FilmIndia (1948)

IQUITREVIEW " Majhdhar n Becomes A Boring Show ! Baby Tabassum Sustains Interest ! Producer Sohrab Modi always tries to give a different and often a sensible story. "Majhdhar" is one such different theme but sadly lacks dramatic development which is so necessary to hold audience interest. The story hag a flimsy beginning and peters out at the end with a weak and unconvincing climax. In between these two ends there are some powerful sequences which reach dramatic heights but owing to weak plot development and erratic direction, they don't help to sustain the interest of the audience. Surajnath, a well-to-do poet, has Chandrani as his wife and Prem as the daughter. In Tarachand they have a family friend who has an evil eye on Chandrani. Chandrani and Surajnath are deeply in love with each other but Surajnath grossly neglects his wife in her social ambitions and is always engrossed in writing poems. HOSTILE BEGINNING! On her birthday, Surajnath goes to a poetic concert and fails to return home in time. Making this flimsy . incident an excuse, Ch?„ndrani walks out of her husband's home and life with Tarachand and taking her little daughter, Prem, with her. This is a tall one to believe! Imagine a Hindu wife leaving her husband over such a flimsy provocation when she has been taught for 10,000 long years to look upon her husband as a god, whatever his virtues and vices! This basic incident in the story becomes extremely unpopular with the women in the audience and they naturally lose interest in the rest of the story. Surajnath takes to the usual life of grief and ennui with punctuations of anger and resentment. Chandrani goes to live with Tarachand practically as his mistress, though we are spared the pain of seeing the tell-tale details. Very soon she is disillusioned about Tarachand and wants to go back to her husband. Tarachand, however, takes her out for the usual fateful motor drive. Chandrani jumps out with the car run Baby Tabassum beats all the big "Babas" in "Majhdhar". It is high time that some of our artistes learned the diction of Urdu from the 4-year-old Tabassum. MAJHDHAR Producers: Minerva Movietone Language: Hindustani Story & Dialogue: Pandit Sudershan Songs: Shums Azeema badi Music: Ghulam Haider & Gyan Dutt Cinematography: Dara Mistry Audiography: M. Edulji Art Direction: Rusi K. Banker Cast: Khursheed, Surendra, Baby Tabassum, Sadiq Ali, Surekha, Rafiq Ghaznavi etc. Released At: Minerva, Bombay Date of Release: 24th Octber 1947 Directed By SOHRAB MODI ning at 80 miles per hour and opens her eyes in a hospital while Tarachand also gate-crashes into a hospital for a time and then limps into the Himalayas, in search of spiritual knowledge, with one leg short. THE FAT ANGEL Chandrani, like every heroine in distress, also meets an angel in Shobha, acted by Surekha, who looks after Prem and also after Chandrani with the affection of a mother. Shobha is, of course, alone with do one in the world and with no servants and evidently with plenty of money. She is patterned after some of the rich Parsi spinsters who probably look upon pregnancy as a cancer <>f the stomach and fill their stomach with lot of "dhansa,k" which later on hangs out from the sides. Shobha is almost the proverbial Parsi spinster, in size and approach to life, waiting for someone else's child to drop into her lap, of course softly. Chandrani and Surajnath are soon brought together by this angel without wings and Chandrani prepares to go back to her husband's home when Chacha comes on the scene and disowns Chandrani. Chandrani, who is evidently quick at big decisions, walks out 51