REMEMBERING BIMAL ROY

In 1997, Rinki Bhattacharya, daughter of the legendary filmmaker Bimal Roy, set up a memorial committee, Smriti Sandhya in honour of her father. Ever since, the committee continues the tradition of felicitating four stalwarts from the film fraternity with the Bimal Roy Trophy. An evening recreating melodies from the golden era of Hindi cinema, is held year after year, attended by luminaries from the past and the present generation. This year, the committee added another attraction of holding retrospectives. Starting with the Waheeda Rehman retrospective, fittingly inaugurated by Sunil Dutt. In a very short span Smriti Sandhya has established its identity. Come March and it is time to remember the magnificent director.

Bimal Roy was born into a family of landlords in East Bengal. While still a student in Dhaka’s Jagannath College, he lost his father and by a twist of destiny was cheated out of the ancestral property by the then estate manager. Very early in life, Roy learnt to divert his pain to constructive energy. If he was devastated, he preferred not to show it. Without dwelling on his wounds, Roy, on the advise of his friends, migrated to Calcutta with his widowed mother and infant brothers. The struggle period fortunately didn’t last too long. From childhood Roy had a passion for photography and this paid off. Filmmaker P C Barua recognised a stroke of genius in his framing, and engaged him to do the publicity stills of his films. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Roy liked being in a creative atmosphere, and under the guidance of Barua, blossomed in his art. Impressed by his enthusiasm, Barua took one more gamble and promoted the young boy to an independent cinematographer. Destiny had big dreams for Bimal Roy and this was just the beginning. It is said that some of his most outstanding documentaries were destroyed due to lack of preservation, but of those that remained, his memorable Bengali films as a cinematographer include New Theatres’ Mukti Maya, Devdas and Bari Didi.

New Theatres’ Udayer Pathe (Hamrahi in Hindi) with a cast of unknown artistes, marked his debut as a director. The decline of the Calcutta film industry forced Roy to embark on his second migration. This time, to Bombay. With Roy came his dedicated team, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Nabendu Ghose, Kamal Bose, Asit Sen and later Salil Chaudhury, all budding geniuses in their own rights. Partly due to the strong support system within the team and partly due to their passion for challenges, the scars of uprooting, leaving the land they loved, faded quicker than anticipated. Within just two years, by 1952, Bimal Roy was ready with his first film in Bombay, Maa for the erstwhile Bombay Talkies.

A year later, his own production company came into being with Do Bigha Zamin about a farmer struggling to survive the industrial revolution. A lot of the pain reflected in the film suffered by the farmer Balraj Sahni, stemmed from Bimal Roy’s own memories of his childhood. The film was hailed as India’s first neo-realistic film and picked up significant national and international awards, including awards at the Cannes and the Karlovy Vary festivals in 1955-56. From then on, there was no looking back.

Taking up subjects that delved into human and socio relationships, Parineeta, about silence and sacrifice, is also about the freedom of choice, both, for the hero Ashok Kumar as well as the heroine, Meena Kumari. Biraj Babu spoke against against oppression of women in a patriachial society while Parakh and Prem Patra reflected societal changes to come. The immortal Devdas in 1955 based on Sarat Chandra’s classic, has been a fodder for several films over the years including Prakash Mehra’s Sharaabi projecting Amitabh Bachchan as the complexed hero of contemporary times.

Unlike filmmakers of today, directors of that era made sure to not get stuck in a groove. So after the heartbreaking Devdas, Bimal Roy made a frothy musical, Madhumati, probably the first film on reincarnation. Innumerable films on the same subject have been made over the decades, but none have proved as mesmeric or successful.

Weaving complex issues into simple, soul-stirring tales, Bimal Roy’s films touched the hearts of his viewers and at the same time were thought-provoking. That was the director’s forte. He was also known to cast actors in roles that were contrary to their images. Sunil Dutt in Sujata and Dharmendra in Bandini are two such examples. Sujata in 1959 was about an orphan, untouchable girl’s need to belong to her surrogate family and the societal pressures attached with it. The catalyst comes in the form of the high caste hero who’s determined to marry the Harijan girl against all odds.

Bandini, Ray’s last film in 1963, was also his most powerful film. It told the story of a woman convict serving life imprisonment in Tihar jail for committing a murder. Empathising with his protagonist and understanding her through her cheerful past,. Ray in Bandini tells of how oppression beyond limits can drive one to destruction. Kalyani essayed flawlessly by Nutan, sang Vaishnav kavita with her father, but the same girl changes drastically when destiny destroyed her dreams. For the audience too, the dream was destroyed when Bimal Roy was lost to them following his untimely demise. Despite such a short career, the impact he made on Hindi cinema was so strong that after 38 years, he continues to live on in our sepia-tinted memories.

Thought for The Week:

Chori Chori Chupke Chupke despite the regular packaging cannot be dismissed for its significant message. The woman makes all the decisions, even the most crucial one. When the doctor announces that he can save either the mother or the child, Rani Mukherjee declares, "Save the mother". It’s a new expression

Abbas-Mustan’s Chori Chori Chupke Chupke despite the regular packaging of commercial cliches, cannot be completely dismissed because of two significant messages. One, the parental pressures on a new bride for an heir to the family. Two, more relevant, is that the woman undramatically makes all the decisions, even the most crucial one. When the doctor announces that he can save either the mother or the child, Rani Mukherjee without consulting anyone declares, "Save the mother". It’s a new expression on the Indian screen and for that the directors have to be acknowledged.

Bhawana Somaaya