FilmIndia (1946)

May, 1946 FILMINDI A This is a shot from "1857" being produced by Mohan Sinha. growing boils and making the malady mysterious and dangerous in addition. This gives Shantaram an opportunity to try the remedy on himself against the wishes of his little Chinese wife. But film heroes never die so easily, so Dr. Kotnis, of course the great Shantaram, survives and so do all the boil-growing Chinese. The Sino-Japanese war is on all the while and the Chinese are constantly carried horizontally across the screen to Shantaram whose mere touch saves them all — one and all. 3y now, Shantaram has become a male Bern.idette and the war has become pretty serious. The Japs, knowing that Shantaram's wedding was over, don't feel any longer the necessity of being too far #way from their "hinese neighbours. As the Japs come nearer, the Chinese run all over the screen. The doctor and his Chinese wife arc now torn apart and Ching Lan stands on a rock and sings a patriotic martial song. Instead of fighting, the Chinese soldiers are shown as running away from the Japs. They completely misunderstand the words of the song due to bad recording. Dr. Kotnis appreciates his wife's feat on the rock and wonders how she could sing a song like that. Bravo, Jayashree! Knowing that Shantaram was from Kolhapur, from where Master Vithal our stunt hero once came, the Japs now capture Shantaram to give him a chance to escape. Vithal-wise by hanging to a tree, Shantaram does it slickly and once again proves to one and all that his monkey-glands are still functioning properly. Don't get impatient, we are nownearer the end of Dr. Kotnis. The great doctor returns to the Chinese and takes up his work again where he had left it. By this time our hero is all tired and broken trying to keep a nation of 400 million helpless souls in bandages. So he begins ge;ting ill himself. This illness, epilepsy, starts, in Shantaram's case, with the trousers which shiver and then gradually climbs up to Shantaram's dehydrated face which begins registering symptoms of hereditary lunacy. THE TRAGEDY OF THE TROUSERS (-lung Lan is busy at this time growing a baby inside her, contrary to the practice of the Chinese men who were growing boils outside them. Dr. Kotnis shakes his trousers occasional!/ and works at other times so hard th;.i he is soon on an invalid bed. Ching Lan brings forth the baby, a son, only after 8 months of Dr. Kotnis, and Kaka Wong hails it as the symbol of Indo-Chinese unity. By now Dr. Kotnis is very ill — So ill that he cannot move from his bed. Just at this time the Chinese General, Long, forgetting all the good deeds of the good doctor for the Chinese, manages to accommodate a few Japanese bullets in his chest and comes back home on the hospital stretcher. The General has to be saved for China and for the rest of the world, however clownish he may be, and the only man who can do it is, as usual the hero, himself a very sick man. But Dr. Kotnis, braving a collapse, goes, and so does Shantaram, because Cousin Pendharker is the General and performs a very dangerous and delicate operation and saves the General but— But what.' It is now time tor the hero to die. He can't find people greater than the General to save every day. So Dr. Kotnis decides to die and vve see Shantaram on Kotnis' death bed, go.ng back to Sholapur, because it is on the way to his own Kolhapur talking some nonsense and finally closing his eyes, with 400 million Chinese waiting outside the cave, anxious to hear the sad news. Then we see a vision of Ching Lan, with the little Kotnis, coming to Miolapur and presenting to the doclor's mother the symbol of ]ndo Ch.nese unity. After this we all so heme from far away China. But wc mustn't forget Kaka Wong. He calls himself Awara (Loafing) Wong and true to his name he loafs through the picture as a good Samaritan, always coming from heaven and again disappearing into heaven. He is here, there and everywhere and wherever Shantaram wanted Dewan Sharar, and Kaka Wong walks Jhreugh the picture like a goodhearted old man. advising, matchmaking, pacifying, saving, helping and looking on at other times. That ends the immortal story of Dr. Kotnis, the picture Shantaram has given us about the Medical Mission which was sent to China by the Indian National Congress. SILLY DIRECTION At no stage during the long picture does the story acquire any interest or grip. The sequences drag continuously and a feeling of extreme boredom is created. Only those sequences where Jayashree makes an appearance become slightly interesting. The development of the story is very sketchy and remains highly unimaginative 49