FilmIndia (1946)

June. 1946 FILMINDIA WORTH pitying: "Now a days I see magazines copying something or other from •filmindia'. For instance ''Artist" an Urdu magazine published from Delhi in its March 1946 issue has copied the section "Refresh Your Memory" in Urdu under the heading "1945*8 Films" while this is a word to word copy even of the name of the month in which the picture was reviewed in "Filmindia" being the same. I am reproducing the true copy of both: "In 'filmindia' Vish Kanya' (Hindustani! (Ranjiti March '4n issue — folklore — "A motion picture poison one would not like to swallow." "In 'Artist' (Urdu)*Vish Kanya' l Ranjiti March "4o Kissa Kahani Ek Chalti Phirti Tasweer Ka Zahar .Tisko Pine Ke Lie Koi Taiyar Nahi Ho Sakta." "For reference and as a proo*" for the old man Mr. Baburao Patel (who always wants proofs! I am enclosing herewith the said cutting from the magazine together with this letter. I wonder why these Delhiwalas bluff people, and how long will this nonsense continue?" CALCUTTA. Abdool Kader Adam ISN'T IT A PITY? "We Indians in ?.Ialaya read with immense pleasure in 1941 your review of "The Court Dancer"', the first English picture to be produced in India by Indians. We had high hopes of seeing not only that one but many other English picture bo produced when the war in the East cut us off. "Now in 1946 we find no sign in "filmindia" of any English picture already produced or in the course of production. Must we believe that "The Court Dancer" was the first and the last English picture to be produced in India? Must wo believe that the experiment proved a failure <>r was it merely not as paying as the Hindustani pictures. "If "filmindia" published in English can be "the most excitine film paper in the world", is it not possible to produce English pic tures of a similar standard in India." N. Me her van Singh. SINGAPORE. GOLD DIGGERS "In spite of good box-office collections the two exhibitors over here do not care to look after the comforts of the cinema-goers. By comforts I mean choice of good pictures, clean lavatories and good seating arrangement. The people over here have become very much film-minded during the war days and do not grudge spending a bit of money for some type of entertainment. I presume this is the plight of most of the people of small towns." CDTTACK Pravat Mahapatrr. PICKET THE SHOW "It has become a habit in one of our theatres to enhance the admission rates by 25% if a decent picture is shown. And good pictures visit our city once in a blue moon so much so. that the long-stored enthusiasm to see such pictures is offset by this dirty trick of the theatre-owner. Don't you think Mr. Editor, that such unhealthy practices should be condemned by the public and curbed by the authorities concerned?" MYSORE. //. S. Venkata Rao. NOT MI CH DIFFERENCE "In Madras some English cinemas often exhibit at the gate some very attractive and alluring pictures purporting to be shown in a certain film, which are not to be seen in that film. "On several occasions, being attracted by such beautiful pictures exhibited outside. I went in to see especially those particular scenes, but to my utter disappointment they were not to be seen at all. "Doubtless those interesting scenes have been cut off by the Censors and the exhibitors know this; and yet why do they display those banned scenes which are not to be seen on the screen? "Is this not a case of cheating the public. Or is this also an art of publicity?" II. A. Rahman. MELVISHARAM (N. X.) PAID PIPERS "There seems to be a fashion amongst most of the film critics o! South India to praise one and all Hindi films whether thev deserve it or not. It is all the' more wonderful when it is realized that the majority of these critics are ignorant of the language viz. Hindi and it appears that one can appreciate a dialogue in a language winch is Greek and Latin! At the same time these very same critics have not even a single word to be said in favour of the best produced Tamil film, if they do not condemn downright as trash. "I have to point out that many ol the Hindi films which are held up to the world as masterpieces bv these critics often receive onlv a single 'star' from 'filmindia'"" P. Balazubramanian. XAGAPATAM CHEATED? "Believe me or not. I would have never wasted my time over Barua's 'Ameeree'. had it not been for Pt. Jawahar Lai Nehru, who -poke highly of it after seeing it at Calcutta. You can very well visualise to yourself my feelings after I saw it. The picture was just erratic and had too much of trash in it. I fail to understand why Pandit ji appreciated it?" Mrs. Savitri Devi Shukla. CAWNPORE. SOME DAY, PERHAPS! "Prithviraj-Sanyukta". a Shalimar picture, is another addition to the list of rotten historical pictures, so far produced by the Indian film industry. It is nothing but a sheer waste of 10999 feet of celluloid. What to mention of its technical defects, the picture has failed even in its most ordinary aspects! Its music is full of jarring tunes; sound is faint and the dialogue can. therefore, hardly be heard or followed at any point. "Surely the film industry is not unaware of the fact that the taste of the picturegoer of 1946 is not so crude as might have been of the picture-goer of a decade ago. The time and money spent on such pictures is a national waste. 5?