"Two Eyes" in Hollywood

"'Do Ankhen brought me honours and also trouble with my eyes," says V Shantaram, who recently went to Hollywood to receive the Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award for his picture.

Shantaram explained that he had injured his eye in the encounter with the bull, while playing the hero's role in the film the injury left after-effects.

"I am thankful that my eye is all right now," he said.

"Many hands" applauded Producer-director-actor V. Shantaram when he stepped forward to receive the Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award won by his film "Do Ankhen Barah Haath," (1957) first Indian film to win a top award in Hollywood.

Shantaram, though wearing dark glasses, otherwise looked the picture of health. Sandhya was there too.

Shantaram said, "The Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made to my film is the biggest honour of my career.

"In Hollywood, the Foreign Press Association awards have great value because more than half the American film industry's earnings come from abroad and the presentations are naturally an event of note. The occasion is eagerly awaited."

Describing the function, Shantaram wished there was something similar in India.

"The Cocoanut Grove at Hollywood's famous Ambassador Hotel was packed with film celebrities as well as men and women who count in the world of literature, arts and science," he said.
  "Before the Awards were formally presented, the guests, numbering nearly 2,000, sat down to a banquet at which we at some of the best food in Hollywood.

"Sandhya and I were at the main table, sitting with Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Samuel Goldwyn, David Niven and the President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association."

"After dinner, the President introduced Mr. Samuel Goldwyn to the audience. He recounted Mr. Goldwyn's services to films.

"Followed a flourish from the orchestra and an announcer mounted the platform. In this envelope is the name of the winner of the Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award for 1958," he said.

"There was another crash of music as he opened the envelope and handed the paper to Mr. Goldwyn who addressed the gathering, saying, "The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has established the Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award to be presented each year to the picture selected by the Association as the best foreign film of the year. It gives me great pleasure to announce, as...."

"Mr. Goldwyn halted to let the orchestra create a note of suspense." (The Awards are a closely guarded secret and, till they are presented, only the winners and senior members of the Association know who has won them. The greatest expectancy precedes the presentation of each award.)

"Mr. Goldwyn concluded his announcement.... 'the winner of the Award for 1958, the motion picture entitled 'Two Eyes, Twelve Hands,' the film made in India, and to present this award to its producer, director and star, V. Shantaram."

"The hall resounded with thunderous applause mingled with the loud strains of the orchestra as Sandhya and I went up to the dais to receive the Award."

"My speech, particularly when I said that the most important feature of my winning the Award with 'Do Ankhen Barah Haath' was that it was recognition of the theme of the film, the victory of moral force and non-violence over evil, was interrupted by applause."

"There was also an ovation when I presented Sandhya as a representative of India's womanhood."
 
"Sandhya was a hit in Hollywood, for she is typically Indian. Mark Robeson, director of the Best Picture promoting international understanding, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness," said 'Here we admire the Indian girls who represent their motherland in culture, dress and conduct and do not try to copy our girls. Americanised Indian girls seldom attract us, for we have our own American beauties.'"

Here Sandhya broke in to say that many people were curious to see her dressed all in white and wearing no jewels.

Her simple attire (with her white sari Sandhya wore no ornaments, only bangles of glass) charmed them.

She continued, "Pointing to my glass bangles, Gary Cooper said, 'Nice bracelets. How do you sleep, wearing them on your wrists all night? Don't they break?' 

"Then there was the vivacious Loretta Young, as youthful-looking as she is seen in films. She was surprised that I wore no make-up."

"How can women live without make-up?," she said. 'Do most Indian women go about without any make-up?'

"I assured her that most Indian women do not even know the names of the different make-up materials." Sandhya was popular with her American friends. She greeted one and all with the traditional Namaste. Many Americans learnt from her the Indian form of salutation. Her aptest pupil was Mr. Samuel Goldwyn.

Returning to the subject of the function, Shantaram said, "Important film personalities distribute these Awards by turn. In the process, many pioneers are honoured. Moreover, every winner is expected to 'perform' either with a speech or a song, after he has received the prize.

"This year, for example, there was the song sung by the 'seventy years young' Maurice Chevalier when he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contribution and achievement. It held the audience spell-bound."

Shantaram himself was congratulated after the function for the thought-providing things he said in his speech.
 
Though he has visited the United States before, this was Shantaram's first visit to the film capital and he made good use of it to see the major film studios, meet film people and see film-making in Hollywood.

One of the studios he visited was Twentieth Century-Fox. The gigantic indoor and outdoor sets impressed him.

He was also interested to learn that the larger studios kept themselves busy with a steady programme of films. They preferred this to working on big-budget pictures which could only be few.

"They have to keep the studios running," he says, "and must produce as many films as are necessary to keep their men and women in their jobs."

"Conditions in India and in America are similar. There, too, some of the stars are temperamental, and work is sometimes as erratic as it is in Indian film studios.

"Equipment and methods are also the same, but I am proud to say that my Rajkamal Studio has equipment which can match the best hat Hollywood has.

"One difference is the way easy way stars are discovered there. The glamour of American life makes it so. Moreover, there is the advantage of having the stage, which has reached a degree of development we don't yet have and is well pastronised."

At the press conference, held the following day, Shantaram answered pressmen.

Demanded a hard-boiled film critic: "You believe in imparting some sort of message through your films. People in American films say, 'Let Western Union (the Telegraphs) deliver messages, we produce pictures.' We want entertainment for the sake of entertainment. Do you agree with us?"

Shantaram: "I beg to differ, Sir. Even in your great country, a film with many as ten messages proved an all-time box office hit."

Several voices affirming in chorus: "Yes, yes. 'The Ten Commandments'".

Another voice: "We want a lot of sex in films."

Shantaram: "That you have in every film. Whenever there is a man and woman in the film, there is sex."

A voice: "That is not enough. Some people here want nudity of some sort."

Shantaram: "Don't you think that nudity is boring? A woman looks different and is attractive each time she puts on new raiment."

Question from a serious-minded critic: "What is the use of moral force in this world torn by fear and hatred?"

Shantaram: "For such a world, faced with such a catastrophe, moral force is the only salvation. Without moral force, mutual understanding and love will not develop and the world will destroy itself. Film-makers have a duty, in this trouble-torn world, to create goodwill through the films they make."

Another questioner: Suppose you get a chance to produce and direct a film in our country, how would you in that case present the American way of life?"

Shantaram: "I believe there is a lot of good in every man in every country, and I would present in my film all that is good in American film-makers do the same when presenting the Indian way of life in their films."

The last question: "Who has influenced you most in your art?" Shantaram: "In the matter of art, a man does not learn from only one teacher. He learns from the work of as many masters as he becomes acquainted with in his career. In fact, the true artist remains a student all his life."

"However, if you ask me to tell you the name of the first master who influenced me, I would unhesitatingly say it was D.W. Griffith."

During his stay in Los Angeles, Shantaram did not have much time for sight-seeing, but the one thing which impressed him most was the huge and beautiful painting of the Crucifixion of Christ. Thousands of people go to see it.

The painting, 190 feet long and 40 feet high, is housed all by itself in a building constructed for its display. A nominal entrance-fee is charged for the building's upkeep and the salaries of the attendants.

The painting left a lasting impression on the minds of both Shantaram and Sandhya. Sandhya felt that one could have a similar memorial depicting a significant event in the life of Gandhiji, as a national memorial to the Father of the Nation.

Shantaram had to cut short his foreign tour to return for work on his colour film, "Navrang" (1959). He came back to India via Japan.

Of present-day Japan, Shantaram say, "The country has undergone a sudden and complete metamorphosis since the war. Her oriental character is fading away."

This article was published in Filmfare magazine’s 22 May, 1959 edition as a part of 'Filmfare Reviews' of the film "Do Ankhen Barah Haath" (1957).