Filmindia (1941)

I Stand Disillusioned To Day Industry On n bouier moral beuel now B> KISHORE SAHU I was an idealist half a decade ago w'nen I first came to Bombay to become a film actor. I had mads up my mind. My forensic dreams, which I had once, were laid st rest; and those of the silver screen came to fill all my heart. Just a'tcr submitting my last B.A. paper I left for Bombay. 1 cculd not wait for the result. That seemed sheer waste of time. There was a crowd — of friends and relalation.s — on the p'atform to give me a send-off. One of my friends laughed, and said: "So you're going to be a hero now! Well, best of luck to you". The words went like cold steel through my heart. They were a kindly lot and meant no harm. They honestly believed that I would return disappointed inside of a month after having squandered all that I carried in my pocket. On reaching Bombay I decided to go round all the studios before I made up my choice. It took me full three days to complete my rounds. And in those three days 1 saw all that was worth seeing. I did not fail to visit the innumerable cinetones and movietones which were gone into liquidation or were halfway throug'h the process, and with whose effaced and dust-covered signboards the entire Dadar and Parel area was then infested. HUMAN ELEMENT MISSING What I saw of the studios repulsed me violently. I was an idealist just out of college with a passionate obsession to purify the atmosphere of the studios. I found the human element mostly missing in the industry. It was too commercial, too cheap and not enough clean. I actually ran away to my hotel and shut myself up. I, who had come all the way to Bombay to join the films (tilting at the mill, it seemed to me) was running away from them — like a coward. I wondered what was wrong — the stifling atmosphere of the studios or my own telf? I laugh with myself as J think of it now. It was just an accident when I met an old friend at the Taj who insisted cn my vi.sit.'ng ti* Bombay Talkies, .i never can forget the day on which I travelled to Ma'ad. It still remains a p Jgrimage of my career. T!io story is very brietiy told. When 1 met my master the late Himansu Rai. I instinctively felt that I had found the man wnom I sought all along. "I have been waiting for you all these montns. my boy" he said as he greeted me most warmly. Here was a film company to my liking. My principles and my ideals found a fitting home here, after all. I joined the House and played opposite that grand little lady of the Indian screen, Devika Rani. It was both a treat and a privilege to play with her. But I was not satisfied with myself. I was not satisfied with the standard of the industry then — nor, honestly, am I now. I wanted to do somethmg genuine, something solid, something— I wanted, in a word to revolutionize the entire industry. I did not want the 'singing' girls and illiterate boys to be in the line. I thought they hurt the industry. I wanted decent, educated boys and girls to join the films in increasing numbers. I did not want every picture to have in it songs, as a matter of course. I did not want a picture of fourteen reels. In fact, I did not want many things that the distributors and the public clamoured for, and vice versa. And so getting thoroughly disillusioned, I withdrew myself from the industry. My mind knew no rest. I felt the creator's agony in my soul. A propitious star helped me to see the light. ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY Shantaram's "Duniya-na-Mane" was just then released. I saw the Bombay's prize bachelorfather, Mr. Kishore Sahu plays the lead in "Bachelor Father", a Great Indian picture. Kishore is a perfect cast. picture and it set me thinking once more. Here was a man who had not bowed down to the insensate demands of the market but was out to create the taste which he felt — and rightly — the public ought to seek in all pictures of correct theme and correct presentation. He aspired to be looked upon as a teacher or nothing at all. And his pictures are never without their teaching. And then came that classic picture in "Vidyapati" from the creative hands of Debaki Babu which picture stands in a class by itself for sheer beauty of depiction of the Vaishnava philosophy. These two pictures served as eye-openers to me, and I decided to return to the industry without feeling shy of its black spots. I realised suddenly that Rome was not built in a day. It would call for many sacrifices before the industry was chastened and stabilised. So I returned to Bombay — this time with a bigger mission. I gathered a goodly band of friends about me and produced "Bahurani" in which I advocated inter-caste marriage, village uplift and literacy. I condemned the modern European fads and upheld the ancient Indian culture. To my happy surprise I found other producers also giving pictures where the entire purpose was not only to entertain but to give the picturegoers some food for 48