FilmIndia (1948)

m Lau Call! n a 77»'s section is the monopoly of ''JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about things which he likes The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job. |lm folks and gandhiji With the entire civilised world mourning the ?th of Mahatma Gandhi the Indian film industry ■o staged a show of public mourning by ho'ding a ndo'ence meeting of all the members of the various inches of the industry who number about 20,000 Bombay alone, but of whom hardly a thousand *ed to attend. The show was as poor and lifeless as most of : pictures the industry produces. It lacked entirely : dignity, serenity and wprmth of heart that such occasion calls for. Barring just one or two, none the speakers knew what he was speaking and why was doing it. Some thought they were there for prize competition in elocution and mr.ny others de fools of themselves by blurting out just nonlse. Very few among the audience appeared to realthat they had co'lected there to mourn the rld's greatest tragedy such as befa''s it once a thousand years. Most of them cheered and c'ap\ the speakers, particularly those who recited ms. as if they were listening to a "mushaira" or vi Sammelan. Very few, again, seemed to know the etiquette public meetings wherein resolutions moved by the air hfve not to be seconded by anyone but are aightway put to vote. In this meeting, however, condolence resolution moved by Chuni La'l, the sidcnt, was actually seconded by Chhotu Desai. ely Chhotu must make his presence felt and how 2 could he do it? He had, therefore, to go out of way of all conventions and traditions and adverhis existence on the dais by seconding a resohii moved by the Chair — something that is not ie. The most ridiculous among the speakers were se who spoke first and last — incidentally, both jaratis and bearing the identical first names, viz., andulal Jeshingbhai. The first, however, was a nde and the last a Shah. We have often wondered why this man, Pande, illowed a platform at public meetings. This man, leems, is a sort of poet and composes verses and jgs in Gujarati which have not the remotest affi/ to poetry or literature. He composed come verson Gandhiji, probably 20 years ago, which he has n reciting at all sorts of meetings for many years hout rhyme or rcafon. He recited those oft-heard ses in a voice and with gestures which, to anyone ocent of the Gujarati language, gave the impres\ that he was reciting something funny or comical. A lady producer, who has not yet produced any picture, proclaimed that fhe had warned, after the recent bomb incident at the Birla House, that something much more dangerous was likely to happen if proper precautions were not taken, but no one listened. She forgot to mention, however, to whom her warning was addressed. Chandulal Shah is a, practised speaker. With his faulty pronunciation of both his own lingo and English, in neither of which he can correctly pronounce the letter "sh" he never misses a chance of speaking at pub ic meetings where he usually talks of his own and Rrnjifs staggering progress and achievements. He ta'ked about protecting the fix crores of Muslims in India and the ten crores of Muslims in Pakistan, a total of 16 crores of Mu lims not knowing that the entire population of Mus ims as claimed by the Mus'im League in both the dominions together never exceeded 10 crores. He a'so talked about no Hindus and no Muslims, no Hindus and no Hanjans, but no one exact'y understood what he was trying to make out of so many "no"s. Leela Kumari leads the cast in Super Teim Federal Productions' maiden social, "Meri Kahani", directed and photographed by Keki Mistry.