FilmIndia (1946)

•May, 1946 FILM INDIA Now Dr. Kotnis travels in a bus in company of his future wife, dressed as a boy. The boy part is, of course, Shantaram's idea of original humour. Dr. Basu says that in China all women gave their lives ungrudgingly for their great struggle without cloaking their j sex. . But Shantaram perhaps likes to discover a woman in a boy. That way he likes surprises all over. At the first glimpse of "the boy,"' the audience, however, knew that "he" was a girl. Only Shantaram did not know. We wonder whether Dr. Kotnis knew it or not. In Shantaram's case the error must be excused because he has seen so few women being constantly surrounded by male courtiers usually. Well, the scenes soon reach a cave, better still a series of well-planned caves in proper military formation. These are supposed to be the base headquarters of the famous 8th Route Armv under General Chu Teh. Here "THESE ARE MY CHILDREN YOUR CHILDREN EVERYBODY'S CHILDREN SO SAYS EVERY SEE: HENCE PUT THEM Oh YOUR "dlllST SEE' ★ RUNNING AT NOVELTY DAILY AT 4, 7, 10 p m. LIST ★ REMEMBER IT S A RAdlNIK PRODUCTION the original name of the General changes quickly and a screen name General Fong, is given to him. Baburao Pendharkar, Shantaram's cousin, had to play the role and the role had to be specially named to maintain the family traditions of originality. EVERYTHING SPECIAL Dr. Kotnis is, of course, given a special cave with a signboard. That way Shantaram also requires a special position even as a pall-bearer at a funeral and there is an event recorded in which more attention was once paid to Shantaram than to the corpse. By now, the "boy" is exposed and the woman in "him" is revealed. The woman is called Ching Lan and she assists Dr. Kotnis in all surgical operations and while doing so falls in love with the Indian doctor. But we did forget to tell you about General Fong. On technical grounds, let us forget the fact that he was supposed to represent the famous General Chu Teh. Shantaram introduces his general as a clownish comedian, strutting across the screen with a halftied bandage the other end of which is held by an orderly. What an original comedy! Yes, Shantaram did find some rare comedy in the cruel fate of the defenseless Chinese who were bombed out of existence in their millions by the greedy, blood-thirstv faps. Shantaram gave them a clown ish general and in doing so at once turned the grim Sino-Japanesc war into a circus with Shantaram, of course, as the ring master. It needs real genius to see comedy in death. We had never underrated Shanta ram's abilities for creating unique comedy. Or had we.3 DRY ROMANCE AND DEHYDRATED HERO Now begins the romance of Dr. Kotnis. Having divested the 'boy' of his male suspicions, the heroine stood revealed before the hero of the picture. So they both go to a hill top and there indulge in some quick sob-stuff. Shantaram's love-making is as dry as his dehydrated aged face. Young or old, every woman Shanta ram meets must accept the fact that the great director, being a very busy person with chronic constipation, is not expected to waste his time in useless sentimental talk, the main burden of moonstruck lovers. Shantaram's love must be accepted even before the 47