FilmIndia (1948)

)UR REVIEW "Shravan Kumar" Is a Veritable Headache Stupid Story, Bad Direction And Insipid Performance Combine To Make A Hopeless Mess! There is no mention of Shravan s ame anywhere in the Rumayana of le poet Valmiki. from which the lopular legend of Shravan is suppoed to have originated. King Dashaath of Ayodhya in his dying monents merely mentions how an unnown ascetic was inadvertently killd by him being mistaken for an anilal. Dasharath did not know bis iame or his whereabouts but the asetic told him that he was the son of Vaishya (trader) father by Shu'ri I low class I mother. That is all lat the author of Ramayana has to ell about the so-called Shravan. The popular story of Shravan. herefore. is a mere legend without my foundation in the great epic of /almiki. His exemplary devotion .lid attachment to his blind parents, lis great physical feat of bearing poth the parents on his shoulders in n improvised balance called "kaar" (such as is used by Bombay milkmen to carry their milkpotsi and taking them round the country to various places of pilgrimage are apparently the product of someone's fertile imagination. And since some one could imagine certain things about this legendary man. who can prevent story writer K. S. Daryani from imagining that Shravan s father was a king of some province, that he had practised penance for obtaining a son. that he was gi\en a boon and a curse simultaneously as a reward for his penance, namely that he would have a son but he would lose his eyesight land his wife would lose hers I on the birth of his son, and all the other things that are there in the picture? Hindu mythology, like an orphaned child, i. nobody's property and not only Hindus but all others are at full liberty to revise, modify, alter or distort mvthological tales as they like for their stage plays and film.-. There is not a -ingle responsible institution of the Hindus anywhere in 7: Mubarak as the Vaishnavite de\otee i* having a good massage from LachilU Maliaruj in Bhagwati Production*' forthcoming social) "l{c\aj". SHRAVAN KUMAR Producers: Mtirli Movietone Language: Hindustani Story: K. S. Daryani Songs & Dialogue: Walli Sahib Music: Bulo C. Raney Photographv : Gordhanbhai Patel Audiography: C. K. Trivedi Cast : Mumtaz Shanti, Paha ri Sanyal, Chandra Mohan, Menka, K. C. Dey etc. Released At: Central Cinema, Bombay. Date of Release: 2nd July 1948. Directed Bv RAM DARYANI the world which can raise even a faint voice against this commercial exploitation and awful distortion of their sacred heritage. So if story writer K. S. Daryani wants to create from his imagination a city called Kanchanpur and a princess of that city and wants her to be married to the ascetic Shravan and all those things that go to make the story of his picture a stupid nursery tale bad enough even for intelligent children we have helplessly to suffer it in silence. Daryani has proved himself one better than Mohanlal G. Dave who has to his credit the blatant distortion of scores of mythological stories. Nothing is more boring to an intelligent picturegoer now than the frequent appearance of Bhagwan on the screen and his constant meddling with human affairs which, really, is unknown to the modern world. '"Shravan Kumar" seems like more a story of the gods than of human beings, since Bhagwan Vishnu, his wife Laxmi and the sage Narada are shown therein as hatching a sort of conspiracy iti heaven to harass Shravan and his parents on earth. \\ hat a Vishnu, and a Laxmi and a Narada we see in the picture! \\ hat beautiful descriptions do we read in the sacred books of the Hindus of these celestial deities, demigods and goddesses! And how do they look on the screen! Will the censors who object to so many harmless 55