FilmIndia (1948)

Jktober, 1948 THE SLEEPING HEROINE All this time the Dutchman is waiting with a brake on his desire ind the heroine is sleeping patiently without any struggle or attempt to scape. It seemed as if she preferred he active Dutchman to the passive Jengali. After what one feels like in infernal delay, Pratap arrives ►word in hand and. with the usual trategy, so successful in motion picures, scores against overwhelming »dds and rescues the waiting heroine. The Dutchman gets a bullet in his ieg for the patience he lent to his lust. Once again Saibalini is found sleeping in Pratap"s home but as soon is Pratap arrives, the sleeping beauty wakes up and with her rises all her long-pent-up emotions for sex and companionship. With all the fury of i long-starving woman, sharpened by imagination. Saibalini charges Pratap and suggests several ways of [shattering conventional morals. But [the hero turns out to be just another •disciple of Chandrashekhar and [pushes the plate away from his bunny stomach and walks out only to [fall into the hands of the soldiers of the Fast India Company. There is an inconsequential interllude of Mir Cassim"s Begum taking la trip outside her harem to give Bharati something to do beside packing the drawing-room inside. Pratap is by now sentenced to be ■ hanged by the Captain of the Fast ■ India Company. One wonders why Ihe was not shot "on the spot. Perhaps the Captain didn't think it jworthwhile to waste a bullet on an leffeminate-looking Bengali or he ■■wanted to give the director time I enough to arrange the climax by Ihanging the fellow. The Britishers I were evidently not good at hanging I (though they hanged thousands ■ through history) because the soldiers ■ proceed, leisurely in constructing the gallows and thus give time for Saibalini to inspire the villagers around land cook up a plan for Pratap's res> cue. THI BENGALI-BRITISH DUEL At last Saibalini arrives on the J spot, acts the lunatic and induces the British Captain to allow her to talk I to Pratap. She tells Pratap of the plan of escape but like a stubborn Bengali be attaches conditions to his agreement and squeezes a couple of vows from Saibalini. The British Captain waits patiently all along. W ho says the British are not chivalrous? At last at a given signal bullets start flying and the British boys are outnumbered and killed but Pratap stages a duel with the British Captain, because in a dialogue previously he had challenged the Britisher to a man-to-man duel. And because we have already forgiven the British all their sins, the Captain dies in the duel but not before inflicting a mortal wound on the Indian hero. Thus both are equalised in status and valour and no one has any reason to quarrel. 'IliN i«. Sliantu Patol in a catlioh pose in "Angan" i»f Alain Art. LIMPING LAW RENCE But the Indian hero is always tough. He takes some time dying. Before that, however. Chandra>hekhar. walking like a somnambulist, strays into the field and discovers Saibalini his missing wife. Here Debaki Balm gives us a little topical jerk by making Chandrashekhar blame himself for his wife's tragic experience at the hands of the kidnapper and accept her back without regret — all this to suggest a similar treatment in case of the unfortunate women who have these days become innocent victims of politics. As Chandrashekhar was a sworn celibate, he loses nothing either before or after his wife's tragic experience. Now Chandrashekhar and Saibalini walk towards the horizon, as all FILM INDIA Bengalis do at the end of a storv. but limping Lawrence suddenly turns up With a gun and threatens to create trouble once again for the celibate and his hungry wife. From behind a bush, the dying Pratap. lifts a gun and shoots the Dutchman down and thus saves both celibacy and desire before dying. The celibate mutters thanks to the winds and walks away with his wife without even caring to find out who had saved his life. That ends Debaki Bose's '-Chandrashekhar" with Mir Cassam. East India Company. British soldiers and Dutch captain. Begum and harem, all to kindle some desire for his wife in a sleep-walking idol worshipper. All in all it is a very humorous story, being so flimsy and transparent that one can see through it long before Debaki Balm's strenuous efforts to tell it. INTELLECTUAL IMPOTENCE To say that the whole affair is stupid is to put some box-office premium on it. The picture is an unpardonable and criminal waste of valuable celluloid. There is nothine in it to applaud, not even Kamal Das Gupta's music in which he has taken one familiar tune and twisted it into different unpopular strains at different moments. Debaki Babu's direction is not at all worthy of his past great reputation as an intellectual. At places the direction suffers from shocking intellectual impotency. especially in the stunt sequences. The picture is as dry as a dog's bone and nowhere can we find the mist or moisture of emotion for which Bengal is notoriously famous. Ashok Kumar and Kanan Devi are ill-matched in appearance. At best Ashok looks like Kanan's long lost son and we are asked to deny our eyes and believe them to be sweethearts. Besides, the soft, gentle and round-shouldered Ashok looks a poor soldier and lends a few blushes even to the steel sword he carries. With all the weight on her face and other parts no one expects Kanan to act in the heroine's role. She fulfils these expectations faithfully. Others in the picture don't count as they are brought in at intervals to exercise their legs. In short, "Chandrashekhar" is monumental boredom in celluloid. It has neither any box-office nor anv art. It is a very risky picture for the average profit-conscious exhibitor. 51