FilmIndia (1940)

FILMINDIA October 1940 streets showing "It", "that'' or "this"? Whom can I accuse of immorality now? Do we ever see our leading stars such as Devika Rani, Sadhona Bose, or even Sabita, Madhuri and others parade the streets with lowcut blouses, stingy shorts and other womanly attire guaranteed to get the man's lust itching? No! But we see the others who are not film stars. Do we condemn the star out of a sense of frustration a feeling that she is a glamour girl, a woman in complete communion with sin, merely because being constantly in the limelight of publicity, evil tongues are ready to credit her with some fictitious romance, tangle or something worse? If that is so, then we indeed have a very wrong conception of human values, which makes the foundation of our social order somewhat shaky and disgusting. We presume that anybody not connected with the film business is eligible for society. We fuss over conventions and constitutions. We worry over petty trifles and fix a standard, so long as one can smatter a few words in English, dress In the height of fashion (on credit), attend cinemas in the best seats (on complimentary tickets), eat correctly with knife and fork, know well what drinks to order at various hours of the day and night, be aptly trained in the art of seduction, be an adept in clasping a quivering damsel and wheel her around with all the grace sexual secrets will allow) — it is enough — to them society opens its doors wide and welcomes with a full heart. SOME FALSE COINS And it does not matter whether the lady or the gentleman has a shady past. Whether they lead a double life. Whether the lady who speaks with a flawless accent, has just returned from a clandestine bed. Whether the young lady profusely made up with rouge and lipstick has come to the club to seduce the manager of a firm where her brother, husband or boy-friend is angling for a Job— all this does not matter one bit— they are lociety folks-super-human beings, people above reproach — because they are not attached to a film company. Let me drive this point home with the full vigour my ancient Remington will allow. If morals are to be taken into account in measuring one for society, then let me force some bitter home truths down your throat, and if in swallowing them it pains, well then I have gained my objective. Working in a studio, under glaring lights, with a host of technicians and others about, the film star has no opportunity, that is even if she desires to run amuck. Her private life may be different, that is beyond my point. We are concerned with environments and surroundings and these do not instill that sense of immorality with which we are too quick to load the profession. And so the question boils down again to the problem: are film stars as immoral as we imagine them to be, or have they like every other human being the same foibles, weaknesses, and human frailties which we find in other members of our society? Can I not conclude by saying that society in India to-day has reached the dizzy pinnacle of snobbishness, where common sense, reason and fair play are forgotten words and where people have become so blind that they refuse to see things in their proper perspective? ALL THE SAME Next time we meet a film star, let us remember that beneath the crust of glamour and glory, she is as much an average woman as any one else, and is as capable of honesty, devotion, deceit, affection, hypocrisy or any other attribute as any other woman is, be she an ayah with a butler waiting round the corner, a nurse with a medico wagging behind, a sales girl with a boy-friend in her vanity bag, a society butterfly rubbing her all against the man under the pretence of a dance, a social worker with ten abortions to her share or a queen with a complete court beneath her robe. If all the others have a social status which society must recognize, then society must grant equal recognition to our film stars. They are as good or as bad as the others. Three fine artistes meet in "Geeta" a Circo production— Chandramohan, Anant Marathe and Durga Khote. Do they make drama? See it and make sure. 54