FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

UR REVIEW Aparadhi", Poor Story With Poorer Direction ! Madhubala's Versatile Performance! A poor Prabhat picture is perhaps greater shock to film-goers than a >od Ran jit picture. The Prabhat ns are still conscious of art, though abhat has not given any artist ir cture recently, and they like to look a Prabhat picture with an extra itical eve in search of some art hich they do not find in pictures roduced by Bombay film folks. In this respect " Aparadhi ", Prahat's latest social picture, is a sore isappointment. In fact, the entire icture. from the story script to it-creen presentation, is a poor ainatcuish effort. A STUD BULL'S JEALOUSY In the first half of the picture, we ee a clumsy atblete chasing a girl ke a stud bull and ultimately landng her into a marriage with him. No ooner be begins his married life a evolutionary patriot takes shelter n his home as a refugee from law. fhis man makes the athlete unreasonably jealous and he suspects his APARADHI Producers: Prabhat Pictures Language: Hindustani Story: Yeshwant Pethkar Dialogue & Lyrics: Amar Varma Music: Sudhir Phadkc Photography: Manohar Kulkarni Sound: S. S. Kulkarni Cast: Nadhu Bala, Main Singh, Pran, etc. Released \t: Minerva. Bombay. Date "I Release: 25th February 1919 Directed By PETHKAR wife of an affair with his revolutionary friend. The second half of the picture is one long episode of sadism and presents quite a few morbid situations When you harbour a revolutionist in your home he creates a revolution in your life. Madhubala finds this out to her cost in " Aparadhi " produced by Prabhat Pictures. in which the young wife is ill-treated while pregnant and driven to take shelter in her blind father's home. Later the athletic stud bull steals her child and attempts to betray his best friend for whose head a price of Rs. 5.000| is offered. After a bit of shooting and underground activities, the revolutionary patriot is arrested — with beard and all — and the misunderstanding in the athlete s gymnastic mind is removed. It ends well. BANKRUPT DIRECTION The theme is mainly that of blind jealousy on the part of a none-toointelligent husband but to strike a topical note the other man is made a revolutionary. The story is verv thin and the screenplay is remarkably poor with the result that the whole affair becomes awfully boring. The photography is pretty good but the sound recording is very poor. The music is typically Mabarashtrian being conventional and lacking in pep and rhythm. Not a single tune appeals. The direction is disastrously poor in imagination. The attempt to illustrate songs with Zulus dancing is to say the least absurd and ridiculous. W hy had this director to resort to the Zulus when the story was essentially Indian? Couldn't be have found our own aboriginal races to stage a dance? There are many crazy things in the picture which only contribute to prove the utter intellectual bankruptcy of the director. VERSATILE MADHUBALA The only silver lining to a long dark cloud of boredom is the sparkling personality of Madhubala. Whenever this girl appears on the screen she brings relief to the audience. In the heroine s role she beats everyone else hollow — though she has not much to beat — and gives a versatile performance with sighs and smiles. Ram Singh plays the athletic stud bull and not even in a single shot does he betray any pretensions for screen acting. The man plays the idiot all along and looks one every inch. Pran looks quite like Achhut rao Patwardhan in his revolutionary patriot's role and as such gives a pretty intelligent performance. The picture fails to appeal because of a poor story and poorer direction. 55