International photographer (Feb-Dec 1929)

Twenty-four The INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER May, 1929 India's New Magic [ Continued from Page 14 ] an invisible little somebody from the happy land of perfect love. Just what this touch means to the Oriental can be realized by creating an imaginative scene in an American photodrama. Visualize Aileen Pringle, the inimitable exciter, finding it impossible to give her heart to a John Gilbert. She is filled with the soul of love, but it is not for him. Instead of the conventional way of having her change and come to see that it is John she loves, let Baby Peggy come in dressed in spangles, her very person vibrating with love, and gently touch Aileen with a wand. This would be ideal in Indian lore for at the touch of the magic staff of the little girl Aileen's love would immediately turn to John. The perfect scene would be completed and were it a native Indian audience that looked on, many would be the sighs of their modest maids, in personified idealization. Motion pictures have not changed the lives of the Hindus or Mohammedan girls. It has shown them a new manifestation of their kindred emotions of love and mystery, but they are fundamentally the same. They make idols of their stars even as their American sisters do. In America the average school boy or girl knows just how motion pictures are made and what general processes are necessary to place them before the eyes of the spectators. The vast rank and file in India have no idea of the mechanics. They know, if they visit a show and pay a few annas admission, that they can sit and watch mysterious happenings on a big sheet of silver stretched in front of the darkened house. They hear the click of a machine, but it is the great mystery of the flitting shadows which touches their inner souls. The basal motif they understand and that is generally expressed in a love theme. If no kindly soul reads the subtitle to them, then they are undisturbed. To be sure, many educated natives know the general mechanics of pictures. Many have traveled in foreign lands, and see the screen through being in touch with Western civilization, but these are so few that they strengthen the rule rather than destroy it. Less than four per cent of India's three hundred million souls read any language, including their own. Yet, vast numbers of the remaining ninety-six per cent can go to see moving pictures and enjoy them. The folk lore of India is founded on love themes, probably to a greater extent than any other country, and it is but the natural thing that these people should recognize the emotion when it is put into a screen story. They have listened to these legends many times before. They have had them for their bed time stories. They have been filled with mystery, the tales that were told without explanation, since there is no way to explain the magic of The Genii. The average theatergoer can come into a theater where a native legendary screen story is being shown and know just what has happened before, even though he may enter in the middle of the show. He also knows what will follow. This fact, however, does not cause him to lose intrest. If he is satisfied with this picturization, he will come to see it again and again and continue to enjoy it. Undoubtedly the most popular American filmed story ever exhibited in India was, Douglas Fairbanks' "Thief of Bagdad." Probably no other feature picture has been so full of the magic wand they love. It enthralled them beyond words and left them spellbound. The magic carpet was a "riot." They packed the show houses week after week, coming again and again, bringing friends by the score. Here was a story they knew of old — so truly Oriental: Miracles they had heard of time and again but never expected to witness with trueir eyes. Great was the excitement and enthusiasm I witnessed in a little cinema at Lahore during the showing of this film. The picture had been showing for weeks then, with a constant never-ending stream of attendance, and you can bet the native producers of Bombay and Calcutta took due notice thereof. Their own comedies are but a combination of "gags" loosely tied together by a none-too-intricate plot. These they hilariously enjoy, for producers attempt to crowd in all the trick comedy acts possible. Countless objects thrown into the air fail to come down; while the much discussed Indian trick of suspending one end of a rope in the air for a boy to climb is always a sure fire hit. Much of the material of their tricks is plucked boldly from the American comedies they see screened, and the ideas used to fit their own situations. While some of their stunts are very crude and would not occasion a laugh to an American audience, other bits would bring a grin from the most blase. They are natural funmakers. They are natural tricksters. Comedy is a by-product of their desire for making magic. The indescribable charm of the tropical twilight and the fullness of its night accounts in some measure for the spirit of love and mystery of its people. It is just then getting into the most sublime hours of enchantment with the chanting of priests and the ringing of the bells in the temple as is aptly expressed by the poet who words it: "When the faces of the Buddahs shine illumined in the night By the glimmering of the candles which the silken people light, Then the subtle charm of Burma steals your willing heart away Ah, the magic gongs are ringing from Rangoon to Mandalay." Small wonder is it that the Orientals have put their snakes and their flutes, their trick cards, their ropes and crystals aside and dived heart first into the new magic of motion pictures. OUR PREHISTORIC ANCESTORS "The First Rear Seat Driver By John C. 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