FilmIndia (1940)

Housewife Becomes A Glamour Girl Surekha Patankar's Pathetic Story n Bridge of Sighs Between the Home and the Screen B> baburao patel ( The characters and names mentioned in this short story are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.) Sudhir Patankar blessed the world when within a few months of his passing the B.A. examination, through the good graces of his friend, he secured a sixty-rupee job in the City Municipality. His father who was once a Government servant drawing Rs. 200 at the end of a marathon service of thirty years was also pleased at the remarkable success of Sudhir in securing so lucrative a start, knowing that the Government departments started graduates on Rs. 40 only. The old Patankars didn't care whether their future daughter-inlaw came with a big dowry or not. They wanted a beautiful wife for Sudhir even if she came from a poor family. So when Surekha, almost as beautiful as God intended a woman to be} at the proverbial sweet seventeen, came along Papa Patankar did not think twice but got Sudhir married to her, paying all the wedding expenses of both the sides. * ♦ * • Sudhir now settled down in Bombay with his young wife. No more boarding houses for him; he would now have his meals at home cooked by his own wife, who knew cooking as no other woman did except his mother. A year of supreme happiness passed. The only honeymoon indulgence which the newly weds dared to practice, and that too stealthily ( was an occasional show of an Indian picture. They didn't wish to hurt the susceptibilities of even their neighbours by seeing the last shows and coming late. Sudhir and Surekha generally saw the matinee shows on Sundays and returned home in good time for the dinner and a little chat thereafter with the neighbours before retiring to the blissful bed of roses and hopes. , j * * * * In April, exactly a year and four months after the marriage, little Arun was born and the City Municipality as if aware of the introduction of a new citizen) gave Sudhir a promotion of Rs. 20 as a reward of Sudhir's untiring work during the census time. * * * * Arun was a year old now. Sudhir and Surekha decided to cele Well matched! Aren't they? Ishwarlal and Prabha in "Ummid" a Ranjit picture. brate Arun's birthday by taking him to an Indian picture. That evening when they returned home, Surekha was too thrilled to forget the performance of Bapurao Kapalik, India's best screenactor. His face haunted her dreams. What an actor? A face that looked handsome in its intelligence in spite of its natural ugliness — that is how she summarised the man. The memory of that man went to bed with her that night. * * » * Months later all the Brahmin tenants in the chawl were thrilled with the news that the great screen actor Bapurao Kapalik was going to grace the local Ganpati celebrations and deliver a small speech on the occasion. Brahmin women in the chawl were searching for their wedding saris, for those were the best they could wear in honour of this man. Surekha was preparing for days. She insisted on Sudhir buying a modern sari for the occasion. The wedding sari was too old for so distinguished a visitor. Sudhir good humouredly obliged. * * * * At last after days of waiting, the day dawned. Sharp with the strike of eight Bapurao Kapalik arrived. The presence of this great screen actor eclipsed the importance of the holy idol of Ganpati. For the first time the crowd realized that the image of God which they have been worshipping for ages was made of clay. Here was another idol — living and dynamic— radiating his glamour with a generosity that took every one's breath away. Every woman — for that matter even the old ones with their tired eyes — looked and looked at him. 33