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September 1942
FILMINDIA
The Egg Smooth Narada
complete. Believe me when I say that once the close-up of a wiclemouthed siren came so close to the audience that we had a clear and full glimpse of her tonsils, which might have interested a doctor, but not us, ordinary film goers.
Another disillusionment. Ycu see a female form clad in dainty modern sari, standing in a divine (attractive enough to be divine) pos«, showering flowers and blessings from the welkin upon the praying mortals down below. This seems all right. But you begin to feel uneasy as the scene gradually approaches you overwhelmingly until the 'goddess' who looked passably divine from a distance, comes enlarged (defects and all) in front of you. The moment she parts her painted lips to break into a benevolent smile, you find out that she does not believe in abstaining from pan-chewing even in the hour of her being 'shot'.
MAN MADE GODS
On top of it all, people pedalling away on bikes in Puranic stories, and Goddesses mixing up English
words with the vernaculars, are too ridiculous and outrageous to be mentioned even. Fancy the effect of such caricatures of the Hindu Pantheon upon the simple trusting village-folk who eagerly rush to all Puranic pictures just to see and prostrate to the Gods and Goddesses, visible and 'palpable' so close before them.
Between the film producer's struggle to make money, and the people's pious eagerness to see their gods face to face on the screen, one forgets that the Gods have been suffering and tolerating us long enough. One should imagine how the producers have tapped out money enough from the Puranas. Let the Gods be left alone now, and let the producers encourage new social themes instead of lazily falling back upon the ever-ready Puranic stories. Otherwise, if the Gods have an organization of their own, or a meeting place for their association, you can expect something very serious ere long!
Or, can it be that the film-magnates have got at the back of their heads the idea of propagating seeped sm? One has no quarrel with them if they are out to dispel all illusions and convince people that after all man creates God in His own image. Disillusionment would,
See tonsils if you like.
no doubt, be an achievement in Philosophy, but not in Art.
For "do not all charms fly at the cold touch of philosophy? There was once a rainbow in the sky; we know its warp, its woof, and it is now placed in the dull catalogue of common things."
Are the Gods going to share the same fate, one wonders.