FilmIndia (1945)

FILMINDI A October, 1945. a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or any one. Lovers of mankind and motherland look like relics of ancient epic poetry in the present practical times. CHAND BEHARI LAL (Delhi) What is your opinion about the future of Begam Para? I am neither an astrologer nor a palmist nor have I seen any moles or birth-marks of Para. The kid is at a good age and height and ought to have a good run for her youth, more so with Protima chaperoning her. J. MOHAMED (Hubli) What is the right place for a woman ? In a man's heart. But she doesn't stay there, sometimes because the heart is too tiny, at other times because the woman hasn't a steady seat. MISS NIRMAL (Coorg) Which is true — "the modern girl loves to be Juliet to half-a-dozen Romeos" or the modern boy loves to be a Romeo to a half-a-million Juliets ? Since Gandhiji wrote the first half of your query, times have changed a lot. The modern girl realising that modern Romeos are a crowd of shivering idiots with neither brains nor looks nor even guts, has long since ceased to be a practical Juliet with the result that romance has become a theory to her and life a day-dream. In my schooling days, the municipal authorities had to shift the girls' school three miles away and keep off the boys by threatening notices. Modern Romeos carry silk kerchiefs and tiny mirrors to maintain their school-girl complexion. All Juliets like their Romeos to be tame brutes but not pansy boys. SATYENDRA PRASAD JAMUAR (Patna) Mr. Baburao Patel, why don't you become a politician? Mr. Baburao Patel thinks that there is too much of hypocrisy and lies in this field. Besides he is too independent to be popular with all or for that matter to play the party fiddle. P. M. RAJA (Kenya) Aren't you to a certain extent a misunderstood man? Don't be modest. I am completely misunderstood and people pay for this mistake by providing me with a handsome living. G. N. PALNE (Benares) Why does a film producer of Chandulal Shah's experience and intelligence, who has in addition a friend of your calibre, care more for quantity than for quality of pictures ? Chandulal is a financial juggler. So far he has been beating the world by manipulating the law of averages. As long as there is more demand than supply, Chandulal will remain at the top. But in the midst of crowd and competition, all his jugglery is bound to get a set-back and then he will be too old to go back to quality. He will have to go the other way — out into retirement. A sausage factory can't be turned into a temple of Art overnight, inspite of Chandulal's dynamic intelligence. M LT. M. A. HAQUE (Somewhere In Burma) Do you know if there is any institution in our film world which tries to improve the Urdu pronounciation of Punjabi actors and actresses? After seeing Gita Nizami in "Panna" I think one like this is most essential ? It is a well-known fact that the average Punjabi speaks rotten Urdu and brags most about it. Even some of the welleducated ones have an awful pronounciation and more awful phonetics. As 85 of the acting talent in our film industry comes from the Punjab, it is most essential to establish an institution as suggested by you. But the average wellfed Punjabi is such an idiot intellectually that you cannot teach him anything new in a hundred years. In his blunt and good-hearted manner he will travel on the wrong track all his life and will shout back to the world unblushingly that he is on the right track. When people like Shantaram try to teach these Punjabis, they mix Kolhapuri accent and turn Urdu into a language of noman's land. It is easier to teach a bull with crooked horns than the hefty Punjabi. A man having one wife is always an ascetic, says the Gita. What is your experience ? The one having more than one becomes a good philosopher. P. S VAIDYA (Dadar) What is your impression of Mr. Khandekar as a film writer? Kishore Sahu himself plays the title role in "Veer Kunal" which brings to the screen the grandeur of the Gupta period.