FilmIndia (1940)

FILM INDIA October 1940 She didn't care whether Suresh had a devoted and loving wife, she didn't want to know that Suresh would soon be a proud father of a lovely child, she didn't worry that his infatuation for her would ruin a happy home. She only wanted the tall handsome young man — his name did not matter— for her bed to cool off the heat which she had inherited from her mother. ♦ * * * Now Suresh began coming home a little later than usual. He looked absent-minded and puzzled. When Sudha clung to him affectionately, he shrank back a little from her. Sudha couldn't understand. Then one day, Suresh brought Raksha to their home for dinner. The two women met and silently exchanged thoughts. Sudha, beautiful but simple, proved a poor match for Raksha, sophisticated and subtle. Suresh openly admired the scintillating talk of Raksha and unconsciously compared her with the plain and blunt Sudha. The dinner over, Suresh wished to leave Raksha home. Sudha's poor heart beat faster. In her utter sincerity of love she had instinctively sensed danger for her husband. She couldn't let him 90 without risking an attempt to stop him. "The driver will leave Rakshabehn home," muttered Sudha, "you need a little rest after the day's work." Raksha with the agility of an oldtimer caught poor Sudha's thought in its flight. "Don't worry Sudha" said Raksha sweetly, "I shall send him back soon. I only wanted to discuss with Suresh some scenes which we are taking tomorrow. Come on. Suresh." Suresh walked out with Raksha, leaving Sudha behind. • • * • That night; Sudha waited for her husband to return. Eleven, twelve, one, two, three, four, five, six and Sudha was still sitting and waiting. Tired of waiting at six in the morning Sudha fell asleep. At eight the telephone bell rang and a servant laid that Suresh was on the phone. Sudha rushed to the telephone. "Send me a change of clothes with the driver, Sudha. I'll take my bath and breakfast here and go to the Studio" said Suresh. "But — " uttered Sudha and she couldn't say more. * * * * Since that daj', Sudha has been waiting — waiting sometimes for the breakfast often for the lunch and always for the dinner for Suresh. And Suresh only comes when Raksha, the film actress has a date with another man. * • * * One day Suresh came a little after midnight. He couldn't walk. His step was not steady. Sudha helped him to undress and discovered that her husband, who had never tasted liquor before, was drunk that night. Sudha found out that he had attended Raksha's birth-day party and was sent away home because he had vomited in a fashionable restaurant of the city. Strangely enough, that day was also little Madhu's second birth-day but the sweet things which Sudha had prepared for her husband to * eat could not be given to him with Raksha's birth-day liquor inside. * » * * Suresh has now followed the fortunes of Raksha. From one studio he has gone to another with Raksha. When Raksha has a Prince of some native State as a visitor, Suresh goes out for a discreet drive along the Apollo Bunder or returns home to Sudha. Suresh is in love with Raksha but Raksha — . * * • * Sudha is still waiting) even as her widowed mother is waiting to meet her dead husband in another world. Sudha cannot curse the film industry ,as she knows that several others in the industry have a happy home and keep the home fires burning, inspite of their studio work. Sudha is waiting for her Suresh to come back when Raksha, the film actress, kicks him out. The little world round Suresh is also waiting for Raksha to kick him out — for in that single kick of the social parasite lies the eternal happiness of a home, a wife and a lovely child. Sudha is still waiting, even as Seeta waited for fourteen years for her husband to rescue her. A pretty catty situation between Nur Jeban and Prabha in "XJmmid" a Ranjit picture. 30