Do Bigha Zamin : Bimal Roy

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There are countless reasons that pushed me to watch East Bengal originated Bollywood director Bimal Roy's "Do Bigha Zamin" (1953). one one hand,  Mr. Roy born in Dhaka in 1909, one of the migrated artist from Present Bangladesh, the story written based on Rabindranath Tagore's poem "দুই বিঘা জমি" by Salil Chowdhury who was also the great Bengali music composer of the film; screenplayed by another  great Bengali visual artist  Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

On the other hand, "Do Bigha Zamin" won the inaugurated Filmfare Awards & National Film Awards in 1954 & the first Indian  winner of International Prize in Cannes Film Festival in 1954 beforehand The great Dev Anand's brother Chetan Anand's "Neecha Nagar" screenplay written by my favorite Khwaja Ahmad Abbas  won Palme d'Ore in 1946, only winner from India till date.


 It's one of gems in Indian subcontinent's film history as a grace of Bengali artistic tradition.


Another interesting thing is Bimol Roy was also influenced by Italian neo-realism; especially by Sica's The Bicycle Thieves (1948), as well as Satyajit Roy had been. We can clearly assume that how Intalian realism influenced Indian realism and new wave in the 50s before French New Wave in the 60s.


On a cinematic aspects, I am enchanted by many elements of the film. The exposition of the film was tremendously transposed by Indian folks and musics, the songs of  "Dharti Kahe Pukarke, Beej Bichha Le Pyar Ke" Lata Mangeshkar & Manna Dey and the inciting action of the migration Balraj Sahni as Shambhu Maheto to Calcutta in search of living as a result of industrialization and feudal oppression. The background score of "Ajab Tori Duniya" sung by Mohammed Rafi and well composed montage are marvelous. I wonder Indian musicals in films are all a kind of montage. The montage approach of Russian Eisenstein are vastly used in South Asian films with musics and dances. 


The montge of saving money by the trio (Paru dropping coins in the safety pot, Shambhu pulling rickshaw & Kanhaiya polishing boots) just at the height of climax is one of splendid one I have seen in South Asian films.


The best part of the film is its child artists play so realistic ways; especiall I become a fan of Lalu Ustad played by Jagdeep (Syed Ishtiaq Ahmed Jaffrey) & Kanhaiya acted by Ratan Kumar  (Syed Nazir Ali Rizvi). The strange thing I noticed that both are muslim but took the stage name as Hindu as like Dilip Kumar ( Mohammed Yusuf Khan).


The film is another good example of using intercinematic elements. The classic song "Awaara Hoon" sung by Mukesh in "Awaara" (1951) film scriptted by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas,  had been used in the movie. When I heard all of a sudden I just fall into the sequence.


On the narrative structural aspects, I found sone setbacks that hampered value of cinema as a form of art. In the denouement, Mr. Bimal used the melodramatic tensions excessively that ended the whole story a bit of flat. The over compressed dramatic crisis of  Parau's abduction, Shambhu's off to work, Kanhaiya's pick pocketing and Paru's escapement and road accident led the resolution in the stream of theatrical genre and I felt a bit of failure to be an art in its full sense and the films of this subcontinent cannot get rid of from these formula till now.


Ultimately I am fond of Bimal Roy's cinematic approach which have the ability to fit with the categories of both arts and commerce.



🎥Do Bigha Zamin (1953)

Bimal Roy

Hindi, India

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