FilmIndia (1940)

Our Review "Bharosa" Beats "Pukar" In Purpose! Chandra Mohan's Solitary Good Performance ! A Better Picture Than The Previous Best. A producer's effort must be judged by 'his own standard — standard which he has established for himself in his previous pictures. It will be idle to compare a Minerva picture with a Prabhat product, but it can certainly be compared with the previous productions of the same company. Compared thus "Bharosa" has more purpose than "Pukar" because of its social theme, it is better directed than any previous picture ot Minerva, it has better photography and sound than all Minerva pictures and it has more production values than "Pukar". "Defeat" and "The Will' put together. I therefore welcome "Bharosa" as a sign of progress in future Minerva productions and congratulate Sohrab Mody, in whom the world may have a lot of "Bharosa" as is claimed in the numerous childish advertisements, but I had none. FULL OF FAULTS AND YET This new picture of Minerva can not stand a critical analysis as it has nothing outstanding. Tt is mediocre in every respect and yet one cannot help but like the picture because of its theme which can easily find a parallel in life and which has been very sincerely attempted on the screen. There are numerous things to rind fault with such as: the songs are badly composed and badly sung, the beautiful settings have no special significance in the story and one feels that they are wasted, the Hoodoo — hocus dance in Africa is stupid and fails in its purpose, the recording is faulty in several places — particularly when Chandra Mohan plays with his son, the phantastic BHAROSA Producers: Minerva Movietone Screen-Play, Dialogues & Songs: L. C. Bismil Music: G. P. Kapoor Photography: Y. D. Sarpotdar Audiography: M. Eduljee Art Direction: Rusi K. Banker Cast: Chandra Muhan, Mazhar Khan, Sardar Akhtar, Sheela, Maya, Gulab, Naval etc. Released At: Minerva Talkies Date of Release: 15th August 1940. Director:— SOHRAB MODY Chandra Mohan, who alone has made "Bharosa" the best picture of Minerva. dance of Sardar Akhtar in which she changes her sex and becomes Krishna and Radha both strains the imagination, the clumsy colouring of these dance sequences fails to impress, The Aristocratic Club of India where only loafers are seen talking about other people's wives (I wonder whether it is a reflection on Hie Cricket Club of India), Eruch Tarapore acting as a lawyer and making a perfect fool of himself generally and particularly while mtroducirg Roshanara at the Club, the motor-car dialogues and se Sohrab Mody directs his first good picture in "Bharosa". quences between Chandra Mohan and Sardar Akhtar taken in the studio without background projection (the cameraman thinking that rilling the block would eliminate the necessity of showing the car running), no servants in the big palatial building where Chandra Mohan seduces Sardar Akhtar, the boring Devdas-touch when the falling of Sardar's photo in Africa indicates :ier fall in life in India, Sardar Akhtar — the Hindu mother — recalls ner sins in the presence of her little baby (imagine a Hindu wife who has sinned, doing that), Sardar's death is too sudden and sketchy and needs a sub-title saying that she really died, the childhood interlude of Indira and Madan is unnecessary, the dependability of Mazhar on his job once — which makes the drama — disappears later on and he is seen inexplicably comfortable in life, the pnysiognomical changes from Madan as infant, Madan as a child of twelve: and Madan as Captain Madan are too sharp (imagine the monkeylaccd Ram Apte becoming the longnt-jfid Parsi in future), the ridiculous romance between Naval and Sheela — both awful lookers — when the audience knows their true relation of brother and sister, the utter lack of emotion in Naval's final dialogue " ^ ^fTRI H$ IWtU % JIT ( " fails to create the pathos necessary prior to the suicide (one almost feels relieved to get rid of 48