Filmindia (1941)

February^ 1941 FILMINDI A to Bombay. But I am not here to boast of these facts about myself nor to defend those from my hne who enjoy the pleasures that the modern world presents them with. All that I want to say is that the film artiste does nothing that the men and women out side this profession do not do. THE PAPERS MUST GIVE A FAIRER DEAL The vices of its own members the society protects, while the vices of the film artiste it prints in bold type. It hides its own defects giving prominence to those of the others. It boasts of itself as the "Modern Society" on the strength of its vices and condemns the artiste for having the same. If an actress divorces her husband, the newspapers give headlines to the news, if she is seen on the race-course it is immediately broadcast, if she is ill they hasten to write an obituary, killing her before she is dead, if she insists upon calling a friend a friend, motives and meaning are attached to the friendship, sacrificing truth and decency for adding 'spice' to the contents of a paper; (How many magazines owe their existence to the spicy news that they print at the cost of the poor artistes, little caring for the hurt and bitterness the news must be causing to the victim?) Sarojini in "Jadu-i-Bandhan" a Mohan picture. And yet how cleverly are hidden the facts about the society men and women who under the security thai marriage affords them, lead a free and gay life, who join this clula or the other, sacrificing the sanctity of the home for the passionate pleasures of the fashionable world, who meet at Mussorie or Mahableshwai to spend the 'Holidays' and improve their health — not in the open air or in the company of Mother Nature but in the crowded dance halls of the hotels. ARE MALE VICES COMPLIMENTARY If I have written mainly about the actress and not so much about An interesting situation from "Mere Raja," a Paramvunt picture. the actor, it is because in this manmade world the vices m a man are taken as a compliment to his manhood. While a man can leave his wife even after twenty years of companionship with her to seek inspiration in another without much harming his social status or career, the women cannot do so even foT the most justifiable reasons without losing the respect and love of the entire society. But even the poor actor suffers no less than his colleague— the actress. How then an industry which consists of immoral men and women viz. the actors and actresses ha3 Indurani in "Allauddin Leila" a Mohan picture. succeeded in occupying such a prominent and secure place in the industries of the world within such a short period so much so that to-day it has become a necessary feature of the modern world? Or are we to believe that the members of the highly moral society have the power to feed their souls on vices and yet remain unaffected by them? I think it is high time that society decides to cast off all hypocrisy and to look at the profession of the film artiste as one more means of livelihood in this world of the unemployed. Especially when reason tells that the vices of the artiste arR the vices of the men and women all over the world, it should get rid of the spirit of snobbery and if it must denounce and outcaste people for doing wrong things, let it denounce and outcaste its own members first. And if it will still insist on talking of a film artiste as a "mere actress,,' then the artiste too when she meets a member outside her profession, v/ill be justified in talking of him as a "mere member 0/ a hypocrite society." For there are not a few of these snobs who will give ten years of their life to become mere actors or actresses, if only they could have the moral courage and the qualities to become so. 41