FilmIndia (1946)

OUR REVIEW "Ghar" Provides Decent Entertainment ! mohanlal Dave Becomes more Rational ! GHAR Producers: Sunrise Pictures Language: Hindustani Story: Mohanlal Dave Dialogues: Ahsan Rizvi Songs : Rupbani Music: Allarakha Photography. R. M. Rele and Sudhir Bose Audiography Bhikhoo and Sachin Ghosh Cast: Jamuna, Molina, Kalyani, Dulari, Nawab, Yakub, etc. Released At: Majestic, Bombay. Date of Release: 16th Oct. 1945 Director: V. M. VYAS V. M. Vyas is an acrobat in motion picture production. No one can tell what he will do next. His skeletonlike hungry appearance can hardly sup port the fact that Vyas is an aggressive producer who is constantly active somewhere in India. "Ghar" is produced in two cities, Bombay and Cal cutta, with Vyas hopping between the two ends of India. With this procedure no one expected Vyas to secure quality in his picture, but strange as it may sound, "Ghar" has more quality in it than in any other previous picture of Vyas. Having made his pile, Vyas now seems to be anxious to secure some quality in his work. It is a good sign and we welcome his efforts. It is a story with the moral attached to it. But unlike Aesop, M. G. Dave goes through numerous picked situations to arrive at the moral. And at certain places Dave does not mind some crudeness to expand some morbid idea as he did in suggesting a liaison between the heroine and her father-in-law. And Dave, evidently, is a believer of marriage at any age seeing that he got the old judge married to a young butterfly. Or is Dave trying to justify in advance an experiment he himself proposes to try someday? You can never be too sure of the old men of Dave's generation where matters of sex are concerned. They, are, of course, strictly moral seeing that many toothless old men take to bed girls with their milk-teeth only after forging the conventional marriage, and don't seduce girls into submission without tying the wedding knot as some modern young men often do. WIDOW SCANDAL STORY Judge Chandravadan, a well-respected judicial officer, is an unfortunate man. Years before his widowed sister had run away with his young daughter and when the picture opens Habulal, a bangle-seller, brings to him 'he dead body of his only son leaving on the judge's hand a widowed daughter-in-law. Jyoti, the young daughter-in-law, had loved her husband deeply and therefore decides to remain a widow a 1 her life. Very soon society starts its usual gossip of linking the old judge with his young daughter-in-law. Things become impossible and Jyoti finds a way out by getting her sister married to the old judge. The sister now hears the scandal and becomes jealous and suspects Jyoti of carrying on an affair with her husband. Misunderstandings, the usual ones, soon mount up to a climax in which Jyoti's elder sister goes out of the house in the last stages of her delicate condition and gives birth to a child on the streets. Babulal acts the good Samaritan and fusses about helping Jyoti. The house in which Jyoti's sister is recouping catches fire with Jyoti saving the child of her sister after sustaining severe burns herself and Jyoti's sister repents as usual too late and just in time to obtain the forgiveness of the dying Jyoti. The story ends on a sad note with every one a little wiser including the judge who recovers both his sister and missing daughter. JAMUNA'S STOIC PERFORMANCE The production values of the picture are too good for V. M. Vyas who has been a junk merchant so far. Sound and photography are quite good. Music is pretty pleasant in parts. Song compositions, though not very intelligent are pretty appropriate in parts. Th-dialogues are pretty good throughout. The direction of Vyas is sketchy, perhaps because of a crowd of situations, one overlapping the other one af'er another leaving no time for Vyas to show any skill in emotional direction. Jamuna easily hits the eye amongst the other players in the role of Jyoti. She has a very sympathetic role to play and she does it in her usual stoic manner. Nawab gives a pretty good portrayal as the kind judge but he looks nowadays too old for the screen. Yakub is in his usual role as Rabulal the happy man of the streets and he doesn't need much direction to be popular. Molina adds good weight to the picture as Jyoti's elder sister. Well "Ghar" is quite a good picture to see though it drags at places. Shanta plays on the harp in "Subhadra" a costume comedy directed by Winayak 3!)