Film Journalism Down the Ages - Indian Film History

1. Film Journalism Down the Ages Film Journalism began in 1935 - when I started filmindia. Not before that. There was some paper in Calcutta, but it was not selling. I took criticism as my main selling point. That was the best feature of Filmindia. And the Editor's Mail. Still it is the best. Among foreign journals, there was Photoplay. Not many readers - it was expensive. S.K. Vasagam also had an Indian magazine called Photoplay. And there was also B.R. Chopra. He had a magazine in Lahore before Independence. I can't remember its name. And yes, Bodhraj Oberoi had a magazine called Cinema. There was another called Movies... But they all followed me. They used to come here periodically and blackmail me...! Grierson, the famous documentary film-maker, said in public, "filmindia is the most exciting magazine in the world," I even had a monopoly of Harrison's Reports (world film reports) in my magazine. Pete Harrison was a friend of mine. I was selling filmindia for 4-annas in the beginning. I had to give a bit of gossip to sell it. I had to very strongly criticise the producers who were always unpopular. I rarely touched the women. But I didn't spare men like Jal Merchant and the Billimoria brothers. They did a lot of bad things, showed off and created rows in the street, they went to bad localities. I got that information, I wrote about it. Producers also had beds in their studios along with other things. That aspect has never disappeared. Only the beds are now transferred to hotel rooms! That's the only difference. Adverse Criticism I was attacked many times. But I just faced it with my muscle - nothing else. I was a very muscular man, I was an athlete, a tall fellow - and there were quite a few people who were afraid of me physically, Besides, most of them were Gujaratis and they would not like physical fights.

2. Then came a slightly different paper called Chitrapat. To answer that paper, Jayshanker called me and one Mr. R. K. Rele. He used to write in Marathi, I used to write in English and Jayshanker would write in Gujarati. That paper was called Cinema Samachar. It was the first trilingual paper. There was, then, Jayshanker Dwivedi, editor and publisher of Mouj Majah. He was a real pioneer and his magazine was a weekly coming out in Gujarati. He was a mild man himself - a great gentleman - and his criticism was very mild. He never applied his mind to the idea that a picture should have a social purpose. More or less, he was brought up by Chandulal Shah, who believed that entertainment was the main thing. At the same time, once in a while, he used to give some idealistic movies like 'Meera' or 'Jogan', because Goharbhai was very keen on good films. But normally Mouj Majah would not criticise any movies, because Dwivedi had to exclusively depend on the advertisement of film producers. He did not get any other advertisements. He had a small press which he had to feed with booklets for these people. It was not an independent paper. Then came a slightly different paper called Chitrapat. To answer that paper, Jayshanker called me and one Mr. R. K. Rele. He used to write in Marathi, I used to write in English and Jayshanker would write in Gujarati. That paper was called Cinema Samachar. It was the first trilingual paper. At that time I was also writing for the Indian Daily News. There was a picture called 'Wrath', in which a chap was shown as Mahatma Gandhi. It was being produced by Imperial Film Company. R.S. Choudhury was the director. I had criticised the picture before censorship with the result that it had to go to the censors six times and they were so furious that one day one goonda attacked me in Imperial Film Company. Career in Films I was working in Agfa Photo Company as a technical man and a salesman. That was in 1928. Then I was given an opportunity to direct a movie, because I was a critic all the time - Cinema Samachar was going on, Maharashtra Film Company asked me to direct a film called ‘Kismet' in 1929. That was the last silent movie of the company, after which it folded up. There was a foreign lady in it, a Hungarian called Sunita Khan. Sometime in 1931, I started producing my own feature films. One of them was directed by Nanasaheb Sarpotdar and that boy from Pakistan, now a music director - Rafiq Ghaznavi - played the lead. Then I started my own company called Ghandharva Cinetone, sometime in 1932. I wrote, produced and directed four 'talkies' and often gave the music myself. Mubarak and Padma Devi played in my films. I knew that an adverse review of mine could affect the film of a friend completely. So, where a friend was involved, I didn't review the film at all - I didn't touch it, that was my only way of saving it. I'm sentimental. They all used to call me a sentimental man.... Today, I consider myself a dead man. I've lived beyond the age of Sanyas ashram. I don't find life anymore useful. I wish everyone well.