FilmIndia (1939)

Round the Town " Dushman " Doesn't Suffer From Tuberculosis ! Sulochana Graces The Screen Again ! Chowdhary Gives Another One In " Its True " ! Sabita Fails In " Ladies Only " ? "DUSHMAN" (The Enemy) Producers : New Theatres Ltd. Scenario, photography and direction Nitin Rose Audiography : Mukul Rose Music Direction : Pankaj Mullick Dialogues and Songs: Arzu Art Direction: Arjun Ray, Sen and Roy Cast: Saigal, Prithviraj, Najam, Leela Desai, Deobala Nemo, Jagdish Sethi and others Released simultaneously at: Excelsior and Krishna, Rombay Date of Release: 24th February 1939. The name "Dushman" is clearly an after thought. The producers must be having good reasons to name this straight and simple love yarn thus and throw on it a transparent shadow of propaganda. Tt is whispered that the picture is an anti-tuberculosis propaganda, subtly portrayed to make it merely suggestive and thus more instructive, undertaken at the request of Lady Linlithgow. Having no evidence to the contrary we believe this carefully organized rumour, but fail to find much of the "supposed subtle propaganda" in the picture. A couple of scenes, where the talk is a bit prolonged, admit some tuberculosis "germs" into the story, but beyond that the picture doesn't suffer from either pulmonary or any other type of tuberculosis. The Story : A simple love tale ! Gita the daughter of a rich Ral Bahadur falls in love with Mohan a radio singer and makes no secret of it. Her mother, ambitious and anxious, wants her to marry Dr. Kedar. a young physician with a big future. Dr. Kedar and Mohan are great friends. One day Mohan learns of the plans of Gita's mother to give Gita to Dr. Kedar. Mohan misunderstands Gita in •spite of her remonstrances and 52 goes away sick and heartbroken. Dr. Kedar doesn't know of Mohan's attachment to Gita and is unconsciously instrumental in sending Mohan away. With tuberculosis in his lungs and love in his heart, Mohan is admitted into a T. B. Sanatorium, where after a time he is cured. The climax arrives as expected Mohan sings on the radio Gita hears and rushes to him in a motor car Dr. Kedar pursues her the inevitable motor accident Hospital bed meeting of the lovers "supreme" but unconvincing sacrifice of the friend and a real good happpy ending, to meet the most optimistic demand of the world's dream lovers. I forgot a scene. It is the "Storm Scene" which one cannot miss in our pictures, whether the plot is social, mythological or nonsensical. This time the "Storm" came as suddenly as usual to satisfy the ambition of the director to give us a piece of "clever" symbolism. This "cleverness" Is being repeated so many times, that it would be really clever to drop the "Storm" for once and surprise the audiences. Acting : For the first time 1 saw Saigal acting and liked him for it. In several places he has given polished work. Now that our most melodious singer has started to act we can look forward to some really good work from him in future. Leela Desai must spend a little more time with her diction. She didn't come to my expectations in her work, but her portrayal being cleverely based on her native drawbacks, impressed well in the frivolous moments of the story. Her dance, however, was very good. It had more purpose than school and is beautifully developed to the emotional frenzy so dramatically portrayed and needl ed in the scene. The souna be hind Leela's song sounded liki Kamla Jharia's. Lip synchronl zation was correct, but an actioJ of the hand gave it away. Najan didn't impress me, as the direci tion in his work looked obvious Nemo and Deobala proved whai really good artistes with ex perience can do. Jagdish and Prithviraj had very little to do anc they did it well as usual. Production : Clever Scenario • Masterly Direction Beautifu Photography Good Music Bu Common Story ! These are som« of the outstanding impressions lef behind by the picture. No one bu' Nitin Bose with his camera creatj ing sequences and situations frorr foot to foot, could make a pictun out of this thin story. Nitin'; camera has created this pictur< throughout and that is why it hai become a pictorial poem whicfl suffers no forced accommodatior for the T. B. "germs". One shot however needs a retak< and that is the first studio shot o: the motor, where the studic dummy does not show the finist of the real one. It would be alright for an Andheri studio to risl a crude shot like that, but not foi New Theatres. The picture has only four songs absolutely incidental and necesaryM and they are all good. Dialogues] are well written. The sets wertH attractive and particularly thJSj staircase set. It looked solid ancB didn't suffer from "nerves." The cleverest touch in the treat-H ment of the story is the return o'[ Gita with Dr. Kedar to the scen«j of her love frolics with Mohan' where the vagrant musician playwi on his fiddle. By rehearsing thcl same scenes with another man, she*] opens the old wounds again In arH attempt to increase her soul resls-»i tance and forget the old ache, bullj breaks down when the pathetic! note from the violin suddenly stab«i her heart and wakes up the dor-1 mant emotions. This subtle, Psy-B chological scene takes Nitin a low up in the estimate of the intellecj' tuals. Points Of Appeal : If one is now misled by the name "Dushman'l