FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

SUBSCRIPTION RATES The annual subscription, for 2 issues of "filmindla", from my month Is : INLAND FOREIGN : Rs. 24/Shillings 50/ Subscriptlon is accepted only r a collective period of months and not for • taller period. Subscription money should remitted only by Money rder or by Postal Order but ,c by cheques. V. P. P.s will it be senc. filmindia PROPRIETORS FILMINDIA PUBLICATIONS LTD SS. SIR PHIROZESHAH MEHTA ROAD. FORT, BOMBAY. Telephone . 26752 Editor: BABURAO PATEL Vol. XV. MAY 1949 No. 5. One IWay Ttlendikip J ADVERTISEMENT RATES: The advertisement rates are as follows : Per Insertion Full Page Inside Rs. 400 Half Pace Inside Rs. 210 » Page Inside Rs. 120 J Page Inside Rs. 150 2nd & 3rd Cover Rs. 500 4th Cover Rs. 600 1st Cover Rs. 1,000 Plus 6 1/4* Tax The cost of the advertisement should be submitted in advance with the order. The advertisement will be subject to the terms and conditions of our usual contract. Since the "cease-fire" in Kashmir. Pakistan is at e \Nith us. May God bless Pakistan ! The Government of India are very anxious to mam and promote the most cordial relations between the dominions to enable the Kashmir problem to be ed in an atmosphere of amity thus removing the last i of friction between the sister dominions. With a view to supplement their sincere desire, the eminent of India have issued strict directives to the ;s, the publishers and the film producers not to do propaganda against the other dominion but on the r hand contribute to the improvement of the present lial relation between the two dominions. The press and the film producers, always sympathetic he wishes of our government, are observing these new ctives in deed and spirit. But it takes two to maintain cordial relations and ent a new friendship. If one man offers his hand the other man twists it causing agonising pain, how a new friendship be ever formed? That is precisely what is happening beyond the bordof the Indian Union— at least in the film field. In East Pakistan, the film censors have ordered that lan films containing the Indian Dominion flag and ional slogans shall not be shown in Pakistan. In an mation to the Bengal Motion Picture Association of xutta. the Fast Bengal Board of Gensors has said, '"it uld be inadvisable in the interests of both the produ|s and the distributor of films to allow such films to shown in Pakistan ". This order from Past Pakistan has come three mont after the inter-dominion conference held in New Delhi a eeing to maintain inter-dominion friendship and corclity. Neither India nor Pakistan objects to the display of I Union Jack in Gaumont British newsreels from week l week, in spite of the fact that we have been under the litish boot for 200 years. With freedom we have for| en the past and acquired the grace of tolerance and tating Great Britain as a sister dominion, we have t ght ourselves to consider the Union Jack as a friendly fnbol of a friendly nation. If Pakistan can tolerate the Union Jack, is it too i ch to expect her to permit the Indian National Flag to I shown on the screen in Pakistan, to promote inter dominion cordiality for which the Indian Union leaders are struggling day and night and in doing so expect the press and the film producers to co-operate with them sincerely? ( an friendship be a one-wav traffic? It is not exactly a state secret that Indian films are not liked in Pakistan. In Lahore and Karachi many interested people are carrying on a continuous crusade against Indian films labelling them as "propaganda of Indian culture, language and way of life containing a threat to Islam and .Muslim culture". Indian pictures have been held responsible for "corrupting the purity of the I rdu language which is a vital force for Islamic culture in Pakistan*". Do friends, new or old. talk in these words? Y\ hen "Shaheed". Filmistan's picture with a national theme, reached Pakistan, the press in Lahore described it as an anti-Pakistani film and demanded banning the picture completely from being shown in Pakistan. Some even wanted the print of •'Shaheed" to be burnt in the streets. Does this contribute to the intended inter-dominion friendship and cordiality? Before the partition of India, the film trade in the Punjab was almost exclusively controlled by the Hindus. Today the Hindus who owned theatres, studios and distribution offices in Lahore cannot return to Pakistan. Their business organizations are being run and managed by Muslim nominees. And how? There are 19 cinema theatres in Lahore, out of which 17 were once owned by the Hindus. And today? Pakistan People's Theatres have been performing a Mage-play in Karachi called "Pakistan " which vividly depicts "the burning problem of Muslim India before partition"" as the producers themselves describe this play. It is hardly necessary to describe its hot contents. Now Mimed Tejani. the producer and Fikhrey. the director, are busy turning this stage play into a film to cover the most distant towns in Pakistan and thus spread the fire of the "burning problem" all over Pakistan. The Diamond Films of Lahore, with Akhtar as the production chief, has advertised a picture called "Ghaddar Nizam". The title itself shows that the Nizam of Hyderabad will be portrayed as a traitor in this picture Traitor to whom? And isn't the Nizam a national of the Indian Union?