FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

( This Is the reader*' forum — as and when space Permits. From the producer to the lay film-goer, every one can write to the Editor and ventilate his grievance. For every letter Published in these columns, the publishers will pay Rs* SiLetters should be signed and marked " Woes And Echoes"* Photographs of the readers will be published along with their letters, if convenient. — The Editor.) VERY SORRY ! Our attention has been drawn to ijport published in the latest issue [your esteemed journal where you fce referred to our President, Mr. |F. Hasnain, as "Pakistan returnI. We may tell you that the above jiark is not correct as Mr. Hasnain I never shifted nor intended to 1ft from this place. In all fairs we request you to please make necessary correction in your next lie and oblige. Would it be too Ich to expect this favour from ji?" [We are informed that Mr. Hasins brother, S. Fazli is in Pakis. Ed.) MB AY. Fazli Brothers Ltd. "MELA" & CENSORS! 'Recently I happened to see entle" Jamsu's "Mela", a "Hila idia Production" at the local fijestic. It was, of course, a social pture; whatever that word "social" Jiy mean to our producers being jside the point. Yet there was one fry important role in this picture uich was not only glaringly antiIcial but was actually an insult to I2 Indian Armv. The role was that of Mehkoo, played by Jeevan. This role was intended to provide laughter for the audience but it succeeded in creating ridicule and in exposing the utter bankruptcy and stupidity of the story writer and director respectively. The disgusting way in which Jeevan portrays this role is beyond description. It reminds us of the good old stunt pictures which Jamshed Wadia used to produce so successfully in the good old days, for the entertainment of our little brothers and sisters. Having raised himself from the stunt to the social plane we expected him to adhere to the fundamental principles of decency; but it is too much to expect from our producers anything sensible or clean in entertainment. "It is a pity that when our Government is trying its best to bring about a better understanding between our soldier and the common man which was so sadly lacking under the British boot, our producers are doing their utmost to ridicule our ex-army men. Is this not a job for our censors? If they cannot differentiate between social and anti-social elements why on earth do they occupy the censor board? Aren't there a his fellow, Kishore Sahu, always takes his heroines into the moonlight and ses the shadows for his romantic designs. Here is Ramola in "Sawan Aya Re" with Kishore in "to he or not to he" mood. dozen men competent enough, out of the 350 millions of India to save our masses from the regular dcses of poison prescribed by our producers? BANGALORE. V. K. Fazlur Rahman. NEW DRAWING ROOM GAME ! "I have been a regular reader of "hlmindia" and have found that the fare offered in the Editor's Mail columns is really excellent and of a uniformly high standard. I tried some of the questions answered by you on my talented and highly educated friends, a few of them possessing university degrees running into three lines, challenging them to produce answers of the quality offered by you. But their answers miserably failed to make any impression. "Apart from the highly entertaining value of the answers, one abiding and constructive quality I have observed in them with immense joy and gratification, which any discerning reader is sure to notice, is that underlying your answers is the subtle current of the gospel of work, hard work and still hard work. "Who will deny that the future of our nation depends upon the complete elimination of our traditional apathy and fatalistic outlook and the practice, with heart and soul, of the gospel of work by our people," BOMBAY. 5. V. Borkar. EYE-WASH, PERHAPS ! "In your October issue of "filmindia" you wrote that drastic action has been ordered by Dr. B. C. Roy. Premier of West Bengal, with regard to the eighteen new cinema houses recently constructed in Calcutta. It is also stated that if it is found that building materials were procured by illegal means, the Government will launch legal proceedings against such cinema owners. But I wonder how new cinemas are still under construction and are throwing bigger and bigger shadows day by day, with no proof in all cases that they are procuring all the materials by legal means. "We are in dark whether our popular Government has actually made 6]