FilmIndia (Jan-Nov 1942)

Filmindia Interuiews The City mayor Pull Down Old Theatres Soon Mr. Meherally's Dream Theatre (By: Oar Special Representative) "Usually municipalities in India think that their job is to have an efficient system of water-supply, drainage, roads and street-lighting. The more progressive amongst them also have facilities for medical relief and primary education. But so far as art is concerned they think it is a luxury, with which municipalities are not concerned. The bigger municipalities provide music at their band-stands — But these are bare necessities, important as they are. Cultural education should be a responsibility of municipal organization. In Eurcpe and America, municipalities provide so many cultural amenities,'' observed Mr. Yusuf J. Meherally, the Mayor of Bombay, in an interview for FPmindia. Mr. Meherally is known to many as one of the most important and earnest young politicians in India. He is just thirty-six. He has already been seven times in jail. His name was suggested for Mayoralty when he was in the Lahore Central Jail. And net very long ago he was a detenue with me for a year. His political life is full of events, and responsibilities. He has been a member of the Bombay Provincial Congress Committee since 1929, and a member of A.I.C.C. for many years. He is a socialist as every intelligent young Indian is. He is at present the General Secretary of the Congress Socialist Party. At the time of the Congress Session in Bombay and during the CD. movement he was the G.O.C. He was the founder and the inspirer of the Youth Movement in India There must be thousands of youths throughout India today who owe their sincere gratitude to Mr. Meherally for guiding them in selection of political literary and art books and actually providing them with the same. His astonishingly rich collection of va ried books is known throughout the country. I have said much but not enough. The youngest Mayor of Bombay is a student of art and sincere lover of Indian sculpture, painting, literature and music. There are very few politicians in India of such varied taste and understanding. His political activities are punctuated with study tours on Indian Art. Four years ago he covered Europe and America. To study European art and politics he toured through Italy, Germany. France, England, Switzerland etc. He was in Mexico and U.S.A. and was invited to give talks on India by important organizations. He was given reception by League of Author; ani Artists in America and England He was invited by people like Bertrand Russel. John Strachy. Lord Lothian, Cardenas, The Mexican President and many world-known people. He visited and studied Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Iraq and Syria. I am afraid 1 have still not said enough about our Mayor. If I stop here and al! »w the readers to complete the picture of the Mayor for themselves I shall have put them on a wrong track. His artistic inclinations have not made' him a Bohemian as one would be led to believe. He is a teetotaller, non-smoker and bachelor. In this respect he is an ideal follower of the Mahatma. Don't ask me how he reconciles it with his love for art and artistic temperament. Have I damped your natural curiosity to know what the Mayor of Bombay thinks of art-life of the city? Well, then you are completely mistaken. There are not many persons who have given so much thought to the artistic demand of life as our Mayor has done. Mr. Yusuf J. Meherally, Mayor of Bombay. MUNICIPAL THEATRE Just a mention of a Municipal Theatre from me, inspired Mr. Meherally to pour out his ideas as to what Bombay needs in her artistic life. His idea cf a municipal theatre is a grand conception for any intelligent citizen. He naturally regrets that the life of a Mayor is generally too short for executing uncommon and new plans for a city. "Oh! A municipal theatre." Mr. Meherally said, "I would like to have a beautiful and suitably decorated building, specially constructed for a city like Bombay. To be mere exact I would like to have a couple of buildings scattered in different parts of Bombay. Such an institution should be in the heart of Bombay and not in the swell part of the city. One in a locality like Dhobi Talao or Girgaum and another in the mill-area. say. in Parel." His conception of a municipal theatre is something on the line of Caxton Hall in London. "The main municipal theatre, must be added on to a first class reading room, where one could get all the newspapers and magazines available in India and first class European and American journals. Also a library with books on art, music and literature, Indian as well as foreign." 41