FilmIndia (1948)

February, 194$ FILM INDIA There are beautiful village scenes in Prabhats 'Seedha Rasta". Here is a domestic situation between Kamla Kotnis and Chandrakant. niman when he reviewed and praised the picture. ORSON WELLES? A little discreet inquiry revealed to us that every word of this beautiful, idiomatic and forceful Hindustani dialogue of "Gvalan" was written by Baburao Patel. It was an unpleasant shock to many but so is Baburao's towering personality and since none of us can do anything about cither let us gracefully accept the unique versatility of the man. Hollywood has a similar headache in Orson Welles. He, however, acts in his pictures. Baburao may also do so some day. You can never trust him in such things. SUBTLE TOUCHES The story of "Gvalan" is the usual boy-meets-girl theme with several topical aspects very subtly interwoven. This is perhaps the first time that the scion of an arisH tocratic family actually marries a I commoner without sacrificing her I for a girl of his own status as we I usually sec on the screen. In protecting his love for the poor heroine, the hero is made to II speak many a dialogue which l| sounds at once humanitarian and H socialistic. The son's defiance of II the father's tyranny becomes a | vivid episode of socialism in pracII tical life. Again in a very subtle manner is emphasized the loyalty of the Muslim Bervant of the family who is called "Chacha" all along by the prince and from whom is sought even the blessing after the wedding. The sequences in which the Muslim servant appears emphatically contribute to prove the interwoven pattern of traditional Indian life in which the Hindus and the Muslims fail to distinguish each other and sigh and smile with the same face through a common heritage. The scene in which the village butcher refuses to buy the heroine's cows on grounds of good neighbourhood is another subtle suggestion that even Muslims, however fearsome they may look today, are human beings with tender instincts of neighbourhood. Well, "Gvalan" has many progressive angles but Baburao Patel's art of writing and direction has made them subtle suggestions and not blatant preachings, which probably would hav. become objectionable. CINDERELLA STORY '"Gvalan" has a hackneyed Cinderella story in which a poor village milkmaid meets the local prince and both fall in love with each other. The prince has another girl from his own class of society kept ready for him, but beauty and rustic simplicity take him to the village girl. Scandal soon provokes the rich girl to persecute the poor one and the father of the hero misuses his authority and tyrannizes the lovers. Some utterly unimaginable and unusual scenes constitute the climax. in which the old tyrant turns a new leaf with the help of his faithful Muslim servant and accepts the village maid as his daughter-in-law. It ends well, though unusually, seeing that a prince takes a commoner for a wife. Most of the thrill of the storyis in its fast and unusual development. The drama has a terrific speed from the beginning to the end and even the songs seem to contribute to the thrilling drama that is unfolded on the screen. The dialogue is exceptionally good and pointed. It has both idiom and ideas. The songs of P.a.ndit Indra sound refreshingly new and different this time and they are very attractively tuned by Hansraj Babel. The sound reproduction, however, is not so happy in Krishna though the photography seems attractive in spite of a badly processed copy. Mr. Patel's technical direction is, as usual, in advance of the times. He has always something new to teach in the use of the camera and "Gvalan" is outstanding proof of Mr. Patel's technical knowledge. The emotional part of the story is superbly directed and almost every situation reveals the director's unique understanding of human psychology. All this, however, is expected from Mr. Patel a.nd no special compliment is meant while recording this fact. The village atmosphere in the story is very effectively portrayed with the familiar local characters which contribute to make our village life what it has always been. In fact, all the villagescenes are so realistic that one feels like being a spot observer while seeing the picture. We still feel that Mr. Patel could have taken a purely progressive theme in place of "Gvalan". 43