Filmindia (1941)

OH! A MERE ACTRESS! A Plea To Cast Off Hypocrisy B^*: Snehaprabha Pradhan In sheer candour few can beat Miss Snehaprabha Pradhan, the star of "Punar Milan". In this frank article she takes the society snobs 9 to task and demands a better deal for the film actress . . The Editor. So often when an actress passes them have I seen people pointing an accusing finger at her or heard them saying in a condemning tone "oh, a mere actress!" that I feel compelled to say a few words to these moral heroes and heroines of our society who will read this article of a "mere actress" as surely as they will go to attend the premiere of a picture where the "mere actors or actresses" are to be seen, or to crowd around them to get at least a glimpse of these Stars of the Silver Screen. Daily in hundreds and thousands these people v'sit the cinema houses to be entertained by their favourite artistes, to cast off their blues, to forget the quarrels at home, to soothe the ache in their hearts, to substitute their tears of misery with smiles and laughter. Daily in thousands they go to bed feeling less miserable and more hopeful, less cynical and more optimistic. Daily they try to acquire the grace of some favourite star of theirs or to follow the fashion of the day by imitating Joan Crawford, Hedy Lamarr or our own Rose. And yet however painful it may be, it must be realised that when this very personality who is the cause of their smiles and hopes, faces them in life, in reality she becomes a "mere actress" worthy of contempt — an object which must be kept at a distance as one keeps a dangerous explosive. How many of these society men and women who talk of the actor or actress with "a mere", to show their superiority of character, care to find out the number of hours of very hard work that she puts in, or the number of blazing lights she faces on the set, or the enormous mental strain that she experiences when from a laughter she changes to a heart-piercing cry? How many of these people, men and women, bother to know about the worries and heartbreaks that the film artiste carries with her — worries about her career which is so short-lived — heart-breaks because her best friends start condemning her? WHERE ARE THEY NOW? I am talking from personal experience. Before I joined this line — Mira in "Darshan" a Prakash picture. as a matter of fact until the very day I signed my first contract — there was not a single "Society" a single college in Bombay that did not approach me with an invitation to attend some function or with a request to take some active part in the function. There was the Lucknow Students' Conference, the hundreds of charity performances at the C. J. Hall, the charity pro Snehaprabha Pradhan hits the snobs and how! gramme for the American school for the blind — this and that. There was never a single evening when I did not have one meeting or the other to attend — some debate or the other to occupy my spare time. And yet after I joined this line, how many of these societies, how many of the students who swayed to the rhythm of my music and dances, when I was one of them, who applauded me for one witty thing or the other I said from the platform, who unanimously elected me as the secretary of one society or the other — ever cared to approach me with similar invitations? How many members of the societies which owe the collection of some thousands of rupees to the part I played in their charity programmes, will feel obliged to show recognition for now a "mere actress"? How many of these people who in my college days thought it a privilege to know me, now do not hesitate to get a sudden attack of loss of memory? How many of the girls who now cluster around me when I sometimes go to pay a visit to my college and who suddenly find themselves so terribly attached to me as to feel justified in making a bold demand for passes of our picture, will dare to go about with me or will dai-e to be seen with me without feeling ill at ease and guilty? And is it not sc. because, according to them now I 39