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Wlusic lo Q& the Git o\ {III
(local Gymnastics of South Indian Stars
Don't Choke Off Saigdl
By: Miss T. C. Susheela, M. A.
Owing to the excessive use of songs, in place and out of place, in South Indian pictures, critics have been provoked to take up the cudgels against what they deem as undue prominence assigned to music in films. It has even become the fashion of the day to cry hoarse against the introduction of music into the Talkie altogether. The criticism would have served its purpose if the South Indian stars would spare us from the exhibition of their musical talents (if any) which they consider as the chief aim of the picture. These vocal gymnastics, indulged in merely to display the musician's cleverness, are clearly detrimental to the illusory effect aimed at in a picture because the personality of the musician— his cleverness — becomes disturbingly obtrusive. This interferes
with "the temporary suspension of the faculty of disbelief which is necessary in all art.
CLOSING DOWN THE GOLD MINE
In the best North Indian pictures, however, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. How can barely half-a-dozen songs in a picture that lasts from two to three hours satisfy? For instance, the chief attraction of an actor like Saigal lies in his music. His 'fans' all over India flock to his pictures not so much to see him, as to hear him sing in full throated ease. How can they rest contented with just four or five snatches hit off from the "gold mine" of his throat, though each may be a masterpiece in itself? The relegation of music far into the background with a vengeance seems to be the result.
5 >•
Baby Radha and Miss Raju in "Dharma Patni" a Telugu picture of
Famous Films.
MISS. T. C. SUSHEELA, M.A.
either of a misunderstanding or of deliberate disregard of the fundamentals of art.
POETRY AIDS ILLUSION
There appears to be a tendency in recent times to make out that the drama should be literally true to life. The function of drama — and the film is essentially drama broadcasts — is doubtless "to hold a mirror up to nature." But this had led to some confusion, arising from the interpretation put upon the term "truth to life", or "truth to nature.*' Is it fidelity to facts of life that is meant by truth to life? If so. "literal truth" and "poetical truth" would be identical. But they are not identical, as has been repeatedly explained by critics since the time of Aristotle.
The function of the highest art is not so much to reproduce life realistically as to throw the hallow of artistic imagination around it, and re-present it clothed in "a light that never was on land or sea."
The best art aims not at realism but illusion.
In this illusory world, the language of prose, of every day conversation, is utterly inadequate to express intense emotions. Music is certainly a more effective medium for the expression of emotions than the pedestrian prose of every day parlance. The best proof of this is afforded by the ready response of the audience to situations of high emotional tension rendered on the stage through the medium of song.
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