FilmIndia (1946)

»lay, 1946 FILM INDIA s breaking faith with us. He cannot make extra money )y giving us a headache. People must shout these slides down someday till the [bowmen stop showing them. Unless filmgoers become owdy about this immoral intrusion on their goodness, here is no hope of the greedy theatre-owners stopping the llides. Or in the alternative, the theatre chappie must nention in his trade advertisements the exact number )£ slides he is going to show to us and at what time. Well, this slide-racket must stop as soon as possible md it is for the filmgoers to stop it — not by requests but )y being rowdy. If the filmgoers give hall-a-dozen gooJ )erformances of rowdiness, there won't be a single slide m the screen. The theatre-owners are not very tough >eople. DUR THEATRES AND ENTERTAINMENT Talking of slides, we are reminded of other nuisances |n our theatres — especially in those theatres where the ndian pictures are shown. There is usually a world ot lifferente between a theatre showing an English talkie ind the one showing an Indian picture— though very often he same man owns bo'.h the theatres. Even the audience, •cry oi\en the same people, behaves differently in the afferent theatres. People are shades better behaved while •eeing an English taikie, but all their inner crudeness is on >arade during an Indian picture. To find reasons for this, one must study the psychoogy of slaves and that is a two-hundred-year old subject, oo long for our present purpose. The Indian theatres are as a rule filthy spots tor many easons. Taking Bombay as the first city of the Indian impire and the most important release centre for motion jictures, the theatres of Bombay ought to be the best in he country. While the city has some very good theatres or foreign pictures, there is hardly a good theatre in the pity for Indian pictures, bar the Roxy Talkies. Indian theatres never have enough lavatories and what they have are dirty, disease-ridden spots which even die Municipal authorities don't visit for fear of infection. The theatres are ill-ventilated and usually more chairs are squeezed in than actual space can permit. The chairs provide a haven to bugs and fleas to feast upon the constantly Scratching buttocks of the filmgoers. From the beginning of its career, to provide comfort to the filmgoers, right up !to the end, when its pieces are used as firewood by the ilavatory man, the chair is never dusted, cleaned or fumigated— all these processes being unknown to the average Indian showman. The curtains tell the same story. There is more dust on them than on the streets and every time they are pushed about, people sitting near inhale the dust dislodged in the process. In Indian theatres, there is no time between the two shows, because the audience of the next show usually push out the audience of the previous one. The problem of cleaning the theatre between the shows therefore, never arises. The dust and dirt of thousands is carried from show to show, day to day, month to month and year to year. Before the show, during the interval and very often during the show itself, hawkers provide their own anno yance to the audience by offering pan, bidi, lemon, nuts and what not. They present the stuff by pushing it undci your nose and collect the money dangerously near your hip-pocket in the dark. They also add to the sounds of the talkies by occasional shoutings of "Pan-bidi-matches" and throw their huge shadows on the screen at regular intervals. To this general atmosphere of filth and indiscipline, the riimgoers also contribute their quota. Many of them leave the lavatories alone and use the wash-basin and its surroundings for urgent needs. Pan-chewing is a colourful curse of the Indian nation. Its disadvantages are no where so prominent as in a picture-house, where everything from the floor to the ceiling is obligingly painted red by the pan-eaters. Smoking ugly smelling bidis turns the cinema into an opium den. Then there are new couples and the male partners always try to explain the story of the screen to the female ones and people round about understand it better than the dull-headed females. There are crying babies who refuse to shut up even with the nipples of their mothers between their little lips. At times you hear the mother screaming because the little one, excited by the sight of the screen villain, has given mummy a vicious bite. Then there are the musical ones, descendants of the great Tansen, who insist on singing with the hero or the heroine and if you stop them they keep rhythm with their shoes which usually have horse-shoes on their soles. Then in this colourful country of many races and laces, there are many with huge turbans in all shades and shapes. You don't mind the shades in the darkness of a theatre, but when a turban starts rocking from side to side in tune with a song, you do mind this turban as in India it is often a symbol of some religion or other. So the turban rocks before your eyes and you duck it by adopting counter -rhythm and in doing so the man behind you wonders whether you are getting crazy or being purposely rude. If the man behind you happens to be a hefty type he gives you a rap on the head and stops your counterrhythm. There are many other things that make Indian pictures worth seeing once. Seeing Indian pictures is fun all right, but is this all entertainment? YOU'LL HARDLY BELIEVE That after seeing "Dr. Kotnis", Sardar Chandulal repented bitterly for not securing the services of V. Shantaram to act in "Pagli Duniya". Shantaram's natural acting would have made "Pagli Duniya-' a hit of the season. That the only defect in 'Dr. Kotnis", of course according to the great Shantaram, should be the excellent acting of Jayashree who beats her funny-looking husband from shot to shot. It's lucky there is no divorce among the Hindus. That Bhal Pendharkar wants to erect a statue of Cousin Shantaram in Papa's Square of Kolhapur with the following inscription: "The man who spoke Hindustani .ind won back the Indian Empire for the Kolhapuris." That with his Hindustani approved by all the Kolhapuris, V. Shantaram will now open an Academy for teaching Hindustani to people from the United Provinces. That a short course will be taken in this peculiar language by i'andit Jawaharlal Nehru. That Shantaram proved that "Dr. Kotnis" was a Chinese story by tossing the laddoo in the air like a Chinese luggler but swallowing it like a Kolhapuri glutton. That laddoo was the symbol of Shantaram's youth. 15