FilmIndia (1940)

PflRSEE GIRLS HRUE PERSORRblTy FOR THE SCREER DON'T STARVE THEM — GIVE THEM A CAREER! MISS FRENE TALYARKHAN IN HOLLYWOOD! How Will Orthodoxy Receive Her On Return ? In this trenchant article Comrade Russi Karanjia, one of our brilliant journalists, appeals to the Parsee orthodoxy to lift the morality ban imposed on a film career. No one could have dealt with this subject better than the writer. A Parsee himself, he feels intensely on the economic problems facing his community to-day. THE EDITOR. For many a long year now — in fact, ever since the unfortunate heat, alarums and excursions occasioned amidst the Parsee community by the release of the Bombay Talkies' first picture "JAWANI-KIHAWA" — the press and the public have thought it well and wise to undergo a self-imposed censorship on the subject of the Indian screen as a career for Parsee women. I fear, therefore, that this article, venturing as it does to tear open the seal of silence that covers the subject, will have the effect of a screaming bombshell in certain quarters. For I propose to avail myself of the Editor's invitation to contribute a special article to "filmindia", to rake up the skeleton of . this burning problem from the grave of oblivion, where it has long lain either dormant or dead. While I personally am and have always been in favour of screen careers for such Parsee girls as can see their way (preferably, with the sanction of their parents or guardians) to entering a profession hitherto tabooed to them, I have no desire to be either aggressive or dogmatic. I may not subscribe to the orthodox attitude of my community towards this tangled issue, but I give that attitude its due measure of regard and respect. R. K. KARANJIA EDITOR OF "THE SUNDAY STANDARD" This article has not been written with a view to undermining the authority of the orthodox — rather, its main purpose is to bring the elders of the community to see a point of view that is different from theirs. For, the final sanction to Parsee girls in the matter of film-careers rests solely with the elders of the community. The Editor of "filmindia" has done me the honour to invite my vieros upon a highly controver<ial subject because, he tells me, he feels that my position entitles them to a certain respect among those for whose attention they have been submitted. As such I give them for what they are worth. At the same time I am aivare that there can be no finality about them.— [R. K. K.\ Why then do I re-open the subject, you would ask me? Is it not wise to let sleeping dogs lie? And would it not be the height of folly to disturb the unruffled complacency into which my community settled down once the tumult and the shouting over the release of "JAWANI-KI-HAWA" had ceased to be? My answer is that the time has come when no member of the Parsee community imbued with moral and intellectual honesty, a sense of realism and regard for fellow Parsees can continue to remain silent upon a subject which, in my humble opinion, will vitally effect the economic future of the Parsees. The past six years have altered the circumstances of the Parsee community no less than circumstances attaching to the Indian film industry. In many a disastrous manner those years have struck at . the root of the prosperity of the Parsee com 19