FilmIndia (1945)

I I L M I N D I A January, 1945. and national considerations always stand begging alms on the threshold of profits. Though our industry is thirty years old today, it is still in its infancy in so far as its product, stability and national importance are concerned. Though the industry has produced over 4,000 pictures during its existence of 30 years, not one picture can be compared with the best product of Hollywood. Though we are about 10 years junior in age in comparison with Hollywood, our motion picture product is about hundred years behind Hollywood quality and purpose. The main reason for this is the human element 111 the industry. Our industry is mainly equipped with men who are not professional artists with any national vision. They are merely time-serving speculators who have turned art into a commercial racket and have not yet sighted the social significance of a motion picture from a national point of view. Apart from their exaggerated notions of the profit motif, the intellectual equipment of most of our presentday motion picture pillars is so poor that they lack even the long industrial vision which is so necessary to give any industry an indigenous complexion. Most of our producers and financiers are short-covering speculators anxious to extract as many golden eggs from the goose as quickly as possible without worrying about the goose. What use is any planning for such men — be it postwar or pre-war? Equipped as our motion picture industry is with its present personnel, we do not think that it is destined to be a progressive social force or to become an industry of national importance in the next thirty years to come, unless some plan is formulated to eliminate the present people who are throttling the progress of the industry because of their excessive profit-motif, speculative tendencies and inartistic existence. We have been writing for years against this sad state of affairs, but speculative capitalism soon cultivates a thick hide which protects it against all criticism. The main difference between Hollywood and the Indian him industry is that while Hollywood people are equally merciless exploiters in so far as the commercial aspect of the motion picture industry is concerned, they never debauch art but drape it in constantly changing new hues and while doing so take a long view of the industry from national and social points of view. This extends the lease of their commercial exploitation indefinitely and gives their industry a social status and a national importance. But Hollywood has educated and intelligent producers who are in the motion picture business for its own sake. We cannot say the same of our people. And it is a misfortune. We have no faith in all the various post-war plans which are afloat these days. What we really need is a good, severe foreign competition for a period of ten years, to teach us the primary rudiments of art, industry, social service and nationalism. We can learn these lessons only at the hands of the foreigners. That has been our national history in the past in case of other industries. Asking for rnment protection against any foreign competition is stopping the clock of progress. Protective measures are salutary in a nation of people who are ambitious to secure status and recognition in the international assemblies of the world and for people who have realised the true importance of their national existence. Such protective measures are just no good for India where Time stops and even the Sun rises lazily. "Filmindia" is a paper for Indians and for the Indian film industry. It will never support any foreigner at any time. And yet, after taking a long view of the future of our film industry "filmindia" will support any severe foreign competition tor a period of ten years, just to provide a strong incentive to our own people and to teach them some modern industrial methods. If some American theatre magnate is interested in investing his money, he has a huge virgin field to build seven to eight thousand modern theatres in India. There is scope to employ millions of dollars in the distribution section of the industry and millions more can be invested in building up-to-date production studios. And let us assure such investors that all such enterprises will be commercially profitable, because Indians make good and honest customers. We shall, though much against our will, support such foreign enterprises for a period of ten years, because we feel that unless our present people in the industry get a severe kick in their pants, they will never learn a lesson and our film industry will remain in its infancy, crying for protection and relief, for another hundred years. As regards the numerous post-war plans let us just forget them. They fail even to create a mirage. Doesn't she look smart as a medico? She tried her hand at it in life and now Snehaprabha is doing it in pictures in "Din Raat", a Navyug affair, 4