FilmIndia (1948)

May, 1948 FILM INDIA ae a wise businessman, Chandulal Shah gave up the effort as a fruitless one. The communal riots of 1946 and after and the subsequent depression in the exhibition branch of the industry in almost all big cities of India again led some calculating producers to make a fresh experiment in the field. The production of Gujarati pictures is a cheap venture inasmuch as stories could be bought for a song or straightaway adapted from mythology and legend, scenarists and dialogue and song writers could be had for any amount below Rs. 500 per picture and artistes from the Gujarati stage could be got to work in pictures on paltry salaries ranging from Rs. 75| to a maximum of Rs. 300 per month, or a lump sum not exceeding Rs 2,000| in any case for the entire picture. The pictures cost very little for settings and music a«d all told a Gujarati picture can be produced even in these days of inflation and soaring prices at a cost of Rs. 60 to 75 thousand! And even if the picture could be shown in Bombay. Ahmedabad, Baroda, >urat and a few other big towns of Gujarat and Kathiawar it would easily bring in anything over that much investment to the producer. It is a simple affair end the profits are assured. The result is the production of as many as about a dozen Gujarati pictures in less than a year and the announcement of many more now under production. But what sort of pictures are they? And what a picture of Gujarat do they present? I wonder if any of those Gujarati scholars, historians, social reformers and literateurs who shout day in and day out about the great cultural heritage of Gujarat has ever seen any of these pictures and if so, has hung his head down in shame! A Disgrace and a Shame These Gujarati pictures are the disgrace of the [Indian film industry and the shame of Gujarat, if the province really ever had any such ancient culture and history as we hear the Munshis, the Mcghanis land the Jhaveris talking of and boosting! What I leather from the Gujarati pictures so far produced lis that Gujarat must have been in the past populated by foolish rulers who were women-chasers and lopium-eaters, ministers who were court buffoons, tradesmen and merchants who were rogues and beoundrels. women who were vamps, and common 'people who were so many idiots! T am aware of the great history and the greater folk literature and legends of Gujarat, and more so of Kathiawar which have no parallel in any other Indian province. But I have so far seen nothing of it in the Gujarati pictures already produced. On the contrary the pictures so far produced in that language depict the most ridiculous and hateworthy aspects of the life of the Gujaratis during the most glorious days of the history of that province. The history is distorted in these pictures and its greatness slandered and belittled. Ami all that i< natural because the pictures are being produced by men who have no knowledge of Gujarat's great heritage or no respect for its great men of the past. For them the Gujarati picture is just the translating into film the worst features of the Gujarati stage which, with the 75 odd years of its inglorious existence, has still remained the primitive and most backward stage in India. But I am wondering what all those great sponsors and exponents and boosters of the glory and culture and heritage of Gujarat are doing! I am asking what the Munshis, the Jhaveris, the Daves, the Pathaks. and others who shout so loudly in our ears about the greatness of Gujarat are doing! Do they want their province to be slandered by their own people in this manner? Do tiny really want the people of other provinces to understand that the Gujarat that is shown by these pictures is their great province of which they are so proud but of which they ought to be really ashamed if the pictures correctly represented its history, legend, culture and society — both ancient and contemporary? Let some Gujarati worth his salt come forth to tell us something. CALLOUS NEGLIGENCE In a fire that broke out at the Chowpatty Chambers on the 12th of April, it is reported that one woman lost her life and some fifteen persons suffered burns and injuries. The fire was caused by the spontaneous combustion of film stored in one of the rooms in the offices of the Swastik India Ltd., a film In 'Shanti'" the maiden production of a new producing concern — Firdaus Art Productions Vijayalaxmi is the new star. The Picture is distributed by the Screens. 15