FilmIndia (1939)

1939 — From the frontiers of December one looks back upon an eventful year. The year of the Silver Jubilee Celebrations and the Motion Picture Congress, the year •of "Bari Didi" and "Admi", and, in a different sense, the year of "Gungadin" and Baburao Patel's crusade carried right into the heart of Hollywood. It has been the year of Sagar's downfall and the rise of a dozen new concerns. A year full of life and activity, organization and ■enterprise, perhaps the most significant year in the history of the Indian film industry. COMING-OF-AGE The celebration of the Silver Jubilee and the first session of the Indian Motion Picture Congress, by far the most important event of the year, marked the coming-of-age of Indian cinema which may no longer be regarded as an infant in strad«dling clothes. With maturity it rmust now not only demand greater -privileges but also assume larger responsibilities as a potent cultural medium and one of the key-indus■iries of the country. RARE PHENOMENON The advent of this new phase was reflected in the deliberations that took place on the Reclamation grounds in May last. The biggest achievement of the Indian Motion Picture Congress is that it was held at all ! For the various producers, ■distributors and exhibitors to forget, at least for some time, their petty jealousies and rivalries and to cooperate in common interests is a rare phenomenon the significance of which can be gauged only by those who know something of the internal affairs of the studios. And for the K. Ahmad Abbas excellent success of the Congress and the Silver Jubilee Exhibition, the industry will ever remain indebted to Sardar Chandulal Shah whose unerring enterprise and tactful resourcefulness made an impossible task a brilliant possibility. ORGANIZATION Even more significant was the formation on this occasion of associations for Film Journalists, Film Artistes, Technicians, Distributors and Exhibitors. The first three associations have been doing excellent work since and have done much to safeguard the interests of their respective constituents. It is one of the happy paradoxes of capitalism that as an industry reaches a stage of development when it is necessary for the capitalists to organize for consolidation of their position, simultaneously we see the employees too organizing themselves for the defence of their own rights. (The producers have welcomed these organizations but already it is evident that they must often come into conflict on the age-old issue of Labour versus Capital). POINTERS Throughout the year I have noticed this sense of increased sobriety and responsibility in a variety of ways which have left no doubt in my mind that, slowly, painfully, reluctantly but inevitably, the Indian producers are being forced by the cultural awakening in the country and the quickening of the national pulse to come closer to life's reali ties and to bring to bear on their films at least a sham semblance of seriousness. That even stunt films have titles such as "Jai Swadesh" and "Rangila Mazdur" and often depict the hero or heroine to be champions of the poor, that Wadia's undertook an expensive experiment in "Kahan Hai Manzil Teri?", that Mohan Studios pretended to discuss the problem of violence versus nonviolence in "Swastik", that the hero of Sagar's "The Only Way" flung fiery words against war and social injustice from the screen, that Minerva tried to discuss the problem of "Divorce", that the studio and the Directors who had made lakhs out of "Toofan Mail" produced "Tulsidas" and "Achhoot" — are these not significant pointers to indicate the birth of a new era ? True that the intellectual capabilities of most Directors being limited, some of these vital themes are dealt in a more or less crude, slipshod manner. But, then, is it not sufficiently remarkable that they at least thought of producing pictures on. such themes ? TECHNIQUE GOES FORWARD Turning from the sociological content of pictures to their technical aspects^ I think the year 1939 has witnessed almost a revolution in the technical standards of average Indian pictures. New Theatres, Prabhat and Bombay Talkies were already well-known for their excellent technique through the daring experiments in montage and symbolism tried in "Admi" are a chal 44