"LIGHT OF ASIA"'

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 80, 5 April 1926, Page 9

"LIGHT OF ASIA"'

■ • ' ♦- —— '. A REMARKABLE FILM TRIUMPH OV INDIAN ART. (From Our Own Corrbsponder.t.) LONDON, 18th February. In these times when so much is being said and written about British films and the taste of the public in this direction-it is interesting to know that there has arrived in London a picture which will be a real test of that public taste. It is as far removed from the ordinary American film drama as oratorio is from the latest jazz music. It is pure art from beginning to end. The story moves forward, with a quiet dignity which might weary those whose tastes have been vitiated with too much cheap melodrama, but this very dignity is the quality which, makes the picture what it is. No film maker with modern ideas of "tempo," "close ups," and dramatic situations could improve upon it. "The Light of Asia,'" or the Story of the Life of.Buddha, has been shown.in Germany aud other countries of Northern Europe. It has been responsible for full attendances at the ordinary picture houses, and the agents for it in Germany have done well. Now it-has come to London and has been shown by the Indian Players Company to a selected few. Whether England and the Dominions cun find the audiences large enough to make it pay in the ordinary picture houses has still to be proved. It will be. a strange tl\ing if a great artistic'firm made in one of Britain's Dominions should meet with success in Germany and fail in the countries of the British Empire. Most of the leading characters, were drawn from Calcutta.- The Maharaja of Jaipur lent his palace, his jewels, his elephants, his eamele, and his estate. No one could be found to insure his jewels especially for the occasion, so his own retainers, who appear as soldiers and attendants in the'picture, had the responsibility of guarding these priceless possessions. No artificial light was used, no make-up. Every actor is a high-caste Indian. The street crowds are the populace of Jaipur. It is an arranged drama, but it is hard at times to realise that one is not looking at real life. There is not one episode, one action in which the actors reveal their consciousness of the presence of a camera. It is the perfection of naturalness, and it certainly sheds new light on the subject of film acting. No European actor could ever be so convincing as even the lesser characters in this remarkable film. The delicacy of gesture, the dignity of action,.the subdued movements all combine to make scenes of wonderful beauty. It is probabla that the spirit of the actors ia akin to the religious fervour to be'found among those who took part m the old Passion plays. They have all entered wholeheartedly into the beauty aud solemnity of the story of their prophet—the Prince Gautama, who went out into the world a beggar to redeem mankind.

Niraujab Pal, the author of the scenario, has succeeded in joining the essential parts of the story of Osveh Buddha together in such a way as to produce a fascinating plot. Apart from the simple and beautiful story there is a Roifjeous array of scenes, contests, and tournaments. The magnificence of an Indian palace, the wealth and luxury of court life, the beauty of the palace gardens arc settings which harmonise entirely with the dignified figures who carry the beautiful story to its consummation. And when all is ended it is difficult to realise that one has been looking for two and a half hours at actors in a mere pit/.