FilmIndia (1945)

Dr. Sir Radhakrishnan Approves Sushila Rani's Theme For " Draupadi " Welcomes Sushila Rani's Entry Into Films By T. V. PARVATE (Sub-editor, Bombay Chronicle) I had the rare good fortune of being thrown in Dr. Sir Radhakrishnan's company for nearly 30 hours when he came to Bombay in connection with the Konkan Education Society's Silver Jubilee. We travelled together in steam launch and motor cars, were consistently juxtaposed and even stayed in the same apartment at Roha for the night. That gave me an excellent opportunity to hear his views on a number of questions. He enjoyed being questioned, cross-questioned and often sought information himself. A genuine Brahman according to our ancient ideal, he is as anxious to teach as to learn! One of the questions naturally was the one that Sushila Rani has placed before all scholars and Pandits to reply. The opportunity for it presented itself when he was inspecting the Art Exhibition of the Konkan Education Society's High Schools at Roha. A student had made an exact copy of a 'Filmindia' frontispiece. Dr. Radhakrishnan saw it, turned to me and said with a smile "Your 'Filmindia' is here also!" Equally jocularly I rejoined "It must be wherever young people are". This provided a cue to his grandson, Narasinham, an eighteen year old undergraduate of the Presidency College, Madras who was holidaying with his grandpa, to ask me whether I knew Sushila Rani and when I replied in the affirmative, he proceeded to ask more about her. As we were in the midst of a number of people and in a hurry to go to the Konkan Education Society's Silver Jubilee Celebration Pandal, I assured him that we would take up everything about Sushila Rani, 'Draupadi' and 'Filmindia' with his grandpa more suitably at night before we retired. And so I did. I requested Dr. Radhakrishnan to see "Draupadi" on the Imperial screen after we returned to Bombay. He was willing to do so but only an interval of 80 minutes was at his disposal between our reaching Rirla House and the Madras Express • 1, . ..* . j Dr. Sir Radhakrishnan leaving Victoria Terminus. So he had to abandon the idea. When he was told that Sushila Rani, a first class treble graduate of his own University had written the screenplay and appeared in the title role of "Draupadi" he interrogatively remarked "So ladies of high education and culture are now coming in films?" ANSWERS SUSHILA RANI'S QUESTION 1 told Dr. Radhakrishnan the gist of the story of "Draupadi", emphasising its anti-gambling, educative, purposeful character. Then I put to him Sushila Rani's oft-repeated question: "In modern times, when a man goes to the races and loses his month's salary and is unable to meet his monthly bills, the world scoffs at him and labels him a gambler. Even his wife, who has been taught through ages to look upon her husband as a god, taunts and abuses him because he has lost the month's earnings in gambling. We laugh at people who madly shout in our cotton and share markets and lose their money. But none of the modern gamblers has had the guts to stake his wife yet and lose her. And yet, in the days of yore, Yudhistir, the most virtuous among the Pandavas, not only lost his empire, his brothers and self in gambling but also his devoted wife. May I know how this man has come down to posterity as "Dharmaraj" the idol of virtue, after a'l those acts of his which look like just so many crimes, judged by our present-day standards?" Dr. Radhakrishnan replied: "We do not certainly revere Dharmaraj because he staked his wife and brothers and empire in the game of dice, but for 27