get quite disappointing productions.

You cannot make a distinction on
the basis of Indian and English.
Every picture has to be judged on
ite own merits. By way of a gene-
ral remark I am inclined to say that
in Indian pictures you do not find
natural acting, particularly on the
part of men and women playing
humorous roles. Our ideas about
humour are too crude and superfi-
cial. You can hardly get a humor-
ous picture purely sustained by
smart, crisp and witty dialogue

This 'man' is a girl called Romilla
in "Pistolwalli".

among the Indian productions. I
have seen many stupid American
films also but their number must

be small or they are not imported
here. I should regard over-acting
also as a defect that needs to be
remedied in our film*

Mr. Nariman keeps on talking
once he gets started. He proceeded
to say, "We are not very careful
here about anachronisms. Probably
that is inherited by our film folk
from the Gujarati and the Urdu
stage. In point of costume and
atmosphere also our film producers
and directors commit any number of
errors. Generally, I like the Bom-
bay Talkies' pictures but I remem-
ber having seen Devika Rani dress-
ed like a princess while she had to
act a backward or even depressed
class girl in 'Achhut Kanya'. Care
is not also taken to give the appro-
priate drapery and jewellery to
actors and actresses working in
mythological films. The Hitler or
French cut of Hindu mythological
figures gets on my nerves as also
their clean shaven faces. In this
respect, I have noticed with satis-

A glimpse from " Shakuntala" ; At Menaka's abode in Kailas, Shaknntala decides to defy men and

father her, own orphan child.

49

June 1943

FILMINDIA

faction the great care that Mr.
Sohrab Modi takes. His historical
productions like 'Pukar' and 'Sikan-
dar' have been good examples for
all to follow. I understand he gets
a good deal of research made about
the period he wants to depict in his
screen play. Indeed our studios
ought to maintain competent men to
study all these things. At least the
well-to-do and the idealist among
them must see that they take the
help and secure the co-operation of
literary men and competent critics.
Before submitting a film to the
Censor, they should get a committee
of what I might call the men in the
street to criticise their pictures.
Intelligent people who can speak
for general audiences must have a
preview of a film to cure it of many
preventable defects and shortcom-
ings. This should be considered as
necessary supplement to film-edit-
ing."

I asked Mr. Nariman to give me
his idea of a good type of picture.
With one eye on the file in his front,

Mr. Nariman began to speak with-
out a moment's hesitation. "A pic-
ture for being both commercially
successful and socially useful, must
combine certain features. In the
first place it must entertain people.
The story of a picture must there-
fore be of absorbing human inter-
est, preferably touching our own

DID YOU HEAR?

Sushila Rani's latest
gnamophone record has
become a sensational success.

Do you know why?
H.M.V. Record No. N.26199.

times and our own daily life.
Secondly it must have an uni-
versally acceptable moral or mis-
sion. Present day society is full of
foibles. It is not of the making of
any particular individual nor is it
possible for any individual to con-
trol or regulate our complex

society. The exposure of these
foibles with the help of human
characters and if possible, indica-
tion of lines of reform would
always appeal to the human mind.
Within our court experience we
come across numerous types of peo-
ples. Many of them are called cri-
minals, some of them are called
habitual criminals, but we find
among these people some who are
morally superior to many of our
ordinary citizens. With the help of
skilful sarcasm and subtle humour
these stories can be used for im-
mense educational use in the
broader sense of the term. I found
an attempt of this kind made in a
film called 'Qaidi'."

Mr. Nariman would have gone on
speaking, touching on more aspects
of film-making but a client of his
knocked and walked in and Mr.
Nariman politely observed that I
had more material than I could put
on paper for an article of moderate
dimensions. I had no recourse but
to say yes and bid good-bye.

BASANT PICTURES' MAIDEN SOCIAL *

BAT UK BHATT
BABUBHAI M/my

LOVE TAKES THE MEANING
IN LOVE'S CONFERENCE

BASANT PICTUPIS EVE* THE BIST

SOON
TO FOLLOW

Distr ibutorst'

BOMBAY : : ROYAL FILM CIRCUIT,
NORTH INDIA : WADIA PARAMOUNT PICTURES,
SOUTH INDIA: JAYALAKSHMI FILM CO.,

CP., C.I NEW CENTRAL TALKIES CIRCUIT LTD
BENGAL : RAMAN HARI DAVE,
AFRICA : SHAMJI KALIDAS CO;

40

(ROMS

CHALEES KAROO

WITH A MESSAGE OF

INDIA

THE INDIVISIBLE.

51

FIRST International Combine

For the FIRST Time on the
Indian Screen!

And the Unprecedented UnlC|LI6 Event Happens i

D.C.D. PRCDUCTICNS*

MAIDEN SCREEN — HIT

Directed by J. K. NAN DA

{tWho Studied Film - Art at the UFA Studios at BERLIN !

Based on the Internationally
popular Novel 'GONG OF SHIVA '
by Dewan Sharar, the Indian
author with Continental Reputation!

I S H A R

Music by

KHURSHID ANWAR

(The Musical Genius from the Punjab)

Starring : Prithviraj, Jagdeesh, K. N. Singh, Pratimade vi,
Vatsala Kumtekar, Swarnalata, Alaknanda.

Introducing the Neu> Find

SUR AI Y A

Who Will Soon Be the RAGE of millions'

C. P. C. I.

POPULAR FILMS, Bhusaval.

North e° Sind- ORIENTAL FILM EXCHANGE,

Delhi.

Bengal - KAPURCHAND LTD., Calcutta.

South _ SHRINIVAS PICTURE CIRCUIT,

Bangalore.

W .2 ^ '

"We propose to give the public everything Original, no imitations from
Western Films. It is the sacred duty of the producers to educate India's
teeming millions to the right way of thinking towards India's Unity. Just
because Orthodoxy may have a box'oflice'appeal, we are not going to boost
orthodoxy. Reason and Progress are our Aims."

Thus declared Mr. Dady Wadia, Bar-at-Law, the Producer of D. R. D.

Productions, Ltd., at the Luncheon at the Cricket Club of India, to celebrate
the Muhurat of "ISHARA."

Film-Fans all Over India are Requested To Judge "Ishara"

In the Light of the brave
Declaration of the Producer of

"ISHHRR" pTTTT

Eased on the Internationally Famous English novel 'Gong of Shiva' by Dewan
Sharar, the Indian Author of Continental Renown.

Directed by J. K. NANDA and Starring PRITHVIRAJ, JAGDISH of New Theatres,
K. N. SINGH. SATISH, Vatsala Kumtekar, Protima Devi, Suvarnalata and the

new find Miss SURAIYA.

Now Adorning the Jf QTTT?"

Silver Screen of the M WnglllV BOMBAY.

distributors :

mniiEKbnb CHuniunii a sons ltd.,

Chowpatty Chambers, Sandhurst Bridge, Bombay. 7.

The Woman of the 'WOMAN' and the Man of 'BHABHF

Cc - starring for the first time in
KIR Tl Pictures' outstanding social

RRHHT

Directed by-

RAMNIK DESAI.

Their Screert'team includes:

VATS ALA HUM TL K AR . CHITRAMALA,
Hari Shivdasani, Kanayalal, Baby Indira

C. P. C. I. :

Laxmi Pictures, Ltd.

AKOLA.

AGENTS FOR:

BENGAL: SOUTH:

Moonlight Film Distributors, Suuastik film Exchange,

CALCUTTA. BANGALORE.

SIND:

Movelty Pictures Distributors,

KARACHI.

Sole Distributor,: \M AMII INDIA LIMITED.

Chowpatty Cha mbers, Sandhurst Bridge, BOMBAY 7.

Marching for a HAT - TRICK J

MUMTAZ SHANTI— She came to you in "Basant"

MUMTAZ SHANTI — You saw her again in "Kismet"

MUMTAZ SHANTI — She is again coming to you in

a role You Wanted Her to play.

MURARI Pictures' Musical Extravaganza

"BADALTI ❖ DUNIYA"

Directed by : Mohan Sinha

HER Co-artistes are;

Trilok Kapoor ; K. C. DEY; Shahazdi; Rajkumari Shukla;
Wazkar; Butt Kashmiri; Gulam Rasool.

SHORTLY Coming To Your Favourite Theatre

Sole Distributors ;

Chowpatty Chambers,

SUJASTIK-1MDIA. LTD.

Sandhurst Bridge,
Bombay. 7.

C.P.,C.I.

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Akola.

SOUTH

Suuastik Film Exchange,

Bangalore.

NORTH

Cosmopolitan & Religious Pictures,

Delhi

MUMTAZ SHANTI
in " Badalti Duniya"

BENGAL

moonlight Film Distributors,

Calcutta.

Do music Directors Direct Dlusic ?

By: Ramchandra Pal

Asks Ramchandra Pal, well-known Music Director, who gave us his music
in "Kangan", "Bandhan". "Punar Milan" and "Naya Sansar". He debunks
the myth of music direction in the movies and says that a music director
is but a poor victim of circumstances — and adverse circumstances at that.

Editor Baburao Patel, India's
sternest critic, often writes when
reviewing a film "The music of the
picture was tragic" and in these
words the best musicians in the
country read their own epitaph. I
don't dispute his judgment, rather
as a true musician, I endorse our
best critic's opinion ninety times
out of hundred.

i

But there is another side to the
coin. Are music directors free to do
what they like when they direct film
music? I relate below a true inci-
dent. ]

"Sajan sajanise kaise kare bair"
at last! ( g^fflft %T )

The music is fitted to the words,
the musicians have got it, and off
they go merrily together, in complete
harmony for the first time.

"Sajan sajanise kaise kare bair

"Stop, stop!" comes a voice — not
the voice of the music director — but
the producer's voice.

"See here," he says to the music
director, "you had better put that
'sajan' down and 'sajani' up."

"Sajan' down and 'sajani' up?"
asks the shocked music director — he
can hardly believe his ears. He
revolts at the very idea, it turns his
whole music world topsy-turvy.

"Yes, didn't you hear? Take
'sajan' below and place 'sajani' on
top, I want it that way — see?"

"But — " stammers the still dazed
music director, "that will change the
whole arrangement you know, I
have just fixed it nicely — besides it
will spoil the cadence — and you
yourself had approved this line yes-
terday— "

"But I have changed my mind, I
find it better the new way", says the
producer loftily.

The music director grinds his
teeth silently and does as he is told.
Down goes the hapless 'sajan' and
up comes the awkward 'sajani' —
and in the projection room when
they hear the song with the picture,
the 'sajan' comes on a delicate fe-
minine note and the 'sajani' appears
with a male emphasis. If the music
director has enough spirit left to
protest, the producer simply silences
him with a "It is just as I wanted."

But sometimes it is worse. At the
rehearsal the producer — or he may
equally be the director — insists that
the music director kill his own new-
born child, hack and mangle his
tune to suit the director's fancy. The
music director bleats in protest:
"But it will ruin my name!" "Don't
you worry," assures the director, "I
take all the responsibility."

And when upon release of the
picture the, song turns out to be a
sorry flop and Baburao Patel's cri-
ticism has hurt, it is the director
himself who turns round on the
music director with an accusing eye,

"What kind of music do you call
that?'' he snarls.

The music director is too over-
come by shocked surprise to say
anything in reply.

And who is this all-knowing pro-

ducer or director who is out to teach
the music director his own job? In
seven cases out of ten he is an up-
start— a nobody of yesterday, but
today's white hope, exalted by some
sudden freak of fortune. Producer
A was a raw artiste only six months
back, Director B was a continuity
writer; another director C was a
recording engineer, D, that much-
advertised production chief was a
laboratory assistant and E used to
be, till quite recently — a production
manager.

These are not imaginary cases;
they are all true instances of people
who have risen to sudden eminence.
Nobody grudges them their emin-
ence, but when with eminence they
assume authority — and authority
particularly in a subject of which
they hardly know the alphabet, they
need to be put in their place — and
the place of such pretenders is out-
side the music rehearsal hall. It
stands to reason that once the situa-
tion is explained to the music direc-
tor, once his tune is approved — I
don't understand yet how all these
opportunists are qualified even to
approve the musical score of a pic-
ture without even a nodding
acquaintance with the art of music,
but that has now become conven-
tional— and once the words are
selected, no further interference in
his work is called for. But it does
not suit the superman who styles
himself producer or director; he
needs must shove in his oar at every
stage, change when change is not
called for, start something new
when it has no place in the scheme
of things.

However it is not only the pro-
ducer or director that comes butting

55

%

0ut&

ill il'r.'l .'ill ill l l i| i lh jlfffulj

ABDULLA FAZftLBHOY TECHNICAL
INSTITUTE, BOMBAY 1

The Committee of Direction for Tech-
nical and Industrial Training (Bombay Pro-
vince), Government of Bombay, has recog-
nised the Institute as a Training and Exa-
mination Centre for courses Nos. 1 to 8.

Admission standard : — Matriculation.

1. Radio Servicing.

2. Wireless Telegraphy.

3. Electrical Wiring.

4. Cinema Projection.

5. Photography.

6. Sound Recording.

7. Cine Photography.

Admission standard: — I.Sc. with Physics and
Mathematics.

8. Advanced Radio Communication.

For B.Scs., with Physics and Mathematics or
equivalent degree.

9. Radio Engineering.

Candidates are admitted from all parts
of India, regardless of caste, creed or sex but
to ensure an equitable distribution of train-
ed men, a regional quota system of admission
is maintained. In order to ensure admission,
an early reservation on the waiting list is
hence advised.

For prompt reply, write your name, address
and province clearly and ask for further particu-
lars.

THE APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION SHOULD
REACH THE INSTITUTE NOT LATER THAN
20TH JUNE FOR THE SESSION COMMENCING
ON 1ST JULY 1943.

Rev. A. M. Coyne, S.J.,

Ph. D. D. D.
PRINCIPAL.

A Supreme Release-SUPKME HIM DISTCIBUTO&S. Bombag 14.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

in on the music director's field. Any
Tom, Dick or Harry, be he the pro-
prietor's son-in-law or an assistant
make-up man, dialogue writer or
camera boy, can poke his nose in
the music room and offer sugges-
tions in front of the producer— just
to catch his eye, to show off or to
give evidence of his own disinter-
ested zeal. To judge from the num-
ber of people ready to make com-
ments and give out their views on
music, you would think that every
johnny in the studio was an ex-
pert. Music seems to be a subject
on which anyone can talk — they
dare not make suggestions the same
way about direction, photography or
recording, but about music every-
one of them is a scholar, and
anxious to pass on his knowledge to
the music director. That is the
curse of living in a music-stricken
land like India.

Innocent laymen may believe that,
the music director is the man who
judges what is to be sung, how it is
to be sung, and who is to sing it, or
in other words that the music direc-
tor has a say as to the words and
place of a song, its rendering and
the choice of the singer. It is
nothing of that kind.

As to the words, after the pro-
ducer has approved the tune, the
song writer makes up some sorts of
lines not necessarily connected with
the mood, the situation or the story
itself; he has a stock of spare parts
like 'sajan', 'piya'. 'balam'. 'koyal'.
'savan', 'birfaha', 'jiya'. 'andhera'.
'chunari' or 'rang'; according to spe-
cifications, the song writer may stick
together such pieces and give you
a choice of lines: "Mere anganame
aye sajan", ro "Mere kalejeme aye
sajan", or "Mere nainame aye
sajan" or "Mere sapneme aye
sajan".

Having done this he sits back and
admires his handiwork. If the music
director wants a little change here
and there, the composer vehemently
refuses — in the name of his 'chhand'
or metre, but then let the producer
ask for a change, and presto! The
same composer will jump with al-

most indecent alacrity to change
over the whole song altogether — let
alone a single word. Few song
writers are found able to compose
pieces that meet the demands of both
music and poetry.

It would also seem incredible, but
how and where a song is to be sung
is a matter practically beyond the
music director's control; sometimes
a song may be redundant, all wrong
and out of place, but the music
director has no choice but to give it.
After all, the story matters more
than the song (a pity that a music-
director has to mention this point,
but there it is!) and if a song im-
pedes the story it has to go. A good
song can be killed by its own super-
fluity or absurd placing. Again, all
the effect of a good musical piece
can be destroyed by bad 'taking' or
picturization, and when the pro-
ducer's interference plays ducks and
drakes with the music, even the
best of tunes can ruin the picture,
the artistes, the music itself — and
the scapegoat, the music director,
and give Baburao Patel an oppor-
tunity to write: "The music was
tragic."

Who should sing his songs? The
music director has no choice to say;
he may have rejected an aspiring
artiste today, but the next day he
has to take him — because the aspir-
ing artiste has come through some
private influence and the producer
wants nobody but him to sing. The
aspiring artiste may sing out of tune
throughout and destroy the correct
play of a fourteen-hand orchestra —
his songs and his alone must make
the picture — and to hell with the
music director's reputation! And it
may not stop there, this self-same
tuneless aspiring artiste may, on
the strength of that single picture
(plus the private influence) be him-
self a music director of his very
next picture — this is no phantasy, it
has actually happened!

To those friends of the screen,
therefore, who would come down
heavily on the music director for
poor music in a picture, I would
suggest that they keep the above
state of affairs in mind; modifying
the classic line of a popular story,
T would say to them —

"Don't shoot the pianist — he is
only doing what he is told!"

In "Nagad Narayan", the two men seem to be looking after their two "cases"

carefully.

57

WATCH FOR ITS ALL -INDIA PREMIERE SOON IN BOMBAY.

NAVYUG'S 'PABILI M ANGLAGOfJlT IS BREAKING ALL RECORDS AT CENTRAL.
Releasing Orgaimation : PEERLESS PICTURES, BOMBAY 4.

OUR REVIEW

mazhar's Thrilling Performance In
'Ghar Sansar9

Good Theme Badly Handled!

Poor Dialogues And Poor Songs!

When Mohanlal Dave — that old
story-writing mechanism — gives a
story for the screen you can almost
always expect it to be a puzzling
combination of the sublime and the
ridiculous. Mohanlal Dave's mind
seems :o have Leen born m the now-
obsolete orthodox rut and it seems
to refuse to get out of it. I wonder
whether Dave has ever written a
progressive story in his long career
and I will jump out of my skin if
I am told that once in a while Dave
does think progressively.

Mohanlal Dave specialises in the
melodramatic sentirr.entalism, or-
thodox f«nd reactionary in its con-
tent, which surrounds the average
Hindu homelife since ages.

lie is a crusader of the old times
ar-d whenever he gets a chance to
glorify the Hindu family life, he
does not fail to do so even at the
risk of being called a reactionary
and a fool.

'Ghar Sansar' is a story quite in
fashion with this mental mould of
Mohanlal Dave. It has a lot of
cheap sentimental stuff which gets
the emotional attention of the
masses and it is presented to the
people in a spirit of sacrifice — the
medium being, this time, a good and
virtuous wife of an elder brother —
a 'Bhabhi', to be accurate.

STORY OF INDIVIDUALS

'Ghar Sansar' is a story of indi-
viduals and being rather unusual in
its 'bhabhi' angle, it has hardly any
broad appeal from the universal
point. It is just a story of two
families and though the events pre-
sented on the screen are probable,
they are not so common as to be a
universal problem with the family
life obtained generally in our coun-
try. To that extent, therefore, the

appeal of the story suffers strict
limitations.

Devt Prasad, a struggling bond-
writer, has a virtuous wife in Tara-
mati known throughout the picture
as 'Bhabhi'. In Sundar, Devi Pra-
sad has a younger brother. Despite
penury and several privations, both
the husband and the wife educate
Sundar to become a lawyer. In fact,
Bhabhi takes a motherly interest in
Sundar and the young man recipro-
cates this love with equal warmth
and sincerity.

GHAR SANSAR

Producers: Sunrise Pic-

tures.

Language: Hindustani
Story: M. G. Daue.

Dialogues & Songs:

Ahsan Razvi-

Photography:

Sound:
Music:
Cast:

Haribhai and
Sattar.
Charlie.
Shyam Babu.
Sardar Akhtar,

Kajjan, Nazir,Mazhar Khan,

Released at: Novelty Cinema,
Bombay.

Date of Release: 3rd April '43.
Director: V. M. VYAS

Another family is introduced at
this time — that of Gopalji, a man
who is said to have cheated Devi
Prasad's father out of his fortune.
Gopalji has an educated daughter
in Lata. She is, moreover, a col-
lege girl.

Believe it or not, Kajjan who
looks more like a dowager than a
college girl, is given this role of
Lata and we are asked to believe
that she is in her teens while actual

Padmadevi takes to sophistication
in "Abhisar", the latest Bengali
success.

appearances suggest that she has
passed her thirties long ago.

Inspite of the family feud both
the parties are keen on Sundar mar-
rying Lata. Sundar, however,
vehement 'y refuses to do so saying
that he wouldn't marry the daughter
of a man who had done his father
in the eye.

But by a filmic coincidence, Lata
meets Sundar at a tame picnic of
college students and they fall in
love with each other.

Here Mohanlal Dave again wants
us to believe that though the two
families lived in the same small
town for a long time, one interested
in the other, yet Sundar and Lata
had not even seen each other dur-
ing all these years. So when they
fall in love at first sight they do not
even know each other's name. This
complication was supposed to pro-
vide a surprise packet to both Sun-
dar and Lata when they get actually
married — quite at the last dramatic
moment.

Come on, Mohanlal Gopalji Dave,
you, surely, don't compliment your-
self for that stupid situation. Oi
do you?

South:— STANDARD PICTURES. Bangalore. - Bengal— DINESH AND CO.
For Bombay and Northern India:— apply RAJA MOVIETONE, Bombay \H.

June 1943

FILM INDIA

The "Killer" at work. Kishore Sahu has written and directed "Raja", a social
story of Purnima and this is what he has directed himself to do with Protima
Das Gupta on the carpet. "Raja" promises to be a thrilling picture.

Sundar becomes a lawyer and is
in turn married to Lata. This mar-
riage is arranged against the wishes
of both the bride and the bride-
groom— both products of modern
education. However, when they
find, through the tender brain-wave
of M. G. Dave, that they are old
lovers, the sky becomes the limit
to their joy. The audience also
conspires with Mohanlal Dave b!y
winking at this little stupidity and
settles down to watch further
drama, having paid for the ticket
in advance.

THE POISON WORKS

Now, Lata comes to Devi Prasad's
family with her money and her
charms as the new daughter of the
family. Here we are introduced to
another character. Kishoree, a
scheming, heartless vamp who is
brought in only to ruin the pros-
pective happy life of the family.
Otherwise she has no purpose to be
in the story.

While Bhabhi takes a motherly
and disciplinary attitude towards
Lata, Kishoree drops the poison by
misinterpreting Bhabhi's loving
authority. Devi Prasad, who has
retired from his work relying on
his loving brother to pull the
weight of the family henceforth,

finds it difficult to reconcile the two
women when Lata becomes a rebel
and kicks up several unholy rows.

The climax is soon reached In a
passionate family quarrel in which
Sundar in a fit of misguided temper
6laps his Bhabhi who had looked
after him since childhood. Devi
Prasad and Bhabhi, with their little

daughter, l^ave Sundar's comfort-
able home and take the shelter of
the streets.

Lata soon repents for all this and
flies into a temper when she finds
Kishoree flirting with Sundar. An-
other climax is reached when a
thundering quarrel breaks out bet-
ween Lata and Kishoree and Sundar
takes sides with Kishoree. In the
midst of the quarrel comes Devi
Prasad to return some ornaments
and while separating the combatants
is thrown over the rails of a mez-
zanine floor and falls on the floor
in a dead heap.

Bhabhi rushes to the spot and
though Kishoree accuses Sundar of
murder Bhabhi acquits him of all
blame.

Sundar now gets a fit of remorse
and wants to shoot himself with a
revolver but Bhabhi stops him from
doing so. Very soon everything be-
comes quiet, as it is by now time
for the show to get over. Mohanlal
Dave ends his story in peace and
sunshine, and himself lives to tell
another very shortly.

By the way, may we know whe-
ther it is natural for a new lawyer
and in a Hindu family life, to be

Prabha seems to be good at building these toy houses but she mustn't
forget that women build homes with walls of heart. .She is at it in
"Chhoti Ma", a Ranjit picture.

61

The Picture ^jou Qu Waiting Ifo*

RAJA

PUHHIH1A PRODUCTIONS' K1AIDEN SOCIAL

Directed by :

KISHORE SAHU

Featuring :

KISHORE SAHU & PROTIMA DASGUPTA

WILL BE SHORTLY RELEASED IN ALL CHIEF
CITIES ALL OVER INDIA AT YOUR FAVOURITE

THEATRES

June 1943

FILMINDIA

possessing a revolver as a part of
his furniture? Has Mohanlal Dave
got one?

Mohanlal Dave has put in another
character in the story — Lalloo the
son of Gopalji. This fellow does
nothing in the story except behave
like a buffoon. He is supposed to
be half-crack and is intended to
provide humour in the story. Mirza
Musharaff plays this role and
makes it look more silly than it
should have been. The exact pur-
pose of this role for the building-
up of the story remains a mystery
till the last. If M. G. Dave had
himself played the role, we could
have probably understood the role
better. i

VYAS FAILS

Producer V. M. Vyas plays a dou-
ble role by writing the scenario and
directing the picture. In this dou-
ble role Vyas makes a hash of the
whole story, and right upto the in-
terval the picture remains a long
run of so much boring celluloid,
punctuated by some stupid gags by
Lalloo and some silly love scenes
between Lata and Sundar.

After the interval, however, the
story warms up a bit owing to
several emotional sequences and
one feels like sitting through, good
humouredly, to see the creations
out of the Dave-Vyas clash.

If you are looking out for any
superb production values or tech-
nical excellence, give up the ambi-
tion. It will be like looking for a
needle in a haystack.

The dialogues are insipid and
lack force and the songs had better
not been written. In the dialogues
and the songs the word 'Ghar San-
sar' falls on one's ears so many
times that one gets sick of the word.
Even Mohanlal Dave's name would
have been easier on the ear than
that unfortunate word.

Mazhar Khan, the superb artiste
that he is, defies the direction and
gives an excellent performance as
'Devi Prasad', the kind, loving
elder brother.

QUEEN OF MELODY

Those who know music say
that in her latest gramophone
record Sushila Rani has given
divine melody.

H.M.V. Record No. N.26199.

The others fail — some miserably,
some less so.

H a good 4000 feet of useless film
can be cut from the total length,
there is a chance of the story be-
coming a fairly tolerable motion
picture.

There is nothing to repent for if
you forget to see this picture.

GITA SARDESAI —

This new starlet shoulders an important role in "Parshuram", a spectacular

production of Navin Pictures.

THE MOST TIMELY PICTURE

FOR MOID MID THE|WORIiD !

The Picture India in particular and
the World in general need to-day and
NEED IT MORE THAN EVER BEFORE!

Dazzlingly Spectacular !
Superb Musical! !
Eternally Instructive I ! !

It's the MOST IMPORTANT CHAPTER
from the 'Mahabharat'
The IMMORTAL EPIC of the World!

/ V

World Distributors : ROYAL FILM CIRCUIT. Bomba y-4

BARUA'S NEXT

( After "RANEE" )

SUBEH-SHYAM

*

STARRING

P. C. BARUA 6< JAMUNA

*

DIRECTED BY

P. C. BARUA
*

PRODUCERS

BARUA PRODUCTIONS

CALCUTTA
*

SOLE DISTRIBUTORS

SWASTIK FILM DISTRIBUTORS

P/196 RAJA BASANT ROY ROAD

CALCUTTA

OUR REVIEW

Ranjit Waste Another Good Theme

In "Iqrar"

motilal And Rama Shukul Share Doting

Honours

Good Music Wasted On Poor Picture!

This is another good story idea
like "Fariad" which with a little
more competence, care and intelli-
gence could have made a forceful
motion picture.

Unfortunately this picture also
fails to hold audience interest and it
seems that this story also went to
the sets without a well-thought-out
and carefully planned shooting
script .

The blame for producing a weak
picture has to be shared by two
persons: the scenario writer who
developed the plot for the screen
and the director who shot the pic-
ture. Between these two persons a
good story idea has been wasted.
And it is a great pity seeing that the
story had in it plenty of scope for
a thrilling drama.

The story has the eternal triangle
of love — one girl and two boys. The
girl is Indira, daughter of a sick-
man-in-bed. She loves two persons:
Ranjit, an inspector of police and
Vijay, a barrister. And she doesn't
know whom to choose for a husband .
The sick-man-in-bed precipitates a
crisis and threatens to die with the
result that Ranjit and Vijay, two
close friends, have to toss for Indira.
Though Vijay wins the toss, he sac-
rifices himself for the sake of his
friend by rolling the coin over.

Through smiles and sighs Indira
is married to Ranjit and Vijay tries
to outlive the loss in the best way
he can. Some silly sentimental
stuff is now put in to underline the
great love that exists among the
three of them.

And here is introduced Ramnara-
yan, the villain, who secretly pines

IQRAR

Ranjit Movietone
Hindustani
A. J . Kashmiri
Munshi Dil

Producers:
Language:
Story:
Dialogues:
Songs: Pandit Indra & DU
Cinematography: L.N. Varma
Audiography: K.V. Shah

Music: Khemchand Prakash
Cast: Madhuri, Motilal, Rama
Shukul, Shanta Kash-
miri etc .
Released At: Royal Opera.

Bombay .

Date of Release: 8th May '43
Director: MANIBHAI VYAS

and plans for Indira. Indira has,
we are told, become an obsession
with this fellow, who is a crook and
to provide proof of his crookedness
he is introduced in a singing girl's
house with half-a-dozen of his
stooges drinking alcohol. This vil-
lain, however, seems to be a drama-
tic person. He is prepared to take
any risk, commit a murder or do
anything worse than murder for
Indira, but he doesn't do all that
when she is single and unmarried.

He seems to love complications.
He waits for her to get married to a
policeman and then he pits his
crookedness against him.

Ramnarayan soon frames up Ran-
jit on a false charge of murder and
though Vijay tries to save him,
Ranjit is sentenced to a penal servi-
tude.

Before leaving for that penal
journey Ranjit entrusts Indira to
Vijay for safe-keeping. Vijay ac-
cepts the trust in all sincerity.

Very soon it is discovered that
Indira is carrying a baby. Indira
and Vijay live in the same house.

A scandal, started by Ramnara-

Suvarnalata takes a leading role in "Ishara", a D. R. D. picture now running
at the Swastik Talkies, Bombay.

67

FROM THE HEART TO THE SCREEN
A TALE OF UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE AND SACRIFICE

For Booking. MAHESHWARY PICTURES, LAHORE. • For Delhi & U. P. : SEXENA & CO., DELHI.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

yan, is soon set afloat about Indira
and Vijay and very soon their life
is made miserable.

The child is born and thus pro-
vides some more fuel to the scanda-
lous fire.

The other angle of the drama,
Ranjit, swims back to the shore
when the ship bound for Andamans
meets with a storm and is lost.
Ranjit is reported dead. He soon
returns to find his 'widowed' wife
playing with the baby with Vijay
playing the god-father. Poisoned
by the talks of the passers-by, Ran-
jit misunderstands the situation and
makes an appearance before his
wife and kidnaps the child to punish
her.

The other angle of the drama,
Vijay, is now making an attempt to
exonerate Ranjit in view of some
evidence accidentally found.

When Vijay returns home he finds
Indira heartbroken at the loss of
her child.

We now come to a court scene
where several emotional situations
are thrashed out and where Ranjit
turns up accusing Vijay of disloyalty

The whole thing, however, clears
as quickly as a monsoon cloud dis-
appearing, and peace and love are
once again restored between the
friends and their sweetheart.

As I have said before the story
had some good basic dramatic ma-
terial but it was never used to good
purpose all throughout.

It was necessary to establish the
cultural and family background of
Indira. Showing a sick man as a
father was not enough.

Likewise, the close friendship
between Ranjit and Vijay was never
properly established and they
stumbled into the picture more as
rivals in love than as Damon and
Pythias which the picture seeks to
portray .

Ramnarayan's interest in Iindi'ra
is too distant and detached to make
his love for her such an obsession
as to commit serious crimes for

obtaining her. He does not meet
Indira even once nor does he ask
her father for her. He is introduc-
ed in a dancing girl's house and
that's where he remains through-
out. His other credentials in life
and society are not presented at all
and his character role gets no stable
dramatic foundation.

The singing girl, introduced in the
picture, remains throughout a super-
fluous compliment to the story.

There are many other situations

Mr. K. M. Muitani, our popular
motion picture technician, has
floated a new producing company,
Praja Pictures Ltd.

which in the hands of a capable
scenarist would have yielded more
human and logical drama than they
do now.

VERY POOR DIRECTION

Coming to the production values,
the most miserable part of the pic-
ture is its very poor direction. In
the beginning Manibhai Vyas show-
ed some promise of becoming a use-
ful director, but in this picture he
has degenerated into an almost use-
less one. Even his shot takings,
which were pretty good previously,
have been clumsily bungled. I am
afraid Manibhai will never make a
good action director where human
emotions and psychology are con-
cerned.

Photography and recording of
Ranjit are definitely on the down
grade and this picture provides one
more proof.

The music of the picture can be
called pretty good. A couple of
tunes given to the singing girl are
excellent, but they are wasted on a
poorly directed picture.

From the players Motilal sparkles
continuously with a very natural
performance. I should suggest that
in future big close-ups of Motilal
be avoided for obvious reasons.
The lad gets tetter justice in mid-
shots .

Rama Shukul has done well too
but I wish he had not swallowed so
many of the words from his dialo-
gues.

Madhuri is hopeless all round.
She is made to sing a duet with
Motilal and they make a perfect un-
musical team. Can't we be spared
the "music" of these two. After all
people who pay for the pictures
don't bear any ill-will towards the
producer, then why should they be
punished thus. Imagine, if you
can, Madhuri and Motilal singing
and think of the bathos created.

Well, if you don't mind a few
glaring flaws in the story, you may
see 'Iqrar' in which a few songs are
well sung by the ghost voice of
Rajkumari .

WHY?
"Why should the United
Nations provide shipping
space to bring into the coun-
try raw film stocks if the
Indian film industry doesn't
contribute to the war-effort
of the country?", ask some
leading Americans in our
country at present.

It requires a lot of blood
and toil to steer a ship to
safety through U-Boat in-
fested waters.

Is all this sacrifice to be
made so that a few may make
some money in motion pic-
ture production?

69

BATRA'S MODERN DRAMA of LIFE and LOVE
A STORY OF SIN AND SINNERS

THE PICTURE THAT WILL SET THE WHOLE NATION
RING IN PRAISE

BATRA —PRODUCT/OA'S

A PICTURE OF MAXIMUM ENTERTAINMENT

Starring:
MADHURI and MAJNU

with BATRA, RAMLAL, SALMA

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY:
MAJNU

SUPERVISION: ROOP K. SHOREY MUSIC: AM ARNATH ( H. M. V.)

Our Next: EDITOR

(HINDUSTANI)

.11 Ml AIM

(PUNJABI)

BAM PRODUCTIONS, LAHORE.

FOR N. W. F. P.i

DEVDARSHAN PICTURES, LAHORE.

FOR DELHI & U. P.:

SEXENA & CO., DELHI.

FOR BENGAL:

R. S. CHANDANMULL INDRAKUMAR

CALCUTTA.

OUR- REVIEW

"Rpna Paraya" fails To Appeal

Suiastik!

Shahu modak Gives Still Rnother Silly
Performance !

With "Apna Paraya", the cuxtain
rings down on the production activi-
ties of the National Studios, which
at best proved a misadventure.
Among the 15 pictures produced by
them, hardly three, namely — "Wo-
man", "Puja" and "Lalaji" attract-
ed any attention. The rest have
contributed to the crowd of rotten
pictures which India produces so
often and with such fatal regularity
every year.

No sensible producer, or for that
matter any producer in his right
senses, would have selected the story
of "Apna Paraya" for a motion pic-
ture. This theme has been exploit-
ed on the screen so often, that it
should have been rejected at first
sight, but somehow, Story-writer
Khatib, seems to have got round
some people and sold his stuff to en-
able the National Studios to produce
a more rotten picture on an
already rotten story.

The surprising feature of the pic-
ture is its direction by Ramchandra
Thakur, who prides himself on be-
ing a MA. of the Bombay
University. These university-
degreed gentlemen in the
industry, who never lose an op-
portunity of marshalling their edu-
cational qualifications, have for
some reason or other failed miser-
ably in their pursuit in the motion
picture industry in India. Ram-
chandra Thakur despite his high
sounding MA. is no exception to
the statement. Had the university
MA. been some index of
a man's real competence, Motion-
Picture-Director Thakur, would not
have taken up a subject like "Apna
Paraya" which has been so often
chewed by several others and turn-
ed it into a new mess — and an un-

holy mess at that. It will be a
mercy if these degreed-gentlemen of
the Universities did not display their
degrees so prominently after their
names, because University degrees
are no proof of their motion picture
efficiency. By displaying these
degrees they only help to heap a lot
of ridicule on themselves, because
people expect from these educated
persons something better than from
the uneducated ones.

A TIME-WORN STORY

Coming to the actual story of
"Apna Paraya", it is the time-worn
slant on the England-returned youth
who comes back to his country and
finds everything distasteful, includ-

APNA PARAYA

Produced By: National Studios
Language: Hindustani
Story: Khatib
Screen Play: R. Thakur

Dialogues: S. Kalla

Songs: Pandit Indra

Photography: K.Mistry
Recording: Kaushik
Music: Anil Biswas

Cast: Modak, Hansa &

others.

Released At: Swastik, Bom-
bay

Date of Release: 16th April

'43

Director: R. THAKUR, M A.

ing his wife married during his
teens .

One such fellow by the name of
Vasant, returns from England and
finds that his wife is
no longer suitable for him
as he is already in love with
a sophisticated college girl called
Laxmi, who has been overseas with
him. He refuses to meet his wife

In "Panghat", a Prakash picture,
Ratnamala proves herself the best-
looking pot-carrying maiden at the
well.

and thus provokes the anger of his
parents and ultimately leaves his
parents' roof to fend for himself.

Vasant now meets with the usual
adventure of being kicked about
and then begins the time-worn crop
of motion picture coincidences which
bring the husband and the wife
together without one knowing the
other. This silly chain of coinci-
dental sequences has pulled down to
dust the best producers in our coun-
try, and Ramachandra Thakur is no
exception. At an uncle's place Vina
meets Vasant as the tutor, and they
fall in love with each other. All
the time Vina knows she is a mar-
ried woman and is supposed to be
loyal to her husband.

71

ppaua Pictures

Takes Pleasure In Announcing Their Forthcoming Programme:

UMANG

A heart-warming drama.

Samjhota

A rip-roaring comedy.

-A*

RAM TILOTTAMA

A costume spectacle.

Address all communications to: —
Managing Agents'. PRAJ& PICTURES LTD., Peoples' Building, Pherozeshah Mehta Road: Bombay

June 1943

FILMINDIA

Nevertheless, she carries on with
Vasant, nursing a secret love for
him. In the meantime, through one
of those silly coincidences, news
comes to the family that Vasant
meets with a train accident and dies.
Now Vina who had never seen her
husband considers herself to be a
widow. But at this time Vasant,
who knows the secret, overwhelms
his wife by disclosing that he is
Vasant. This disclosure creates
some more silly situations landing
Vasant in a police lock-up, and all
other odd places. But ultimately
the whole thing is cleared not only
to the utter relief of the players in
the story, but also to the utmost re-
lief of the spectators in the cinema.

Assuming for a moment that the
story of this picture is silly in the
extreme, and has not a trace of re-
commendation in it for motion pic-
ture production, we would like to
know how Ramchandra Thakur
M.A. allowed his heroine Vina, an
old fashioned married woman to
carry on with a stranger like
Vasant, as he was supposed to be,
till a certain stage in the story. In
doing this he allows the man to
carry on with a married woman an
illegitimate emotional intercourse
and thereby shakes to the very
foundation the piety and sanctity of
the traditional institution known as
the "Hindu Wife". The whole
affair is rather reactionary which-
ever way you see it. An attempt
will be made to explain away this
situation by saying that after all
the players were husband and wife.
But this is no excuse for a tempo-
rary emotional dishonesty on the part
of the Hindu wife, who is consider-
ed to be a holy of holies among the
women of the world — at least that
is what our motion picture produ-
cers are trying to tell us for the
last quarter of a century.

The production values in the pic-
ture are utterly useless and no-
where do we find a single sequence
well and logically developed. The
most amateurish motion picture
technique has been used to present
this silly story with the result that
the original silly stuff looks utterly

stupid by the time it comes to the
screen. The only relieving feature
in the story is a couple of songs
written by Pandit Indra. We would
however, advise the learned Pan-
ditji to keep his hands away from
composing Urdu gazals.

The dialogues of the picture are
rotten and so are the photography
and music.

THIS "SHE-MAN" MODAK

Coming to the players themselves,
we do not find anyone useful for the
picture. Almost everyone without
an exception has given a stupid per-
formance. Shahu Modak proves
himself useless once again with his
effeminate gestures and his rushing
delivery of dialogues. This fellow
has no business to talk Hindustani,
as his tongue seems to be twisted
for the purpose. It would be a
great mercy if he leaves the language
alone, and not continue murdering
it from picture to picture. Modak
is such a bad advertisement for the
sweet-sounding Hindustani lan-
guage.

Hansa Wadkar gives a pitiable
performance and it takes full two
hours for her face to grow on the

minds of the audience. By the time
one comes to like her face, the pic-
ture is over. Hansa's face is pecu-
liar for its blank expression.
Through joys and sorrows she main-
tains a steady ascetic expression
giving one the impression of look-
ing upon a dead face.

After Hansa, comes Urmilla — that
woman with a pomegranate face.
There are so many ditches in this
woman's face that she makes herself
highly unsuitable' for motion pic-
ture acting. It is a pity that girls
like these are allowed to spoil raw
films in these times on the Indian
screen.

The only one we liked amongst
the crowd of useless players was
Sankatha in the role of Jivan Sheth.
He is less stagy than ever before
and gives a pretty good performance
in a couple of good situations.

There is nothing in the picture
worth-seeing. The picture amply
proves how motion picture produ-
cers are wasting their money and
time on something no one would
like to see.

PETK in

SUPREME FILM DISTRIBUTORS
(Bombay)

Distributor Chunibhai Desai is a
very busy man these days and 'he
shows a lot of resourcefulness not
only in securing new pictures, but
also in releasing them under the
severest possible handicaps. Re-
cently he has converted the erstwhile
Diamond Talkies of Bombay into a
first run cinema and re-christened
it as Kamal Talkies. The first pic-
ture which will be released at this
newly named cinema will be 'Muhab-
bat' produced by Laxmi Produc-
tions.

Another picture which Supreme
will be releasing in the city at the
Royal Opera House somewhere in
the second week of June is "Kha-
moshi' starring Romola.

SHREE FILMS (Bombay)

Lila Desai has been given the stel-
ler role in 'Paraya Dhan' a subject
which is being produced in Hindi
and Bengali under the direction of
Nitin Bose. The supporting cast is
led by Maya Bannerji and Radha
Rani, a well-known radio singer
from Calcutta.

The maiden production of Shree
Films 'Ramanuj' directed by Debaki
Bose will be soon released in the
city.

LAXMI PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

'Muhabbat' featuring Shanta Apte
and Pahari Sanyal will be released
very shortly in Bombay. A new pic-
ture that has gone into production
is 'Kadambari' which is a famous
drama from the ancient Sanskrit
literature. The cast includes Shanta
Apte, Pahari Sanyal, Hansa Wadkar

and others.

The picture will be directed by
Nandlal Jaswantlal.

AMAR PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer-director Surendra De-
sai, "Bulbul" to friends, has just
completed 'Paigam' with Sadhona
Bose in the lead. 'Paigam' is an all-
singing all-dancing picture in which
Sadhona Bose dances to the music
of Surendra and the picture is re-
ported to have completely satisfied
its director.

Another picture which they are
shooting is called "Adab Arz".

BASANT PICTURES (Bombay)

"Mouj", a maiden social story is
fast nearing completion and has
Pahari Sanyal. Kaushalya and
others in the cast. It will shortly
come to the screen in the city.

SWASTIK INDIA LTD (Bombay)

After a long time this influential
distributing office is now releasing
one of the latest pictures in the
town: "Ishara" produced by D-R.D.
Productions. The story of Tshara'
has been written by Dewan Sharar,
the well-known international writer
and the picture is expected to run
very well seeing that the publicity
of the picture is being handled by
Mr. Vasantrao Marathe who has
already made a unique name in mo-
tion picture publicity. The picture
will be released at the Swastik Tal-
kies in Bombay .

The other two pictures which are
handled by this distributing office
are 'Badalti Duniya' produced by
Murari Pictures and 'Rahat' produc-
ed by Kirti Pictures.

The way Nur Jehan looks, she fits in as the heroine of "Pyar", a social story

of Nainn Pictures.

75

North:— Messrs. Oriental Film Exchange, Delhi. South:— Messrs. Standard Pictures, Bangalore City.

C.P.C.L:— Messrs. Popular Films Ltd., Bhusawal. Overseas:— Messrs. Suresh Films Distributors,

Princess Street, Bombay.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

SHALIMAR PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer Ahmed has completed
'Prem Sangeet' and is reported to
have added to it one of the best
martial songs ever seen Or heard on
the screen. The song is written in a
nationalistic strain and is likely to
become almost a national anthem
for the present times.

It is reported that the co-operation
of the military has been secured for
shooting this song and with such
elaborate preparations 'Prem San-
geet' promises to be one of the re-
markable successes of the screen.

On the sets we find the 3rd pro-
duction of Mr. W. Z. Ahmed called
'Mun-ki-jeet" It features Neena
and Shyam and it is a story quite
remarkable for its unusualness.

BOMBAY TALKIES (Bombay)

Madam Devika Rani is a very
busy person these days seeing that
the whole of India is now looking
at her and watching carefully her
future activities.

She has gone to the sets with a
new picture which is a social story
and in which she takes the stellar
role after a long time. The picture
is being directed by M. I. Dha-
ramsey .

FAZLI BROTHERS LTD.
(Bombay)

Producer-director S. F. Hasnain
reports to us that he has completed
"Fashion" and made it an ultra-
modern streamlined social picture.
The way Mr. Hasnain speaks about
his picture, one becomes slightly
suspicious, but seeing that he has
worked very hard for the last six
months it is quite likely that
'Fashion' must have become a re-
markable picture.

Director S. Fazli has started his
new picture called 'Bhai Bahen'
which is another subject of Hindu-
Muslim Unity.

RAJKAMAL PICTURES (Bombay)

The final sequences of that stu-
pendous, classical production "Sha-
kuntala" are now being shot by
Producer-director Shantaram. Ja-
yashree has been given her rest after
her laborious times in the studio
for the last three months. This

picture is expected to be completed
by the end of June and will be on
the screen sometime in July.

Another picture that is being
simultaneously shot at this studio
is 'Mali', under the direction of
Keshavrao Date.

ANAND BROTHERS (Bombay)

'Zamin,' a social story has been
completed by this studio and the
producers are negotiating distribu-
tion rights for different provinces.

These producers had advertised
the film biography of 'Guru Nanak-
dev' but it seems that the same can-
not be produced as the religious
susceptibilities of our Sikh brothers
are likely to be hurt in doing so.

RANJIT MOVIETONE (Bombay)

'Iqrar' was released at the Royal
Opera House during the month and
many a person thought that it had
a good basic story wrongly handled.

Director Jayant Desai has com-
pleted 'Bansari', a romantic musical
comedy starring Ishwarlal, Shamim
and Charlie. Another picture which
he hopes to complete very shortly
is 'Tansen' featuring Saigal and
Khurshid. Still another picture that
is now nearing completion is "Shan-
kar Parvati" featuring Sadhona

Bose and under the direction of
Chaturbhuj Doshi. Another Ranjit
director, Kedar Sharma, has com-
pleted 'Gouri' and is now busy with
'Vish Kanya' starring Sadhona Bose
and Surendra.

Several other pictures are also
scheduled for production in the
Ranjit Studios some of which are
called "Kalidas", "Vikramaditya and
"Pagli Duniya".

KIRTI PICTURES LTD.
(Bombay)

Producer P. B. Jhaveri, who is a
wholesale merchant in motion pic-
ture production, has a number of
pictures under production under
different labels such as Navin Pic-
tures, Kirti Pictures and what-not.
Some of the pictures that are either
under production or are completed
are: 'Barat', 'Ashirwad', 'Rahat' and
'Parashuram'.

From these pictures, 'Parashuram'
is supposed to be a grand mytholo-
gical spectacle and is likely to pay
its way tremendously well seeing
that Prithviraj is doing the title
role.

Wholesale -Producer P. B. Jhaveri
is nowadays a very busy man having
converted Kirti Pictures into a
joint stock company with Seth

In "Vijaylaxmi", an Indian Art picture, Shobhana and Kaushalya team
together to give excellent work.

77

It's NATIONAL

In Appeal'
Conception - Execution - Response

SUNRISE
PICTURES'
Social Hit

4.11 Alt

SANSAR

A TALE

of a
WOMAN'S
Suffering
for the
Hearth and
Home.

Featuring:

SARDAR AKHTAR

Mazharkhan • Kajjan - Naziz

9

Director: V. M. VYAS
Author: M. G. DAVE

NINTH WEEK

o

FROM 29th MAY 1943

NOVELTY ,™v

Bookings :

Advance Film Exchange

Kisan Mahal, Tribhuvan Itoad, BOMBAY-4

A NEW VENTURE IN THE BEALffl OF MILLS

DELIGHTFUL MUSICAL

WITH DRAMATIC SUSPENSE

PISTOLWALI

FEATURING:

MISS ROMILLA, BENJAMIN,
SHAHZADI, BIBI, ALI, SAYANI.

DIRECTION:

NARI GHADIALI

Bookings: —
BOMBAY & C. P., C. I. :■

OPERA PICTURES LTD..

Hi

BOMBAY 4.

NATIONAL THEATERS

SOUTH

NATIONAL THEATRES

2 24 South Mada Street,
TRIPLICANE, MADRAS

B

SIND .-

PRATAP PICTURES

SIND.

m

BENGAL & NORTH .-

NATIONAL THEATRES

12 Noble Chambers, Fort, BOMBAY.

June 1943

FILMINDIA

Maneklal Chunilal as the Chairman
and Sardar Chandulal Shah as one
of the directors.

We cannot tell you what whole-
sale-producer P. B. Jhaveri will do
next, but we can assure you
that whatever he does, it will be
sensational and different.

WARNER BROTHERS (Bombay)

Very few producers in Hollywood
harness the film industry for the
right purpose and we so often find
useless pictures coming from Holly-
wood which have no other motive
except that of light entertainment.

The history of Warners however
has been different. They have
always considered motion pictures
as a very powerful medium of mass
instruction and they have always
used it rightly in giving pictures
iike "Emile Zola", "Louis Pasteur"
and "Juarez". In keeping with their
previous traditions they will be
giving us some more pictures dur-

ing the year and they are called
"Casablanca" featuring Humphrey
Bogart and Ingrid Bergman "George
Washington Slept Here" featuring
Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan and
"Air Force", a war documentary
which being historically true pro-
vides plenty of entertainment.

MEHBOOB PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Producer-director Mehboob sends
us good news that his first picture
'Najma' has been passed by the
Censors. Ashok Kumar who has
played the lead in this picture this
time acts a doctor almost to perfec-
tion while Kumar gives a fine por-
ttayal of a typical Nawab from
Lucknow. The female lead is taken
by Veena who, we are told, looks
exquisitely beautiful in this picture,
and having seen her before we are
inclined to believe this report. The
music of the picture has been given
by Mr. Rafiq Gaznavi and when we

chanced to meet him sometime back
we were told that it was the very
last word in film music. Let us also
believe that and wish Producer-
director Mehboob every success.
UNITY PRODUCTIONS (Poona)

Of all the troublesome producers
we have in the country, the most
troublesome is that pair of intrepid
.young men known as Lahoriram
Parasher ana Eatnieshwar Sharma.
While the first gentleman is the
microphone of t:.e second one, bet-
ween the two we have been told a
lot of rjieir future plans.

Just at present they have com-
pleted 'Bhai Chara,' a theme on the
good neighbourly relations bet-
ween the Hindus and Muslims of
the country. Another picture which
they will be taking up, this time at
Calcutta, will be 'Akbar the Great'
in which the life of the great Empe-
ror will be portrayed in all its
grandeur and subtlety.

PRAKASH PICTURES (Bombay)

'Panghat' has brought in good re-
ports from the different centres
where it has been released in the
country and now it is due for re-
lease at the Lamington Talkies in
Bombay immediately 'Tasveer'
leaves the screen. In 'Panghat' we
find Ratnamala who makes another
appearance with all her sweetness
on the screen.

At the studios Director Vijay Bhatt
has been steadily progressing with
the shooting of 'Ram Rajya'.

EVERGREEN PICTURES
(Bombay)

The eight Parsi partners who cons-
titute this firm of Evergreens have
managed among themselves to
secure 'Rani', a picture directed and
produced by Barua. This picture
will be shortly released at the Super
Talkies in Bombay and is expected
to draw well owing to its popular
music.

A couple of more pictures which
these eight people have secured are
'Vijayalakshmi' and 'Angoori' pro-
duced by Indian Art Pictures.
A. B. PRODUCTIONS (Bombay)

With Nur Jehan as the main at- .,
traction, the maiden production of '•

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THE ICILHA COMPANY LIMITED, LONDON

79

She Comes Again

To delight the NATION and to keep your spirit up !
EXCELSIOR FILMS PRESENT

Fearless NADIA
in

DAUGHTER of

%vith: JOHN CAVAS, SARDAR MANSUR,
SAYANI, BOMAN SHROFF.

Director-

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June 1943

FILMINDIA

this company called 'Nadan' has
been receiving several offers from
different provinces. Mr. Husein Beg
Mohamed is supervising the picture
and finds it interesting work seeing
that it has such an attractive cast.
More than half the work has been
done on the picture and it will be
shortly completed.

GITANJALI PICTURES
(Bombay)

Their maiden production "Sawal"
featuring Mumtaz Shanti and Ullhas
is now fast nearing completion and
is expected to be ready by the mid-
dle of June. The next picture which
they have scheduled for production
is called 'Dil' and will shortly go
into shooting.

INDIAN ART PICTURES
(Bombay)

Whenever Journalist D. C. Shah
gets spare time he drops in at our
office and tells us tall stories about
the Kashyap Brothers who are con-

ducting the Indian Art Pictures. It
seems that 'Vijayalakshmi' has
been completed now and 'Angoori'
is getting final touches. The very
fact that Evergreen Pictures have
secured the distribution rights of
these two pictures proves that these
pictures are going to be worth see-
ing. Because, Evergreens with their
eight partners are not likely to be
easily beguiled into a bargain with-
out the pictures having sufficient
quality.

KARDAR PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

The speed with which Producer-
director Kardar is producing pic-
tures is giving a headache to many
producers in the country. Strangely
enough, in spite of the speed, Kar-
dar is giving successful pictures at
the box-offices.

'Namaste' has been completed by
Directors Sadiq & Sunny; 'Kanoon'
has been completed by Director

Kardar and now Producer-director
Kardar is shooting 'Sanjog' a picture
which stars Charlie.

Two more pictures are likely to
go into production almost imme-
diately, one directed by Sunny and
the other directed by Sadiq.

KAMALROY PICTURES
(Bombay)

India's huge producer R. R. Roy
has at last gone on the sets of 'Akbar
the Great' at the Central Studios.
With Kumar in the leading role he
has already shot a number of
sequences and it is reported that the
picture will be completed in good
time.

One of the cast that attracts at-
tention is Vanmala who has been
signed down for the picture.

NEW HUNS PICTURES
(Bombay)

As we go to the press we under-
stand that 'Nagad Narayan', a social
comedy, featuring Baburao pendhar-

A glimpse from " Shakuntala" :

The Ashram of Kaava where Shakuntala spent
grew into classic womanhood.

her childhood and

81

NO POWER ON EARTH COULD CAPTURE
HER — But LOVE !

FEARLESS NADIA COMES BACK AS QUEEN OF REBELS
COSTARRING WITH INDIA'S STUNT KING- NAV1NCHANBKA IN....

G. B. PRODUCTIONS'

MOHABBAT-KI-JEET

with S NAZIR - LEELA PAWAR - SHAKIR - AGHA - MUNSHI KHANJAR
Directed By R4MANLAL DESAI

Music: VASANT KUMAR Dialogues & Songs: EHSAN RIZVI

Distributors:
Pombay Presidency:

Excelsior Film Exchange.

South & C. P. C. I. :

(hamaria Talkie Distributors.

Punjab :

Prabhat Talkies Distributors.

Sind & Baluchistan:

Pratap Talkie Distributors.

For 17. P. & Bengal Rights Apply

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REKHA

with

SANKATHA PRASHAD
MONI CHATTERJI
PADMA BANERJI
RAM KRISHAN

Music:

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Dialogues & Songs

J. C SOLANKI

Direction

MAHENDRA THAKOR

°ULHAN

For Territorial Rights:-

Ramniklal Mohanlal & Co.

Bombay - Delhi

For Punjab & N.W.F. Provinces;-

SEXENA & Co.

Beadon Road, Lahore.

7

June 1943

FILMINDIA

kar and Lila Desai has been com-
pleted in two versions by Director
Vishram Bedekar.

Great things are expected from
this picture and we are sure that it
is going to prove a feast for intel-
lectuals in the country.

NAVYUG CHITRAPAT LTD.
(Poona)

'Pahili Manglagaur,' a social
comedy, proved a tremendous suc-
cess at the Central Talkies in Bom-
bay.

At the studios they have com-
pleted "Ladaike-Bad" featuring
Snehaprabha Pradhan and Shahu
Modak. This picture is expected
to come on the screen very shortly.

RAJA MOVIETONE (Bombay)

Mazaq", a social story, is ready
for release. 'Panchhi', another pic-
ture which Zahur Raja is directing
himself, is well on way towards
completion. The story has been
written by Abid Gulrays and fea-
tures Zahur Raja, Radha Rani and
others.

PURNIMA PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Director Kishore Sahu's social
story 'Raja' which is incidentally
the maiden production of this com-
pany has been completed and cen-
sored.

It is likely to be released at the
Novelty Talkies very shortly.

ROYAL FILM CIRCUIT

(Bombay)

Distributor V. R. Mehta is nowa-
days a very impatient person and
very often he goes to the Majestic
Talkies and wonders when 'Basant'
will leave the screen. All this anxie-
ty is because Distributor Mehta has
got a marvellously spectacular my-
thological picture in 'Bhakta Vidur'
which he wants to release and show
to the people how beautifully Durga
Khote has acted and Vishnupant
Pagnis has sung.

PRADEEP PICTURES (Bombay)

Their maiden production 'Vakil
Saheb' is being taken up by diffe-
rent distributors in the country. It
is reported that the comedy element
in the picture has appealed consi-

derably to the different distributors
who are competing amongst them-
selves to secure the rights of the
picture.

Mrs. Kamalabai Manglorekar, the
lady who is at the helm of the
affairs is now busy perusing the
script of 'Panna Dai' for her next
production .

DIN PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer Fateh Din is now having
a considerably less anxious time
seeing that his picture 'Koshish' is
fast nearing completion. It is being
directed by Rafiq Rizvi and the
theme is centred on the problem of
Hindu-Muslim Unity in the coun-
try .

In the cast we find Yakub, Trilok
Kapoor and others and the picture
is expected to go a long way towards
meeting the demands of the theme.

The next picture which Producer
Fateh Din expects to produce is
called 'Jhalak'.

BARUA PRODUCTIONS
(Calcutta)

In India people are always inte-
rested more in other people's busi-
ness than in their own. In keeping
with this tradition rumours were
spread that Producer-director Ba-
rua had retired from the motion pic-
ture industry. We are assured that
this is not true. On the other hand
he has started a new company call-
ed Barua Productions and his pic-
ture just announced is called 'Su-
beh-Shyam'.

Four consecutive pictures of Ba-
rua Productions have been secured
by Mr. Lahoriram Parasher of
Swastik Film Distributors of Cal-
cutta .

MAHESHWARY PICTURES
(Lahore)

Reports come to us that 'Pagli'.
their maiden production, has been
completed and even Miss Aruna
Devi who had come with a music
party has left for Calcutta. It is re-
ported that Aruna has not only
given plenty of dances in the pic-
ture, but she has put in a lot of kick
by supplying sophisication and
dignity not divorced from sex and
glamour. 'Pagli' is directed by

Shankar Mehta and the producers
expect it to be an outstanding suc-
cess coming from the North .

PRAJA PICTURES LTD.
(Bombay)

Director K. M. Multani, an old
favourite with Indian audiences, has
floated this company and has suc-
ceeded in selling a number of
shares in Hyderabad and Gujarat.

The other day we had the good
fortune of meeting Mr. Multani and
discussing with him his future pro-
gramme and, as he went on divulg-
ing the same, we were surprised at
the extent and imagination in which
things are planned for the future.
Sometime in the month of July,
Producer-director Multani will start
the actual shooting of his maiden
production and he tells us that his
first story is remarkable for its
realism and romance.

BATRA PRODUCTIONS
(Lahore)

Their maiden production 'Papi' is
fast nearing completion under the
direction of Majnu. It is a story
built round the life of a sinner who
is reported to have gone about the
world spreading his vicious designs
and poisoning society. in the cast
we find Majnu himself and Madhuri
from Bombay. The music of the
picture has been done by Pandit
Amarnath .

PRAGATI PICTURES
(Bangalore)

One of the latest pictures coming
out of this studio is 'Harishchandra'
produced in Kanarese. We are told
that it has become a remarkable mo-
tion picture document bringing to
the screen the glory of the ancient
times in all its realism and splen-
dour, in the cast we find Subbiah
Naidu. Nagendra Rao, Lakshmibai
and B. S. Raja Iyengar. Evidently
these are names that count in the
Kanarese world because we are
told that the picture has been draw-
ing well at all centres wherever it
was released. We expect to review
this picture next month as a special
trial is being arranged for us in
Bombay.

83

FILMINDIA

June 1943

ADVANCE FILM EXCHANGE
(Bombay)

'Ghar Sansar' which was released
at the Novelty through these distri-
butors has been doing very good
business at this theatre. It is likely
to run there for a pretty long time
and is expected to be as successful
as it became at Karachi.

MOHAN PICTURES (Andheri)

Director Gunjal is reported to
have completed shooting of 'Dul-
han'. The dialogues and songs of
this picture have been written by
Pandit Indra. Another picture that
has been completed is 'Rekha' starr-
ing Lila Chitnis and Harish under
the direction of Ma'hendra Thakore.
The picture which is now in making
is called 'Kiran' featuring Ashok
Kumar and Leela Chitnis. This pic-
ture is being directed by Mr. Jagir-
dar who is reported to be doing his
best for the subject.
NATIONAL THEATRES (Bombay)

Producer Shah is reported to have
gone on the sets with his first pic-

ture 'Pistolwali' at the Jyoti Stu-
dios. Under the direction of Mr.
Nari Gadiali this picture is expected

As we go to the press we
get a report that the court
dispute which was going on
between Mr. M. A. Mughni
and Taj Mahal Pictures has
been settled by compromise.
By the terms of the compro-
mise Mr. Mughni has been
accepted as the producer and
author of 'Ujala' and a sum
cf Rs. 2250/- has been paid
in settlement of his claims
against Taj Mahal Pictures.

It is quite a pleasant result
seeing that Mr. Mughni, a
quiet, hard worker has been
able to succeed against a
wealthy producer.

to be a thriller and seeing ■ that
Romilla, that old favourite, is lead-
ing a very useful cast of quick-
change artistes, we are inclined to

believe the thrilling aspect of the
picture.

Already the distribution rights of
the picture for the South and
CP. C.I. seem to have been taken
over by Mr. Trivedi of Opera Pic-
tures .

GIRDHAR BAHAR PRODUC-
TIONS (Bombay)

Under the efficient supervision and
management of Mr. G. A. Thakur
this new production unit is now
producing 'Mohabat-ki-jeet' starr-
ing Nadia and Navinchandra . The
picture is directed by Mr. Ramanlal
Desai and it is evidently a fast thril-
ler seeing that Navinchandra is
there ready with a sword in hand.

EXCELSIOR FILMS (Bombay)

This is a firm of new producers
who have started shooting 'Daugh-
ter of Hunterwali' featuring Nadia
and John Cavass and others. The
picture is directed by Mr. Homi
Wadia and it is evidenty a fast thril-
ler of the screen.

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JULY 1943

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For the first time in its history, the Government of
India seems to have realised that we are facing a total
war in which all the resources of the state have to be
thrown in.

Acting quickly upon the practical suggestions con-
tained in our June editorial, Mr. P. N. Thapar, I.C.S.,
Jt. Secretary of the Information and Broadcasting
Department, New Delhi, visited Bombay during the last
month and convened a series of conferences with the
Executive Committee Members of the Indian Motion
Picture Producers' Association.

Some of the producers, in keeping with their tra-
ditional bravado, tried to be smart for a time and
attempted to avoid the important issue, under dis-
cussion. But Mr. Thapar's firm tact seemed to have
won the day and now the Indian producers have agreed
to produce 25 full length propaganda pictures in addi-
tion to 50 short propaganda features.

Some of those leading producers who were once
militantly against the idea of helping India's war effort,
were the first to capitulate when Mr. Thapar informed
them in his mild but firm way that no raw films will
be supplied to those producers who did not agree to
produce war propaganda pictures.

In a minute the studio-owning producers, who have
to maintain all-the-year-round overheads, were falling
over one another to be accepted as producers of pro-
paganda films.

The pitiable melee must have amused the I.C.S.
officer a lot and he must have taken with him some
unique impressions of our motion picture producers.

The Indian film industry had no other alternative
but to fall in line with the proposal submitted by the
Government of India, as the Shipping Assignment Com-
mittee had refused to provide shipping space for raw
films, seeing that the Indian film industry had contri-
buted nothing voluntarily to the country's war effort.

3

FILM INDIA

July 1943

Between the two pairs of eyes it is difficult to choose
the more beautiful. Jayashree has been called 'gazelle-
eyed' before and she competes with the real stuff this
time in "Shakuntala'', a Rajkamal picture.

As a result of the number of discussions between
the producers and the officials the following points seem
to have been tentatively agreed upon between the
parties:

1. That the Indian film industry should produce
25 propaganda pictures In one year to help the coun-
try's war effort. Out of these 25, one each should be
in Tamil, Bengali and Telugu.

2. That the film producers who produce such pic-
tures should be given priority of raw stock supplies and
that raw stocks should be guaranteed to such a producer
for 3 additional commercial pictures, thereby bringing
the annual production quota for sound stages to four
pictures per sound stage.

3. The studio owners have moreover guaranteed to
the Government to produce 52 short propaganda fea-
tures of 1000 feet, i.e. one short picture a year per studio,
as there are 52 sound-stages in the country today.

4. That 40 copies of each of these short features
would be necessary to keep 40 sectors of distribution
circuit continuously supplied and the Government
intend to fix up a rental tariff ranging between Rs. 30/-
to Rs. 2/8 per week according to the importance of the
station which hire the exhibitors will have to pay to
the producers as their contribution to the war effort.

5. The Government will, moreover, be prepared to
buy certain short films if the subjects of the same have
been previously approved by them.

This is all very good and it is as it should have
been long ago, when the war started. We congratulate
the Government on their firm tact and the producers
for their unwilling submission.

We must win the war by hook or by crook and the
Indian film industry must do its bit to win it — even at
this belated stage.

Let us now analyse the immediate effect of this
tentative agreement between the Executive Committee
of the producers and the Government.

In our opinion it was not absolutely correct of the
Government to carry on the entire negotiations with
the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association as,
at best, this is merely a provincial body and as such
does not represent all India interests. There are other
institutions such as: The Bengal Producers' Association
and The South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce.
Both these institutions should have been invited to take
part in the deliberations.

Assuming for a moment that the Indian Motion
Picture Producers' Association represents a major part
of the Indian film industry, still it would have been
more politic to have invited the other associations. It
will be unfair if the decisions of the Bombay Association
are to prove binding on the other provincial film pro-
ducers,

Ashok Kumar wears the Khaki in "Kiran" a social story
of Ramnik Productions.

4

July 1943

FILMINDIA

On its own side the Executive Committee of the
Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association took up
an anomalous step when a handful of its members
undertook to negotiate with the Government on a trade
problem which vitally concerned every member of the
Association. In fairness to the other members, the
Executive Committee should have called an Extra-
ordinary General Body Meeting and informed the other
members of the impending Government proposals. The
usual function of an Executive Committee is to carry
out the routine work of the Association, but in such
cases where the future of several members is in jeo-
pardy, it was highly improper of the Executive Com-
mittee to assume to itself all the powers and the status
that might belong only to the General Body.

The whole affair sounds like a conspiracy among
leading producers owning studios against the have-nots.

Though the Executive Committee claims a member-
ship of nearly eleven elected members, only six lead-
ing producers in: Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall, Sardar Chan-
dulal Shah, Mr. Sohrab Mody, Mr. J. B. H. Wadia, Mr.
Shankarbhai Bhatt and Mr. W. Z. Ahmed — continuously
met Mr. Thapar. What happened to the other five?
And what happened to the seventy and odd general
members of the Association?

As was long suspected in certain quarters, imme-
diately after Mr. Thapper's departure for New Delhi, the
Executive Committee members who had carried on all
these negotiations sat over the spoils and started cut-
ting the carcass, and in doing so the studio-owners got
all the meat and the independent producers were left
with nothing.

Granting the Bengali picture to New Theatres, the
Telugu to Gemini Pictures and the Tamil to Modern
Theatres, the remaining 22 pictures were divided into
two six-monthly production periods at the Executive
Committee meeting held on the 8th June 1943.

The first lot was to produce 9 pictures in the first
six months and the lucky producers, who have to pro-
duce a propaganda picture each and get raw films for 3
additional films are: 1. Minerva Movietone, 2. Ranjit
Film Co., 3. Laxmi Productions, 4. Kardar Productions,

5. Amar Pictures, 6. Prafulla Pictures, 7. Navyug Chit-
rapat Ltd., 8. Rajkamal Kalamandir, 9. Prabhat.

All studio-owners!

The second lot who take up their own propaganda
picture in the second six months and thus qualify for
raw films for 3 more commercial films consists of 1.
Bombay Talkies, 2. Filmistan Ltd., 3. Jayant Desai Pro-
ductions. 4. Mohan Pictures, 5. Pancholi Art Pictures,

6. Prakash pictures, 7. Shalimar Pictures, 8. Wadia
Movietone, 9. Vishnu Cinetone, 10. Sunrise Pictures, 11.
Atre Pictures.

All studio owners again with the exception of a
couple who were studio owners till very recently.

That leaves only one picture to be produced, which
picture has been generously given to an independent
producer, Harishchandra Pictures

With priority of raw film supplies as the principal
bait, one can not expect a different reaction from the
capitalistic-minded film producers.

As it is, the independent producers in the country
had already become a thorn in the side of the studio-
owners, because of the substantial competition which
the former have been giving to the lattter both in qua-
lity and quantity.

A state of mutual dislike has been existing between
both for a long time and the studio owners have been
waiting for some such opportunity to wipe the independ-
ent producers off the map of film production.

The Government of India seem to have provided
them with that long-awaited opportunity now and it is
no wonder that the Executive Committee of the pro-
ducers, essentially composed of studio-owners has taken
this opportunity to be vindictive towards the inde-
pendent producers who have no approach to the officials.

But the Government must not allow injustice to
be done to these independent producers who are a brave
band of people and who often give the industry several
outstanding pictures.

The following leading independent producers, who
have several pictures to their credit, have been entirely
left out of reckoning by the Association:

1. New Huns Pictures, 2. Acharya Art Productions,
3. Janak Pictures, 4. Chitra Productions, 5. Kirti Pic-

Neena, queenly and dignified, awaits public approval in
"Prem Sangeet," the next release of Shalimar Pictures.

5

July 1943

FILMINDIA

tures, 6. Silver Films, 7. Asiatic Pictures, 8. Fazli Bro-
thers, 9. Sowbhagya Pictures, 10. Unity Productions, 11.
D.R.D. Productions, 12. Purnima Productions, 13. Hind
Pictures, 14. Mehboob Productions, 15. Anand Brothers,
16. Murari Pictures, 17. Pradeep Pictures, 18. Barua
Productions, 19. A.B. Productions, 20. Gitanjali Pic-
tures, 21. Kamalroy Pictures, 22. Indian Art Pictures,
23. Talwar Productions, 24. M.P. Productions, 25. Raja
Movietone, 26. Vauhini Pictures, 27. Maheshwary Pic-
tures, 28. Batra Productions, 29. Din Pictures, 30.
Basant Pictures, 31. Girdhar Bahar Productions, 32.
Navin Pictures.

These are some of the independent producers who
are active in production now and have to their credit
several pictures.

People like these have been left out of reckoning
by the Executive Committee of the Producers' Associa-
tion. On the other hand, "Filmistan Ltd." belonging to
Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall, the President, gets the privi-
lege of producing a propaganda film and the accom-
panying benefits, even though "Filmistan Ltd." has not
produced its very first picture.

How can this inequity be explained away by the
Association?

All those independent producers whose names we
have mentioned above are also willing to produce war
propaganda films and being the more enterprising ones,
it is likely that they may give even better pictures than
some of the studio-owning producers.

The Government of India wanted 25 war propa-
ganda pictures. Here is a chance for them to get nearly
a hundred pictures if all the producers in the country
—studio and independent ones — are allowed to produce
on the same terms which are now offered to the Asso-
ciation members.

We suggest that all producers, irrespective of their
owning a studio or not, should be licensed by the Gov-
ernment and called upon to submit war propaganda
subjects within a certain time.

A committee of censors may be appointed to select
from this material 50 suitable subjects from 50 differ-
ent producers and only to such selected producers a
priority certificate may be given in respect of raw film
supplies. , '

Unless some such equitable measure is enforced, we
are afraid the independent producers will be wiped off
the map.

And they are very badly needed.

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This section is the monopoly of "JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about
things which he likes. The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still
they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job.

RAW DEAL TO MUSIC DIRECTORS

India is not only a god-stricken country, it is also
a music-mad nation. When an Indian is born he is
ushered into this world with music and when he leaves
on his final journey he steps out to the tune of the
most ear-splitting music one can imagine. Between his
entry and exit, there are numerous occasions on which
music is requisitioned to cheer up his spirits. Thread-
ceremonies, a thousand and odd pujas, birth-days,
engagements, weddings and seasonal changes all call for
loud and continuous music and dancing and it is there-
fore no wonder that the people of India are so acutely
music-conscious.

Film producers are always wide-awake to this
weakness of the people and they are often found paying
more attention to the musical part of a picture than
to the story-telling side.

We have had a number of pictures which have be-
come huge box-office hits just because they had a
couple of snappy popular songs. To quote the latest,
"Jawab", "Kismet", "Panghat", "Basant". All these
are music-sprinkled pictures and they run well because
their music delights a music-conscious nation.

This aspect of motion picture success brings the
studio music director into prominence. Only last month
Music-director Ramchandra 'Pal wrote that music direc-
tors hardly get a free hand in executing their work.
Does it mean therefore that most of the popular song
hits which we get from time to time are merely products
of happy accidents? While we are inclined to agree
with Ramchandra Pal in so far as he complains about
outside interference in the music director's field, we
still feel that several song hits of our screen have not
been so many accidental products but actually the
results of correct efforts by the music directors.

More often than not the music of a picture has
saved the picture from failing utterly. Without its
thrilling music "Jawab", in our opinion, is so much
celluloid junk.

When a picture becomes popular because of its
music who gets all the profits? Always, the producer.
Thousands of gramophone records are sold of a single
song hit and thousands in coin are pocketed by the pro-
ducers. The music director who created these popular
song tunes gets nothing. Nor does the artiste who
sings get anything. Nor even the word composer whose
words caught the fancy. All the profits go to the pro-

ducer, be they from the picture or from the sale of the
records.

This, we think, is very unfair. If a producer gets
a royalty on sales from the gramophone recording com-
pany, it is but fair that the music director and the
artiste and the poet should share the spoils, as these
are complimentary profits. If the producers will allow
the music directors to share these profits, it is quite
likely that we shall have in future thrilling music
which we have never had before. After all though a
professional, the music director is also in business and
what can be a greater incentive to better work than a
decent share in the profits.

Here is an angle which sympathetic and fair-minded
producers ought to think about. If they start sharing
their profits with their skilled workers, they are likely
to be longer in business and better business at that.

In "Nagad Narayan", a comedy of New Huns, Leela
Desai radiates a new personality, never before seen on
the screen.

9

BY RAIL ...

State Jteul CafiGeihi
FOR VITAL TRANSPORT !

July 1943

This photograph from "Fashion", a Fazli picture, is an
eloquent proof of the world of difference in talent bet-
ween two artistes. Here is Chandramohan, set tense
to throttle Sabita, while Sabita takes it with comfort
without a twitch of any muscle. She knows it is a
motion picture "throttling" and Chandramohan doesn't
mean it. Isn't Chandramohan' s 'action' wasted when
with his cat-eyes and strong throttling he ends by mak-
ing the other party only more comfortable?

GHOST VOICES OF THE SCREEN

Talking of music we are reminded of the "ghost
voices" that sing tehind our play-back songs thiese
days. Two particular voices have fallen on our ears a
thousand times during the last year. They belong to
the buxom Rajkumari and the tall Amirbai Karnatki.

These two singers have sung so many songs in so
many pictures and on so many different faces that they
have become the professional ghost singers of the
screen.

Step into any picture-house anywhere in India
and you will either hear Rajkumari or Amirbai singing
— may be on Mumtaz Shanti's face, or through Madhuri's
lips or for that matter on any face of any woman.

This ghost singing has become a regular racket
with our producers and the quality of music in our
pictures is steadily going down. Producers forget that
a new voice has a new thrill and it is not so much the
music as the emotional quality of the voice that appeals
to the audience. These wholesale mechanical singing
machines like Rajkumari and Amirbai get on people's
nerves when repeated too often. And that is what
has happened. They have been repeated too often and
whosoever's the face, experienced film-goers spot the
voice as belonging to one of these two. Once the identi-

FILMINDIA

fication has been done where is the emotional thrill
in the music?

The producers thus defeat their own purpose. The
producers must either find new singing voices if they
are to go on with this ghost-voice racket or they must
not give us so many phoney songs.

Everyone knows that our Mad'huris and Sabitas
don't sing. Where then is the sense in selling a false-
hood? It is just bad business.

BUGS, RATS AND JEWS!

It was on the 30th May when we went to see a
foreign picture at the New Empire in Bombay. Along
with this picture was being shown an American pro-
paganda short called "America sings with Kate Smith".
Technically it was an attractive feature and the
patriotic songs were put over by the buxom singer very
beautifully. That little short film had entertainment
plus propaganda.

Four times Kate Smith, the Singer, called upon
the audience to join in on the last chorus, but the
audience sat quiet and no one took up the vocal refrain.
That audience was composed of a large number of
military officers in the upper classes and a number of
tommies in the lower classes. The thick military
sprinkling was either Australian or British. Add to
these uniformed people a number of local white men
and women and don't forget a good number of white-
skinned, bull-necked Jewish refugees who seem to
enjoy the best things of life in India. The only mdians
were I and my lady friend.

Kanaiyalal, that polished character actor, is trying to
be sure with Kusum Deshpande in "Kiran", a social
story of Ramnik Productions.

11

JAMES CARLTON LTD. LONDON, ENGLAND. EASTERN LICENCEES. P. 0. BOX 9029 CALCUTTA

July 1943

FILMINDIA

The appeal of Kate Smith fell flat on these non-
American white people and none of them showed any
enthusiasm for the songs. Out of sheer spite the two
of us decided to applaud after the reel was over. But
when we did so, the white population round about look-
ed as if saying "What is gone wrong with you two?"

If there were no Americans in the audience to feel
insulted we at least did on their behalf. I think it is
letting the brave Yankees down when we don't applaud
their national sentiment which was embedded in those
beautiful songs. After all the Yankees are doing a large
bit for the war and it isn't fair to let them down so.

The most annoying part of the whole affair, how-
ever, was the behaviour of half-a-dozen Jewish refugees
who were sitting behind us and talking loudly their
foreign gibberish with their white cows brought from
overseas. I gave them the frozen optic a couple of
times but it was lost on those thick-skinned ill-mannered
brutes who had stared Hitler in the face and lived to
tell the story.

There is a lot of talk nowadays of bugs and rats
in our theatres and the authorities are asked to take
measures to exterminate these. I would, however,
suggest that some measures should be taken to exter-
minate these fat-necked vulgar Jews who have come
to our country as guests and are misbehaving in more
ways than one. They seem to be worse than the bugs
and the rats. The bugs and the rats, at least, belong
to our country, but not these cowardly refugees who
have run away from their own country in its hour of
need.

Aren't there any Jews in the countries Hitler has
overrun? How are they pulling on there?

Coming back to Kate Smith's songs, I feel that the
white men in the audience didn't like the words of the
songs.

One of the songs begins with "America I love you".
Now, who would expect an Englishman to repeat that?
Even Churchill hasn't so far talked about loving Ame-
rica. He is only friendly with America.

Considering things as they are, I think it is rather
indiscreet on the part of the local film distributors to
screen such shorts with so much of America in it.
Englishmen usually like Americans to sing about Eng-
land and something in that style would go better in
India just at present, though Indians would think twice
before joining in on the last chorus.

The poor Yanks!

RAI BAHADUR'S "FILMISTAN"

Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall has at last launched his
"Filmistan" with his usual ballyhoo and once again his
button-hole is in blossom.

Everyone wishes the old Rai Bahadur and his faith-
ful band of assistants every success and we are sure
that Rai Bahadur's producer, Mukerjee, will soon be
giving us a new box-office hit at which work Mukerjee
seems to have become an adept.

But in the enthusiasm of launching the new pro-
duction concern, the old Rai Bahadur has made some
incorrect claims in the advertisement of "Filmistan"
which appeared in the Times of India of 29th May 1943.

In the said advertisement Rai Bahadur and his
faithful band claim to be "the creators of "Bandhan".
"Naya Sansar", "Jhoola" and "Kismet'.

In our opinion, this claim is entirely wrong. We
think, the Bombay Talkies are the creators of these
pictures and not any production unit employed by them.
A picture is not created by a crowd of half-a-dozen
people however good they be. A picture is the creation
of a studio with all its thousand conveniences, tools and
talent. jj,

Rai Bahadur's claim therefore affects the business
good-will of the Bombay Talkies Ltd. and they seem
to have a good case of damages in a Court of Law
against "Filmistan".

Old Rai Bahadur should really be a little more
careful about such extravagant claims in future or he
may someday unwittingly land his infant concern into
trouble.

OUR ROMANTIC SCREEN!

A strange feature about the stories that come on
the Indian screen is that all romance in life ends with
the hero marrying the heroine. In fact, most of our
film stories also end with this event which, in my opi-
nion, is only the beginning of a grim tragedy we call
life.

Asha supplies glamour in '■Pagli", a social story of
Maheshwari Pictures, Lahore.

13

FILMINDIA

July 1943

All these stories portray the struggles of youth to
get their mates for the bed. Having got them, they sing
a song and ask the audience to go home, suggesting that
their actions thereafter will be strictly personal and
not such as to be viewed by the people.

Is this all the realism that life presents to our
movie-moghuls? Beyond mating the male and the
female — both in heat — and showing the pre-mating
struggles, isn't there anything else left in life to show?

Ts matrimony the end of life and romance? At
least that is what the producers seem to tell us month
after month if we are to believe what they show on the
screen.

Take my own life for instance. I never had a
youth for wild oats and romance. Married at eighteen
I jumped out of childhood into responsible manho<*d.
At nineteen my marriage yielded a child and then began
the little tragedies of my own life, more emotional than
any romance ever shown on the Indian screen.

Despite a married life. I had my affairs, my loves,
my disappointments, my periods of starvation and un-
employment, my share of troubles and illnesses, my
quota of family quarrels and dissensions and what not.
In short, my own life began after my marriage and
my problems also stared me in the face after r called
a woman my wife. Millions in our country must be in
my position seeing that we marry early in India. But
the producers have not tried to solve their problems.

On the other hand they have insulted this large
majority by showing to them premarital tragedies and
romances between two sucklings on life's threshold.

Producers like Shantaram who brag about realism
in films in and out of season would do well to find their
heroes and the heroines by delving into the lives of
people after they have really started living their lives.
They are the people who make a home and a nation —
not the fresh sucklings with romantic baby-soothers in
their mouths.

FILM MAKING IN THE SOUTH

The fourth annual report of the South Indian Film
Chamber of Commerce is in hand. As usual, this useful
institution has been very busy throughout the last year
under the guidance of Mr. V. Rama Rao who was once
mentioned by us as a very competent secretary for
any public institution.

The Chamber has been able to secure many minor
advantages for its members from the local and Central
Governments and these efforts give evidence of a unity
which is so difficult to obtain among varying film
interests.

We however disagree with the attitude taken by
the Chamber with regard to the footage restriction
enforced by the Government bringing down all Indian
films to a maximum of 11,000 feet. We think that this
restriction is all for the good of the Indian film indus-
try, be it of the North, of the South, of the East, or of
the West.

In 11,000 feet plenty of human drama can be shown

by skilled technicians and we do not think there is
any reason to complain on this score.

The South Indian films with their previous mara-
thon footage had always proved very boring and dra-
matically inconsistent and the new footage restriction
ought to provide them with a long-felt trimming which
they so badly needed all along.

S. S. Vasan, the newly elected president of the
Chamber in his address to the Chamber considered the
footage restriction order "as very unfair and unjust
to the interests of the trade". He applied his usual
financial mathematics and said that while the North
Indian films suffered a cut of 14%, the footage restric-
tion order had imposed a cut of 35% on the South
Indian pictures. He called this "serious injustice".
This is all just stupid and sounds "provincial" in addi-
tion. We are surprised at Vasan, a seasoned journalist,
talking in this strain. He doesn't seem to have learnt
much of the motion picture art though he has been
three years in the business now.

We would advise Vasan to stick to his financial
field, where his genius has been proved, rather than
stray into the artistic field of motion picture making
where he betrays only his ignorance.

Do the South Indian producers know that Walt
Disney puts more human drama in a thousand-feet
cartoon than what we find in a year's India-made pro-
duct?

The Government need not listen to Vasan's prattle
about this grouse. That footage restriction order is a
blessing in disguise and it must stay as it is.

Suvarnalata and Leela Desai team together in "Inkar"
a social story of Laxmi Productions.

14

[H

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n Bomeny talkies* picture

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3.

8.

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LI.
12.
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22.
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25.
26.

29.

31.

33.

34.

CLUES ACROSS

YOU can win First this simply by

using your commonsense

Glue does this

Boy

Amaze

Flesh of ox, bull, or cow

Inexpensive

Employees this wages

Children like to this games

Twisted, distorted, as a face is with

disgust

Opposite of shallow
A person often has to be very deter-
mined to succeed with ideas

Man often suffers for misplaced
sympathy by becoming this !
Bosses who this a lot are seldom
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How agreeable it often is to give
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likely he is to this quarrels
Seemingly some women find it hard
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to this on !

People whose habit it is to do this
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Shamelessly pushing himself often
brings a person this in the social
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It often pays to be this in business
dealings with hypocrite

CLOSING DATE, JULY 23rd

/V.B.— The Entry'Fee is Re. 1 per Square.
Every two Re. 1 Squares submitted by
the same entrant entitles the latter to
one " Half Fee " Square. The Square
below is for practice purposes only.

T7~

Copyright of this puzzle strictly reserved by
Compiler.

FOR FULL PARTICULARS SEE

THE

ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY
OF INDIA

24.
26.

27.

28.

30.
32.

of July 4th or July I Ith

Blank Entry Forms usable or ANY Commonsense Crossword puzzle available in books
from News Agents or direct from the Publication Department, " The Illustrated Weekly of

CLUES DOWN

Tidy person doesn't like things ou.
of this

Hasty, incautious

Soldiers marching on parade should
keep in this

One of five small members forming

front part of person's foot

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spelling)

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Share the Illustrated Weekly with

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this

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If solving Commonsense Crossuiord;
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You get water from mis
How hard it often is to this person
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Generally speaking, life in this is.
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Direct cause of many a weak char-
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Often due to overeating
Think well before you utter word
that is this oath

of 24 Entry forms for Re.l - pott free
India," Hornby Road .Bombay Nc* 1

[In this section, the editor himself replies to queries
from the letters. As thousands of letters are
received every month — some anxious and several frivolous — it is
neither possible nor convenient to attend to all. Selected letters are
usually treated in an informative and humorous strain and no offence
is meant to anyone.]

Jagdish (Nairobi)

What is the name of the new picture which Bombay
Talkies are producing after "Kismet"?

The Bombay Talkies name their "babies" after

they are born. Others name the "baby" first and

set about creating it.
Bhaidu Sanyal (Patna)

Is Nimbalkar of "Bharat Milap" the same man who
Is known as a cricketer?

Heavens, no! This screen Nimbalkar has never

handled a bat nor caught a ball.

Ts Anjali of "Uljhan", the same as Durgesh of
"Pardeshi"?

Very same. Ranjit people give their own names
to their sltars which don't suit other producers!..
Very often the Ranjit people bring an old face,
give it a new name and imagine they have brought
to the screen a new star. I wonder why they have
not renamed Saigal yet.

I want the present address of Shobhana Samarth?

Shah Baug, Peddar Road, Bombay. She often
stands on the 1st floor verandah and you can't miss
her.

Miss Shyama Dara (New Delhi)

The device of "Play Back" may be an advancement
In the technical sphere, but it has been abused by
modern film producers. To what extent can it be
lustified in moral terms?

You can't be strictly moral about motion pic-
ture making. A motion picture is an optical illusion
in itself and the flickers cheat the human eye every
time. However, I agree with you about the abuse
of the play-back technique, seeing that our
Madhuris and Sabitas are shown as singing lilting
songs when they can't even croon in their bath-
rooms. This is considered a permissible fraud as
everything about the 'motion picture industry is.
Do you think that the glamour girls you learn to
love on the screen are as beautiful in life as they
look on the screen? Ninety per cent of them are
ugly and I know.

Iqtida Ali (Lucknow)

Who sings better, Leela Chitnis or Khursheed?

Leela Chitnis doesn't sing. So the question of
Khursheed singing better does not arise.
Do you think Ashok Kumar is India's best, most
popular and highest paid star?

Not the best. He is the most popular today. As
regards payment, there are others earning more.

J Merwanji (Guntakal)

By the way, how is it that producers persist in giv-
ing Leela Chitnis a maiden's role when she positively
looks old?

Producers do many other wrong things. This
is just one of them. May be, that in the eyes of
some she is still young or their eyes are too old to
see anything younger.

Abinash Chandna Varma (Allahabad)

Why don't you interview Mr. Jinnah? Are you not
Interested in the prospects of your industry in "Paki-
stan"?

Since that famous letter of Gandhiji to Mr.
Jinnah and Mr. Jinnah's subsequent utterances, I
have lost all respect for the man whom I had once
wrongly thought to be a fighter. I don't wish to
waste any space on him. When "Pakistan" gets

Kamla Chatterjee, a new comer, makes a good impress
in "Shanker Parvati", a Ranjit picture.

17

July 1943

FILMINDIA

going, we shall export Mr. J. B. H. Wadia, M.B.E.
with his Nadia troupe to that new land and he will
give them what they want in films and entertain-
ment. "Pakistan" won't be such a headache. It
is the rest of Hindustan we are at present worrying
about. People in Hindustan, both Hindus and Mus-
lims, will require some intellectual entertainment.

R. Kumar (Aligarh)

I extremely like the Muslim Punjabi dress on girls.
Why don't you advise our glamour girls to wear it on
the screen?

In trying to find out the reasons of "Khazan-
chi's" sensational success, producers in Bombay
dressed their screen dames in the most gorgeous
Punjabi costumes. Why, they even made the elderly
Durga Khote dance about in that dress in "Tasveer"
and everyone laughed. Many girls stepped on the
screen in that dress and yet the pictures failed.
Then came "Zamindar" which despite the dress
didn't do as well as was expected. So the Bombay
producers pulled off the trousers from those ugly
legs which are monopolised by our stars and put
them into saries again. Now those Punjabi costumes
are worn by our over-developed stars in streets and
clubs, and what a sight they present.

Ashvinikumar Thacker (Mombasa)

Can you tell me why old people are generally
against the film industry?

Padma Bannerjee, a new comer, comes to the screen in
"Age Ka.dam" a social story of Acharya Art Productions.

In "Vijay Laxmi" a social story of Indian Art Pictures,
Shobhana gives some new drama.

Because they missed it in their own youth. We
didn't have motion pictures and glamour girls when
some of these old fossils were young. They had
to fall back upon ordinary singing girls for their
mental romance.

T. P. Rajput (Rupaidiha) '

Where is Naseem nowadays?

Her services have been lent by Mr. Ehsan of
Taj Mahal Pictures to Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall of
"Filmistan". She will be starring with Ashok Kumar
In their first picture.

What are the qualifications of Director Shantaram?

To be able to do something better than any
other director in the industry. Shaniaram is the
ideal other directors try to reach.

I came to know that you have fallen in love with a
new film star. Is it true?

It is true that I am in love but never with a
film star. I don't mix up my business with my
personal life. The person I love is an angel though
she keeps on saying that she is not.

Narendra Singh (Rajpipla)

Where is Director Nanda nowadays?

After completing "Ishara", he is unemployed,
I think. Unemployed Punjabis usually hide their
faces. They don't like daylight.

19

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Distributors EVERGREEN PICTURES, Bombay 4
NORTH INDIA AGENTS: DESAI & Co., DELHI 8c LAHORE.

FILMINDIA

As "Emperor Akbar" in "Tansen", a Ranjit picture,
Mubarak makes history repeat itself.

If actors like Zahur Raja, Nazir and Kishore Sahu
have become directors why don't Motilal, Prithviraj
and Chandramohan take up direction?

They will in good time. Don't worry. When

people stop seeing their faces, they will teach others

to make faces for them.

Miss Dipti Roy (Hazaribagh)

A dear friend of mine who returned from Bombay
has fallen head-over-heels in love with Protima Das
Gupta. She worships Protima. I am afraid one day
she might, be disappointed. Has Protima a heart?

Anatomically she should have one. emotionally

■ — well. I shall examine her and let you know.

Protima is also a very dear old friend of mine but

I meet her once in a blue moon and then, too, it

is a very rowdy meeting.

M. S. Gouda (Uchchangidurgam)

What about Debaki Bose?

What about him? Is he gone mad or anything
like that? He must be somewhere in Bengal. These
are war times and I can't give you the exact address.

You are not reviewing Minerva Pictures? Are they
not worth seeing?

Excepting "Sikandar", which was an excellent
picture, I have reviewed all Minerva pictures. Where
does Sohrab Modi produce any pictures for me to
review them? He has been on "Prithvi Vallabh" for

over a year now. When it is released, I shall tell
you how it is.

Who is the best dance instructor in films?

Mr. V. Shantaram. He told me so himself and
I believe him because once upon a time he used
to dance on the Marathi stage.

Omar Ayob (Mafeking)

Which is the biggest box-office hit of 1942?

"Basant" produced by the Bombay Talkies Ltd.

K. T. Mirchandani (Jhikagali)

The kissing part of "Pahili Manglagour" will defi-
nitely harm our women-folk and I disagree with your
praises showered on this picture.

More harm is being done to our women-folk
because they are not being kissed enough. The
kisses which are given so freely in the pre-marital
stage are forgotten in the subsequent married life
and our women, therefore, lose all the shine on
their face. We smell a flower oftener after picking
it off the tree. That is what we should do with
women if their fragrance is to pervade human life.
You are a Sindhi, why are you on the wrong track?
If you start talking like this the Sindhis in our
city clubs will faint. There is nothing immoral
about kissing. It is a natural expression of one's

In 'Adab Arz', an Amar picture, Director Virendra
Dcsai has put little Nalini Jaywant in this costume, pro-
bably to get a tom-boyish delight out of her.

21

Western Electric is universally known as the
world's largest manufacturer of telephone
equipment. Today its engineers, in collab-
oration with those of the Bell Telephone
Laboratories, are developing new and improved types
of talking motion picture sound equipment. Day in
and day out, they are devoting their great resources
to research — thinking, planning, experimenting — to
create better and still better equipment for the industry
after the war.

So when there is once again peace on earth, and normal
trade conditions return, motion picture producers and
exhibitors can look to Western Electric to supply them
with the best equipment ever available in motion
picture history.

When the time comes for better motion
picture equipment to be provided, Western
Electric will provide it.

WESTERN ELECTRIC CO. LTD.

FORBES BUILDING
HOME STREET, BOMBAY

July 1943

FILMINDIA

which marriage with you probably provides. You
have the privilege of falling in love, though a
married man, yet you have no right to let down
your wife. Your wife is your first responsibility
being a previous liability. If the other girl loves
you as much as she pretends to, she should be able
to reconcile with your present married status and
marry yqu despite your having one wife living.
If your own feelings are genuine both the women
will soon learn to respect them and there will be
no trouble, provided you are a man of strong will.
But if you are a nervous shuttle-cock, two wives
will give you the taste of hell on earth. A Maho-
medan can marry four wives. So you have three
more to score. Never, however, build a new home
on the ruins of an old one if you can't build a new
one side by side. A strong man can build two homes
and be happy in both, if the women truly love the
man and understand him.

Miss Indu Sethi (Lucknow)

When will you celebrate your Sushie's birthday?

On the 20th October every year. Have you any
objection?

Raja K. Ramachandra (Ramachandrapur)

Do you expect Devika Rani to give us better pic-
ture" now that the Mukerjees, Ashok Kumar and others
have left her?

What about "Basant" which she produced all

alone without these people? In my opinion it is

the best picture the Bombay Talkies have produced

in recent years.

A. S. Mahindra (Rawalpindi)

Can a Sikh gentleman with good features and an
excellent voice join the film industry?

Not as an actor unless he obtains the permission
of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee
of Amritsar.

Have Anand Brothers given up the idea of produc-
ing "Guru Nanak Dev"?

They should if they are wise.

S. N. Shankar (Mysore)

Is there any probability of a second Baburao Patel
springing up in India in future?

No chance. My mother died in the very first
attempt.

Bepin Beharilal (Aligarh)

What is the difference between an actress and a
prostitute?

None, though you can't mix one with the other.
Both follow absolutely honest professions — one
earns on her talent, the other on her flesh. The
actress is more fortunate, in her work being called
an artistic profession while the other one is unfor-
tunate in being looked down upon as following an
immoral profession. In my opinion both are res-
pectable members of human society and both belong
to the essential services of our modern times. But
remember that a film actress is not a prostitute.
Her profession is acting. By the way, when will
tfou get rid of your dirty mind?

STEADY PLEASE"

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25

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Audiographs:

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'KISmET' PROUIDES R SCHOOIi-ROOm FOR CRMIIRRliS!

Startling Evidence Proves Crime Pictures A Social Scourge!
Parents Must Save Their Children Now !

(By; Our Special Crime - picture Investigator)

Passing by the Roxy Cinema in
Bombay any afternoon one sees
long, winding queues of people of
all ages and, mostly, the young,
sweating, struggling and defying the
fickle weather to secure a ticket for
"Kismet", a picture of the Bombay
Talkies Ltd. These cinema queues
seem to beat the hunger queues
which we have been accustomed to
see for some months now. The hun-
ger for entertainment seems to be
keener and more urgent than even
the hunger for bread. It looks as
if the starving people of this land
are trying to drown their sorrows
in a few hours of care-free, mind-
comforting entertainment. Hunger
has, no doubt, been at the back of
much desirable progress in this
world. But can the same be said
about this new, all-consuming hun-
ger for entertainment?

To take but one instance, what is
it that film-hungry people get by
way of sustenance in "Kismet"? Is
it something that nourishes their
minds, strengthens their will-power,
fires their ambitions and inspires
them to build a new world? No-
thing of the sort. All that they see
is the fascinating life of a thief and
pickpocket portrayed in a glamorous
and alluring way. Th£ fact that
the thief in the picture happens to
belong to the higher strata of society,
does not tone down his crime role.
On the other hand, it makes it all
the more attractive, all the more
respectable and all the more mu-
table. Now, is this the kind of
nourishment that builds worthy
citizens and a great nation? Is it
not like giving a starving man a
bottle of country liquor when he
cries for bread?

It may be argued that it is all
entertainment and that nobody is
going to be misled by a mere cine-
matic presentation of life. This may
be, to some extent, true of adults
who have strong, experienced minds,

who can discriminate between good
and bad and who have learnt to
discount the value of life as por-
trayed on the screen. To their real-
istic minds, pictures may be nothing
more than a device to while away
their time, nothing more than plain
amusement. But what abqut the
thousands of young, impressionable,
wide-eyed children who see such
pictures?

Do they too take the film as no-
thing more than an afternoon's
amusement? Do they too go through
the whole picture and, at the end
of it, sniff and exclaim, "Oh, but it
is just a film!" Or, on the other
hand, do they by any means take
it seriously as an actual slice of
life, real and warm? Are they im-
pressed and influenced? Do they
fashion themselves after the talkies
they see? What is the effect of
crime on their minds? Are the
movie-going children growing into
a generation of virile and sane citi-

zens or into a rabble of feeble-
minded, irresponsible, pleasure-
seeking criminals? These are ques-
tions which agitate many right-
thinking men and women. And yet
no attempt has been made in this
country to answer them.

AMERICA ANSWERS THE
QUESTIONS

Fortunately, however, the ever-
alert Americans have done some
valuable research work in this direc-
tion. These investigations were
conducted by eminent scholars, doc-
tors and psychologists at the request
of the Motion Picture Research
Council of America a few years ago.
Their investigations have been sum-
marised in a book called "Our Movie
Made Children" by Mr. Henry James
Forman. The book is a profound
and dispassionate study which, at no
stage, descends to propagandist jab-
ber. And the investigations them-
selves were conducted patiently and

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July 1943

FILMINDIA

thoroughly in several educational
institutions, reformatories, juvenile
courts, homes, theatres, etc. and
thousands of boys and girls all over
the country were subjected to ex-
haustive enquiries and psychological
tests in a truly scientific spirit over
a couple of years. This article is
an attempt to catch a few fleeting
impressions of the complacency-
shattering results of those investi-
gations.

The very first chapter of the book
enquires into the scope of motion
pictures. There are any number of
wiseacres in this country who with
a nonchalance that is surprising,
declare that motion pictures are just
motion pictures and nothing more.
But this is what the author of the
book, after studying the various
reports on the investigations, says in
his book, "The aim here is neither
to argue for motion pictures nor
to moralise against them. It is
merely to convince the reader that
what the last quarter of this cen-
tury has given us is another edu-
cational system, alluring, persua-
sive, cogent and appealing, which
involves all the childhood and
youth of the country as complete-
ly, as thoroughly, in effect, as our
long-built education system itself."
And then here is what two authori-
ties on the subject wrote in their
book, "Recent Social Trends": "Al-
though the motion picture is pri-
marily an agency for amusement, it
is no less important as an influence
in shaping attitudes and social
values. The fact that it is enjoyed
as entertainment may even enhance
its importance in this respect."

CHILDREN RETAIN 70%

But it may be pointed out that
children, as a rule, cannot absorb
much from pictures and that what
little they absorb is easily forgotten.
Therefore, some might say that mo-
tion pictures, not excluding even the
worst, can have very little influence
over children. But is this so? Defi-
nitely not, if we were to ask the
American investigators. After mak-
ing about 20,000 testings on about
3000 different children all over Ame-
rica and in regard to over 813,000
items of information, they found

Mr. V. Shantaram was unanimously
elected as the next year's President
of the Indian Motion Picture Pro-
ducers' Association, while Rai Baha-
dur Chuni Lall becomes the Vice-
President.

that children retain about 70% of
what an intelligent adult would
carry away from a motion picture.
That was not all. This visually at-

tained knowledge had in the case of
children a curious expansive qua-
lity, to quote Author Forman, so
that in many cases, after a lapse of
months, the children actually re-
membered more than they remem-
bered directly after seeing the pic-
ture! "If children received," writes
Forman, "whatever they had
gleaned from the screen with the
pliability of wax, they were found
to be retaining it, as the phrase
goes, with the durability of marble."
So dashed to the ground is the popu-
lar theory that children imbibe lit-
tle from films and that what they
imbibe glides off their minds as
easily as water glides off the back
of a duck! It simply doesn't. Far
from it, it sticks in the mind and
actually grows in content with the
passage of time.

But this may not upset the equa-
nimity of our film producers. They
may say, "But our children are
essentially robust-minded and they
wouldn't absorb any filth, even if
there should be such a thing in our
pictures." What have the American
investigators to say about this? In
Forman's words, "All the way from
the second grade to the second year
of High School, children seem to
remember best such items as sports,
crime, acts of violence, general

33

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July 1943

FILMINDIA

action and titles." But this was not
a feature peculiar to the High School
mind. All children showed, accord-
ing to the investigators, this singu-
lar aptitude for remembering sports,
crime, etc. And when one comes to
think that our children are not far
different from American ones or any
children, for that matter, on the
face of the earth, either in nature
or mental make-up, and when one
remembers that most of our pictures
specialize in crimes, acts of violence
and sex, one shudders to think of
their effect on our young, growing
minds, which, we have just seen,
can not only retain seventy per cent
of what adult minds can retain, but
can actually remember more as
time passes by.

POWERFUL EMOTIONAL
EXPERIENCE

Now let us see how children react
to pictures. Are they just amused,
a little critical, a little indifferent as
most adults are, or are they deeply
moved and stirred by the pictures
they see? If the former, we need
not much worry. If the latter, it
gives food for thought. Most of us
know how children are impressed
by pictures. But let us seek the
dispassionate opinion of expert in-
vestigators. This is what they say,
"The seeing of a motion picture is
for young children a powerful
emotional experience that affects
their young brains and nerves
with almost the force of
an electric charge." "The
adult's mature realistic point
of view, what has been called the
adult discount, takes into considera-
tion the acting, the direction and the
characterisation in a picture. In
short, it is critical. But it is the
absence of criticism, the wide-eyed
acceptance of the screen as a tran-
script of life which makes seeing a
movie so thrilling and soul-stirring
an experience to the young."

Some of the other relevant facts
discovered by the investigators were
that adolescents react twice as po-
werfully to pictures as the adults
and young children thrice as power-
fully; that pictures of extreme emo-
tional content leave physical im-
prints lasting as long as seventy
hours, some of them having an

effect similar to shell-shock and
sowing seeds of future neuroses and
psychoses in the young; and that
horror pictures are the worst sin-
ners in this respect.

But our producers may argue,
"What if we treat occasionally of
rogues, murderers and other crimi-
nals in our pictures? Aren't they
a part of the society we live in?
Don't we come across them in real
life? Moreover, even when we de-
pict them in our pictures, don't we
take care to make them look as un-
attractive as possible and don't we
end their careers in punishment or
something equally distasteful and
deterrent?"

As for the argument about our
coming across criminals in real life,
it may be said that when we meet
them in these circumstances, we
know them for what they are worth
— mean, slinking, detestable crea-
tures who shun daylight. We don't
meet them in life, dressed up, gla-
morised and very neatly cast in the
heroic mould as in most pictures.

In life, we don't meet with crime
in the attractive personality of an
Ashck Kumar as in "Kismet", in
the amiable person of a V. H.
Desai, again, in the same picture,

or in the dazzlingly charming
frames of several other film actors.

MERE MORAL DOESN'T HELP

That itself is enough to predis-
pose their fans in favour of crime.
But there are other factors too and
one of them is, as the investigators
found, that crime is generally sym-
pathetically and attractively pre-
sented on the screen in order to
draw crowds. More about this later.

As for the other argument used by
the producers regarding the moral
ending of pictures, this is what the
investigators found: "The younger
the children, the more they appre-
ciated and emotionally responded to
the separate items in the film, and
the less they appreciated or even
assimilated the continuity of the
story, to say nothing, of the moral
or ultimate outcome of the picture.
To give another quotation from the
investigations, a clearer and franker
one, "An exciting robbery, an ecsta-
tic love scene, the behaviour of a
drunkard, and the like cannot be
toned down by the moral situation
at the end of the picture when the
episode is justified in terms of the
hand of the law or the retribution
of an outraged Providence. The

scores an°^er
triumph

From

Jmpmalpelhl

B m sNO»:app/D was of

ID^HIT IS Q SHOLinflR PICTURE

July 1943

FILMINDIA

ultimate outcome of the story, the
moral that honesty is the best policy,
the assumption that the way of the
sinner is hard, are adult generalisa-
tions and belong to what may be
called the 'adult discount'. Even
if the picture clearly depicts this
outcome, it very seldom strikes the
attention of the younger generation
with anything like the force that it
does the adult mind." What have
the producers of crime pictures to
say about this?

Even when there is a moral at the
end of the picture, it has little influ-
ence over the young. When there
isn't one, as in "Kismet", where the
thief is not only allowed to go scot-
free, but secures a social status and
is given a charming wife in the end,
the effect on young minds can be
easily imagined.

REPETITION DEEPENS
IMPRESSION

Now comes the question, how do
movies influence children? By dint
of careful experiments, the Ameri-
can investigators have discovered
that films have excellent propaganda
value and that they can effectively
influence the minds of children, es-
pecially, for good or for bad. They
found that not only do motion pic-
tures leave a definite imprint on the
minds of children who see them,
but that this effect or mental influ-
ence is cumulative, growing with
each picture of a particular type
they see. Thu^, the investigators
discovered that if children were
shown, for instance, a series of anti-
Negro pictures, they became anti-
Negro and vice-versa. Repetition
only deepens the effect. Arguing on
this basis, the investigators ventur-
ed the view that, if children were
shown gangster pictures continuous-
ly, they might come to love and
adore gangsters!

Let us now see if the movies go
so far as to influence conduct. Imi-
tation, as we all know, comes natu-
ral to children. In fact, they get
their early education mostly through
imitation. The movies, because of
their dramatic quality, their vivid-
ness and glamour, become inevitably
a very powerful factor in such imi-
tation. In fact, the investigators

found "that imitation of the movies
was wide-spread among the young,
not only in such harmless matters as
dress and beautification but in such
other particulars as love-technique,
flirtation, kissing, caressing, etc."
Some of these things enter into the
day-dreams of adolescents, which as
the investigators put it, "may stimu-
late impulses and whet appetites."

SOME STARTLING CONFESSIONS

Here are a few juvenile confess-
ions which they came across in the
course of their investigations in this
particular sphere. "I have learned
from the movies," said a High School
girl, "how to be a flirt, and I found
out that at parties and elsewhere
the coquette is the one who enjoys
herself the most." From among 500
students examined on the subject,
nearly thirty-three per cent admit-
ted that they learnt the technique
of love-making from the pictures.
One of them said, "It was directly
through the movies that I learned to
kiss on her (his girl friend's) ears,
neck and cheeks as well as on her
mouth." In fact, movies were des-
cribed by most young people as "a
liberal education in the art of love-
making."

And then about the day-dreaming
that follows picture-seeing. A young
girl confessed to the investigators,

"How often I have wasted time day-
dreaming, picturing myself as the
heroine of those wonderful pictures."
A college girl was franker: "I al-
ways put myself in the place of the
heroine. If the hero was some man
by whom I should enjoy being kiss-
ed (as he invariably was), my
evening was a success, and I went
home in a dreamy state of mind, my
heart beating fast and my usually
pale cheeks flushed."

Another said, "I picture myself as
the recipient of Gilbert's kisses (in
a certain picture). Folded in his
arms, I could forget all my school
worries." This is not something
typically American. We know how
our own dreamy-eyed college boys
and girls go crazy over pictures,
dream of them by the hour and
waste their substance on unattain-
able longings. They might even be-
came neurotic. The large number
of letters received by the Editor of
'filmindia' provides ample proof of
this.

Apart from that, there is no deny-
ing the fact that films have, as we
have seen, tremendous influence
over the young. It was this dis-
covery which made Author Forman
declare in his book, "The screen is
an open book, a school, a system
of education, amounting often to

Fast and furious, Baburao Pendharkar approaches with his usual
impetuosity, but Leela Desai takes guard in "Nagad Narayan", a social

comedy of New Huns.

37

116 CHARNI ROAD, BOMBAY

:

July 1945

FILMINDIA

be a moulder of character of the
young.'

If so, let us see if undesirable
films lead to delinquency in the
young.

WANTS TO BE ROBIN HOOD!

Before proceeding to study the
question of delinquency, the inves-
tigators endeavoured to find out to
what extent the average run of boys
and girls is made more tolerant of
crime and criminals by pictures
dealing with such subjects. And
they found that many boys and girls
"not only expressed sympathy for
the criminal, but a few of them
drew the conclusion that mere hard
work is not desirable."

A sixteen-year-old boy declared
for instance, "A lot of crime movies
I have seen made me feel more
favourable towards crime by depic
ting the criminal as a hero who
dies protecting his friend against
the police, or some movies show
him as a debonair gentleman who
robs at will from the rich and
spares the poor. I have thought I
would like to be a Robin Hood?'

These words might very well have
come from a Bombay boy after see-
ing "Kismet", wherein a common
thief is elevated to heroic heights
and wherein he is made to appear
as debonair ana honourable as pos-
sible and to face grave risks and
even death in helping a girl friend!

To go back to our subject, about
one-fourth of the boys and girls,
examined by the investigators, ad-
mitted that motion pictures made
them more favourable to crime and
criminals. Little wonder then that
a boy in a reformatory should pa-
thetically exclaim to the investiga-
tors, "These crime pictures portray-
the thief as a man who is good and
just and only trying to support his
aged mother! The writers ought to
be shot for such stuff!"

These plain, forthright words of
anguish from a young, suffering
offender's heart voice the cry of the
whole juvenile world against that
tribe of conscienceless scribes who
live by selling crime and sex in as
tempting a manner as possible.
They really ought to be shot down!
And the producers of such pictures
should be impaled in public squares!

55% AFFECTED SERIOUSLY

Many were the boys in a reform-
atory who directly traced their
crimes to the movies. And the in-
centive for their offences came from
a desire, say the investigators, to
possess as much wealth", leisure,
power and ease as the men and
women shown in the films. Here
is a typical confession from a young
offender: "Seeing gangsters having
lots of money and big cars and be-
ing big shots, makes a fellow want
them."

Fiftyfive per cent of the boys,
tested in a reformatory, attested to
the fact that movies stirred in them
desires "to make a lot of money
easily." But it does not merely stop
with having desires!

According to the investigators, not
only do films stimulate criminal ten-
dencies in the children, but show
them techniques, methods and
means of committing crimes. The
criminally inclined, they say, are
apt to store away these techniques
and ideas so carefully wrought out
before them on the screen with all
the finesse of laboratory procedure.
In a way, declares Author Forman,
the constantly recurring crime pic-

tures may become for a portion of
the spectators not only a school, but
a very university of crime with a
wide range of techniques, sugges-
tions and patterns cunningly exe-
cuted and vividly presented.

LEARNING TO SELL SEX

It is a well-known fact that most
of our films literally reek with sex.
Does this lead to any sexual mis-
demeanour on the part of the young?
Here, again, the American investi-
gators are our source of authorita-
tive information. They examined
hundreds of girls in a house of cor-
rection and fortyone per cent of
them said that it was the movie that
inclined them to wild parties, caba-
rets, etc. — a course which ultimately
landed them in trouble.

They cried out that they "wanted
the clothes of the movie heroines,
the freedom of the movie heroines,
the good times and wild parties of
the movie heroines." One of them
said, "The movies make me wish I
had a car and lots of money. They
tell me how to get it. There are
several different ways of getting
money; through sex, working, etc.
Most always I get mine through
sex."

Begging jor recognition, the great Dushyanta comes to the hermitage of
Shakuntala. Featuring Jayashree and Chandramohan in the principal roles
Shantaram is reported to have made -Shakuntala", a spectacular picture.

39

DISTRIBUTION WITH:

Bombay Presidency, CP.
and C.I.

Northern India, Sind and
Baluchistan
Bengal Circuit:
Southern Circuit including
Nizam's Dominions

CALCUTTA FILM EXCHANGE, BOMBAY 4.

MANORANJAN PICTURES,

DELHI LAHORE KARACHI

KAPURCHAND LTD., CALCUTTA.

SELECT PICTURES CIRCUIT, BANGALORE CITY.

For Overseas : MEHBOOB PRODUCTIONS, Tardeo Road, Bombay 7.

July 1943

FILMINDIA

Another stated, "When I see a
fellow and a girl in a passionate
Jove scene, such as in thve 'VThe
Pagan" (a picture), I just have a
hot feeling going through me and I
want to do everything bad."

"After I have seen a romantic
scene," confessed a fdurteen-year-
old girl, "I feel as though I couldn't
have just one fellow to love me, but
I would like about five."

Another was still more revealing,
"A movie would get me so passion-
ate, after it was over, that I just
had to have relief. You know what
I mean."

At least twenty-five per cent of
the delinquent girls, that were ques-
tioned, acknowledged having engag-
ed in sexual relations after becom-
ing roused at a movie.

What is worse, several boys con-
fessed to having used the movies to
rouse the passion of their girl
friends from selfish motives. Here
is the technique which one of them
described, "You know if you ever
wanted to have relations with a girl,
all you got to do is to take 'her to
one of those plays. They give her
the idea. She gets roused, and the
next is up to you."

Author Forman sums up the whole
affair in these scathing words,
"For them the movies constitute
an education along the left-hand
or primrose path of life, to the
wreckage of their own lives and
to the detriment and cost pf
society."

THE GOOD ONES AFFECTED

We have already seen that child-
ren, as a rule, do not catch the moral
in a picture. Even when they do,
the influence, according to the in-
vestigators, is a temporary one. This
is what a young convict told them:
"Movies I don't think could make
one go straight. Sad pictures some-
times make me think a good deal,
but after you get back on the street,
you have other things to think
about." And even When some films
act as deterrents, they are not the
crime pictures, but the religious and
moral ones.

Basing their opinions on the res-
ponds to their questionnaire on the

subject, the investigators say:
"It seems that although some pic-
tures make boys and girls, delin-
quent and non-delinquent,; to be
really good, the immediate effect
is, on the whole, temporary, of
longer duration among girls than
boys, and among non-delinquent
boys than among delinquent
boys."

The book which I have tried to
summarise in these few pages is, no
doubt, American. It deals too with
American conditions. But it does
not take much thought to find out
that those conditions are to a large
extent true of this country too. One
might, however, say that Indian
pictures have not yet degenerated to
the same extent. It may be true;
it may not be. Anyway, is it not
worth while to know fully the far-
reaching influence of motion pictures
so that we at least might avoid the
pitfalls into which other people
have fallen?

The hunger which the long queues
at the Roxy Cinema exhibit is, as
I have already said, a new and
urgent hunger. It is the craving of
the millions in this country for

something that will bring cheer Into
their drab, dull lives. And when we
remember that many of those mil-
lions are children with young and
unformed minds, the need for satis-
fying that hunger with clean, whole-
some food, and not with the intoxi-
cant of a thief's successful and
wholly charming adventures as in
"Kismet", will be evident to all but
the crassly stubborn, crassly self-
centred and crassly myopic.

I now pose the question to the
reader: Would you like to send your
children to a school where they will
be taught how to misbehave, how to
steal, how to pick pockets, in short
how to be perfect criminals?

The child, you have loved and
nursed through years of toil and
tears, is to be left to the mercy
of motion picture producers who
have their conscience in their pocket
and who would rather make your
child a shameful criminal than lose
their coppers at the cinema gates?

(Read what Dr. Miss Cama, the
Presidency Magistrate oj the Juve-
nile Court, says about crime pic-
tures. Her article is printed else-
where in this issue.)

41

m u\ms

TOPICAL SATIRE

TUEltt STOOV IS AS
Mt^DUrtt6

{PAIS A BOLTO HAI marath,)

Produced by:
BABURAO PENDHARKAR

Written & Directed by:
VISHRAM BEDEKAR

04
9

Starring:
BABURAO PENDHARKAR
LEELA DESAI
KUSUM DESHPANDE

A 'SILVER SCREEN EXCHANGE' RELEASE

MEET THE LOVELIEST STAR OF THL

IN SHALIMARS ROLLICKING MUSICAL COMEC
A GALAXY OF ACTING TALENT IN THE SI

MUNSHI
2 A H E E R

H.

P R A K A S H

N A Z E E R
B E D I

RAJKUMARI
S H U K L A

R E K H A

S H A N T A
T H A K A R

MALA

* R(t

d at

Ihiand RITZ, S

on June 18 and running
to crowded houses.

MIAN SCRUfL

:v, WITH -

SUPPORTING CAST

you Grill meet kcA ctcjaim

^tk shyam inMUN-KI -JEET

CMidttveh Ahmed pAcdiu^tioit j
and tf&n fjtAlcttr
PMATI * UNDHER NAGRI ★ NUL DAMYANTI ★ CHAUPAT RAJA

SUALIMAR PICTURES

office: VINCENT SQUARE, Dadar, Bombay. studio, Shankarshet Road, Poon

This well-known actor scores a new triumph as "Dushyanta" in " Shakuntala" , a
Rajkamal picture directed by Mr. Shantaram.

PRODUCED BY-

PRADEEP PICTURES, 2l3, New Charni Road, BOMBAY, 4.
North:- Oriental Film Exchange, DELHI. South:- Standard Pictures, BANGALORE,

CP. C.I.:- Popular Films Ltd, BHUS4VAL. Bengal:- Chitrabharatl, Kalighat, CALCUTTA.

Apply for territorial rights to; Kamali o.y Productions. H6, Charni Road, Bombay>4.
For North lndia:-S itara Films Ltd., Traders' Bank Building, Lahore.

Well-Known Bombay Surgeon Speaks

On Films !

Dr. Moolgavkar Makes His Own Films !

(By. Our Special^Correspondent)

I have taken more than 15,000
feet of 16 mm. film, both silent and
talkie, out of which more than half
is devoted to medical subjects the
rest being of the various places I
have visited. I must confess that
the talkie has not always been a
success. The medical pictures were
taken with the idea either of illus-
trating diseases or of helping at my
lectures. The silent pictures re-
quire a lot of time titling them but
I hope to complete that part when
I retire from active work", observed
Dr. S. R. Moolgavkar, Bombay's
well-known surgeon in the course
of a nice talk he gave me on films.

When I asked him whether he
believed in the usefulness of the
cinema in helping education, he said
that he has always been a staunch
believer in the usefulness of the
cinema in carrying home and im-
pressing facts and details in all
branches of teaching both in the
school and in the college. For social

uplift and for pointing out and ad-
justing social defects there is no-
thing to touch the cinema. In medi-
cal work a large number of select-
ed cases can be made available for
facilitating the study of diseases, in
fact many more than a student
would see in the normal course of
his instruction. Time is no barrier
to the cinema. A rare case taken
ten years before can be shown again
and again long after the death of
the patient. A diseased gait can be
studied in all its detail by adding a
slow motion picture to the ordinary
picture of the gait. Operations can
be studied in detail and all import-
ant points emphasized both in the
actual picture and in interpellated
diagram. Bacteriology and patho-
logical (diseased structure) pro-
cesses can be studied with macro-
scopical and microscopical speci-
mens as well as by diagrams and
cartoon pictures incorporated in the
film. What applies to medicine must

Dr. S. R. Moolgavkar, F.R.C.S., a
Surgeon, but a film enthusiast.

also apply to other subjects except
perhaps to only one and that is
literature.

"This fact has been recognised all
over the civilised world and in most
countries, not particularly in Ame-
rica, there are available for educa-
tional institutes educational films of
all kinds either free or at a nominal
hire. Unfortunately in this country
this work has not been seriously
taken up. Cine photography has
reached a high degree of excellence
in our country and there is no rea-
son whatsoever why useful films
could not be produced provided they
are well directed and properly plan-
ned."

Dr. Moolgavkar is a modest man.
He speaks with a soft, soothing
voice and even in your first meeting
with him, you feel as if you are in
the presence of an old friend. I
began with asking him whether he
was very fond of films. I had heard
that he was a film-a-day film fan.
He replied without hesitation, "Yes,
I am quite fond of pictures and I
go to see them whenever possible.
I do so, however, just to entertain
myself, to forget the day's routine
and the little worries. A surgeon
and medical practitioner has to spend
much of his time with people who
have physical ailments, and who are
often in a serious condition. Even
if a doctor has no worries of his own,

Maya Bannerjee and Leela Desai team together in "Vichar", a social picture

of Shree Films.

55

DRAWING UNPRECEDENTED CROWDS IN 4th WEEK

BARUA PRODUCTIONS

BARUA JAMUNA

Diree/ee/ iy

P.C. BARUA

a SUPER

TALKIES

DAILY AT 4-45, 7-15 & 10
FR1, SAT, SUN & HOLIDAYS First Show At 2 P. M.

A N

Advance Booking at Theatre Between 10 and 12.
EVERGREEN RELEASE

July 1943

FILMINDIA

he has to worry for his patients.
The cinema takes you to quite a
cloistered, little, new, far-off fairy
world and the change, I find, is
usually soothing."

LIKES SOCIAL THEMES

I asked Dr. Moolgavkar to men-
tion some recent pictures and tell
me why he liked or disliked them.
He did not like that way of doing it,
because, he observed, "that would
be invidious." After all he could
not say that he was seeing every
picture like a professional film
critic but he was ready to say what
he felt about particular pictures, if
I mentioned some. I gathered that
he went to see both English and
Indian pictures. He had a slight
preference for English pictures, be-
cause he liked the variety of sub-
jects offered, as also the shorter
duration in comparison with the
lengthy Indian films. His experi-
ence was that even good Indian
pictures had a tendency to be at
times a little boring because of their
length and the unending music
which, he thought, became mono-
tonous.

He was unable to see why every
Indian picture must have some kind
of music. He was no hater of music.
He was quite fond of Hindustani

AFTER 150 YEARS OF BRITISH RULE.

TWO BROTHERS
TWO WIFES

and
A WOMAN

Create the Greatest Most Emo-
tionally High Strung Screen
drama that ever flashed on the
INDIAN SCREEN
SUNRISE'S SOCIAL

GUAR SANSAR

• ♦ ♦> *Z* ♦;• *

A LOVE that never fades —
even unto death — But it all

delight and no woes in

TALWARS'

KHAMOSH

And after 30 years of film making our publicity managers still turn out
stuff like this. And the newspapers don't even care to correct. These
advertisements appeared in the "Bombay Sentinel" edited by no less a
person than Mr. Horniman, India's premier journalist.

music and he did not see why films
did not give that without the flou-
rishes and gymnastics of some of
our celebrated 'ustads' and songs-
tresses in place of the present
monotony.

He welcomed the new trend in
Indian pictures of taking social
themes against familiar backgrounds
and considered that Marathi pro-

Kanan brings some pathetic tunes to the screen in "Hospital", a social story
released by the Supreme Film Distributors.

ductions in this respect were more
appealing and realisitc. He men-
tioned "Savkari Pash" with great
admiration and mentioned 'Pahila
Palna' and 'Pahili Manglagaur' as
fine attempts to poke fun at certain
shibboleths. He was in favour of
good comedy based on situations
and developed through nice dia-
logues, but of this he did not see
much in the Hindustani pictures,
i.e., in such of them as he was able
to see so far. He mentioned with
relish several historical episodes
from Mahratta history in some of
the Marathi pictures and mentioned
'Sikandar' and 'Pukar' among the
good historicals he had seen among
Hindustani films.

LIKES "MRS. MINIVER"

He switched off to speak about
"The Young Mr. Pitt" of 20th Cen-
tury Fox which was recently shown
at Eros. He spoke with admiration
about the correct reproduction of
atmosphere during Pitt's days and
his contemporaries. He recalled
many such biographicals and men-
tioned 'Zola', 'Edison', 'Reuter' and
'Disraeli' and others as outstanding
examples for our producers. Of the
recent pictures he had seen, he
liked "Mrs. Miniver" very much.
He considered that as a beautiful

57

July 1943

FILMINDIA

Emperor Akbar was a great humanitarian. Here is a pathetic situation
from "Tansen", a Ranjit picture.

combination of propaganda and
realism. With the beginning of the
war there came a few anti-Nazi pic-
tures and many of them, he thought,
were very artistic and realistic pro-

paganda against the Fascists and
their methods.

BOON TO HUMANITY

He said he was an ardent advo-
cate of visual instruction and he

hoped it would be very soon in
vogue in this unfortunate country
too. As a typically good propaganda
film for adult education he mention-
ed "The Birth of a Baby". Ex-
cepting the actual birth part he was
in favour of such films to teach
social and individual hygiene and to
explain problems of public
health to our rural and urban
masses. The municipalities, he
thought, should take lead in this
matter. If there is such a demand
on a large scale, film producers will
also be found helpful and willing to
direct their activity in this direc-
tion.

Summing up his attitude towards
films, he said it was a great boon
to humanity that such a vehicle for
entertainment and education was
made available by scientific advance-
ment. All scientific discoveries were
intended to be used for the benefit
of humanity and if scientists and
social reformers always remember-
ed that, this world of ours would be
a much better place to live in.

Dr. J. M. Kumarappa, Director, Sir
Dorabji Tata School of Social Work.

duced in America, which specialize
in sensational robberies, hold-ups
breath-taking escapes, man-hunts,
murders and the other ingredients
of stream-lined crime, which may
easily give an impressionable child
an entirely wrong angle on life.

Dr, Kumarappa Wants Children To Be Protected !

Suggests Special Classification Of Films !

(By Our Special^Crime

Interviewed on the subject of the
harm done by certain "crime" pic-
tures to the young, Dr. J. M. Kuma-
rappa, M.A., S.T.B., Ph.D., Director
of the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate
School of Social Work, a well-known
scholar and social worker keenly
interested in juvenile problems, sug-
gested that a responsible committee
of persons, interested in child wel-
fare, should be set up to classify new
films as they came and to publish
periodically a list of such pictures
as could be safely seen by children.
If it was not possible to establish
such a committee at present, the
Bombay Board of Film Censors, at
least, could carefully examine pic-
tures and recommend, through
newspapers, the best and the heal-
thiest only for children.

This was one method whereby
children could be protected from
the dangerous influence of crime

'picture Investigator)

pictures. This danger, according to
Dr. Kumaarppa, did not lie so much
in the presentation of crime as a
natural and normal concomitant of
life as in the deliberate attempt
made by some producers to appeal
to the baser instincts of man by em-
bellishing and exaggerating crime
from purely commercial motives.
"Producers", he said, "should de-
pict life on the screen as it actually
is and not as they like or as their
financial interests dictate."

But Dr. Kumarappa does not
think that Indian producers are yet
as great sinners in this respect as
some of the Western producers. But
he admits that there is always the
danger of our people copying indis-
criminately from the West and im-
porting the undesirable features of
foreign films into our own.

He is particularly set against the
gangster pictures of the type pro-

59

The RELEASE of

'ROYAL' - Jewel No. 18

IN HINDI & MARATHI

World Rights
Controlled by

&0YAL
FILM
CIRCUIT

BOMBAY 4.

will he the GREATEST Epoch-making Event
in the History of the Indian Silver Screen !

WATCH for the

Premiere Release in Bombay f

OUR REVIEW

Ramola Gives Bn Outstanding Performance

"Man-Chali" Provides Good Entertainment

Good Direction, Good Music And Good Dialogues !

Ramola shot to stardom in that
sensational picture "Khazanchi" and
since then she has been seen in seve-
ral pictures. But never before has
she done better work than in "Man-
Chali" where she lives the role of
a village tom-boy.

It is a perfectly beautiful per-
formance which Ramola has given
and it could not have been better.
Mulish in her childish gambols, im-
pulsive in her adventures, foolhardy
in her escapades, coy in her ro-
mance, pathetic in her disappoint-
ment, cunning in her strategy and
superb in her action. Ramola covers
the screen completely to the supreme
delight of the critic and the fan.
And whenever she is not on the
screen, the picture begins to bore.
For, without Ramola "Man-Chali"
loses its soul. So completely have
the sequences of the story been
built round her central figure.

For R. C. Talwar's first effort as
a director, we have high praise. The
work he has taken from Ramola is
by itself an outstanding achievement
and if there are a few technical
flaws here and there, they certainly
do not take anything away from the
outstanding merit attained by the
director.

No doubt, it was a mistake to con-
centrate so completely on Ramola
and leave the other characters in
the story severely alone but seeing
what Ramola has given we would
rather condone the mistake.

It is worth many such mistakes to
see Ramola in her full war-paint as
a screen artiste.

RICH-POOR TANGLE

The story has the popular hack-
neyed angle of a rich boy falling in
love with a poor village girl while
he has another girl of his own set
waiting to get married. Add to this
dish the usual sprinkling of 'family
prestige', 'fortune-at-stake stuff',
'sacrifice for love' etc., and you get
"Man-Chali", the story which Holly-
wood has been giving for the last
30 years to a romance-hungry world.

Ramola is the tom-boy of her vil-
lage. They dislike her and yet love
her. When the story opens she has
made herself a perfect nuisance to
everyone and people give her a wide
berth.

To this village comes Jyoti a rich
boy with a fussy mother who ima-
gines her son to be constantly ail-
ing. He is put to bed on the least
pretext.

By her outstanding performance
Ramola lends prestige to the director
and success to "Man-Chali" produced
by Talwar Productions.

Jyoti and Ramola soon clash and
the first sparks of romance go flying
round creating plenty of laughter
and trouble. They are soon in love
and the 'ailing' Jyoti now becomes
a lion in love.

Now comes the other woman,
Dulari, polished, educated, sophisti-
cated and yet loving. Dulari's bro-
ther holds the estates of Jyoti and
can cut Jyoti out with the prover-
bial farthing. He threatens to do

MAN-CHALI

Producers: Talwar Productions i

; Language: Hindustani i

Story and Dialogues: Casshyap \

Songs: Casshyap and Chisti I

Music: G. A. Chisti j

Photography: A. Car I

Audiography: G. Dass !

Cast: Ramola, Ramdulari, |

Jyoti Prakash, Gyani etc. J

Released At: New West End, |

i Bombay. j

, Date of Release: 15th May 1943 j

Director:
R. C TALWAR
. .. j. , .... ....«

so when he finds the Jyoti-Ramola
affair taking a serious turn.

Now the time for a show-down
comes. And there is one. Jyoti
sacrifices his riches to marry Ra-
mola. Ramola, however, makes her
own sacrifice by leaving Jyoti with
an impression that she was a gold-
digger. That calls for a third sacri-
fice which Casshyap brings in with-
out failing us. Dulari, who had
watched the drama of sacrifices,
makes her own sacrifice by giving
up Jyoti and by restoring his estates.

Needless to say that it ends well.
These stories always end well on
the screen.

No one objects to a story like
this, though it serves no better pur-
pose than giving a little harmless
entertainment.

BEAUTIFUL DIALOGUES

The picture has beautiful dia-
logues— sometimes remarkably strik-
ing in their idiom and ornament.

The music of the picture has a
popular rhythm and goes very well
with the audience. Song composi-
tions, however, fall short of the high
expectations raised by the dialogues.

We didn't like Jyoti Prakash. He
seemed stiff and his dialogues were
delivered in Bengali Hindustani.
Besides Ramola, Gyani was the only
artiste who spoke his dialogues well.
As an old family servant, Gyani,
however, overacted in places and
made his work unnecessarily melo-
dramatic.

In fine, "Man-Chali" is a picture
worth seeing if for nothing else at
least to see the brave little Ramola
give an outstanding performance of
her screen career.

61

: ^ Agents For North Excluding Sindh:- KUMAR FILMS DISTRIBUTORS, LAHORE.
For other,Territories Apply;- RAJA.MOV1ETONE, Main Road, Dadar, BOMBAY 14.

OUR REVIEW

'Ranee' Prouides Another Disappointment !

When Will Barua Stop Acting ?

Jamuna Provides Saving Grace I

This is another Barua picture. It
is certainly better than 'Jawab', be-
cause it has a better story and a
better theme.

But as the story unfolds itself on
the screen, one feels like pitying
Producer-director-actor Barua who
makes a complete fool of himself in
whatever capacity one looks at him.

Barua's work as a director has de-
generated beyond recognition
Through both the pictures, 'Jawab'
and 'Ranee', we fail to find any
traces of the old-time genius of
Barua which gave us startlingly
great pictures like 'Devdas', 'Adhi-
kar' etc. Unless Barua reclaims
himself, and quickly, he will soon
join the ranks of the tin-pot third-
rate directors whom we find in such
large numbers in our film industry.

That will be a bad day for our
film industry, which, as it is, claims
very few intellectuals on the pro-
duction side.

The story, as we have said before
is basically good. It could have
made a forceful motion picture with
a more imaginative film script. But

RANEE

Producers: Barua Productions
Language: Hindustani
Scenario and Photography:

P. C Barua
Audiography: J. D. Irani

Music: Kamal Das Gupta

Songs: Pandit Madhur

Cast: P. C. Barua, Jamuna,
Jahar Ganguly, Kalavati,
etc.

Released At: Super, Bombay.
Date of Release: 4th June 1943

Director:
P. C. BARUA

he script seems to have been writ-
en by the present-day Barua and
he story development has become

Motilal seems to be an inquisitive fellow the way he annoys sweet Anjali
Devi in "Age Kadam" a social story of Acharya Art Productioyis.

This is "young and handsome"
Barua, the hero of "Ranee".

erratic, illogical and unemotional at
several places.

VICTIM OF GOSSIP

Malti, a village maiden, on the
eve of her wedding becomes the vic-
tim of vile gossip-mongers. She is
called unchaste and other names and
is consequently ostracized by her
society. She runs away giving the
impression of having committed sui-
cide and reappears as Ranee, a maid
servant in a city hotel.

At this city hotel arrives Raj, des-
cribed in the film booklet as 'the
young and handsome brother of the
village Zamindar'. When you look
at Barua in this role with his bloat-
ed face, broad ugly nostrils, tiny
blinking eyes, frail and rickety
figure crowned with a silly cap, the
'young and handsome' description
helps to create a downright derision
in the mind of the spectators.

Barua seems to be a living nega-
tion of all our ideals in motion pic-
ture heroes.

Does Barua think himself to be so
handsome that picture after picture
he can intrude on us as the hero of
his stories? And are we to take it
that all sweet maidens in the story
fall headlong in love with him be-
cause he is 'young and handsome'
according to his strictly own pri-
vate standards?

65

NOT ONE OR TWO . . . BUT SIX SONGS

Story, Scenario, Dialogues
&

Direction By

ZIA SARHADY

Assistant:

ESMAIL MEMON

Music:

K. DATTA

Are Sung In Her
Sweetest Style By
The One And Only

NUR JEHAN

in

A. B. PRODUCTIONS'

MAIDEN MUSICAL COMEDY-HIT

A SPARKLING TALE OF HUMANITY'S
FOLLIES & FOIBLES.

Co-starring

M A S O OD

with

JAMSHEDJI, ZILLO BAI, MAYADEVI
JANI BABU. MUKRI, MURAD & AMAN

To Be Released!

Very SHorUy Q{ IMPERIAL

CINEMA

FOR BOOKINGS WRITE TO

A. B. PRODUCTIONS

JYOTI STUDIOS, KENNEDY BRIDGE. BOMBAY -7.

July 1943

FILMINDIA

While we have all respect for
Barua's one-time intellect and
genius, his hero-portrayals in his
own pictures constitute an outrage
on all our hero-worship ideals and
our conceptions of the aesthetics in
life.

Can't Barua stick to his own field
of motion picture direction wherein
we expect some great things from
him?

Coming back to the story, Ranee
falls in love with Raj and does odd
jobs for him as the hotel maid. Raj
who has come to learn music soon
takes to drink and willingly suffers
the affectionate tyranny of Ranee
when she dissuades him from drink-
ing. The mental long-distance ro-
mance continues for some time till
a small climax is reached. Ranee
leaves the hotel and Raj goes back.

The emotional muddle prolongs it-
self for sometime till Raj feels that
he has finally lost Ranee. And now
it is time for Raj to take himself to
the time-honoured situation of
drinking himself to death.

By some strange coincidence Ranee
has now become a full-fledged nurse
— as if becoming one was like pick-
ing up a ripe plum — and she is
rushed post haste to Raj who quick-
ly recovers under the loving nurse-
cum-hotel maid.

By this time, the stupid-looking
Zamindar discovers that Ranee is
really Malti to whom injustice had
been done once.

With all the Individual consciences
now returning to their proper slots
what else can you expect but Ranee
getting the 'young and handsome
prize-boy'.

It all ends well. Long live Barua!

BARUA FAILS

The story could have become a
strong argument against rumour-
mongers of our society. Barua lost
that chance.

The story could have depicted
vividly the struggle of our ostraciz-
ed woman trying to maintain her
womanly chastity in the midst of
male sharks. Barua lost that chance.

Barua turned the story into an
ordinary romance between a rich
idler and a poor street girl and skip-

ped clear of the social values which
were inherent in the theme.

As a director, Barua has failed
again and miserably. Not a single
scene in the picture has been well
done.

Barua's own performance creates
a revulsion in one's mind. His con-
stantly distending ugly nostrils, his
mechanical dragging steps befitting
a somnambulist, his nasal, nervous
dialogues suggesting effeminacy — all
contribute to create a ludicrous
effect, especially when we are told
that he is supposed to be "young
and handsome".

/IFE is like a game of Chess, played by
mar against Fate. Every move must
be well planned, well considered and in
time, if one wants to win the game, to be
carefree and comfortable.

You too must begin making your plans to
checkmate the moves of Fate and win the
game— plans to build a comfortable and
secure future.

Send for the local Bombay Mutual Man.

Jamuna provides the only saving
grace in the picture. She gives a
performance polished to the finger
nails.

Sound and photography are quite
good. The music of Kamal Das
Gupta is trite and we hear tunes
heard on the screen many times be-
fore.

We would not recommend this
picture for entertainment. It is a
time-killer and if you have new
"company" you can buy a box ticket
and utilize the lights-off period,
without missing anything of the
picture.

He will advise you how to plan a comfort-
able future without inconveniencing your-
self or straining your resources. He will
study your particular requirements. He
will help you assure for yourself future
comfort, security and peace of mind.

THE BOMBAY MUTUAL

LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY. LTD.

Bombay Mutual Building. Hornby Road. BOMBAY.

R .

• 6 '

EVERY POLICY - HOLDER A SHARE BOLDE

N

AGENTS; All over India, Ceylon & British East Africa.

67

THFFOUL TIPS OF FATE

starring:

KISHORE SAHU
PROTIMA DAS GUPTA

Rani Bala - Moni Chatlerji -Ramesh Gupta - Gulab
Badri Prasad - Kashinalh - Ananl Prabhu

BOOKINGS FOR BOMBAY PRESIDENCY :

New India Pictures Corp. Ltd.

Grant Road, BOMBAY.

A Bold Bid For

PURNIMA

R A

A DARING SATIRE ON SO
Zstablisltinj 7lew (ytanda'ic

The Most Thought-provokin;

STORY, SCREE,

KISHOR

(THE DIRECTOR O

ntellectual Lead I

RODUCTIONS'

J A

i=TY DARINGLY PRESENTED
in 'film Git b Teclinicjue

Picture of The Year

3 LAY & DIRECTION

: SAHU

"KUNWARA BAP")

MUSIC

KHAN MAST ANA

DIALOGUES

AMRITLAL NAGAR

LYRICS

RAM MURTI

NEXT CHANGE AT KOUEbTU TRbKIES, Bombay.

at

the leading
Tkeafae

Directed by G U N J A L

BAMNIKLAL MOHAtlLAL & (o.

have the pleasuze to announce

that they have secured the
distribution rights for BOMBAY,
CP., C.I., SOUTH & OVERSEAS

for

~%ouh Pictures

of

BARUA

PRODUCTIONS

after "RANI"

these 4 are

SUBEH SHAM"

&

3 others.

: o :

To be released shortly

SUBEH
SHAM

Starring
P. C. BARUA
J AMUN A
& others

Produced & Directed by.
P. C. BARUA

For booking apply to: —

RAMNIKLAL MOHANLAL & Co

KHETWADI MAIN ROAD,

BOMBAY — A

OUR REVIEW

"Panghat" Prouides Sparkling
Entertainment !

Indra's Witty Dialogues Help The Picture !

This is just another story of the
usual marriage tangle and there is
nothing in it to go mad about as a
theme. The picture, however, pro-
vides plenty of entertainment and
keeps the audience interested right
till the last moment.

"Panghat" threatens to be a good
box-office entertainer because of
three reasons: the sparkling per-
sonality of Ratnamala, witty and
humorous dialogues written by
Pandit Indra and snappy, popular
tunes given by S. N. Tripathi.

The story is centred round the
romance of Radha, the only sister
of Jamnaprasad Chaturvedi, the vil-
lage big-wig. Radha and the other
maidens of the village meet at the
village well which is donated by
Radha's late father for th)e poor.
When the story opens, a water
famine is threatened and Chatur-
vedi's well happens to be the only
live well in the village. Jamna-
prasad Chaturvedi who is a sour and

billious guy wants to prevent the
poor from drawing water at his well.
This creates discontent in the vil-
lage.

Just at this time Radha is pro-
posed in marriage to one Kiran

PANGHAT

1

Producers: Prakash Pictures
Language: Hindustani
Dialogues: Pandit Indra

Songs: Indra & Ramesh Gupta
Cinematography: Shirodkar
Audiography: T. K. Dave

Music: S. N. Tripathi

Dances: Chiman Seth

Cast: Ratnamala, Umakant,
Jeewan, Leela Pawar, etc.
Released At: Lamington,
Bombay.

Date of Release: 1st June 1943

Directors:
PARMAR &
MAHESHCHANDRA

This is how Director S. F. Hasnain interprets fashion in "Fashion", a Fazli

production.

Pandit Indra whose brilliant dia-
logues, for the first time, will help
"Panghat" to create new box-office
records.

Kumar, son of Gangaprasad, a rich
merchant of a neighbouring town.
Kiran who is a bit stage struck and
soft on another girl called Jyoti
avoids going on a mutual inspection
journey to Radha's village and sends
instead his best friend, Mohan.

Mohan, a poet and what not, meets
with adventure and romance when
he accidentally stumbles into Radha
at the village well. They fall in
love with each other, but Radha and
her family people take Mohan to be
Kiran Kumar.

This tangle goes on humorously
in the midst of some happy situa-
tions and snappy songs, till it is all
cleared by Mohan being accepted
as Radha's husband and Kiran gives
himself away to Jyoti.

A bit of topical Zamindari complex
is put in when Chaturvedi tyran-
nizes the villagers and stops them
from drawing water at his well.
Mohan becomes the hero of the mo-
ment and Chaturvedi comes to his
senses when he finds his only sister
jumping into the well to end the
feud.

SATISFYING MUSIC

The scenario of the picture is not
quite happy and there are moments

71

•rail

c\ovroM Social
Vc\ of Convicf'W

DIRiCTOR

BALWANT BHATT

WflDIP PICTURE

[NTERTftlNMENTXJ^
[NLIGHTENMENT

oofori voiced SURENDRA

GLAMOROUS M E H T A B r
BABY M ADHURI

BRIGHTEN FILM

FIRMAMENT

/A

glUL-i^ VVAS UNKNOWN

\0

V WAS MOT

EVEN A DREAM

B

TO

nWARKA
l/AKOR

LURDIR I

A DISTANCE OF
700 MILES

PICTURE

July 1943

FILMINDIA

Motilal realises that one can't write a love letter with the beloved overlooking.
Anjali makes a good mate in "Age Kadam", an Acharya picture.

when the picture drags a bit, be-
cause the writer could not dovetail
the situations cleverly enough to
maintain a speedy tempo.

Considering the fact that two new
comers have handled the picture,
the direction can be called pretty
good. These boys Parmar and
Maheshchandra need encouragement
in future.

Photography is tolerably good
while sound recording is very well
done — particularly of the songs.

The dialogues of Pandit Indra are
witty and sparkling and though the
story has no natural humorous
situations, people laugh uproarious-
ly because of several well-placed
dialogues written in a light, humor-
ous strain.

Some of the songs are well writ-
ten by Indra and Ramesh Gupta.
Ramesh Gupta's songs, however,
prove more popular because of the
correct psychological situations
which have fallen to his lot in the
picture.

An outstanding feature of the pic-
ture is the popular music given by
some new man, S. N. Tripathi. Most
of the tunes are old popular ones

and yet this music director has in-
fused in them a new freshness which
makes the music immensely popular
with the audience.

RAPTUROUS RATNAMALA

Reviewing the work of the artistes,
Ratnamala hits the eye with her
sweet and radiant personality.
Coquettish and coy, she provides all
the sex appeal that a romantic pic-
ture requires. Her dialogues, how-
ever, need a little more pain and
polish.

Jeewan in the character portrayal
of 'Chaturvedi' has given a very
good performance and the diction of
his dialogues is worthy of emula-
tion by others.

Leela Pawar promises to be a good
addition to the screen while the fat
Rajkumari Shukla becomes an ugly
eye-sore in the role of Chaturvedi's
wife.

Umakant has good features for
the screen but unless he starts feel-
ing his roles, he won't be able to
act. In 'Panghat' he has just walk-
ed through the picture and he was
the hero of the story.

Whatever be the minor defects in
the technical production of the pic-
ture, 'Panghat' does provide some
excellent entertainment and it is
worth seeing at any time by all.

Vishnupant Pagnis and Durga Khote take stellar roles in

a Royal relec.se.

•Mahatma Vidur'

73

r

BREAKING ALL PREVIOUS RECORDS OF
HINDI PICTURES IN BOMBAY

BOmBRy TflliKIES' PRIDE PICTURE

PRAKASH'S ANOTHER GREAT VENTURE

HINDI & MA RATH l

SHOBHRIO SHOIHflNflsflM
PREM PC CUflNDRRKlf

UMflKQNT V.KQLE
G.BQDQIPRQSR0 BRNDOPRNT %

(f OTHERS j?*

DIRECTION «cJ

%VIJflY BHflTT

Next Change at:- SUPER

( NEAR CHARM ROAD TRAM JUN.

★ AN EVERGREEN RELEASE ★

7 too j£c?ve HfocCS cl
Afew Afe&t —

AIDED AND ABETTED BY
A VETERAN CHARMER

GITRNJRLI PICTURE5

— THE GREAT
QUESTION

Starring:

MUMTAZ SHAHTI
& ULLHAS

with

RADHA RANI, Nl RAN J AN,
SADIQ, AGHA, BABY RAJRANI.

Produced by:

LAKHMIDAS ANAND

Distributors:

Bombay: INDIA FILM CIRCUIT
North India:SITARA FILMS Ltd., Lahore
C.P.C.I.:POPULAR FILMS Ltd.,Bhusaval
South India: RATILAL BROS. Bangalore

OUR REVIEW

Dewan Sharar's First Story On The Screen !

"Ishara" Attracts Country-wide Attention!

Rotten Music Compromises lJicture Appeal I

Here is some old wine presented
in a new bottle. Incidentally,
'Ishara' is the very first picture of
Dewan Sharar to come on the Indian
screen since his return from Europe
and the intense human drama which
this well-known writer has been
able to present in 11,000 feet of
celluloid gives complete evidence of
his seasoned talent in writing screen
and stage plays.

'Ishara' surprised me in more
ways than one. Surprisingly enough
it has a progressive theme which
insists on love marriages and advo-
cates, at the end, widow remarriages.
And the theme is propagated on the
screen in a lucid and yet dynamic
manner which makes the motion
picture a worthy contribution to the
small number of better-class pic-
tures which our industry provides
so grudgingly to our audiences.

Another surprising feature of the
picture is its direction. Director J.
K. Nanda goes one better than in
his "Kurmai" where his motion pic-
ture technique had become the talk
of the town. Once again Director
Nanda has excelled himself and
given to us forceful and polished
direction which helps to bring home
the message of the story with al-
most a vengeance. A distinctive
feature of Nanda's direction is its
subtlety of expression which makes
the direction least felt in his art of
story-telling.

Nanda tells the story in a simple,
human way — the way people would
like it to be told. Of course, there
are a number of silly errors, which
Nanda could have avoided with a
little efficiency and care.

HACKNEYED THEME

The theme of the picture is hack-
neyed in its being the usual marriage
tangle in which the parents arrange
a marriage against the wishes of
their children and things coming to
grief.

Shubh and Kamini (in the picture
it is "Kamni", which is wrong) are

son and daughter of Seth Shivram-
das. Both are eligibles. Kamini is
shown in love with Brij — a friend
of her brother, while Shubh sud-
denly falls in love with Shanta, the
daughter of a poor widow who
hawks things and lives somehow.

The other angle of the drama is
Dewan Dwarkadas who has a pro-
fligate son in Ramnath. Ramnath
sees Shanta at a dinner party and
falls headlong in love with her.
With these characters in hand, the
writer prepares his emotional stew
which is served as a social story.

ISHARA

Producers: D. R. D. Produc-
tions

Language: Hindustani
Story: Dewan Sharar

Dialogues: S. Gaznavi, D.

Sharar, D. N. Madhok.
Songs: D. IV. Madhok

Cinematography: R. Pandya
Audiography: C. Pandya

Music: Khurshid Anwar

Cast: Prithviraj, Jagdish,

K. N. Singh, Swarna-
lata, Satish, Suraiya,
etc.

Released at: Swastik, Bombay
Date of Release: 4th June 1943

Director :
J. K. NANDA.

The parents fix up Ramnath and
Kamini to be married against the
wishes of both the parties and after
a lot of heart-burning they are mar-
ried.

The marriage becomes an unhappy
sequence. Ramnath takes to drink
and girls and Kamini stays at home
and weeps. Ramnath has all the
while an eye on Shanta and he em-
barrasses her whenever he gets an
opportunity. Shanta, however, is
soon engaged to Shubh and is al-
ready looking forward to a happy
future.

Just at this time, Ramnath has-
tens the climax. Ramnath makes

Y

Dewan Sharar from whose English
novel, "The Gong of Shiva",
"Ishara", a screen play is made.

himself intolerable with his drunken
orgies and he is disowned and driven
out of the house by his father. His
father-in-law, howrever, goes in
search of him and finds him at a
singing girl's house.

The climax is soon reached when
Ramnath, drunk and desperate, sees
Shanta on the road, all alone. He
kidnaps her but is pursued by his
father-in-law. A grim struggle
takes place in which Ramnath is
killed by his own father-in-law.

Seth Shivramdas goes to jail for
a year but on return is surprised to
find his old fashioned daughter re-
marrying Brij and his own son mar-
rying Shanta. It all ends well.

As we have said before it is
rather a familiar and hackneyed
story which we have seen on the
screen several times, but there are
some new emotional twists worthy
of the well-known author.

The dialogues of the picture call-
ed for more consistency. In parts
they are beautiful at the other times
they just sound insipid. Though
Dewan Sharar opens the picture
with a beautiful couplet, "Milne ki
arzu hain dile bequarar main; ankhe
khuli rahengi tere intazarmain"

*t*lt eft prrai^),
the same flourish is not maintained
throughout the picture. Is it per-

77

Marching for a HAT - TRICK I

MUMTAZ SHANTI - She came to you in 'Basant'
MUMTAZ SHANTI - You saw her again in 'Kismet'
MUMTAZ SHfiNTI - She is again coming to you in a role

You Wanted Her to play.

t

milRRRI Pictures9 Musical Extravaganza

BRDMiTI-DUNiyR

Directed by:

MOHAN SINHA

Her Co artistes are : Txilok Kapoor., K. C. Dey., Shahazadi,
Rajkumari Shukla, Wazkar, Butt Kashmiri, Gulam Rasool

SHORTLY Coming To Your Favourite Theatre

Bombay Circuit Distributors :

M a nek la I Chnnilill <& Sons, Ltd.

f

Chowpatty Chambers, —

c. p., c.i.
Laxmi Pictures Ltd.

AKOLA.

SOUTH:

Smastik film Exchange

BANGALORE.

Sandhurst Bridge, —

NORTH:

Cosmopolitan & Religious Pictures

DELHI.

EOMBAY-7.

BENGAL:

Moonlight film Exchange

CALCUTTA.

44

%e Woman a| the 'WOMAN and the Man of

Co'Starring for the first time in

KIRTI Pictures9 outstanding social

RAH AT

Directed by: RAMNIK DE'SAI

Their Screen - team includes
Vatsala Kumtekar, Chitramala, Hari Shivdasani, Kartayalal, Baby Indira.

AGENTS FOR:

C.P.C.I. BENGAL: SOUTH: SIND: NORTH:

Laxmi Pictures, Ltd. Moonlight Film Oist;ibutors. Swastik Film Fxchange, Ncvelty Pictures Distributors, Upper India Pictures Ltd,

AKOLA. CALCUTTA. BANGALORE. KARACHI. LAHORE.

Sole
Distributors:

SUJflSTIK IDDIR MINTED,

Chowpatty Chambers.
Sandhurst Bridge. Bombay-7.

July 1943

FILMINDIA

haps due to the fact of having too
many cooks at the soup?

ROTTEN MUSIC AND
COMPOSITION!

The most disappointing features
of the picture are the music and
the song compositions. Advertised as
"the musical genius of the Punjab",
Music-director Khurshid Anwar has
given the most rotten music one can
imagine on the screen. Not a single
tune proves attractive while the
back-ground music sounds as just so
much noise. We wondered and
searched vainly for "the musical
genius" of this man from the Pun-
jab.

Add to this music the utterly use-
less songs of D. N. Madhok and
imagine the jarring and unmusical
effect on the ears.

In fact, the musical portion of the
picture succeeds in compromising
the appeal of an otherwise sensible
and dramatic story. If the picture
fails to draw, it will be mainly due
to its bad music and worse songs.

Sound and photography are quite
good, except in one party scene,
where the cameraman should have
been given more lights.

Coming to the performers, K. N.
Singh tops the lot with a very natu-
ral performance in an almost tiny
role of Dewan Dwarka Das. Prithvi-
raj runs a close second as 'Ram-
nath,' the profligate son, but at
places his actions were rather exag-
gerated. It was, however, clever of
him to ape some mannerisms of K.
N. Singh as Prithvi was playing the
son of Singh in the picture. That
little aping proved the parental tie
and we would call it intelligent act-
ing.

The person, who surprised us was
Swarnalata. In "Tasveer" she look-
ed so hideous and ugly that we had
marked her as good-for-nothing. In
this picture, however, she looks
charming and has delivered the
goods pretty well. Even her dia-
logues seem to have lost her Pun-
jabi accent. Good luck to this girl,
if she remains on the right track.
Satish in the role of 'Shubh' did
quite well, while Jagdish as "Shiv-
ramdas" was not bad.

The disappointment was the much-
boosted Suraiya, with her bloated,
chubby face and a bad set of teeth.
Whenever Prithviraj described her
as a very beautiful girl and chased
her one felt like laughing. Even a
blind man could say, by touching
her, that she was ugly. Suraiya's

performance was far from satisfac-
tory and her music — Lord help us.

"Ishara", despite all these faults,
is a sensible picture and is worth
seeing by all. It is worthy of the
words which Producer Dady Wadia
once uttered whilst launching his
new production concern.

SPROCKET!

' TALKIE

Projector

COMPONENT!

souno gates

JitANUFACTURCRS

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79

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announce

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rictukes

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fill!. Ill

SHALIMAR PICTURES (Poona)

Producer W. Z. Ahmed has com-
pleted 'Prem Sangeet', a musical
subject featuring Neena and Jairaj.
He is now all attention on 'Mun-ki-
jeet', another social picture featur-
ing Neena and Shyam.

BOMBAY TALKIES (Bombay)

Mrs. Devika Rani Rai is proceed-
ing steadily with the shooting of
her new social picture which has not
yet been given a name. This pic-
ture features Devika Rani herself
against Jairaj and has the usual
entertainment features which dis-
tinguish pictures of Bombay Talkies.
This picture is expected to be com-
pleted in the first week of August.

FAZLI BROTHERS LTD.
(Bombay)

With the greatest speed that Pro-
ducer-director Hasnain can put in
he has completed his first assign-
ment in Bombay called 'Fashion'. It
is a picture that features Chandra-
mohan, Sardar Akhtar and Sabita
Devi, and Producer Hasnain is quite
pleased about his work.

All on the quiet, Director S. Fazli
has been working steadily at the
shooting script of 'Bhai Bahen'
which picture goes into the sets this
month. 'Bhal Bahen' is a subject
based on Hindu-Muslim unity and
the producers require some excep-
tional social talent for featuring in
this picture.

RAJKAMAL PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer-director Shantaram has
completed his first picture "Shakun-
tala" featuring Jayashree and Chan-
dramohan.

His second one called "Mali" is
now on the sets under the direction
of Keshavrao Date. Very soon Di-
rector Shantaram will take up his
own second production called

"Swarga", unless he switches him-
self off on a war propaganda pic-
ture.

PURNIMA PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Director Kishore Sahu has com-
pleted 'Raja', a sensational social
story featuring himself and Protima
Das Gupta. It is reported that
'Raja' was released in Delhi where
it was received very well.

The next picture of the company
is now in the discussion stage.

SHREE FILMS (Bombay)

Final touches are being given to
'Paraya Dhan' by Director Nitin
Bose. This picture is expected tc
be popular with Lila Desai in the
stellar role and Maya Banerji and
Radha Rani in the supporting cast.

They are also expecting to release

their 'Ramanuj' very shortly in the
city.

LAXMI PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

'Muhabbat' featuring Shanta Apte
and Pahari Sanyal was released at
the Kamal Talkies in Bombay. It
had a mixed reception, probably due
to the peculiar and distant location
of the theatre.

A new picture under production
is called 'Kadambari' and it features
Shanta Apte and Pahari Sanyal. It
is being directed by Nandlal Jas-
wantlal.

AMAR PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer-director SurencTra Desal
has completed 'Paigam' and is now
busy preparing a war propaganda
film to help the country's war effort.
Another picture that is lying ready
is 'Adab Arz'.

In "Koshish", a social story of Din Pictures, Trilok and Sunitra seem to

provide the romance.

81

PKAJA PICTURES LIMITED

Their First Production

UMANG

which will take you on an exciting
journey on the high seas of emotion.

Directed by: K. M. MULTANI

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July 1943

FILMINDIA

COLUMBIA PICTURES
(Bombay)

The new war propaganda picture
which is likely to prove a sensa-
tional box-office hit, coming from
this studio, is called 'Commandos
Strike At Dawn". As the picture
features Paul Muni, the most po-
pular Hollywood actor in India, it
is likely to draw huge crowds when-
ever it is released in the city.

ACHARYA ART PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Producer-director Acharya has
been able to complete 'Age Kadam',
a social story featuring Anjali Devi
and Motilal. The future plans of
ProcTucer-clirector Acharya are not
yet known.

MEHBOOB PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Producer-director Mehboob has
completed 'Najma' which, if reports
are to be believed, has become an
excellent motion picture having
plenty of entertainment and drama.
This picture will be released some
time during the next month at the
Minerva Talkies in Bombay. No-
thing is yet known about the future
plans of Director Mehboob.

NEW HUNS PICTURES (Bombay)

Director Vishram Bedekar has
completed 'Nagad Narayan' in two
versions, Hindi and Marathi. In both
the versions Baburao Pendharkar is
reported to have given the best per-
formance of his screen career.

There have been rumours to the
effect that Baburao Pendharkar in-
tends closing down his production
activities. We are authorised to
deny these rumours. On the other
hand, it is said that Baburao Pen-
dharkar is preparing to launch a
huge production concern with a big
capital.

ANAND BROTHERS (Bombay)

Producer-director Anand Kumar
has just completed 'Zamin' and is
now waiting for a release date in the
town. 'Zamin' is reported to have
become a dynamic drama of human
beings who slave for their bread.

Nothing is yet known about the
new programme of Anand Brothers.

RANJIT MOVIETONE (Bombay)

"Tansen" is likely to be released
during the month at the Royal

Opera House. Featuring Saigal and
Khursheed, this picture is expected
to do topping business in the town.
There are a number of other pic-
tures in making at the Ranjit Stu-
dios and the names of some of them
are as follows: — 'Bansari', 'Shankar
Parvati', 'Vis'h Kanya', 'Gouri', 'Ka-
lidas', 'Vikramaditya' and 'Pagli
Duniya'. Some of these pictures are
ready entirely and some are being
given final touches.

KIRTI PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer P. B. Jhaveri, described
as the "dynamically energetic pro-
prietor" informs us that 'Parashu-
ram' is fast nearing completion out
in Kolhapur. Featuring Prithviraj,
the picture is expected to be a po-
pular box-office hit.

In Bombay, under Director Shau-
kat Husain's charge, is being shot
'Dosti', a social picture featuring
Motilal and Nur Jehan, not to men-
tion that inimitable character actor
Kanhyalal.

UNITY PRODUCTIONS (Poona)

Producer Rameshwar Sharma in-
forms us that he has been able to
complete 'Bhai Chara', a thrilling
subject of Hindu-Muslim unity at
the Shalimar Studios in Poona. The
picture has been directed by Mr. G-

K. Mehta and it is expected to pro-
vide many a surprise for the spec-
tators.

EVERGREEN PICTURES
(Bombay)

This enterprising firm of distri-
butors, consisting of eight good-sized
partners, have just released at the
Super 'Rani', a social picture pro-
duced by P. C. Barua. The picture
features Barua himself in the in-
evitable company of Jamuna.

PRAKASH PICTURES (Bombay)

"Panghat", a social story recently
released by these producers at the
Lamington Talkies is pulling huge
box-office crowds at the theatre.
The picture is likely to go on for a
long time in the city and is consi-
dered as one of the hits of the sea-
son.

At the studios they are fast com-
pleting 'Ram Rajya', under the
direction of Mr. Vijay Bhatt.

KARDAR PRODUCTIONS
(Bombay)

Producer-director Kardar is very
much in the news these days seeing
that 'Sharda' has proved an all-India
success bringing in lakhs as profits.
Very shortly 'Namaste', the second
picture of Kardar Prouctions direct-
ed by Messrs. Sunny and Sadiq will

Surcndra and Sadhona sing and dance respectively in "Paigam", an Amar
picture. And the way they did it kept the director dancing on his toes and

whistling.

83

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July 1943

FILMINDIA

be released on the screen, probably
at the Krishna Cinema in Bombay.
Producer Kardar expects 'Namaste'
to be as great a success as his first
one.

At the studios, Kardar is shooting
'Sanjog' featuring Charlie. Another
picture that is lying ready is
'Kanoon'.

NAVYUG CHITRAPAT LTD.
(Poona)

After the very successful run of
'Pahili Manglagaur' at the Central
Talkies in Bombay, these producers
will be releasing 'Ladai-ke-bad' at
the Krishna Cinema in Bombay
sometime in the first week of July.
As the title of the picture suggests
it seems to be a story with plenty
of comedy in it.

SWASTIK INDIA LTD. (Bombay)

This prominent distribution office
has very successfully released
'Ishara' produced by D. R. D. Pro-
ductions and the picture is reported
to be doing well at the Swastik
Talkies in Bombay.

These people also have a couple
of more pictures which are likely to
be immediately released and they
are called, "Badalti Di'uniya" pro-
duced by Murari Pictures and
'Rahat' produced by Kirti Pictures.

ROYAL FILM CIRCUIT (Bombay)

Distributor V. R. Mehta is very
much a worried man seeing that,
'Basant', one of his own pictures, is
not leaving the Majestic Cinema.
This incidentally postpones the re-
lease of 'Bhakta Vidur' featuring
Vishnupant Pagnis and Durgabai
Khote.

RAJA MOVIETONE (Bombay)

Producer-director Zahur Raja is
busy working on a social story call-
ed 'Panchhi' featuring himself and
Radha Rani. Quite a good lot of
this picture has already been shot
and it is expected to be completed
in the first week of August.
PRADIP PICTURES (Bombay)

'Vakil Saheb', a social story fea-
turing Madhuri and Trilok Kapoor
is reported to have been taken by
different distributors all over the
country. Producer Mrs. Kamlabai
Manglorekar is now giving final
touches to the shooting script of

'Panna Dai' which will go into shoot-
ing very shortly.

KAMALROY PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer R. R. Roy seems to be
pleased with himself, the way he has
shot Akbar The Great' at the Cen-
tral Studios. Featuring Kumar and
Vanmala and many others, Producer
Roy expects to give an excellent
motion picture. Already distribu-
tion rights for Northern India have
been given over to Sitara Films Ltd.
at a prohibitive price.

GITANJALI PICTURES (Bombay)

We are told that Producer Anand
is managing the affairs of this com-
pany with plenty of speed and effi-
ciency. As a natural result of all
this, final finishing touches are be-
ing given to "Sawaal", a picture
featuring Mumtaz Shanti and Ullhas.
Producer Anand is also reported to
have succeeded in disposing off the
distribution rights for almost all the
distribution circuits in India.
'Sawaal' is likely to be shown at the

Lamington Talkies Very shortly,
after 'Panghat' finishes its engage-
ment.

A. B. PRODUCTIONS (Bombay)

'Nadan', a social story featuring
Nur Jehan has now been completed
and only awaits release at the Im-
perial Cinema after 'Jawab*.

The new programme of the Com-
pany has not yet been announced
and we will let you know when they
do so.

MOHAN PICTURES (Andheri)

'Dulhan' directed by Gunjal is now
lying complete,. Another, picture
that has been completed is 'Rekha'
starring Leela Chitnis. The studio
however is busy with a new picture
called 'Kiran' which features Ashok
Kumar and Leela Chitnis under the
direction of Mr. Jagirdar.

INDIAN ART PICTURES (Bombay)

Producer J. S. Casshyap is report-
ed to be busy with the final scenes
of 'Vijayalakshmi'. These are re-

T Y

From the first pot of vanishing cream that Mother
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85

Your Opportunity
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A new era of market expansion
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enquiries from producers and
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those who enter these markets first.

NEAR EAST
FILM AGENCY LT?

114, SIR° vithaldas chambers,

16, APOLLO STREET, FORT, BOMBAY.

July 1943

FILM INDIA

ported to be the dances composed by
Natraj Vashi with some novel twists
in them.

On the other hand, the shooting
of 'Angoori' has been completed and
Director Mahesh Kaul is busy giv-
ing it the final touches.
WADIA MOVIETONE (Bombay)

"Ankh-ki-Sharm" the story of
which has been written by Pandit
Indra is a social picture which is
now ready for release at the Wadia
Studios.

Another picture that is also ready
for release is 'Shobha', while a third
one that is being planned for pro-
duction is called 'India Calling*.

SUNRISE PICTURES (Bombay)

As usual, Producer V. M. Vyas is
a very busy person having a num-
ber of pictures under production.
The new ones are called 'Ma Baap',
'Sodagar' and 'Gharki Shobha'. The
list seems to be in line with the
series which began with 'Gharki
Laj'.

All these pictures are at some
stage of production and when they
are ready we shall let you know.

BASANT PICTURES (Bombay)

Their maiden social story 'Mouj'
is fast seeing its end of production
and is expected to give a good

account of itself seeing that Paharl
Sanyal and Kaushalya are seen in
the cast.

BARUA PRODUCTIONS (Calcutta)

News comes to us< that despite
what Producer P. C. Barua wrote
and said in the newspapers about
his future motion picture production
ideas, he has already gone into the
production of 'Subeh Sham', a social
story featuring himself and Jamuna.
This picture is to be the fore-runner
of three more that are scheduled for
production in the near future.

MAHESHWARY PICTURES

(Lahore)

Everyone in the town is anxious
to see 'Pagli', the maiden production
of these producers featuring Miss
Aruna Devi and many another
attractive artiste. The producers are
trying their best to secure a release
date in Bombay so that people get
a chance to see the inimitable dances
of Miss Aruna from Calcutta.
PRAJA PICTURES LTD. (Bombay)

Between K. M. Multani and Mr.
Acharya, two Managing Directors of
this new producing company, quite
an attractive production programme
has been prepared. The name of
the first picture is 'Umang' and it
will be directed by Mr. Multani
himself.

Here is a hot and humorous bit from "Prcm Sangeet" a social story of
Shalimar directed by Mr. W. Z. Ahmed.

Mumtaz Shanti comes dancing again
in "Sawaal", a Gitanjali picture.

STANDARD PICTURES
CORPORATION (Bombay)

The new picture of these produ-
cers is called 'Camera Man'. It is a
thriller with plenty of music and
is expected to be completed in the
next two months. The direction is
in the hands of Nari Gadiali.

NATIONAL THEATRES (Bombay)

Their very first picture 'Pistolwali'
featuring Romilla has been complet-
ed. The next one that has gone on
the sets now is called "Khazanchi-
ka-beta" featuring Yusuf Effendi
and Miss Sharda described as a
"new face".

KAMAL PICTURES (Bombay)

""White Face", a mystery thriller,
is gone into shooting already and the
producers expect it to be ready in
a couple of months. Featuring
Navinchandra in the stellar role,
the producers expect a lot of suc-
cess from this picture.

87

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Printed by Baburao Patel at the New Jack Printing Works, 75, Apollo Street, and published by him
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Music :

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SHORTLY AT

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

REGD. NO. B3517

Scanned from the collection of

The Museum of Modern Art Library

Coordinated by the

Media History Digital Library
www. mediahistoryproj ect . org

Funded by a donation from
John McElwee