FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

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lecember, 1949 FILMINDI A oes not turn round and tell us that his censors are also iper-men. UPERSTITIONS ABOUT THE "LIBERTY"? By nature and traditions, the Indian is a very supertitious human being and it is rather amusing to find good many of them in a morass of superstition these ays about the newly-built Liberty Cinema in Bombay. While they know that this cinema was built in the lidst of shortages and in defiance of public opinion, ley are inclined to attribute a number of coincidental •agedies to the curses supposed to have been showered aily on this cinema by the unsheltered refugees and ie roofless poor. Commercially the "liberty" has of course become gold mine with many a producer running after it. pride id purse in hand, to obtain a release for his picture, ie theatre collected nearly seven lakhs of rupees in 28 eeks for Mehboob's "Andaz", an over-all average of s. 25,000/ per week. As the second release "Dillagi" is reported to be ot drawing so well, one wonders whether it was the ew theatre or the picture "Andaz" which collected the uge amount of seven lakhs in 28 weeks. If, as some ly, it was the new theatre that drew the crowds, that rg'ument should also prevail while "Dillagi" is running jcause, surely, a new theatre cannot become stale ithin 28 weeks. Whatever the reasons of the "Liberty's*' commerlal success, the theatre is associated with some very |agic events in Producer Mehboob's life. A week before the opening of the Liberty Cinema lid the release of Mehboob's "Andaz", Mehboob's |other suddenly died and the opening had to be delay! by a week. During the run of "Andaz", Mehboob's young broer dashed himself to death on a motor bicycle. During the run of "Andaz", Mehboob's property at Midra was attached under the Evacuee Ordinance and Jiboob was almost declared an evacuee. Mr. and Mrs. ehboob lost months of sleep on this account. During the run of "Andaz", Mehboob fell seriously and slept for days on the "bed of death" as he called I; cot he was lying on. His work stopped for months Id not till "Andaz" had completed its run at the liberty" could Mehboob begin his new picture. During the run of "Ajidaz" Nargis, the chief star the picture, suddenly lost her mother from heartllure. And Dilip Kumar, the hero of the picture was laboured by goondas at Worli. In their hurry to get the "Liberty", Producer Meh. )b and Producer Kardar, brothers-in-law, clashed Ih each other and so did their wives Sardar and Bahar 10 are sisters. "Liberty" took away peace and har|ny from the two families and turned mutual love into nal distrust. The "Liberty" brought the two partners J. K. Nanda 11 R. B. Haldia to the point of a terrific clash because they have booked the picture, "Singaar", for release at this theatre. The "Liberty" has already put little Habib Hussein, its lessee, into many an embarrassing situation with the result that he is losing friends and risking his good name these days. The manager of the "Liberty" was convicted for the first time in his life and fined Rs. 100/ by the Presidency Magistrate for showing that uncertified picture "Loves of Carmen" to a private audience. Pursuing his ambition to get the "Liberty" somehow, even the grey-haired Chandulal Shah flirted with one would-be partner after another till sleep became a stranger to him for months. It is rather strange that so many unhappy incidents are associated in so short a time with a new cinema. And it is no wonder that some Indians, who run back home if a black cat crosses their path, have already become superstitious about the "Liberty". Though the list of Mehboob's tragedies is formidable we don't think that human destiny has started borrowing its dates from the release dates of the "Liberty". The "Liberty" has made many people unhappy because it has proved a gold mine and has therefore whetted the greed of the producers. All gold mines are graveyards of human happiness and cursed cradles of human greed. YOU'LL HARDLY BELIEVE — That Producer S. S. Vasan of the South, who gave us that box-office smasher "Chandralekha" and has now come out with another, "Nishan", has these days become a national menace to the Bombay producers. That in their all-out attempt to poison Vasan, the Bombay producers have given him umpteen dinner parties at all sorts of places but the little South Indian seems to be having good intestines the way he has digested all food. You know he is used to the chillies of the South. That these frantic attempts at poisoning Vasan having failed so miserably, the Bombay producers now want to cut down Vasan's wings by restricting his publicity campaigns for pictures to a few inches for every picture. If Vasan does not obey this mandate of the Bombay producers, his pictures will not get theatres in the North. Some free trade that ! That those producers who thought that with freedom we would have free speech, free trade and other freedoms are surprised at this new mandate of the Bombay producers who will soon ask Vasan to scrap good-looking South Indian girls from his dances and give a huge drum dance with a little "tabla" only. We do that in Bombay. That little Vasan, protected by his "chaddar" around his seating equipment, is the least worried about the storm that is gathering round him and threatens to turn all his Tamil tortures into Hindustani one after another with the help of Pandit Indra. Let us see who wins the battle between the North and the South! That while quietly lunching at Baburao Patel's "Azad" Vasan forgot to eat and talked of the evils of the 11,000-feet restriction imposed on the films by the 13