FilmIndia (1945)

SUBSCRIPTION RATES: The annual subscription, for 12 issues of "filmindia", from March 1943 is: INLAND: FOREIGN: Rs. 24/Shillings 50/ Subscription is accepted only for a collective period of 12 months and not for a small period. Subscription money should be remitted only by Money Order or by Postal Order but not by cheques. V P P.s will not be sent. filmindia PRO P Rl ETORS : FILMINDIA PUBLICATIONS LTD. 55, SIR PHIROZESHAH MEHTA ROAD, FORT, BOMBAY Telephone: 26752 Editor: BABURAO PATEL Vol. II. FEBRUARY 1945 No. 2. Round Ute Wa\ Colnek I ADVERTISEMENT RATES: The advertisement rates are as follows: Per Insertion Full Page inside Rs. 400 Half Page inside Rs. 210 i Page inside Rs. 120 ', Page inside Rs. 150 2nd & 3rd Cover Rs. 500 4th Cover Rs. 600 1st Cover Rs. 1,000 The cost of the advertisement should be submitted in advance with the order. The advertisement will be subject to the terms and conditions of our usual contract. One of the strangest industries in the world is perhaps the Indian film industry. It has a shameful past, a struggling present and an uncertain future. It has neither any code nor principles. It has neither any ambition nor any vision. It has been a driftwood industry in which things have happened without any plans or any intentions. After thirty years of its existence, the Indian film industry is still in a constantly paralytic state asking for relief and praying for safeguards. As we have stated before the human element, which we find in our industry, is mainly responsible for this tragic state of affairs. Things are not going to improve unless we change our personnel. In Bengal the studios are almost dead. The Bengalees seem to have lost their early initiative which had once given us a brilliant promise of a glorious future to our industry. Today the artists in Bengal are working like weary workers who have been badly licked. They don't seem to have any heart in the game. The leading studios which were once buzzing with life have become silent graveyards in which a few weary persons move in a semi-intellectual coma occasionally turning over the old sod with a faint heart. The flame of art is flickering badly in Bengal and may breathe its last any moment. Bengal's old artists — great names once — are leaving the sinking ship like rats running for safety. Petty capitalism is taking them to other provinces. Personal greed is doing the rest. Unless a miracle happens, we cannot look towards Bengal to salvage the future of our film industry. In the South the film industry is still in its primitive Dravidian state. The South Indian producers make a lot of noise like big frogs in a small well. The way these producers plan their work, it seems that the whole or India is located only in the South. They don't seem to know that there are others, as good Indians as themselves, who are proud of the South and who would like to see their product. .The South Indians produce only a provincial product and the producers there don't care two hoots either for quality or for art. They are meeting the demand of the Dravidians and the present-day Dravidians don't seem to demand much. It is a pity seeing that from the South came several finer arts in the olden days. The numerous temples Of the South provide an eloquent evidence of their great art of the past. Don't the South Indian producers look at these milestones of ancient memory and blush with shame? It seems that the South Indian producers will always remain crude and provincial and never will they contribute to the future of our film industry. In the Punjab, with its extremes of heat and cold, the impulsive Punjabis are struggling aimlessly to make their presence felt in the film industry. Barring one producer, and that producer is a synthetic Punjabi, the others have only made fools of themselves in the past. People there have great ambitions and intentions and some times enough money to burn, but they sadly lack business discipline. They consider motion picture production as a long moonlight gala with a lot of fun with girls and Meenaxi, Chandramohan and Durga Khote make a splendid team in "Panna Dai", a costume picture of Pradeep. 3