FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

ir HOME AND MOTHER AT LAST ! Bombay, January "iO. |jn the 9th Jnnuary, \eena belb a proud mother to a baby ■ at Worli, Bombay. |{;t us hope the little one grows pnto as attractive a slur as the icier. RITA-ALY ROMANCE ! London, January 19. ms capital romance between ijiywood star Rita Hayworth and nee Aly Khan has at last taken oncrete shape. Evidently Aly in couldn't resist the charms of ■ any longer. lie marriage will be held at the Mian Catholic Church in Cannes U there might also be a Muslim Umony at the Aga Khan's home. ROUGH WORK ! Meerut, January 17. [recently batches of college stuBs raided some of the local ijma houses damaging property rj injuring certain employees. pe cause for this hooliganism his to be a demand for concesi{s and other facilities which were iaed to the students. HURRY FOR HONEYMOON? Hollywood, January 17. ilm star June Duprez and I rge Moffett Jr. made marital i ory when they signed the register ;t a hurricane six-day engagelit. Fast work, that! ONE MORE Ootacamund, January 24. i fire broke out in the operator's <m of the Blue Mountai.i Talkies i the morning of the 24th causing Inage to the extent of Rs. 30,000|-. \ considerable part of the films I *ed there was gutted. t is suspected that some one 2W a cigarette end into the • ■.rator's room, thus causing the r-inflammable film to burst into nes. ROUND THE CORNER Bombay, January 20. Panorama, who recently married jen Haksar, is expecting to join band of star mothers shortly. Now there is no need to publish ing poses as motherhood has l/ays been the best proof of a image. Let us hope the little one n't ever see those disgusting pho;raphs of what Pop & Mum did lit. ABROAD MARRIED Salisbury, January 17. Jack Buchanan, well-known British actor-cum-producer called Miss Susan Bassett his wife and in doing so left the pretence of courtship behind. ALL FOR MONEY ! Madras, January 22. Mr. Gopala Reddi, Finance Minister of the Government of Madras, told the Assembly that last year the government earned 54 lakhs of rupees by way of entertainment tax. This year the government hope to earn 95 lakhs, on the basis of the proposed construction cf more cinema houses. The Government of India have already allotted them a quota of cement obtained from the stocks in Pakistan for constructing new cinema houses and they would be built as soon as possible by theatreowners in Madras. What about Bombay? ANOTHER CRIER ! Hollywood, January 17. Dorothy McGuire is all smiles at the idea of becoming a mother. Her baby is expected some time in the first week of March. The time table may go wrong but the baby will be there alright. NATIONAL THEATRE! London, January 21. British theatre-goers are jubilant at the new grant of £1,000,000 made by Parliament for the building of a National Theatre in London. Prices of the seats will be 'reasonable' so that middle class families might take advantage of the entertainment. The National Theatre will also become a centre for the development of dramatic art. Our municipal theatre is still on paper. DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT! Hollywood, January 28. M. G. M. director Jean Renoir has flown to Calcutta for shooting some sequences of ''The River" from a story by Rumer Goddens. This is an ambitious technicolour picture and deals with an English family living in India after the recent British withdrawal. If the costly technicolour was to be used at all, why wasn't an Indian theme utilized to show the colourful costumes of the Indians to the outside world which is always eager to know something about India? Perhaps the beggars, snakeHhaimers and the Sadhus are intended to provide the requisite background to the English family. If M.G.M. slander Indians, it will be necessary to ban their entire product in India. HIS LAST GAG Mr. V. H. Desai. Bombay, January 30. Screen comedian, V . H. Desai, died on Tuesday the 25th January at Baroda of heart attack, where lie had gone tor a vacation. V. H. Desai was one of the educated artistes having passed his LL.B. from the Baroda College in 1925. With his natural ap'itude for mimicry and sense of humour, friends persuaded him to take up the screen as a career in preterence to the legal profession. He began with Sagar Movietone playing minor roles in films which Hopped too often to give him a name. In 1938, however, his work in "Bhabhi" a popular p:cture of Bombay Talkies was liked and from that time onwards he scored a series of successes in "Ncvjeevan", '"Durga", "Kangan", "Uandhan", "Naya Sansar ", ''Anjan", "Jhoola" and "Kismet". Later hr joined Filmistan and worked in all their pictures, giving intelligent gags and making people laugh with his everfunny face — especially in "Shehnai" and "Eight Days". He achieved new heights of popularity in ' Kiildki''. 61