FilmIndia (1940)

August 1940 FILMIND1 A spiritual greatness of ancient India, but they were made purposeful and progressive by treating the subjects realistically and properly emphasizing the social and economic background. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" was filmed many years ago on an ambitious scale but the emphasis in that picture was throughout on Lon Chaney's hideous make-up and on the spectacular scenes. The same story when made by William Dieterle gained in contemporary social significance and the mighty sweep of a people in revolt against injustice and oppression gave a definite meaning and purpose to the tragedy of the ugly Hunchback. PAST MASTER IN THE PAST Devaki Bose would have done an incalculable service to the cause of progressive films if he had similarly given a social significance to his pictures. But then he is interested in the past and not in progress. To him the glorification of ancient legends is an end in itself, not a means to the better reorganization of the present-day human society. "Chandidas", which Devaki Bose produced in Bengali, passively accepted the inequalities and inequities of the social system. The highborn poet and the low caste washerwoman sang a few songs and parted, accepting the verdict of fate. And "Puran Bhakt" took the "long unending road of Ahimsa and renunciation" leaving his wife and family behind. As for ' Vidyapati", it still remains a mystery why the Queen put greater trust in the words of a patently villainous Minister than in the repeated assurances of her husband and committed suicide directly causing her already ailing husband's death. I have seldom seen two more useless deaths. Now I am certain that few of Devaki Bose fans believe in such things. I know people who went mad over "Puran Bhakt" but if it came to a renunciation of the world they would not be able to give up smoking cigarettes much less abstain from drinking wine. I do not blame them. Lost in a world of rapidly changing ethical values, unable In "Deepak Mahal" a Mohan picture, MASTER BACHHU gives some rare thrills to grasp the true significance of soc'al and economic phenomena and bewildered by the paradoxes of our hybrid present day culture, they are easily impressed by metaphysical abstractions, misty idealism and high flown talk of Bhakti and re nunciation. It is the same phenomenon that makes millionaire American women ready victims of the glib tongue of swamis and spiritualists. DEVAKI S FANATICAL CULT The secret of Devaki Bose's success thus lies not in his directorial competence or the technical quality of his picture but in the popular acceptance of the pseudo-mystical and romanticist melodramas he caters to the public. You don't believe it, of course! Then, why is it, that Devaki Bose is rememberd for his "Puran Bhakt", "Seeta" and "Raj Rani Meera", and not for a longer list of flops like "After The Earthquake", "Life Is A Stage", "Sonehra Sansar" and "Sapera"? Think about it and see if you arrive at the same conclusion as I have. The trouble is that the Devaki Bose cult is so fanatical that he has come to assume an almost religious and sacrosanct position. Thus very few of them will be able to dispassionately study and analyse the work of their favourite director. The dozens of letters that came to me and the hundreds that came to the Editor of "Filmindia" after the pu SHANTA KUMARI and HANUMANTHRAO in "Dharma Patni" a Famous Films' production in Telugu 55