FilmIndia (Jan-Nov 1942)

'oinbaii Collinq This section is the monopoly of "JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about ings which he likes. The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job. SHANTARAM TAKES A START The first visible evidence of the famous Shantaram "touch", since he took charge of production at the Film Advisory Board, was on the screen in the second week of March. It was a short feature called ""Our Valiant Neighbour" and though it contained very few shots of Marshal and Madame Chiang Kai Shek"s visit to India — the popular incidents of his meetings with India's leaders being entiiely missing — Shantaram with his characteristic genius has framed the small material of the Marshal's visit in the midst of other sundry war shots and made a connected story which, while extolling the national virtues of the Chinese, becomes good topical propaganda. The thundering applause which the film gets proves the popularity of the subject and Shantaram could be said to have made a splendid beginning, inspite of obvious official restrictions. By the way. it was a splendid idea to distinguish Shantaram's personal work under the title of "A Shantaram Production", beeause so much other useless stuff keeps on pouring into the Film Advisory Board, which has now become a central clearing house for every nonsensical production turned out periodically by one unit or another, either military or nonmilitary. It is rather difficult to realize the necessity of the Army Headquarters trying to maintain an inefficient and stumbling film production department for independent production, when the Film Advisory Board, itself a Government of India institution, can be made to turn out all the propaganda stuff which the army may require. Can't the two or several production activities be centralised to secure more efficiency and economy? Mr. V. Shantaram When the Government of India has shown rare enterprise by engaging the services of Mr. Shantaram, our best film man, wouldn't it be proper to centralise all the production activities so that full use can be made of the experience and guidance of Mr, Shantaram. STRANGLING OUR INDUSTRY Film producers at the Army Headquarters are becoming a headache to cur film industry. Once again, the Khaki Squad has requisitioned the new supplies of raw positive films which recently arrived into the country. The result: A grim shortage is being experienced by our film industry and producers are in a panic. Many new pictures are ready, but there is no stock of positive film to print copies. All the available footage has been taken over by the Army Headquarters. Yes, the Army is making its presence felt already with its short-sighted policy and we are not yet in the front line of the battle. In a previous issue, we had appealed to the army authorities to be a little more sensible in their demands. But the appeal seems to have fallen on deaf ears. It will pay neither the Army nor the Government to strangle our film industry in this way. If our feature entertainers are not profusely circulated. Government propaganda shorts won't get a booking in our cinemas. And without country-wide bookings the shorts may as well net be produced. Government war propaganda through films, whether produced by the Film Advisory Board or by the different military production units, is dependent on the fluid circulation of Indian feature films which draw huge audiences. The earlier the Government realize this inter-dependent position the sooner will war propaganda be effective. Whether the Army likes it or not our film industry must be saved during the present crisis and we strongly urge upon the Government of India to take immediate steps to curtail the irrational demands of the Army Headquarters. Dai Bahadur (huni Lall By the way, we congratulate Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall. the President of the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association for bis solitary efforts in running up and down Delhi to bring this dismal state of affairs to the notice of the authorities. 7