FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

^rust, 1949 F I L M I N D I A >tic inefficiency by the Indian owned press in igoon. He says that a number of Tamilians, who do even know Hindustani, are making a mess of their i and giving our country a bad name. Apart from other blunders in the information ser; which this department is supposed to give, the i section, in charge of a Tamilian clerk not knowing i.ord of Hindustani, has become a favourite subject » ridicule among the residents of Rangoon. It seems that this film section has not been sup• ;d with a single 35 mm print of any documentary I India since last year and the 16 mm prints which in to be in stock cannot be shown because the departlit does not possess even a single 16 mm projector ■ silent or sound films. With great difficulty, the film section could release I a measlv week a documentary film on Gandhi ji ■ ed the "immortal Mahatma" as against the run of L weeks in Rangoon given to the film of Mr. Jinnah s t;ral. This film was, moreover, purchased for I3,000i by a local distributor. | While there is absolutely no demand created for h Indian documentaries by the people in charge of ■ film section in Rangoon, there is a great demand t Pakistan newsreels and documentaries due to the jrt and efficient organization of the "Film and Publit Division" of the Pakistan Embassy in Burma. >?ma owners are asking for newsreels and document's from Pakistan and paying good money for them. ! It is useless to ask the question: Vi hat is Pandit f ru doing? Because we know that he is lecturing on I. wheat, votes. Kashmir and other fast disappearing imodities. Rut if there is someone else in the Minisrof External Affairs — some one with a little brain i imagination — he should look into this farce in |*goon and set matters right before all the Burmese pan impression that Pakistan is a better run state h India. To begin with, the idli-eating Tamilians, who do cknow Hindustani, should be recalled and competent Hers, knowing our national language and a bit of 4 salesmanship should be sent to Burma. Several o|es of newsreels and documentaries in 35 mm size hid be sent there immediately, seeing that the comicial film is still being shown In this size and the litres have not vet got the 16 mm equipment. Indian tsreels should be flown to Rangoon to give the Bursa good flavour of our news before it becomes stale r putrid. There is no s?nse in our opening dozens of embas» all over the world if we cannot send out the right f of personnel and conduct our national publicity in i right manner. With such inefficiency in our foreign ■assies, we shall only succeed in illustrating what iBritish have been telling the world about it last 200 es. IECTIONATE POSTAL & RAILWAY FRIENDS ! Apart from efficiency, honesty is the primary essen;f in all public services. There is so much of graft n corruption prevalent in the country these days that i is become very difficult to identify the present day nans with their ancient traditions which, we are so f i told, were hallowed and glorious. Forgetting for a while the ministerial scandal of molasses in Bihar or the Deo investigations in Madras, let us, as ordinary citizens, look at our postal department which manages to lose copies after copies of "filmindia" from month to month whether you send them by ordinary post or by registered post. \^ hen the subscribers miss their copies, thev complain to us and we in turn complain to the postal authorities. The postal authorities promise to look into the matter and after looking into it for a month or two, they fail to produce the missing copy of "filmindia". Similarly we never recapture the copies which escape from well-wrapped and well-tied post parcels. With the anxiety of a convict who is being taken to jail, these copies escape on the way somehow and never reach their destination. How come? (That is American i. The other day a Delhi daily reported about a large number of foreign periodicals never reaching the right hands but being sold by the wrong ones on the pavements of Xew Delhi. We are touched by the postman'sympathy for the refugees in Delhi who sell these pirated magazines and make a little money but is it necessarv to sacrifice our primary honesty and national prestige to oblige the refugees? Rafi Ahmed Kidwai. our Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, with his characteristic impulse promised to take all our letters by air to any town in India, bleeding us a little more in postage. But when our letters started flying they stopped arriving on land for days and sometimes for weeks and many went with the wind. \ try much same is our complaint with the railway parcels of "filmindia'". "Filmindia" being hot stuff, the copies seem to need fresh air and many parcels reach their destination with seals broken and lighter in weight. \\ hen the agents complain about shortage in the number of copies, we complain to the railway authorities. Thev "look into" our complaint for a month but we never see the mi«sing copies again. \K e dare not brand the Congress regime a* dishonest and corrupt. That will be staining the white cap and disturbing the sleep of Gandhiji. But we cannot afford to lose copies of "filmindia" from month to month in the post and railways in this manner just because our postmen and railway men are so affectionate^ attached to the magazine. Government aside, we are willing to come to a compromise with the postmen and the railwav men directly: that in lieu of their honest services in delivering copies of "filmindia" to our subscribers and agents in future, we are prepared to supply free copies of the magazine every month to the postal and railway recreation clubs in important towns so that the literarvminded postal and railway employee* can read the magazine without losing their character. Isn't that a fair deal ? COMMUNISTS AND FILM WORK! When film actor Balraj Sahani was recently put under arrest and detention for Communist activities. Producer K. Asif wept like a child — not because Asif had lost his most favourite son but because Balraj was midway through an important role in Asif's "Hulchul" and over 20 days of shooting was needed to finish Sahani s work in the picture. "Hulchul" had already cost over four lakhs of rupees and in the sequences already taken Balraj Sahani