FilmIndia (1940)

Our Review "RRDKRJIGI" Hn Rlmost Perfect Picture! Brilliant Huns' Comedy Draws Huge Crowds! Plot Portrays Familiar Parallels Leela Chitnis is realistic as Arun. dhati, M A For sheer entertainment, few pictures produced so far, could equal the latest Huns' Comedy "Ardhangi" (Better Half). For charming design, scintillant wit, purposeful caricatures refreshing novelty, decisive slant, welidraped theme and irresistable entertainment, "Ardhangi"' will for a long time be remembered. Incidentally it is better than "Brahmachan" and greater than any other Huns picture so far produced. My only complaint is that the strain in which the story is directed is a bit too flippant with the result that the tragic sequences become ineffective being deeply enveloped in humour. Barring this defect '"Ardhangi" is an almost perfect picture in its 1 dass. The Story Z. Marutirao, a significant name, ! is a matrimonial broker who ar! ranges marriages. One such marriage is between Miss Arundhati M.A., and Dr. Vashishta M.A.. Ph.D. The doctor of philosophy is too much de\ vet .d to his books and theorizes on life til along, even to the point of forgetting his wife on the honeymoon night. Incidentally, this seems to be a dangerously close caricature of perhaps similar incident in the life of a film stor. Perhaps because of this accidental coincidence, the sequences woven round Arundhati M.A. look convincing. At the wedding dinner we are introduced to Satyawan, a young colleg iate who is already manied to a girl chosen by his mother. The girl is of course a rustic— a good looking woman, complete physically but blissfully unaware of present day politics and sociology. She doesn't know who Hitler is but she 1 "ARDHANGI" (Better Half) Producers: Huns Pictures Story By P. K. Atre. Hindi by: Pandit Indra Photography P. S. Naik Music Dada Chandekar. Audiography J. Mole Direction: Winayak Cast: Winayak, Baburao Pendharkar, Damuamut Malicankar, Salvi, Leelu Chitnis, Meerakshi, Kusum Deshpande and Vimla Vashishta, Released at West End Cinema, Bombay. Date of Release 20th Mar. 1940. knows that in her life the man that matters is her husband. T!;e glamour of Arundhati M.A . attracts Satyawan and taking advantage of the theoretical existence of Dr. Vashishta, Satyawan decides to test life in a more practical way. He leaves his own wife and home and stays with Arundhati M. A. Tragedy enters Savitri's (Satyawan's wife) home and midst s.ghs and tears she waits for her husband to return. Satyawan has now become a slave when Z. Marutirao takes a masterly hand in the game. Baburao Pendharkar seems to suggest that he has been living the role all his life. As is expected Arundhati soon maltreates Satyawan and disillusioned he returns home a better and wiser man back to his own hearth. The Performances Baburao Pendharkar stops acting and practically lives this part with an ease that seems to suggest that he has been living the role all his life. Winayak as Satyawan is superb and convincing. Leela Chitnis is realistic, while Meenaxi is quite convincing. Damuanna Malvankar, however, takes the popular vote, by a performance which is a beautiful fusion of the slapstick and the serious. The treatment of the serious sequences called for a more subtle and psychological application. Witn the exception of this drawback, the direction in general is clever. Huns should be a little more than merely proud of this picture and I think that more than 60 per cent of the laurels for its success should go to the talented author. It is the story that makes this an excellent picture which every one should see. 27