FilmIndia (1946)

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OUR REVIEW "40 Crores" Becomes Rn Entertaining Comedy Misleading Title Misleads People. "40 Crores" is a wrong name to this picture. Bar a few pointed dialogue on Hindu-Muslim unity, the picture has nothing in it that affects the life of the 400 millions of India. The title of the picture seems to have been arrogated to capture popular fancy and exploit the prevalent national sentiment. "40 Crores" of Chandra Art is a slapstick comedy in ten out of its eleven thousand feet. It is in addition a love story between the son of a rich man and a village girl with occasional talk of the country and its dark future owing to communal bickerings. There is in it a symbolic dance intended to show that all was sweet and lovely in this land of God till the alien element entered and spoilt the harmony. The director, however, failed to bring home the symbolism of this dance and the dance ultimately looks a cross between the Rasleela and the grim Devil Dance. Realizing, however, the symbolic shortcomings of the dance, the director obliges us by asking one of the sponsors to give us long bits of boring commentary on the significance of the dance — the significance that could not be picturized — and the awkward situation is folded up quickly and romance is let loose on the screen. 40 CRORES Producers: Chandra Art Productions. Language: Hindustani. Story, Dialogue Sc Songs: Pandit Indra. Music: Gobindram. Photography: Dali Daruwala. Recording: Thakur & Charlie. Cast: Nirmala, Aroon, Agha. Shantarin, Yakub, Gope. Gulab. Sunetra etc. Released at: Krishna, Bombay. Date of Release: 12th April '46. Directed By: NANABHAI BHATT. Recruit Ebrahim Nurudeen of P. O. Box 420, Johannesburg, is 5' 9" and •peaks Hindustani very well. He says he has talent for acting. BOY MEETS GIRL The romance is simple. Basant, the only son of a rich Bombay merchant, is fired by the ideals of social service. He, however, misunderstands social values and sets out to modernize Kishangarh, a village belonging to his father, and turn it into a city. In this self-imposed work of civilizing the villagers, he is assisted by Somu, his private secretary, who incidentally provides all the slapstick comedy of i he picture. Basant meets Muniya the village girl and Somu meets Kinari another village girl and all the new civilization plans are held up for these romances to develop. Now we sec a lot of love chase interrupted by some silly slapstick and several love ditties. The climax is soon reached when Basant's ultra modern plans clash with the orthodox ideals of the villagers. The forces of both the sides are soon arrayed in hostile formation but before any shot is fired, the affair comes to an abrupt end, without the writer reaching any thematic conclusion. In developing the story the wellknown writer completely lost sight of his characters and the symbolisms behind them and thrusting aside the theme unceremoniously, proceeded to create some slapstick drama for entertainment. It must be admitted that the slapstick portions entertain admirably but the slapstick drama was certainly not the main burden of the tale. Pandit Indra makes history in "40 Crores", a picture of Hindu-Muslim Unity, which Muslims won't permit to be shown, because Panditji has written dialogue that offends them. The production values of the picture are rather erratic and it is evident that the picture has been produced under financial strain. Photography and sound have suffered in quality and strain the eye and the ear at several places. The dialogue of the picture is smart at places and popular at other times. In fact, the dialogue takes the applause more often than any inherent comedy in the situations. Song compositions are common without being offensive. A couple of tunes sung by Nirmala certainly sound attractive. The picture hardly has any direction. TINY PERFORMANCES The players hardly have much to do as they are all made to work in snatches owing to a very illogical ami faulty development of the drama. Nirmala in the role of Muniya, is not at all bad though she looks sick throughout. Agha is pretty good in slapstick work, while Shantarin attracts attention as Kinari, the second resistance of the village. Murli, in the role of the nationally inspired Muslim, speaks his dialogue beautifully but badly needs a long course of tonics. Sunetra's voice raises suspicions about her sex, but otherwise she is not so bad. Gulab gives a good performance in a finger-nail role. As we have said before, there is nothing about the 400 millions of India in the picture. "40 Crores" is quite a good time-killer if you don't mind a lot of slapstick. This picture should do well with the masses. 57