FilmIndia (1945)

December, 1945 FILMINDI A is a lot of other evidence to support this description of Shah Jehan and yet Pandit Indra wants us to believe that Shah Jehan entered the harem of his wife Mumtaz Mahal and did not come out for days and neglected all state work, till his courtiers approached Nur Jehan who gave a lecture to both, Shah Jehan and Mumtaz Mahal, and brought them to their senses. What a thundering lie this is! To quote another instance of Pandit Indra's disgusting license with history, we are shown in "Mumtaz Mahal" that the Empress dies from the grief of her seven days' separation from Shah Jehan who had inflicted this punishment on her because of her unavoidable and well-meant interference in state affairs. We are shown that inspite of her frantic wails and prayers, Shah Jehan, the hard-hearted man of justice, would not come to her bed-side even to save her life. We are asked to believe that seven days' separation irom her husband, killed a strong royal wife who had given birth to 14 children during 19 years of her married life. This is all a damn lie. Now read what "Mughal Empire in India", by S. R. Sharma, (pp. 462) says, "Mumtaz Mahal was the daughter of Asaf Khan and hence Nur Jehan's niece. At the time of her death she was about 40 years of age and had borne her husband eight sons and six daughters. Their married life of 19 years was unique in its happiness. She was deeply loved by Shah Jehan for whom she was really a guide, philosopher and friend. Her sudden death during the fourteenth child-birth, at Burhanpur, shocked and stupefied her husband. He did not appear at the "jarokha" for a week and despised luxuries for two years. Like the Prisoner of Chilon's, his hair suddenly turned white. Shah Jehan lived for 35 years more to mourn her irreparable loss. "Empire has no sweetness, life itself has no relish left for me now", he declared. His abiding love found its eternal monument in the Taj, perhaps the most unique enshrincmcnt of a lover's heart yet to be seen in this world." And yeV, inspite of this historical fact, Pandit Indra would have us believe that Mumtaz Mahal died a victim of Shah Jehan's tyranny, goaded by his sense of justice over some paltry incident, This distortion nf the death of Mumtaz changes the very fabric of Shah Jehan's character as a man and emperor. From the greatest lover of history and the man in whose reign the Mughal Empire had attained its Golden Age, he is suddenly turned into a heartless despot who allowed his wife to die through some exaggerated notions of justice when only by showing his face he could have saved the greatest beloved of the Mughal times. SLANDER OF SHAH JEHAN This is not only a fraud on our present times but it is an outrage on our Recruit Parwez Michael of Gordon College, Rawalpindi, is considered handsome by his colleagues. He is 5'-io" and is just 19 years old. past history. What right had this, evidently, ill-informed and uneducated writer to distort history out of recognition only to pander to the demands of a motion picture producer? The love of Shah Jehan and Mumtaz which gave to posterity the Taj — the world's most glorious monument of love— stands insulted and outraged today at the hands of these film fellows who have murdered the sacred sentiment behind the greatest royal romance of history. In a free India "Mumtaz Mahal", the film, would have been burnt in a public square. Rut in a British "democracy" our shame, forged by the sons of our soil, has to go from station to station condemning the great est emperor among lovers as a despicable despot who killed his wife by torture in seven days. The picture, as it stands today, is a heinous crime. If Indians of today are prepared to fight to the bitter end to save the members of the Indian National Army, there is a greater reason here to protect the dead from slander, seeing that the dead can't defend themselves. Ranjit's "Mumtaz Mahal' is a slander on Shah Jehan, the Emperor of India. Forgetting for a while the unforgivable liberties taken with history, the motion picture story of "Mumtaz Mahal" is one stupid sequence from the beginning tc the end. In the beginning Shah Jehan and Mumtaz meet in a garden, somewhere in India of course, and then alter a little booby talk they arc shown qs married and ruling. And now we see a scries of sequences in which Shah Jehan (Chandramohan) holds Mumtaz's (Khurshid) hand and Mumtaz keeps singing continuously with Shah Jehan giving a fixed silly expression. One song is in a boat with the lotus leaves°below. But owing to a wrong photographic angle, clumsy back-ground projection and utterly unenterprising direction, we get the illusion of Shah Jehan and Mumtaz riding on the clouds after the fashion of our mythical gods. In the midst of this unconvincing cooing we are introduced to a human flamingo in Nur Jehan, (Kajjan), the dowager queen. She haunts a huge hall and wades about without any purpose. Sometimes she winks at a huge bell and talks some sentimental nonsense. She is there to give a lecture to Shah Jehan and Mumtaz and people wonder why she makes so much fuss about a simple thing like that. She gives that lecture and disappears from this picture. Now we are shown Shah Jehan gone suddenly busy— so busy that he can't be disturbed even by Mumtaz. So his peace is disturbed by Jcjianara Begum, their first daughter. Wonder where the other ia were tucked up. They never made an appearance even after their mother's death. Must be philosophic not to mind meir mother's death. Jchanara shatters the Emperor's concentration to enable Pandit Indra and Munshi Dil to inflict a 47