FilmIndia (1946)

FILM INDIA February, 1946 ONE MORE MENACE The world is going to be a very small place if the numerous plans of several foreign film magnates are going to materialise. The latest organization in the news is the "'United World Pictures Company" owned by J. Arthur Rank, the British film magnate with two Americans, Leo Spitz and William Goetz. This company will distribute and control — or try to — all productions wherever found. Sounds rather ambitious. Doesn't it ? What about Ranjit pictures? DEATH OF AN INSTITUTION Bad news comes to us from Calcutta that Miss Jahanara Kajjan, the famous star of the early talkies, "Laila Majnu" and "Shirin Farhad", has breathed her last in Calcutta during December after a long illness. Her last picture was "Mumtaz Mahal", produced by the Ranjit Movietone. In her days Kajjan was considered the most dynamic star of the times. BELLS AND BELLS "Filmistan" seems to have become a happy hunting ground for romance the way boys and girls are being paired off. Right in the wake of Mohsin Abdul'.a's marriage with Veera Anklesaria comes the news of Mr. Perreira, Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall's secretary, having picked up Miss Shroff as his partner of life. Who says that our film industry does not contribute to the communal unity in the country? DHAN-SAK DECISIONS Our film people seem to be serious these days about putting their house in order. The other day Producer Sohrab Modi, who, like the overgrown school-boy who went in short pants to get a concession ticket, still calls himself an artiste first and last and remains the president of the actors and the actresses, invited the Executive Committee Members of the Producers' Association, without the prying journalists, to dinner and over some 'dhan-sak' decided that the Association of Artistes should co-operate with the Association of Producers in promoting better relations between the artistes and the producers, i.e. in cutting down the earnings of the artistes and increasing the profits of the producers. How can they kick on the stomach while putting the 'Dhan-sak' in? GLORIFYING CRIME Members of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce are reported to have passed a "Mercy Resolution" to secure the release of Film actors N. S. Krishnan and M. K Thyagraja Bhagavathar who have been given a life sentence for being parties to the murder of a local journalist. It is perhaps feared that without these two the South Indian film industry will soon go to dogs. The South Indian producers seem to show some rare principles the way they back persons who go about murdering people? Perhaps, some of those outside the jail claim fellowship with those inside and they seem to miss the genial company of the musician and the comedian. NO MORE DIRECTION A cable from Hollywood says that Veera Zorina, the stage and screen ballet star, was granted a divorce during the month from her husband, George Balanchine, a ballet director of New York. They were married in 1938. Pretty long time that. DEATH OF A PHILANTHROPIST We regret to announce the death of a leading philanthropist of Gujerat, Mr. Nemchand Kacharabhai Mehta, father of Kapurchand, Kevalchand and Zaverchand our film magnates, at the ripe age of 85 in Jetpur, his home town. The late Mr. Nemchand Mehta was a very industrious and enterprising man who, rising from the lowest rung of the ladder, laid the early foundations of the now proverbial Kapurchand fortune. In his three illustrious sons he has left behind rare industrial magnates who turn every thing which they touch into gold. May his soul rest in peace. Here is a semi-humorous situation f'om "Shravan Kumar" directed by Ram Daryani