Filmindia (1941)

n Complete Black-Out In The South Baburao Patel's Blunt Talh at Bladras Producers Must Realize Their Responsibility To The Nation "Friends, as you know I have already been committed to speak this evening by my friend Mr. K. Subrahmanyam, of course, without my consent. There are many things done without my consent and one of them is the general misunderstanding prevalent about me. "I personally wished that I should have been left alone and not asked to speak because I have some bitter things to say. I came down to the South on a study tour with a view to acquaint myself with the conditions here and during the days that I have been here, I learned more than one thing about the South Indian Film Industry and to tell you frankly I am disgusted with the state of affairs existing here and I wish to go back as early as possible" said Mr. Baburao Patel, President of the Film Journalists' Association of India and Editor "filmindia" when the producers and the distributors gave him a reception at the premises of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce on the 22nd February 1941. "I find the producers in the South entirely unenterprising. They are shivering on the brink of failure and it seems that they don't want to pick up courage and march ahead. Such a state of afTairs will not stabilise any industry in any country in the world. Unless the producers make the best of their present opportunities, and immediately, the future of the South Indian Film Industry is, indeed, very dark. Time is not going to wait for the South Indian Film Producers. It will march ahead, leaving them behind. NO PURPOSE IN PRODUCTION "The pictures, which I saw here, with the exception of one, are aU very poor. To me a film is a little more than mere entertainment. The primary object of these pictures produced in the South seems to be of making money. The economic , distress and the struggle to live have been so intense in this province that the producers have never stopped to consider the weight of responsibility they are shouldering as producers of motion pictures which should essentially help the national existence of our people. "What is the importance of the South Indian Film Industry to-day in the life of our country? In my opinion, nil. I wish you had not asked me to speak. But as you have, you have to thank yourself for my bluntness. I hardly find any picture with any particular social purpose beyond that of making money, if that is a social purpose. "All that I find are mythological subjects, produced in a crude, primitive way and of no use to our present-day life. These pictures are reactionary. Who wants to live in the past? At the most, the past can be useful to us with its experience. But that experience must be interpreted in present-day terms and made to provide guidance for the future. "Orthodoxy of the dark ages is sadly underlined in the pictures of the South. This is not keeping pace with the times. You know what is happening in the world today. But ■,he South still insists on telling us what happened ages ago. The South must take its place in the film world. Even if for the sheer necessity of balancing their economic existence the South Indian Producers have to produce mythological subjects, they should still try to interpret the message of old in modern progressive terms. Take, for instance, the famous Prabhat picture "Dnyaneshwar". Is not the message of humanity in it as alive to-day as it was then? "Prabhat has been producing rnythological pictures but their interpretation has been modern. If th^t Mr. V. Rama Rao, the ejficient Manager of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce. is done here, the production in the South will secure more social purpose. "Unless therefore the producers come out with pictures of social significance and until they realise their true responsibility to the nation by harnessing the immense potentialities of the propaganda value of our films. South Indian Film Industry will never make any progress nor will it ever be a blessing to the country in general. FACE THE NEW MENACE "To-day, the South Indian Film Industry is being threatened by a monopoly which will soon choke honest and legitimate competition, which is so necessary for the expansion of every business. There are forces let loose to-day which threaten to eft'ect a complete blackout in the future of this industry. Like capitalists in every country of the world, they say that things are being organised for the benefit of all, but at the same time, we must not lose sight of the immense profits made by individuals, at the cost of many. "And that is exactly what is being threatened in the South Indian Film Industry now. Totalitarian methods so blatant in every capitalist scheme of things are also noticeable in the 37