FilmIndia (1939)

Notes and News "THE DRUM" CUT OR BANNED BY FIVE GOVERNMENTS— ANOTHER ANTI INDIAN PICTURE BANNED BEFORE PRODUCTION— HOLLYWOOD ON FIRE— BABURAO PATEL RESIGNS FROM THE CONGRESS— MRS. LEELAVATI MUNSHI COMPLIMENTS PADMA DEVI. Mr. S. Satyamurti, M.L.A.. the Deputy Leader of the Congress Party and President-Designate of the Indian Motion Picture Congress. "THE DRUM" IS BEATEN! The Government of Bihar has banned "The Drum", Alexander Korda's notoriously anti-Indian picture on the grounds that the Muslims of the province are likely to object to it. BANNED IN THE PUNJAB! The Punjab Board of Film Censors has suspended the Exhibition Certificate of the film "The Drum". With this ban, the picture cannot be shown now in the whole of the Punjab. CUT OR BANNED BY FIVE GOVERNMENTS! With Bombay, Madras, Bihar. Bengal and Punjab Governments treating "The Drum" thus, the prospects of this picture are doomed in the other provinces, "film india" insists that such libellous pictures should not be allowed to land on our soil. BANNED IN DELHI The distributors of "The Drum" that "fateful" picture tried to re lease the same at Delhi. But the Government banned and disallowed the release of even the print censored by the Government of Bombay. "RELIEF OF LUCKNOW" BANNED! The British Board of Film Censors has banned the picture "Relief of Lucknow" under production at the instance of the British Government. Mr. Maurice Elvey the director thus loses another opportunity of giving still another political Episode, which would automatically draw crowds without publicity. MR. ABBAS RETURNS HOME! Mr. K. A. Abbas, the well known local journalist, who had gone or. a world tour as the roving correspondent of "The Bombay Chronicle", returned to India in the first week of December. While tn Hollywood, he got the opportunity of visiting some of the foreign studios and watching the shooting of "Gunga Din" which he calls "a scandalously anti-Indian picture". THE CORRECT POLITICAL CENSORSHIP! Political censorship, of the right type, for the present is being exercised in England. Certain parts of the Paramount newsreel showing the meeting of the British Prime Minister with Herr Hitler at Godesburg were cut out as they were considered likely to prejudice the present political negotiations between the two countries. To an assurance asked by Sir Percy Harris (Liberal), that the censorship would not be used in other cases, Sir John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer said "I should have thought that the censorship meant the exercise of compulsory power. There was nothing of the sort In the present case. A representation was made to the Ambassador of a friendly Government who was good enough and thought it right to take action tending to promote European peace". Elsewhere we ■ L Mr. Chandulal Shah, our prominent producer, has been unanimously elected the Chairman of the Reception Committee of the Indian Motion Picture Congress. have published a report of the British Government's anxiety to promote peace in India. HOLLYWOOD FIRE! A terrifying forest fire which the police described as the worst in the history of South California swept between Santa Monica and Malibu Beach in the last week of November. Panic stricken men and women waded into the sea to escape the flames as the fire swept down the shore near the fashionable Malibu Beach in the heart of filmland's "Gold Coast". One thousand men were engaged In fighting the disastrous fire and the total damage is estimated at $4,000,000. Among the palatial homes reported to have been destroyed are those of Madeleine Carroll, the film star. Mr. Sam Wood, the film director and Miss Laura Mathiessom, the noted painter. Altogether 300 homes and cabins have been gutted and hundreds of 34