FilmIndia (1939)

FILMINDI A March 1939 SERVICE LTD. Producers: Sagar Movietone— Direction: C. M. Lunar— Recording: Kaushik— Photography: Keki Mis try Dialogues : Rozdon & Zia Sar hady— Songs: Zia Sarhady & Pandit Indra— Music: Anupam Ghatak— Settings: Roora Mistry— Cast: Surendra, Maya, Bibbo, Yakub, Bhudo, Sankatha eta— Released af Imperial Cinema, BombayDate of release: 21st January 1939. There is a small kick of novelty in this story. The title "Service Ltd." is intended to frame unlimited service to the society, especially in affairs which are not within the recognition of law. Some interesting situations are woven into the main idea of doing something which the police of the city cannot do, perhaps owing to the limitations laid down by man-made laws. The Story: A young society girl Shobhana Devi— who she was is not explained— having inherited big money and under the guardianship of three social bugs, gets an idea to serve society in a wa* not easily acceptable to others. With the help of her lover and guardian Anil, she establishes an office called "Service Ltd." and soon attracts crime cases for solution. The institution flourishes, inspite of the law looking at it with a cock-eye, and Shobhana Devi handles some mysterious cases with cleverness. Then Jagmohan an adventurer steps in with his machinery for printing forged notes and his talent for crime. Things brighten up through a series of exciting episodes, till Jagmohan is safely clapped in jail and Shobhana surrenders herself into the arms of Anil the young bar-at-law. It is in short a crime picture with the too obvious cloak of entertainment.' Acting: Yakub as Jagmohan the villain of the piece has given a convincing performance. In fact, Yakub fact being typed in such roles. Incidentally Yakub's work, eaclly stands out as the best. Maya as Shobhana has continuous accps, but she 36 does not acquit her responsibility creditably. There are periods of half-hearted and nervous work, which is strange, considering that Maya has by now got pretty good experience in film work. Maya's singing was far from pleasing. A fewer songs would be a wiser plan in future. Surendra has not improved. He has rather gone back a bit. Acting is not his forte, but people look up to him for good music, which Surendra did not give except in song No. 7. Surendra should not be asked to sing in a higher note as he breaks down and departs from the harmony of notes. The indulgence of the producers is alone responsible for the inclusion of Bibbo in all their pictures. Why she is put in, will always remain a mystery. Even in the present picture, she is hardly required. Her music can hardly be called any music. Her appearance is an "eyefull". It is a pity that the producers do not seem to realise that the inclusion of an unsuitable artiste weakens the story and makes its chances of suocess more slender. Bibbo's performance as iLady Sulochana was not only unnecessary but proved an eyesore. Bibbo's amorous interludes with Yakub were the most revolting part of the whole show. One wonders how Sagar with its clean traditions hitherto has stooped to such depths as to add a stink to an otherwise good entertainment. Bibbo might prove a good artiste for motherly roles, but to ask her to play amorous, lusty interludes is to deny to her the privilege of doing some really sensible work. Sankatha as the Commissioner of Police showed an improvement in his performance. He was more natural than ever before and if he maintains his present progress, he will soon become a really good artiste. Bhudo Advani did excite a couple of good laughs. Harish, I am afraid, will lor sometime, remain an utterly "raw one" and what chance has the man got to improve if he is cast merely for singing a duet with Kalyani who is "all teeth" on the screen. Production: With better imagination, the screen play could have become really entertaining. The novelty of an idea seems to have swallowed up the imagination and the intelligence of the screen writer. The direction is orthodox and hardly shows anv enterprise. The photography is quite good and the sound is satisfactory. The dialogues are quite nice. The music is common place and betrays no enterprise or originality. It is much below the usual Sagar standard. In song composition a study of phonetics is most essential. In song No. 2! the word "Bhiksha" is sungl "long" contrary to jits "short" construction with the result thatJ it jars on the ears. The songi v/riter should himself have a musical ear. The compositions of j songs Nos. 7 and 9 however must be called intelligent and praiseworthy. Incidentally, they are written by the famous song writer Pandit Indra. The last but one line in song No. 9 is certainly thought-provoking. The settings in the picture are rather attractive and so are the costumes. The contents of the costumes however, leave much to be desired. Points of Appeal: The picture has some entertainment particularly in its light episodes. Shots suggestive of kissing may appeal to the lower classes. BAZIGAR Producers: Ran jit Movietone— Di I rectio*n: Manibhai Vyas — Audio i graphy: Thakorbhai Patel— Cine ! 1 matography: Sazu Naik— Hindi 1 Version: Santoshi— Music: Jnan 1 Dutt— Cast: Trilok, Charlie, Ila | devi, Khatoon, Anis, etc.— Releas J ed at: West End Talkies, Bombay 1 —Date of release: 21st January I 1939. The story is written with a phi1 1 losophical ideal in view and the conception of things could be call 1 ed rather clever. Only if the treatment had been less imagi-j native and more realistic the I (Continued on page 62)