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November 1941
FILMINDIA
spared for other work in these days of severe competition.
In giving their best man Prabhat has done something really unexpected. What a splendid contribution to India's War Effort! Only Prabhat could do it.
This splendid gesture of Prabhat ought to be an eye-opener to other Indian producers and distributors of foreign films in the country. So far not one of them has contributed materially to India's war effort. On the other hand they have fallen over one another to snatch small crumbs of production work which the Film Advisory Board keeps on giving them, probably to promote general good-will.
People in the industry must now understand that we are passing through a very grave crisis. The monster shadow of that little German wall painter is darkening the threshold of our homes as well as those of others in other parts of the world. The danger is coming home fast and sure and what is our film industry doing about it. Nothing so far, beyond a lot of talk and a few abortive meetings.
If it is agreed by every one, even by the extreme political opinion in the country, that the British must win the war whatever our place in the ultimate world order, why is our film industry not doing anything about winning it seeing that our film people have a very powerful weapon of propaganda in their hand?
When I see world-known film stars from Hollywood and England featuring in war shorts and lending the weight of their stardom and popularity for war propaganda, I feel like asking our film stars: "What
Vasant Thengdi and Vimal Sardesai seem to have something common between them in "Municipality", a Brilliant picture in Marathi.
Naseem, charming and beautiful as ever, thrills again in "Ujala", a Taj Mahal picture.
part do you play in this war?" Only the other day I saw two war shorts with commentaries by Leslie Howard and Lawrence Olivier. When these big stars sacrifice their time and work to do this, what is wrong with our Motilal and Chandramohan whose beautiful Hindusthani diction would hold our audiences spellbound.
Why don't Devika Rani, Madhui'i, Naseem and some of other box-office stars lend their name to some war films and draw huge audiences to make our war propaganda a success?
If these stars lack the social conscience for this work, the Government should certainly know other methods of making them work. Are we at war or are we at play? And what the hell for is the Government dilly-dallying in these times of emergency?
We hope that Shantaram, now that he is in charge of war film production, will call upon our leading stars to contribute their share of war effort.
That is the only way to conduct this war, in a common sense, practical way, if we are to win it.
CORRESPONDENTS WANTED
"filmindia" requires reliable local journalists from Lahore, Calcutta and Mad/ras to report local film news and send film I'eviews of local productions in Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil and Telugu. Only experienced journalists need apply. Pan/ment according to quantity and quality of work^ Write to: The Editor, Filmindia.
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