FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

rch, 1949 FILMINDIA ma. a new comer with a dimple, is one of the attrac is of "Char Din", a social storv of Rattan Pictures. • took his wife and his "Humayun", and taking the :lbhoy family for moral support and as interpreters, : landed in New York. In spite of Fazalbhoys super-salesmanship and exnt connections, "Humayun" could not be shown comiially and Mehboob's caravan soon returned to InlOnce again India lost several thousand dollars on ushine. before these three enterprising producers, JamJ B. H. Wadia had produced "The Court Dancer" in fish and succeeded in getting the Columbia Pictures Jnerica interested in distributing the picture in AmetThe picture was. however, never shown in Broadway rvas anything heard of it though five annual calenflhave changed their designs since. Now come reports of Lday Shankars foolhardy enfi.se in America accompanied by his talented wife I Nandini and his tins of "Kalpana." {am Bagai, filmindia's special correspondent in Iwood, writes to us that, 'KalpanaY original footfjf 14,000 has been cut down to 10.000 for American *; that for a rental of a paltry 100 dollars (Rs. 335) Dana*' was shown at the Beverly Hills High School I'iday, 14th January 1949; that the reaction of the Indians present was "hodge-podge"; that Shan lould have brought 2 or 3 reels of dancing shorts tld; that the conclusion was that "Shankar is no film technician and he should stick to his own field"; that "we believed in the ballyhoo that this film was running simultaneously in 10 cinemas in Bombay and Calcutta and was still being played to packed houses in both the cities. Truthfully, we were disappointed in the film"; that Shankar gave 3-4 private showings in Hollywood. "At one show the attendance was 5 persons, at another 3 while at one show only one man came and even he left mid-way thus leaving the great Shankar alone to witness his own creation or stop it. He stopped it." And Lday Shankar and his Amla must have also taken some Indian money for the American trip. And with what results? These four producers: Shantaram, Yijay Bhatt, Mehboob and Shankar. must have spent over 1,25,000 dollars over their ill-conceived American trips which brought neither prestige to the country nor even profits for themselves. \\ hen the Government of India need every possible dollar to buy food from this hard currency country for our hungry millions, under what earthly excuse can they justify tbeir sanction of thousands of dollars to film producers travelling with their wives and their putrid tins of celluloid in search of a mirage? Are all the solicitous promises seasonally given to the hungry poor by the different ministers of the State to be accepted as hypocritical platitudes which bring neither food nor sincerity of purpose to the hungry millions? One more film "Ajit" produced by Mohan Bhavnani in 16 mm Kodachrome is at present being blown up to 35 mm in Hollywood. It is already being boosted as the first full length colour film from India and though it will never get a commercial break, we won't be surprised if Mohan Bhavnani, who is now a Government employee in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, applies for dollars to attend, of course with Mrs. Bhavnani the "New York premiere" of this film. That will be some more dollars wasted — dollars with which we can buy some precious food from the dollar-crazy Americans. We have often written before that no Indian picture can for a long time to come, if not ever, be a commercial proposition in America. It is both stupid and suicidal to chase this mirage and once again we give the reasons: Film exhibition in America is a monopolized trade and foreigners have no chance at all of introducing their pictures. Out of the 16951 theatres in the United States, more than 2 3rd are owned or controlled by the different producer-distributor concerns like Paramount, M.G.M., 20th Century Fox, etc. The independent theatre owners are also at the mercy of these big combines to keep their theatres running from week to week. J. Arthur Rank, the British film tycoon spent millions of dollars to get some foothold in America for British pictures. After years of struggle he could hardly get 15 theatres in New York. And these also he got after stepping up the quality of British pictures and using the British Quota Act as a lever for international trade. Rank has the entire British Government behind him in his efforts to popularise British pictures in America and bring some dollars home. And yet when "The Sons of Liberty", an anti-British organization sponsored by some of the leading Hollywood producers, recently picketted all cine Long 5