FilmIndia (1940)

December, 1940 FILMINDIA Gee, a girl in pyjamas! And Ishwarlal that way? Nur Jehan must be upto something in "Ummid". So much has been made, privately and in the film press, of the fact that I am no longer writing and editing the Film Page of "The Bombay Chronicle." There are different and mutually contradictory "theories" about it — one of them being that I have been promoted to a more responsible job and another that I have been "degraded" for showing partiality for certain friends of i mine among the film stars (who actually, seem to be getting a much bigger "bo; st" now that I am not writing the Film Page!) Before I tell you why I am not writing the "Chronicle" Film Page, let me first make it clear that I was not born into this exciting world of journalism with the film critic's illuminated silver press-show pencil in my mouth. Boyishly enthusiastic and terribly self-conscious, I entered a newspaper office seven years ago and the first job assigned to me was to sub-edit the commercial page. Day after day, I sat at my desk, painfully wrestling with prices of Hessian and Cotton T.T., New York on London, Bullion and Seeds, Bulls and Bears. That's why I know more about their favourite hobby ol Share Bazar Speculation than certain producers suspect me of knowing. That's where I learnt of the mad gambles of capitalism which upset markets and stake the lives of millions on such imponderable circumstances as a king's cold or a dictator's dyspepsia. The very next job that came my way was law court reporting and I still remember the feeling of nausea I had when for the first time I heard a death sentence passed on a ccnvict. I saw a simple peasant who, suspecting his mistress of infidelity, had killed her with an axe and related the whole tragic story calmly, truthfully, unhesitatingly convinced that the gallows would unite him with his beloved in the other world — a gallant and upright man with pathetically perverted ideas of love and fidelity. My mind vividly recalls two other cases: that of a young orphan boy who tearfully admitted having stolen six annas because he was hungry and that of the pitiful woman whose nose had been chopped off by a suspicious and callous husband. ORDERED TO BE A CRITIC! In course of time I was to spectalize in interviews and met diverse and interesting characters including politicians, fire-eaters, globe-trotters and street-walkers not always immoral! I 'covered' Congress Sessions and Trade Union meetings, saw Pandit Jawaharlal choking with emotion as he spoke about Spain and heard Mahatma Surya Kumari — the Radio star appears in "Prem Bandhan" a Tamil picture of Famous Films. 57