FilmIndia (1948)

OUR REVIEW Rajkamal's " Bhool " Becomes Censors' "Bhool"! Screaming Outrage On Indian Womanhood! "Bhool" is not a motion picture. It is a screaming outrage on Indian womanhood and a vile slander on Hinduism. It debauches all decency in human behaviour and brings down I sex relationship among human beings to the level of dogs. The picture is a disgrace to our film industry. It has been produced by V. Shantaram for the Rajkamal Kalamandir. The picture preaches virgin motherhood, as a result of a mutual and willing accident under the pretext of love, and the censors ought to have taken a serious notice of the same. But they have obviously not found it necessary to interfere with the picture and people cannot be blamed if they talk of favouritism in this case I seeing that V. Shantaram has been nominated a member of the Bombay Board of Film Censors and is reported to be producing for the Government of Bombay a documentary short extolling the achievements of the Government during our first year of independence. Dewan Sharar. the author of the story of "Bhool", describes his picture as a "story of old Shivdayal — an honest labourer, a respected villager and a fond father — and his daughter Sheela". On the screen, however, it is the story of a village maiden who. fascinated by the very first stranger she meets, surrenders her virginity to him. without the slightest resistance — almost with the readiness of a professional woman — and then basks happily in her virgin motherhood with not only the connivance, but also the actual support of her fond father described as an "honest labourer and respected villager". Shivdaval is a villager, no doubt, as he is shown living in a village but there is nothing in the whole picture to show that he was respected, for, in his village we do not see any one else except Shivdayal, his six daughters and his assistant Girdhar. Being respected by these seven people including six children, does not mean that the entire village had any respect for him. He is shown to be a labourer, but there is nothing to prove that he was honest. On the contrarv. ! BHOOL Producers :Rajkamal Kalamandir, Ltd. Language: Hindustani Story & Dialogue: Dewan Sharar Songs: Phiroz Jalandhari Music: Purusholtam Photography: G. Balkrishna Audiography : Chandu Kamulkar Cast: Dewan Sharar, Suman, Parshram, Aruna Devi, Leela, Baby Mad hum etc. Released At: New West End, Bombay. Date of Release :7th October 1948 Directed By V. AVADHUT when he makes a bargain for repairing the well belonging to Nanak Seth. he first quotes a reasonable amount, but on second thought, he immediately doubles the amount with a vindictive delight. That is not honesty. But he is a fond father indeed. So fond that he does not mind his grown-up-daughter giving herself up to a complete stranger and committing the greatest sin of which a woman is capable. And still he believes his daughter to be an embodiment of all feminine virtues and actually describes her as a princess as if princesses were ideal women incapable of doing wrong! BEHIND-THE-BISH ROMANCE Sheela is introduced in the picture as taking her father's lunch to a field outside the village where Shivdaval and his assistant Girdhar are at work. She has to cross a rivulet on the way by means of an improvised bridge made of a couple of tree trunks and in doing so she finds a stranger, dressed like a dandy, squatting midway on the bridge busy angling. He helps Sheela cross the stream and immediately makes intimate overtures to her which, however, remain unresponded. On her return from the field, Sheela still finds the angler busy with his sport and this time Sheela again accepts his help in crossing. Reaching the bank, the stranger offers her a ride on his motor-bike which is readily accepted by the girl. <5