FilmIndia (1940)

April 1940 FILM INDIA (Coi/fd. from poge 13) hoped that when the time came for the press to review the film they would remember the good points of the picture." What Leon should remember is that it doesn't need a lunch to praise a picture directed by William Dieteiiie. Dieterlie is easily the most popular Hollywood director in India and as is expected from a great artist he has made "The Hunchback" a good picture. What, however, the R. K. O. distributors in India should learn is a little politeness from George Schaeffer the R. K. O. Chief in Hollywood. George Schaeffer's production efforts need a better break than he is getting now from his own men In India. Does it cost money to be polite? WANTED NEW FACES Very few people perhaps know that Director Shantaram of Prabhat is looking out for new talent for his new pictures. Here is an oportunity for our screen conscious educated boys and girls to embark on a new career in which salaries range from three hundred rupees to three thousand a month. While earning all that money they also get the satisfaction of serving Art. Our film industry has already a large number of well educated persons employed in its different departments. Some more will drive out what little uneducated element we have and help us to expand the market. Will the College boys and girls read this? THE BRONZE MEDAL THAT BURNS HEARTS At last the much discussed and keenly awaited Best Picture Award of the Film Journalists' Association of India was declared last month. Prabhat's "Admi" won the Bronze Medal as the Best Picture of 1939 and "Bari Didi", "Achhut" and "Kangan" were highly commended in order of their merits. * To some it was a sad disappointment not to find their pictures figuring in the poll, though some of these pictures have been huge successes at the box-offices. That is just the point, that the box-office success of a picture is entirely ignored in the Blind Ballot organized by the journalists. The journalists arrive at their decision with the following points in view: (1) Correct reproduction and interpretation of life and culture. (2) A healthy and progressive outlook on social problems. (3) Proper direction and technical excellence. (4) Histrionic performances of the chief artistes as seen in the pictures. (5) Story, scenario and dialogue. (6) Any original feature. So when a picture wins the coveted Bronze Medal it has naturally earned the highest marks in all these points. And the voting is done by the Blind Ballot method thereby eliminating every chance of one voter influencing another. "Admi" must be a great picture to pass this acid test. What amuses me, however, is the stupidity of some "writers" from the North insisting on mere box-office hits getting the award. Is it an Award of intellectuals or of fools? THE SAME OLD STORY! One of the constant cruelties practised on the long suffering audience is the exhibition of advertisement slides and film trailers. Those who pay for the tickets don't pay to see the slides and the trailers, which one cannot escape, being cleverly sandwiched in the main programme. This problem is rather acute in the theatres controlled by the Western India Theatres Ltd. They have the Excelsior, the Empire, the Krishna, the Central, the Minerva and the West End under their control. Seeing "Zindagi" the other day at the Minerva, I knew that "Chang" was playing at the Excelsior; "Notre Dame" was running at the Empire; an awfully hideous trailer announced the screening of "Naked Truth" at the Krishna; half a dozen slides proclaimed "Ardhangi" at West End; a few more slides imparted the secret of "Gorukhnath" at the Central, and to top the misery came the internally long trailer of "Defeat" a Minerva picture which may take months to make an appearance on the screen. All this naturally took a little over half an hour and thus the time allowed to the theatres for cleaning up between the shows was eaten up. The old practice of letting out the people by one side and letting in from the other is again in practice at the Minerva, the West End and other theatres. It now seems certain that the authorities are not serious about enforcing this rule in the interest of public health. Unless these unsavoury side dishes are stopped by compulsion, the programmes will never fit within the time limitation prescribed by law. To expect the cinema owners to make a courteous concession to their patrons by sacrificing these side earnings is something next to the impossible. Politeness is not their forte. THE PICTURE YOU MUST NOT MISS! "ARDHANGI' (Better Half or Ghar-Ki Rani) produced by Huns Pictures, Kolhapur, and fea ! turing Leela Chitnis, Meenaxi, Baburao Pen dharkar, Winayak and Damuana Malvanker ; now running in Bombay at the West End Cinema. Baburao Patel. 15