FilmIndia (1948)

January, 1948 FILM INDIA who had to get Rs. 300 j for that idiotic song. After a while Madhvi wakes up the usual sleeping spirit in Randhir, who breaks the chains, frees the slaves and imprisons the slave dealer. Out in his own town, Gopi, the Juliet", is being married to another. "Romeo" rushes back and rescues "Juliet" and brings tier to the ship. But no hero can manage with two women. 80 one has to be killed and the one to be killed must be the one with the professional label. You can't allow a prostitute to marry a good man. Can you? Not as long as the Brahmins and the Jains are in charge of production. They will, of course, let you sleep with prostitutes, as some of then: may do without religious objections, but marriage with one must noteven be imagined. So they kill Madhvi and 'Juliet" goes to "Romeo". A POOR PRODUCTION! The treatment of the photoplay is as stupid as (he selection of the subject for a motion picture. The sequences ere so familiar that one gets bored stiff. Long before the characters finish their -peaking lines, the people in the audience complete them thereby That's a headache not a salute Surraiya is showing in 'Aaj-kiRaat", a social story of Famous Pictures. proving that not even the dialogue. apart from the situations, was unexpected. The language of the dialogue is trite and contains old and tiresome similes. The lyrics are Pandit Indra'a usual prosaic poetry — -which means bed prose and worse poetry — e.g. "Champa kali hai udas, bhanvra na aaye pas etc". The music is unbearably bad. Photography is very erratic throughout. The cameraman couldn't even take correctly the close ups of Subhashini while dancing. Recording is equally erratic. The ship-set was beautifully built but rather poorly exploited. In fact, the art part of the picture, is surprisingly well executed. Asni's direction is just rotten. He didn't even use his sets well — and some of them were good sets. WOODEN Vacnn phtys VEEN A' 'eena plays "Madhvi", the virgin prostitute, and looks wooden and lifeless throughout. She vomits her dialogue without even the slightest feeling and the only thing that moves on her face is the right corner of her lips which twitch in an ugly formation. Khurshid (Jnr.) has a big broad nose that pushes her face behind and also her performance as "Gopi", the Juliet of the story. Ghulam Mahomed reminds you of the Punjab when he speaks and there is nothing of Kuvpt in him when he phivs the Egyptian slave-dealer. This man i.s too soft in age and muscle to be the rough and ready slave driver that was needed for the story. Alfaf shows some as "Randhir", while san does his bit wel dish Jaugu. improvement Sheikh Hasas the cad "Chheen-Lc A domestic situation in which Surraiya looks a good old woman makes "Kajal" a family picture To sum it up, Azadi" is a dangerously boring stuff which is so damn slow that one feels like having seen 40.000 feet of Ranjit rot. 49