FilmIndia (1945)

FILMINDIA February, 194.'). K R KARNIK (Belgaum) What has happened to Vasanti nowadays? She seems to have stopped acting and started living these days. You mustn t forget that Vasanti is now a grown-up woman and as such has to play a different role now. Who is this new girl Sumitra, who has acted in New Theatres' "My Sister"? She is a little Bengali, well-equipped with all the vitamins and at an attractive age which compels attention. Evidently, she is the new hope of New Theatres unless some Bombay producer takes her away even before she makes any name. Is love merely an "ennobling emotion"? It is also a sacrificial altar which constantly demands the incense of emotions and the smoke is not often pleasant. A. R. MUDALIAR (Coimbatore) Which is a greater sin : To think sin or to act sin ? Sin is a spiritual term and relates only to the mind. I don't believe in this word at all because the definition of the word has constantly changed through ages and according to circumstances. If it is a sin to kill your neighbour, how can we justify the slaughter of millions which is now going on in the world? But to assess the value of the word ethically, thought should be a sin while act becomes a crime. And yet in this world of constantly shifting virtues, I would like to know what exactly is a sin. I guess the word is merely an hyperbole for the rational people and an hypocritical symbol for the orthodox ones. Those who take notice of sin seem to have lost faith in virtue. I would advise you not to get mixed up in these spiritual terms. If you do, your mind will soon be in ruins. Modern life needs minute-to-minute decisions in view of constantly changing conditions and the best way to live these days is to act as best as you feel at the moment. Isn't India a sex-starved country? How can it be with a population of 400 millions and "growing more babies" as our principal national industry? In India the eyes are sexstarved not the bodies because our social codes make women prisoners at home and cover their faces with multi-coloured veils. It is true that we do miss a lot of thrill and colour by not seeing our beauties as easily as in the West, but we do manage to get the women ultimately. Don't we? Why don't you get talent from Bengal for your pictures? Bengalis are emotional and artistic people and they don't take kindly to the commercial speed of Bombay. They get out of stride here and stumble with the burden of art on their shoulders. They need slow and soothing environments with the clock standing still for their art to blossom into a beautiful flower. All the Bengali directors or artistes who had come to Bombay, sometime or other, in the past, failed to make 32 good here, t.onal. And the reasons were entirely emo RAM Y. HEBLE (Gadag) Veena has also gone fat like the other artistes. Wrr, ? When a film star starts getting fat there is no why. There is just how far. Age and good earnings contribute largely to the weight as the artistic urge lessens with more pictures. A real artiste, however, never loses shape because she likes the twenties and thirties to look like 'teens. What is Mukherjee's next picture? That is an impossible question to answer. You may as well ask me when the war is going to end. "C. C. R. Nav Jawan" took two years in making and the production was not finished even after the picture was released on the screen. Conceiving a new one may take a year to the badlyshaken Mukherjee. Why then bother about the next? G. K. PANDIT (Muttra) I saw you and Sushila Rani visiting "Brindaban" last week. How did you like the place? What is there to like in Brindaban? It seems to be a god-forsaken place since Lord Krishna stopped chasing the milk-maids. Now the Brahmin priests chase the tourists to extract from them some milk of human kindness in the shape Manjula provides sex-appeal in "Gaali", a so.ial story directed by Chowdhary.