THE SCREEN WORLD IV: FOREIGN FILMS IN INDIA
By KRISHNA MURTHY
DESPITE appearances, the future of foreign films in India is very uncertain. Recently some of the Anglo- Indian papers expressed their own wishes in their assertions that the demand for English and American films was increas- ing. It is impossible for one who is not in the industry to affirm or deny such reports. But it is certain that these optimists are reckoning without the section of educated Indians who have developed something like an aversion from foreign films, or, positively, a liking for Indian productions.
Time was when vapourings over Garbo and Dietrich passed for the stamp of superiority, when the last-bus- catchers went about in perpetual dread of missing the latest. Today the advent of Simone Simon or Deanna Durbin passes almost unnoticed. The truth is, the days of platinum blondes and pencilled eyebrows are over in India. What- ever the Anglo-Indian papers say, however much the blurb- writers and trailers scream, " nordic " beauty fails con- spicuously to arouse enthusiasm There are several reason for this slump in Hollywood and Elstree. The chief is the quality of their latter-day exports. It is well known, if not always admitted, that the mass of foreign films being shown in India (confined of necessity to one language) is definitely third-rate. Neither the musicals nor the melodramas are more than mediocre, while the slap- stick is mostly above the heads of the audience. After all, the fashion in Astaire-Rogers is artificial so far as this country is concerned. And it is doubtful if the Indian cinema-goer can appreciate the Powell-Loy combination. Even Hollywood sentiment fails to draw, except when Shirley's declining reputation is exploited. In Bombay, for instance, The Good Earth was the one notable new picture over a period of months.
The second reason is a growing distaste for Hollywood methods. I know that Mr. Edward Thompson has been gushing a lot about his little boy from Lahore (or was it Allahabad ?) who made an album of synthetic beauty. My own impression is that there has been a swing-over in public taste. Several young compatriots have confessed to me that they find the rather over-done Sex Appeal of these foreign films extremely tedious. Passionate embraces on the screen evoke a yawn from the polite. What Hollywood thinks exotic comes to many Indians as bizarre or simply ugly. A typical remark is—" Too much hugging and kissing for my taste." One reactionary went so far as to say : "It is a relief to look at a well-draped woman again." Oh, school- girl complexion, where are your charms ?
The next in importance is the improvement in the quality of the best Indian pictures. The industry came up with such a rush that it recovered breath only recently. It is only now that it has started forming any standards. At the moment what our producers lack is restraint. (Prabhat's new picture Unexpected is an example of promise fulfilled, only the scissors should have been used more freely.) But they are at last discovering the charm of modesty and the vividness of small-scale effects. ,Our domestic scenes, for one thing, have an intimate appeal. This at least is a field where India need never fear Hollywood or Shepherd's Bush competition. Again, Indian humour, with pronounced local flavours, is being transferred to the new medium.
The needs and conditions of this country are such that film " art " has had and will have to evolve a technique of its own. The tempo of our life is slower, our humour less cerebral, our environment full, of contrast and relief, our very speech weighty and the love of moralising universal.' Moreover, the emotion of sexual love that is an obsession with Hollywood plays a subordinate part in our lives, while family and religious loyalties are still dominant. The influence of the average foreign film has been demoralising rather than stimulating. It has created a mythical sophistica- tion on the Indian screen that is entirely alien. It has, finally, held up the arrival of a truly national " art " of the film.
On the other hand, the single-star company is giving place to the bigger firm with large resources and attracting a greater variety of talent. The rise of Prabhat in Bombay, and the "United Artists" in Madras, is in the wake of the New Theatres in Calcutta. All these units are cautiously experi- menting in new modes and along fresh lines. It is true that the operatic tradition dies hard. But our chief handicap, as I see it, is the lack of good stories. New Theatres' recent success, President, was a highly artificial fable. The difficulty is aggravated in the case of less reputable producers by indis- criminate and slipshod paraphrases of foreign " tabloid " plots. The leading studios, however, are steering away from hackneyed situations and worn-out tricks. Increasingly confident, they are seeking new stories and attempting to give an original twist to the direction. Above all, they are discovering that repetition is not the best box- office appeal. We may expect good things from them very soon.* The great point in their favour is the goodwill of the public. Rightly or wrongly, many educated Indians affected to despise the Indian film in its infancy. Now that it has come of age, they have discovered that after all there is no place like home. In the past only those of us who knew English (a mere handful) patronised foreign filmq. Today, many even of these are deserting. I know several people who have lately thrown over the stars of Hollywood and gone crazy over their Indian sisters. This is, I submit, a tendency that foreign producers cannot ignore. Not that the industry in India has realised a hundredth part of its opportunities. But I believe that there will soon be no room in this country for the pot-boilers of foreign hacks, though I dare say film societies may appear to patronise outstanding European and American stories and docu- mentaries.
* I have no such hopes regarding the mushroom film companies now infesting the land. The work of these pests is as brassy, vulgar, stupid tind cheap as that of foreign film magnates. But that is one of the common penalties of our common "civilisation."
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