FilmIndia (1940)

0'ir Review "HOW" Mean! Only For Entertainment Kardar Presents His Brain Child Sardar ChandulaVs Duty To His Audience I fc— Sia*. J Sardar Chandulal Shah — he has a great responsibility to his audience. Abdul Rashid Kardar's "Holi" would have become a more sensible picture if only Sardar Chandulal Shah had paid a little of his attention to the treatment of the story. That Sardar Chandulal's supervision would have played a great part in the intellectual presentation of the ultimate picture, is proved from the fact that Kardar's first in Ranjit "The Kick" turned out to be a really good picture and his best so far because the Sardar had personally supervised the said picture from day to day. If a little harmless entertainment, bereft of common sense, is the only motive of "Holi," then there is enough justification for its production but otherwise it has become a frightful bonfire of Ranjit's high ideals and standard established by "Tulsidas" and "Achhut." THE NAME— ITS BEST PART "Holi", a good name to a picture with its inherent symbolism and traditions, has been wasted on a picture which at best is an erratic presentation of several jumbled ideas. It is a pity that a producer of the high intellectual calibre of Sardar Chandulal should be a party to the dissipation of excellent acting talents like: Motilal, Ishwarlal and Keshavrao Date on a story that sounds irrational and funny at every stage. The theme — or rather the supposed theme — is the usual rich and poor dovetail, in which the poor are again intended to come off with flying colours — but eventually do not because both the writer and the director fail in making people get a hang of their brainwaves. In this story, we find a poor boy and a poor girl and to balance on the other side a rich boy and a rich girl are also thrown in. Probably, you have already guessed that the poor girl ultimately marries the rich boy and the rich girl accepts the poor boy as her lord and master. "HOLI" Producers: Ranjit Movietone 1 Story and Dialogues Mr. Sadiq [ Songs D. N. Madhok I Cinematography Krishna Gopal Audiography ..P. C. Subedar Music Khemchand Direction A. R. Kardar Cast .... Motilal, Ishwarlal, K. Date, Khursheed, Sitara, Dixit, Manohar Kapoor, Etc. Released at . .Royal Opera House, Bombay. Date of Release 16th March 1940. AN OPEN SECRET This great secret of the story which was guessed in the first reel — by all except by the author and the director, is supposed to be the piece-de-resistance of the whole picture. But thousands of feet of celluloid are used to introduce Chand, Kokila, Sunder, Champa, Mangaldas, Babulal, Gopal, and a mother, a judge, a servant, a policeman, and the inevitable singing Sadhu — all unwilling pawns in the author's game of telling the secret. Actor Ishwarlal — the only man who makes "Holi" a picture. One thing I have always admired in Sardar Chandulal is his great courage with the worst of odds. I know as a fact that in the days of the silent pictures, he had rejected as scrap a couple of hundred thousand feet of film because a director was inclined to be 'clever'. If the Sardar had done so this time, not only would he have saved a dark shadow on Ranjit's beautiful trade name, but he would have also obliged the numerous screen fans who see pictures because they are Ranjit's. AH! THE STORY The story opens with a holi celebration in which colourless water is sprayed about till it gets the audience also drenched. The audience having caught enough of chill, it is soon introduced to hunger through Sunder a poor man with a good looking sister and a hideous mother. With a surprising suddenness we soon see shapely dancing legs which belong to Champa, the artistdaughter of a rich bloke who constantly writes accounts of a business that is not shown. Then we are taken to the rich boy whose 'stern' father is drenched with the holi water just for fun. 53