FilmIndia (Jan-Nov 1942)

Ok' 'litis Wletcliec) Hindustan" £a\jS Di.GmLec)kali Condemns Deification Of Men In Films ! Shatter Idols Of Rama And Other Gods To talk to Dr. B. R. Ambedkakr is to get an opportunity of loading one's brain with useful information of various kinds and listening to some curious views on men and things. When you get going with him, he is ready to let you talk but you prefer to let him lead, because it is to your own benefit. He is such a talking encyclopaedia. The learned Doctor has not many interests. His only passion is reading. Even writing has a second place. He writes only when he has a call for it from within. But reading he does all time. I have often had the good fortune of consulting him on matters of public interest and it is not less often that he volunteered to dilate on them. This time I went to ask him questions about the films, their producers, his ideas about their functions and whatever else he would like to say about them. My appointment was to see him at his house at Dadar. But as he is now in the midst of his book " What the Hindus Have Done To Us " he goes to the Bombay University Library to read and hunt up references. He had clean forgotten about the appointment and I had to find him burried in a book on Buddhism. As soon as he caught sight of me he closed his book, put his pencils and everything in a rather bulky leather bag and said " Let us go down. We cannot disturb other people here by our talk." There was no formal " I am sorry etc." A RELAXATION TO THE HIGHSTRUNG "It is a good change for me to have to talk on films, but I am not sure that I shall say something that is really useful or worth while. To my mind, films have a particularly important function to perform in India. Our people are too serious. They do not know how to laugh at things and themselves and enjoy life. This seriousness means concentration of nerves -md there By our Special Representative fore exhaustion of energy for no useful purpose whatever. "Theirs is a drab, dreary existence— an imposition as it were. I have a feeling that we regard coming to life here as a punishment by God. Films are the best medium of teaching our people to see life, to laugh at it, to laugh at themselves, to indulge in self-inquiry and selfcriticism. Films are within the reach of all and I wish they spread about in every nook and corner of the country, because they perform Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, scholar, politician and lawyer, a friend of the underdog and leader of the Depressed Classes. this much-needed task of providing relaxation to our highly-strung people." As the Doctor kept talking, two or three people passed and wished him. He was not attentive and did not respond. This naturally provoked me to a little mischievous school-boyish laughter. He thought I was doubting his statement about the extra-seriousness of Indians. So he pointed his finger at me and remarked "You doubt the truth of my statement ? Take my own case. I take myself very seriously, whatever people think of me. I am often dubbed an eccentric. I don't care. Amusement has practically no place in my life. How many films I have seen, you think, in my whole life? Not more than a dozen. Don't I know that there were a hundred others, which would have done me good, if I had seen them? But I have denied myself a legitimate enjoyment. This is a kind of self— torture in which all Indians indulge and they delude themselves that they are great philosophers, believers in the emptiness of life and omniscience and omnipotence of God. My wife was such a good soul, but she thought she was committing some sin and erring against her God whenever she let herself have a hearty laugh or indulged in a little mirthful or gay talk. That is the way we are made and I hope films will act as a corrective to us." That was the learned Doctor's way of welcoming films in our midst. When he described his late wife, I could not help feeling that he was describing traditional Indian womanhood, brought up in orthodox surroundings. BIRTH OF AN INDIAN BABY? Jumping on to the part, the films can very effectively play in educating the masses of this country, he said, he was not aware whether they had begun to use the films instead of the black-board and the lecturers on a very large scale in even America and Europe. He conceded that they must be doing everything in their power in Russia in their expert efficient way. "Our people, the adults and the grown-ups and not merely childern, need to be taught for instance, in our urban as well as rural areas, how to live, take care of the body, keep away from disease. Producers of pictures in this country would be doing a great patriotic service if they made such pictures and showed them to our masses. 48