FilmIndia (Jan-Nov 1942)

April 1943 Fit M INDIA But a government ceases to be a government if it does a sensible thing. And that is why the Government of India did the traditional stupid thing of missing the all-important bus and getting on the bullockcart of the Viceroy. Instead of the scenes mentioned above, we got a half-hearted promenade in the Moghul Gardens of the Viceregal Lodge with the tall Viceroy looking extra small and sweet in Madam Chiang's company and the Vicereine making a valiant effort to understand the great Chinaman. Then we are shown short scenes of the Marshal and his beautiful wife shaking hands with the Governor and the Premier of the Punjab. As if people in India worry about any provincial governor or premier. Couldn't the Government of India have asked Director Shantaram to "shoot" Marshal and Madam completely? Somehow we cannot believe that Shantaram himself did not do it. We have known Shantaram too well all these years. He is perhaps the most sensitive newshound with a remarkable understanding of mass psychology. He wouldn't miss such an opportunity. The conclusion is obvious. Shantaram was perhaps gagged by the stupid Steel Frame. And the result is that our country has lost a record of unique incidents which only a mighty world war could project on the screen of contemporary history. Even as effective war propaganda the ChiangMahatma meeting would have become a popular incident, even more popular than the Chiang-Viceroy flirtation. But the Film Advisory Board which is essentially a war-time institution could not utilize this god-sent opportunity and turn it to profit. We acquit Shantaram of all blame and are not surprised at the traditional stupidity displayed by the Government but blame our own misfortune in being slaves in our own country — slaves of fools. That was an example of bureaucratic stupidity. Let us now recite a tragedy of our vainglorious public leadership. K. S. Hirlekar, our popular newsreel producer, was in Delhi for the Chiangs. Wide-awake always, Hirlekar is hardly a man to let go such an occasion. He was there with his cameraman, nosing for news and bragging about his friendship with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mrs. Vijayalaxmi Pandit and others that counted in this Chiang episode. Little did he know the real Jawaharlal. He had heard some stories about Jawaharlal having sometimes become abrupt to the newsboys. But Hirlekar never believes anything unless he himself experiences it or sees it. It is his German training that has made him so efficient in outlook. Wasn't Jawaharlal his friend? And yet, when Hirlekar asked Jawaharlal Nehru as to when the latter was meeting Marshal and Madam Chiang Kai Shek, Jawaharlal snubbed him with an annoying "I don't know ". Half-an-hour later Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was not only shaking hands with the famous Chiangs but was moreover posing, all smiles, with his sister and daughter in addition, before the "March-of-Time" cameraman and thanking Maurice Lancaster, the American director, for his Yankee kindness in "shooting" them with the Chiangs. How did the American production unit happen to be there, aware in advance of the Jawahar-Chiang meeting, when even the official Film Advisory Board unit was not allowed? A newspaper report says that it was an "accident". A Yankee cameraman by "accident" in the Viceregal Lodge! Imagine that! Times are getting Bohemian. Never mind Hirlekar! He was forgotten. But what surprises us is the attitude of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. India's No. 2 and Mahatma Gandhi's heir to the Indian throne. Why did he misguide Hirlekar? Didn't he want to be photographed by an Indian and be presented on the Indian screen to the joy of millions that love him? Or was he aching to be shown on the American screen by the "March of Time" people with his usual paraphernalia of a sister and a daughter? Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru ought to be ashamed of himself for this exhibition of his inner inferioritycomplex in the presence of the white skin. Several national leaders, including the great Mahatma Gandhi, are notorious for their exuberant politeness towards white-skinned pressmen in sad contrast to their chilly behaviour towards the Indian press boys. We have by now got used to the meanly little ways of our great leaders, but Jawaharlal's behaviour in putting off the Indian newsreel man and robbing the nation of an historic record of the ChiangJawahar meeting is, to say the least, highly unpatriotic and unlike Nehru. Yes, we shall now have to see all of these history-making incidents in an American film by paying our hard-earned money to see it. And the "March of Time" people will make good Indian money with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi's heir, acting as their star salesman. In the meanwhile we would like to know from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru how he defines his patriotism. We can't imagine a Nehru apologising to the nation, but here is a case where our people deserve an apology from their leader. But in his utter vanity, a Nehru can perhaps become greater -than his people. Can he? 5