FilmIndia (Jan-Nov 1942)

OUR REVIEW "firman" Becomes Beautiful In Parts Kedar Sharma's First In Bombay Once in a while ;he Ran.iit Studios which generally specialize in turning out crowd-catchers with a remarkable consistency of success, take a risk and produce a p cture conceived and planned on bold and sensible lines, regardless of the aspect of its b: x-office success. Tn parts "Arman" is one such beautifui risk, which, while failing to provide mass entertainment, still helps to provoke plenty of thought all throughout its pretty long fcotage. True, mere are a lot of inconsistencies which don't do any credit to Kedar Sharma. the well-known story writer and director. To quote one instance: Meera, the young and beautiful daughter of a village artist, is on that inevitable watermaiden stroll with music on her lips and probably an empty pot on her head. A motor car rushes past j and though she is startled, she is not surprised. Only a little later, we are taken to a village where the motor car has arrived and all the villagers are crowded round it wondering what the contraption is. We are asked to believe that a motor car has never been seen cr even heard of by any one in that village. Supposing we believe this tall story, what would be the natural reaction of Meera when a motor car rushes past her? Sure y, she would not be I merely startled. Then in the village lives the artist, the father of the hercine. who has also not seen a motor car in his entire life-time and he is an old man and a painter in addition whose name has travelled beyond his own village (a hundred mi.es away according to the dialcgue of the hero. Kanwar Sahib), how does he then earn a livelihood in t at village by painting portraits without being in touch with a town where only a market would be found for his paintings': If an artist turns a village into i studio for his work, he has s ill to go to the town nearby to sell his wares. Villagers don't buy paintings and certainly not these who have never even seen a motor carYes. Kedar Sharma must admit that it is all a bit confusing and a I'jt unconvincing. A PHILOSOPHIC THEME The theme of the story, however, flies at times on the wings of philos. phy and at places assumes a lofty thought. The piot, yet, is simple. To the village of Vyas. the old artis with a young and beautiful daughter in Meera as the only other member of his family, comes Kan ^.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX^ ARMAN ? ? £ Producers: Ranji; Movietone f % Language: • Hindustani $ j Story, Dialcgue & £ i Songs: Kedar Sharma i 8 y £ Ci-nematography: D. K. Ambre ^ $ Audiography: T. Patel £ £ Music: Jnan Dutt ^ i Cast Motilal. Shamim, 2 v y 'y Nagendra, Meera and £ i others. t 'y Released At: Opera House * Z Drue of Release: 22nd Aug. 42 i / V y y Director: KEDAR SHARMA * 2 A.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX war Saheb, the son of a big zamindar of Baldeo Garh. He drives to the village in a powerful car right up to the house-step of the old arti-st. Evidently, the village had a modern motor road, though the villagers had never even heard of a motcr car. He commissions the old artist to renovate some family paintings and runs back home. The hero has travelled a hundred miles to do so. The only benefit the story gets from all these sequences is that the heroine, Meera, sees the hero and fahs in lovs with him. The hero, <>f course, does not see her. Had he done so, half the philosophy which the writer has dished cut, when the Kedar Sharma, wrter and director of "Arman" hero goes blind, would have to be suppressed. We are soon taken to another rather unconvincing scene wherein a good number of girls play husband-chcosing with the different portraits in Meera's father's studio. Now everyone i-n this world, who has seen two pictures in a life-time, would guess that the heroine will, after meeting all the world as an obstacle, pick with an unerring aim the photo of the hero even thougn she had to find it like a needle in a hay-stack. One can't understand why an intel igent a nd resourceful writer like Kedar Sharma. shou'.d have to fall back upon this ancient situation which has been exploited a million and odd times by all writers during the last five hundred years. The sequence by itself does not help to push the s ory forward. In Balddv Garh. Kanwar Sahib has an o'd-fashioned hysteric fathsr and a villainous uncle who acts as the Dewan. This villainous Dtwan is again a type that has been stereotyped a thousand times on the screen. All the ime he indulges in a crude type of villainy whic>. begins with a cheap dancing girl and ends with the usual usurpation. One thing, however, which he forgets to do is to poison his brother, the king, and for which act of kindness we must b? eterna ly indebted to Kedar Sharma.