FilmIndia (May-Dec 1938)

HOUND THE TOWN "BAGHBAN" Produced by: General Films Ltd. Released at: Imperial Cinema, Bombay. Date of Release: 16th July 1938. Cast: Bimla Kumari, Sitara, Yasmin, Ashraf Khan, Nandrekar, Nazir, etc. Screen Play: (By A. R. Kardar) : This is a very thin story and proves tiresome and boring at several places. The theme is love and mystery — the love being too common and the mystery being too obvious. The continuity is very faulty and the development of the story is too tame to hold the interest of the audience for any appreciable length of time. Language: (Hindi) (By A. R. Kardar): Cheap and Mahomedanized idioms "distinguished" the dialogues. The writer seems to have forgotten that he was presenting a Hindu story with the traditional Hindu sentiment. Music: (By Mushtaq Hussein): Rather poor in tunes and composition. The background music was a sorry affair. Photography: (By Kukde): Quite good in parts. The outdoors called for more care. Recording: (By Arora) : Quite good throughout and excellent in parts — especially in song recording. Direction: (By A. R. Kardar): A weak story can never be well directed. However, Kardar has Improved a bit over his previous efforts. This picture is clean in comparison with Kardar's "Milan" and thanks to Kardar for that. Kardar should always show this sympathetic consideration for his Hindu audiences. Hindus are not generally used to seeing Immoral and suggestive scenes smelling of lust and lasciviousness. The direction of this particular picture is unimaginative and unintelligent, considering the requirement of the subject. Performances: Bimla Kumaii was on the verge of giving a good performance but she did not do so because of her affected staginess. Sitara was good. Yasmin gave a pleasant dance and spoke well but relaxed too soon after her dialogues. Nandrekar proved utterly useless. Nazir was unnatural and affected. He didn't convince. Lalla Yakoob was amateurish. His dialogues sounded particularly Punjabi and rustic. K. N. Singh easily gave the best f j I ' // I Wk Mr. Chaturbhuj Doshi, publicist and journalist has now become a film director. His maiden picture "Gorakh Aya" has proved to be the best picture of the year coming from the Ranjit Studios. performance of the whole lot. He would make a good character actor if well nursed by some producer. Wasti was good in one comic interlude. Mirza Mushraff was unnecessary and useless. Publicity: Very good publicity was secured for the picture either by design or by accident. The Prabhat-Nandrekar case proved a windfall to the picture. Box-Office Value: As a quota picture this one can be a good booking for a three day change. • (The reviews published \ under this section are use J lul both to the average t cine-goer and the exhibi j tor. Several technical } j aspects which are of im | j portance to the exhibitor \ J in his bookings have been j S treated here in short, j maintaining, at the same \ J time, the casual interest \ j of readers in general.) ! • "GORAKH-AYA" Produced by: Shree Ranjit Movietone. Released at: West End Cinema, Bombay. Date of Release: 30th July 1938. Cast: Rajkumari, Mazhar, Trilok, Iladevi, Kalyani, Sarla, etc. Screen Play: (By Gunvantrai Acharya): The plot is developed in a time worn fashion and does not impress one with any novelty or enterprise. The story begins with politics and ends with a philosophy. In between romance punctuates the sequences and good music makes the story tolerable. It is not necessary to go into the details of the story, the subject being too well known. Some excusable liberties are taken for the purposes of production but they are not cleverly used. Language: (Hindi) (By Santo shi): The dialogues are quite good. Composition of songs Nos. 2 and 4 is attractive. Music: (By Jnan Dutt): The tunes of the songs are cleverly mixed up, with the result that in bits they sound new. The director, however, should have taken several more rehearsals of Rajkumari, Shah Jehan and Kalyani. Photography: (By Krishna Gopal): Beautiful and in places too beautiful for words. Processing, however, was not careful. Krishna Gopal should be more careful about his outdoors in future. The need for an art director is felt in composition and angle selection. The trick shots were good. 37