Filmindia (1941)

June 1941 FILMINDIA THE SINGING SWEETHEART Our stars are certainly becoming bold and enterprising, the way I find Leela Chitnis working on her own picture, "Kanchan." For months she has been sweating and getting refreshingly slender and teasingly beautiful discussing knotty situations in the story, rehearsing the artistes and hei'self, singing, dancing and even directing. This daring woman of the screen is going to give a big push to her producing concern, "Chitra Productions", which she has started in association with the Ranjit Film Co. "Kanchan" may present the old triangle in the traditional story of the Indian village life, but when one of the angles is the glamorous Leela, you can bet that you are going to get a kick out of the show. As "Zabak", the well-known columnist, rightly calls her the Singing Sweetheart of India, "Kanchan" gives some more scope to Leela Chitnis to put over a few more of her enchantingly beautiful songs on the Indian screen. Well, we can do nothing better than to wish the sincere artiste all luck with her new enterprise. SHIVERING BOARD OF CENSORS Mr. V. N. Pai, the Secretary of the Bombay Board of Film Censors, seems to have swallowed all the criticism about his work and slept over it. We are not surprised at this. This is exactly what Government officers have been doing since they began their business of running a Government. And no wonder, that they have muddled through the whole show. When we first wrote about the Censor Board in India issuing restricted certificates for pictures which glorify crime, Mr. Pai was quick enough to reply and point out some imaginary statutory difficulties which prevented his Board from domg the right thing. Which all means that while the Board realizes the wisdom of our suggestion and feels the necessity of reform in our censor laws, it is not prepared to rush into it and by doing so take upon itself more work, incidentally, more intelligent work. In our April issue, we have clearly pointed out the shallowness of the arguments presented by Mr. Pai in justification of his Board's laziness to overhaul the censor regulations and now the only conclusion we can arrive at is that neither Mr. Pai nor his Board wants to do anything about this important reform which is so vital to the future advancement of our social life. It is clear that the members of the Board have lost their social conscience and do not believe in a progressive life. ASSASSINS AT LARGE The communal riots which broke out in Bombay last month have ruined the show business in the City, The first burst was somehow subsided by the local authorities and we had a short interval of peace and good will which helped our cinemas in the city to open their doors wide open. But something went wrong again somewhere and the riots broke out in the city again on the 22nd May, just a day before four new pictures were to be released in the City. For the first time the four producers took a speedy decision and jointly advertised postponing the releases, with the result that over 50 tins of canned brand new drama is now lying on the shelves unexploited, and their producers are paying the Multani Hundi bankers heavy interest on the stuff they can't cash. The same stalemate with perhaps more tragic consequences is also seen in other trades and professions in Jyoti is makincj "puris" in "Darshan", a Prakash pictur e and inho wovldn'L like to eat them i/ one gets the chance. 11