FilmIndia (1939)

il 1939 FILMINDIA I And a whole-time Secretary is required, if he is •ected to maintain different kinds of Statistical iirmation about the industry. I We hope the appointment will not be made with I city's politics in mind. We are not particular, lit cap the man chooses to wear. But we certainivish to see a competent man occupy the post and I selected from our film industry, knowing things liady, will be most welcome. 1 The post should not go to anyone from the Educalial or other Provincial Services. The men in Ise services are not expected to know anything lut the film industry and they will take a long |e to learn, even if they care to. firTING DOWN THE BRANCH I The man who produced the first Punjabi picture I certainly made money for himself but in doing bias done a bad turn to the industry in general. Iter producers in the country attracted by the such of the first Punjabi picture and hearing legends Ithe huge amount of money it brought in, are fallI over one another in an unholy hurry to produce Lures in the Punjabi language. L This is all wrong, as by doing so, they are cutis the branch on which they have stood so long. Itures in Punjabi cannot be paying in the long run, le their novelty is worn out. The field is so small It there is a likelihood of it being flooded with a ■nber of pictures in a very short time. It is very ly for the producers to turn out pictures in PunHi as a large number of our artistes come from this evince. , But in this quick and easy production lies the liger to the producers who have all along staked prything on Hindi and Urdu pictures. It is suicidal N them to give pictures in Punjabi to a province Rich is an essentially Hindi and Urdu stronghold. South India producing pictures in Tamil and Telugu can be suffered because the province considers Hindi and Urdu as strange languages, but Punjab doing it is absurd. Even in South India, the Hindi talkies are nowadays gaining more ground, because their local pictures could not compete with Hindi pictures in technic and presentation. Several Tamil and Telugu pictures have failed miserably last year. While on the other hand Hindi pictures have scored. If this is the case in an entirely non-Hindi province, what will be the future in an essentially Urdu province like the Punjab? Producing pictures in Punjabi is a great mistake and the earlier our producers realize it the better for all concerned. LOVE ON THE GIPSY KNIFE If you feel like thirsting for a spot of gipsy music, see "Sitara" which Ezra Mir has produced. Everyman is a bit of a gipsy — in the sense that he often imagines himself to be a cave man who would like to act chivalrous if he happened to come across a gipsy girl in a lonely spot in the jungle. Keeping this emotional weakness of the human beings in view, Mir has made "Sitara" a riot of stealthy romance in which Khursheed, the glamorous gipsy girl steps out of the screen and without your permission steals into your heart to give an ache which, while it hurts, also soothes. * Into the frightening speed with which this picture travels, the clever director has framed a throbbing romance of hearts that are stabbed by love and stitched by the gipsy knife. There are deals and duels, squeals and squabbles not to mention thrills and throbs. "Sitara" is a picture one must not miss if he wants to learn how to balance love on the keen edge of a gipsy knife. Marching to plant the Union Jack and carry "law and order" into the Frontier. A shot from "Gunga Din" a R.K.O. Radio picture against India.