FilmIndia (1948)

Six Years Ago Indian Films Are "A Shameful Affair Said H. E. Rajagopalachariar ! >9 "When people wax eloquent on ; educational values and possiities of films, I think they are iking a rather tail claim. The •een is far too much a quick siness for educational work. For il teaching and learning the rsonal touch is essential. I beve in face-to-face teaching only. . best films could be good supementaries". This is what His Excellency hakravarty Rajagopalachariar, Dvernor-General of India, said v years ago, in October 1942 to ilmindia's" representative. He eo added, however, "There is )thing in the world that does not ach...so the film can teach, liven a bad film can teach you ijlhat a good film should be like." | He further said, "Films should ft content with entertaining peo|| p. In that respect they have a Rod deal to do. They should aim I i providing good fun. I am not jjj kill-joy. I do not object to fun Bt all. But what crude and monotonous things we get under the Ulse claim that they are giving ■pmething new and different every lime! I have not seen more than Ijalf a dozen films in my life. PerI japs it wa ; my misfortune that the I Indian ones I saw proved boring. | j hope they don't make all films 111 that way and I hope I am not j npatriotic when I say this, but II is hard to ask people to enjoy |nd laugh for the sake of swa -leshi when you are out for a louple of hours' fun in a theatre. *|ou cannot continue to be a potician all the time". l\ Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar. who as now earned the distinction of ecoming the first Indian Gover-for-General of the Indian Union, (lay have changed his political iews during the last six years rhich were the years of a great evolution in this nation's politial life, but there is hardly any j tason to believe that he has changed his views on films. It would be interesting, therefore, what he said then to "filmindiaV representative about our film stories. Said he, "The stories from the Purarias that we have heard from our childhood from our grandmothers are too grand and too shrouded in mystery for their representation in films. I get a feeling of pain and torture when I see somebody or the other becoming Rama and Krishna and Xarada. It is all so repulsive. In their pictorial representation, these sublime characters are ruined. And the crude sex-appeal that is introduced! No, it is all a shameful affair and 1 refuse to encourage the propaganda for these celluloid Ramas and Krishnas and Naradas." If, as I hope, Rajaji has still retained his views of six years ago (and at his age people rarely change views), we have reason to be bappy about his selection as our first Governor-General, for we can hope that from the high office he now holds, he can do a great deal to improve the quality, standard and level of Indian films. None of the peoples' representatives who now rule the destiny of India's 300 millions have yet found time to seriously look into this very important subject which has so much to do with the mental, moral and social aspects of the life of these teeming millions. Perhaps they are busy attending to other matters of a much graver nature. The Bombay Presidency alone, however, is so far fortunate in having a Home Minister who is carefully and diligently studying this subject and seriously trying to make drastic improvements in our films. But since now we have a Governor-General whose views on Indian films are so en H. E. Chakravarty Rajagopalachariar, Governor-General of India. lightened and radical, we may be justified in expecting that he would find a little time from his political activities to devote to such an important matter as the films and take real interest in bringing about such reforms in them as have been needed for a long time and as could be brought about only by authority in a country like ours where the film producers have always had their eye on the box office collection and where the mighty potentialities of the motion picture have never yet been exploited for the education and. enlightenment of and clean entertainment for a seething humanity of several hundred million poor, illiterate, ignorant, and neglected men and women. Let us hope, then, that India's first Governor-General from the Indian soil, who is already a great philosopher, social reformer and educationist may be the first man in that high office to make use of such a powerful instrument as the film in the proper way and sweep the film industry clean of all the filth and dirt and trash that have been painfully stinking within and about it for so many years. 2*