FilmIndia (1946)

OUR REVIEW 'Safar', Nil-round Poor Production ! Siily Story With Uyiy Artistes SAFAR Producers: Filmistan Ltd. Language: Hindustani Screenplay: b. Mitra Dialogue: U. N. Ashk Lyrics: g. Nepali Music: C. Ramchandra Photography: K. H. Kapadia Audiography: G. R. Bhide Cast: Shobha, Kanu Roy, V. H. Desai, S. L. Puri, Rajendra etc. Released At: Roxy, Bombay. Date of Release: 2nd November 1946. Directed By: B MITRA "Safar" is too poor a picture for Filmistan to present. It can be aptly described in a single word, "Rotten". It is a pity that an experienced film magnate of the status of Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall should present this picture. Rai Bahadur is one of our top-line leaders of the film industry and as such people look up to him to give our industry a wise lead by producing good and sensible motion pictures. "Safar" is neither good nor sensible and Rai Bahadur Chuni Lall, who always leads all the deputations to the Government carrying one grievance or another, will have to put his head down in shame when "Safar" is mentioned as a "proud" presentation of our top-line film producer. KANU AND SHOBHA "Safar" has a stupid yarn acted by, perhaps, the most ugly looking persons ever presented on the Indian screen. Shobha, a new comer, who acts the heroine looks too ugly to be described. Her face defies both description and imagination. It is too repulsive for the screen and as such most unsuitable to play the heroine. The woman, in addition, has hardly any acting talent and keeps on rolling her eyes from end to end throughout the picture till her performance becomes disgusting. Kanu Roy is also a new comer. He speaks his dialogue pretty well but is hardly the choice for the hero's role. The right side of his upper lip twitches up in an ugly paralytic manner whilst speaking and robs him of even the very slight chance he had of becoming a glamour boy. The boy, liowever, makes a sincere attempt to do his bit, but fails to impress because of the irrational slapstick turns given to his role by the writer-director. USUAL MARRIAGE TANGLE The story is at once common and silly in theme. And it becomes stupid because of an utterly unimaginative and unintelligent screenplay by B. Mitra. We don't know Mitra or anything about his pretensions to write a screenplay but he should better leave the job to some one else in future instead of making a fool of himself as he has done in "Safar." The story of the picture is the usual marriage tangle. Chitra, a rich man's daughter, defies her father and escapes from a train to maintain her right to marry the man she loves. They are shown as travelling to Calcutta by the B. B. & C. I. Railway — probably a new route specially built for Filmistan. The train, in addition, runs silently on a rubber track permitting the dialogue between the father and the daughter to be heard without any disturbance. The father, an erratic character, puts the police 0n her track and offers a big reward. Chitra meets the hero, Ajit, a journalist, doing a tight rope turn in a circus tent. Both get the flea-bite of love quickly and we soon find them dodging each other in foggv streets. After some tiresome reels of this dodging game, Chitra goes back home to her father with a promise to return to Ajit at the end of a month at 8-30 p.m. And now we are introduced to the prize-idiot of the story. His name is Kishore. He is in love with Chitra and wants to marry her. By a strange coincidence Ajit is employed by Kishore and keeps himself within striking range. Some more unconvincing muddle soon leads to the usual marriage ceremony between Kishore and Chitra. At the last minute, Sarladevi is reported to have given a good performance in "Toofani Takkar" a thriller produced by A. M. Khan Productions. 61