FilmIndia (1948)

August, 1948 FILMINDI A Hiaracter actor Sajjan adds might, lystery & pathos as a lunatic in Upni Chhaya" written, directed & roduced hy Santoshi for Chitralaya Ltd. Lople change so much, can they pange bo much, that a Ramesh lupta can pass himself off as Ashok lumar? Kven then, is it not too l uch to expect us to helieve that in even years the real Prakash had not •nt even a single snapshot of his to is mother and wife? There were a lousand and one ways of verifying the Prakash who came was real or Ike, such as some boyhood anec)tes. childhood memories, family ;sociations etc. but none thinks of ese things in spite of Kamala's peated protests. The real Pra■sh. it seems was not informed fen of his father s death while in igland though the postal censors ver banned such news from being nsmitted. It therefore transpires that amnei was perhaps a disease running in e family, for Prakash's mother nnot recognise her own daughterlaw when she comes to her disused as a gypsy fortune-teller! jither her voice, nor her eyes, stures, mannerism — nothing leads r to suspect that Radhia was none else than Kamala who had stayed several years in closest intimacy with her! Amnesia indeed! Quite natural, therefore, that the son should inherit it from the mother and the nephew from the maternal uncle ! The demure and chaste wife (Rehana), suspecting the Englandreturned husband, refuses to surrender her honour and ( instead of exposing the rascal) runs away from home. To avoid detection she joins a gypsy caravan and in a jiffy the shy, ultra-respectable lady is transformed into a hip-swaying gypsy dancer ! Of course, the gypsies are only of the Comic Opera variety — swathed in silks and chiffons and spending most of their time in singing and dancing. And, of course, the real Prakash is not dead. He has only lost his memory and become a juggler and vagrant, dressed like an Apache of the Paris boulevards. And so the husband and wife meet again and, not recognizing each other, fall in love all over again. There are more songs and dances (including the inevitable patriotic number complete with National Flag i and much devilry on the part of the bogus Prakash. But at last the clouds roll by, the real Prakash regains his memory and the bogus one is exposed and duly punished, the lovers are re-united and all is well with the world. REHANA FLOPS "Sajan' calls for a few remarks on the subject of Rehana, the muchboosted and over-rated actress ,who, according to one particular producer, is India's Number One Artiste. Nobody can deny that she has a certain vivacity and free-and-easy ways which help her to be pre-eminently successful in certain kind of roles e.g. as the dancing girl in "Nateeja ' or in "Shehnai". But any subtle or sophisticated role is beyond her intellectual capacity. True, in "Sajan" she looks coy, cocquetish and vivacious in the gypsy dance scenes, but she certainly does not look a res pectable-girl-turned-gypsy-dancer — which is the role she is supposed to be playing and which required the emotional subtlety and understanding of an artiste like Molina. Which should help to put Miss Rehana in her proper place— which is in the stunt-thrillers. Ashok Kumar acts with the carefree abandon which now comes so easily to him. He is a polished artiste, no doubt, and invests any role he plays with life and a certain charm, but he is wasting his talent in such inconsequential pictures and, as a producer that he is now, he should give Ashok Kumar the actor a better "break". Of the rest, a word of commendation is due to Puri who plays the role of the gypsy 'Sardar' and is perhaps the only one in the cast with any kind of authenticity about him. The music is lively and lilting but it has not the sweetness and heartappeal which ensure golden jubilees. All in all, a fairly good, fairly entertaining picture. Should do particularly well in small towns. In Kuldip Pictures' maiden picture "Chunaria", Sophia looks charming in her amazement. 49