FilmIndia (1946)

August 1946. FILM INDIA college, there is no education and no professors. It is a college where boys and girls seem to meet regularly to tickle and provoke each other's sex. Is that what they do in Lahore colleges? And is this the general pattern of behaviour in our colleges any where in India? I have not yet seen anything like this anywhere and I have addressed boys and girls in several colleges all over India. Then how do the film producers get something that does not exist? This is easy to answer. Those producers who distort life in such a disgusting manner have filthy minds that would not stop at anything, howsoever dirty and mean, to make a little money for themselves. They don't care two hoots whom they slander in doing so. They have no regard for good men, good women, good institutions good culture, good traditions, good manners or anything good. They want money at any price and the price is always paid by others. Film production in India is usually a business without any morality. One day producers will run down the colleges, the next day they will run down the insurance companies and the third day they will run down their own profession — the ruling condition is that they must make money somehow and anyhow. Every year many stories about our college life come to the screen. All of them show anything but the fine college life as it is found in India today. Our students have been taking things in good humour so far but they cannot afford to do so any longer. In Free India' their status will be different and their responsibilities will be greater. We cannot afford to have our college students and our educational institutions slandered by irresponsible and uneducated film producers. Our public leaders are straining every nerve to spread education throughout the country while these film producers are sabotaging their national effort by shuukring our students ami their institutions. "Jhumke" is a standing challenge to the manhood of our college students. We have impotent censors who will never do any tiling to build a better nation. But the students themselves can do a lot. They can picket the picture wherever it is shown. They can force the producers to cut out the dirty scenes that slander our educational institutions. And if they succeed in stopping this picture, they will have paid a graceful compliment to the girls who go to collide with them to sip from the same fountain of knowledge to build together a better future world. PROOF OF GOODWILL REQUIRED The Secretary of the Indian Merchants' Chamber/-Bombay, has forwarded us a copy of the letter received by the Chamber from the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association. The letter, dated 13th July, is as follows: ilI refer to this office letter No. P/135c/1210, dated 2.5th ult., and am to inform you that the matter has since received the serious consideration of the Executive Committee. "I am directed to assure you that members of this Association have absolutely no intention of villifying any indigenous industry of our country, least of all, a rising national industry like Insurance. In fact, it is the declared policy of this Association to accord every possible support to our indigenous industries in the larger interests of our country. ''The Indian film industry is itself a rising national industry which looks forward for support from all sides for its development in the future and it is as much anxious to see that every assistance is rendered to sister industries. "Members are being advised to pay their special attention to this matter and to avoid scenes in their pictures which would directly or indirectly harm the interests of Insurance or any other indigenous industry." This is a welcome assurance which the producers' Association has given to the other indigenous industries of our country. What we want to know, however, is what steps have been taken by the Producers' Association to remove the offensive portions from the films "Tadbir"' and "Dhamki". Are these films to be allowed to be shown to millions all over India with their slander against our insurance people? If the producers really mean what they write they ought to make amende honorable by cutting off the offensive portions from the above films, otherwise their present assurance is likely to be construed as a mere eyewash. YOU LL HARDLY BELIEVE That journalists Ahmed Abbas and V. P. Sathe have discovered a new treatment for measles. Sathe holds the head and Abbas massages the legs and the Manchi and Radha in "Pick Pocket" a social story of Brij Prakash Productions. 15