This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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“I worshipped Bimal Roy. For me, his worth as a man was more than his films… It is impossible for me to describe what a man he was.”
The above quote was by Ritwik Ghatak, one of Bimal Roy’s desciples who later became an internationally known director of parallel cinema in Bangla films.
In Hindi film industry, there are many film artists, directors and those connected with the film music who are admired for their excellent professional performances. But there would be very few among them who would also be admired as the good human beings. Among few such personalities, the name of Bimal Roy comes to my mind because for the last few months, I have extensively read on the life and works of Bimal Roy. I have found that those who have closely worked with him like Dilip Kumar, Balraj Sahani, Vyjaynatimala, Kamini Kaushal, Nutan, Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar and many more have highly talked about Bimal Roy as a fine human being besides an being an outstanding director. What touched me most about Bimal Roy was what Manobina Roy, his wife had said in an interview. Just a few minutes before his death on January 8, 1966, Bimal Roy had called her and said that he was deeply worried about his workers in Mohan Studio as to what will happen to them after his death. Only when she assured him and repeated her assurance that she would take care of them, Bimal Roy closed his eyes never to open them again.
Today, July 12th 2020 is 111th birth anniversary of Bimal Roy (12/07/2009 – 08/01/1966), one of the greatest Hindi film directors who rose from a still photographer to a cinematographer and then as a producer-director of some of the classic and socially relevant films. Although, there were many film directors from Bengal – especially in the Bombay Talkies who had directed Hindi films in Mumbai in the 1940s, it is said that it was Bimal Roy who brought ‘Bengaliness’ in his Hindi films in Mumbai. He was a trend setter in introducing the ‘middle of the road’ films.
Arunkumar Deshmukh ji has already discussed Bimal Roy’s biographical and celluloid journey in his article covering the song, chale re chale raam vanwaas. I would, therefore, skip his profile and his sequential journey in the film industry. I propose to concentrate mainly on three important phases in his filmy career which led to his meteoric rise in the film industry – as a Cinematographer, as a Director for films produced by New Theatres and as a Producer-director of Hindi films in Mumbai. In my view, the three phases were also the important turning points in the career of Bimal Roy.
Bimal Roy joined New Theatres (NT) as an Assistant Cameraman to Nitin Bose in 1932 during which he assisted him for ‘Chandidas’ (1932, Bangla version and also Hindi version in 1934), ‘Meerabai’ (1933) etc. He was promoted as a cinematographer in NT and shot films like ‘Devdas’ (1935), ‘Manzil’ (1936), ‘Mukti’ (1937), ‘Abhagin’ (1938), ‘Abhinetri’ (1940) ‘Meenakshi’ (1942) etc.
The high point in his career as a cinematographer was ‘Mukti’ (1937) – the first film from NT which was extensively shot outdoors, mostly in the forest of Gauripur (Assam). It was a challenge for Bimal Roy as a Cinematographer to shoot outdoors, the scenes with proper lightings. Even his indoor shots were exceptional. His camera works in the opening scene of the film itself is marvelous. The camera focuses on P C Barua who walks through three rooms, one after another before knocking the door of the fourth room. Here, only the camera ‘speaks’ in the scene in complete silence without any background music to create suspense as to what is going to happen next. The light and shadow effects have been effectively used to convey the mood of the situations in the film.
Kanan Devi, in one of her interviews had said that in ‘Mukti’ (1937), Bimalda through his camera work, made her more beautiful than what she looked in reality. P C Barua, the director, was so happy with his camera work in the film that in the publicity poster of ‘Mukti’ (1937), he made the name of Bimal Roy to appear next to his name with names of the actors appearing in the side. Probably, this may be the first occasion in NT that the publicity poster had prominently carried the name of the cinematographer.
Bimal Roy entered his second phase of his career when he turned as a director for the first time for the Bangla film ‘Udayer Pathe’ [(1944), ‘Towards the Twilight’]. A year later, a Hindi version of the film was made as ‘Hamraahi’ (1945), also directed by Bimal Roy. Manobina Roy, the wife of Bimal Roy was surprised as to why he chose the subject of exploitation by upper class of the lower strata of the society when he himself had the background of a landlord’s son. Probably, he may have seen such scenarios in his teenage days in his family and he wished to bring them to the notice of masses.
The challenge for Bimal Roy in this fiim was that NT boss, B N Sarkar has personally told to direct the film with the left-over cut pieces of the raw stock of negative film as those days, raw stock of films was rationed. There was no scope for wastage of the raw stock of films by way of reshoots. On the top of it, he had taken newcomers, Binita Bose (Roy) and Radhamohan Bhattacharya as the lead actors. With these backgrounds, it was imperative that he should also take the responsibility as a cinematographer. When the shooting of the film was completed, B N Sarkar was surprised that the film was completed by Bimal Roy without taking any extra stock of raw films.
The film though made with a small budget was one of the top box office grossers for NT. The film ran for more than one year in Kolkata’s Chitra theatre. With its Hindi version of the film, the name of Bimal Roy became well-known all-over India. In the Bengali speaking regions, ‘Udayer Pathe’ (1944) became one of the highly discussed films. The film became a trend setter for some subsequent Hindi films having ‘rich girl poor boy’ love story with the background of a class conflict. Chetan Anand’s ‘Neecha Nagar’ (1946) followed, more or less, the similar pattern in the story.
The extra-ordinary success of ‘Udayer Pathe’ (1944) did not help much in Bimal Roy’s career as a director as fortune of NT had taken a down turn due to the adverse impact on the film industry of the World War II and thereafter partition of Bengal by creating the then East Pakistan. Bimal Roy did direct two films for NT – ‘Anjangarh’ (1948) and ‘Pehla Aadmi’ (1950). The highlight of ‘Pehla Aadmi’ (1950) was that it was made on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. It was a challenge for Bimal Roy to shoot the battle scenes of the film in the studio itself which should look real in the film. I have watched the clip of the battle scene and it looks real. Though these two films were critically acclaimed, they did not fare well at the box office.
The downfall of NT in post-partition period and the emergence of Bombay (Mumbai) as the main film production centre prompted many artists and technicians in Kolkata to migrate to Mumbai. On the other hand, the Bombay Talkies was also going through the bad times. An opportunity came to Bimal Roy when he was invited by Ashok Kumar to direct ‘Maa’ (1952) for Bombay Talkies which he had to reluctantly accept due to the adverse conditions of the film industry in Kolkata. Bimal Roy came to Mumbai with his team consisting of Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Editor), Asit Sen (Assistant Director), Nabendu Ghosh (Dialogue writer) and Paul Mahendra (Hindi dialogue writer and actor). Later, some more artists and technicians from Kolkata like Kamal Bose (Cinematographer), Arvind Sen, Asit Sen, Debu Sen, Basu Bhattacharya and Salil Chaudhury joined Bimal Roy.
In terms of box office, ‘Maa’ (1952) did not add to the coffers of Bombay Talkies. Bimal Roy was all set to return to Kolkata along with his team when Ashok Kumar gave him another film, ‘Parineeta’ (1953) which was produced under the banner of Ashok Kumar Productions. Simultaneously, something was cooking within Bimal Roy’s team. Hrishikesh Mukherjee had revealed in an article that after watching an English film in Eros Theatre at Churchgate, Bimal Roy and his team were returning home on a BEST double decker bus and were discussing as to why they cannot make film like the one they watched. Bimal Roy asked as to who will write the story for the film to which everyone in his team offered to share the responsibilities. That was how Bimal Roy Productions was born on a double decker bus of BEST. And this was the third turning point in Bimal Roy’s career.
Bimal Roy embarked upon his maiden film ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953) as a producer-director. Bimal Roy had read the story ‘Rickshwala’ written by Salil Chaudhury, based on the Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, ‘Doi Bigha Zomi’. This was perhaps the first film in Bollywood depicting what is called ‘neo-realism’, a term normally used for post-war effects on the poor class of the population who tended to migrate to urban area for sustenance. Many in his team had reservations about the selection of Balraj Sahani in the role of Shambhu, the farmer because of his urban look. But Bimal Roy struck to his choice. He had seen him acting live on the sets of ‘Dharti Ke Laal’ (1946) when he had visited Mumbai at the time of the release of his film ‘Hamraahi’ (1945) and thereafter in ‘Hum Log’ (1951).
‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953) put Bimal Roy on an international pedestal. The film won for him the Prix International Prize at 7th Cannes Film Festival (1954). The film also won him National Award for the Best Film and also the inaugural Filmfare Award, 1954 for the ‘Best Film’ and ‘The Best Director’. With the success of this film, the seeds of the ‘middle of the road’ cinema was sown in Bollywood.
One of Bimal Roy’s film which did not fit into his psyche of film making was ‘Madhumati’ (1958). The reincarnation story of the film was written by Ritwik Ghatak who was an assistant to Bimal Roy during his Kolkata days. He was without work in Kolkata and had come to Mumbai for work. Bimal Roy assigned him to write a story and screen play for his forthcoming film and also direct the film. This was how the film ‘Madhumati’ (1958) was born. But, at the last minute, he had to go back to Kolkata as he could arrange finance for his Bangla film, ‘Ajantrik’ (1958). ‘Madhumati’ (1958) was thought of mainly for the financial survival of Bimal Roy Productions. Hence, the commercial elements in the film was evident with Dilip Kumar and Vyjayantimala in lead roles, Pran as villain and Johny Walker as comedian and 11 songs. With Bimal Roy handling the direction, the mix of classic touch and commercial elements led the film to attain the status of the most commercially successful film for Bimal Roy Productions and the highest grosser among Hindi films released in 1958. The film won 9 Filmfare Awards.
Bimal Roy has shown through his films like ‘Udayer Pathe’ (1944), ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953), ‘Sujata’ (1959) and ‘Bandini’ (1963) that the victims of oppressions have superior morality than the oppressors. Bimal Roy had not been known to have leanings towards any political ideology. It is, therefore, a surprise to observe that in most of his films, the exploitation of downtrodden by the superior class of the society is evident though he belonged to a wealthy family of the landlords in a village near Dhaka in East Bengal (now Bangla Desh). The reasons for his ‘dislike’ for landlords or upper class probably stem from having been a victim himself when after the death of his father in 1930, his family was denied share in the estate and was expelled. He along with his mother and brothers had migrated to Kolkata where they may have initially faced the same problem as Balraj Sahani in ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ when he migrated to Kolkata.
Rinki Roy Bhattacharya believes that some characters in his films may have been modelled on the traits of a few of his family members. For instances, the arrogant and authoritarian fathers in ‘Udayer Pathe’ (1944), ‘Parineeta’ (1953) and ‘Devdas’ (1955) may have been based on Bimal Roy’s authoritarian father. The character of a whip cracking school master in ‘Devdas’ may be a whip cracking Head Master of Bimal Roy’s school in Dhaka. Pran’s character in ‘Madhumati’ (1958) may have been inspired from his uncle Jogeshchandra Roy who loved wines, women and dances.
During his filmy career, Bimal Roy directed 15 Hindi films which included his classics and popular films like ‘Parineeta’ (1953), ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ (1953), ‘Biraj Bahu’ (1954), ‘Devdas’ (1955) ‘Madhumati’ (1958), ‘Yahudi’ (1958) ‘Sujata’ (1959), ‘Parakh’ (1960), ‘Prem Patra’ (1962) and ‘Bandini’ (1963) which was his last film as a director.
Bimal Roy also produced 7 Hindi films which he did not direct but gave the opportunity to direct most of them to his assistants. These films were ‘Amaanat’ (1955) directed by Aravind Sen, ‘Parivar’ (1956) and ‘Apraadhi Kaun’ (1957) both directed by Asit Sen (comedian), ‘Usne Kaha Thha’ (1960) directed by Moni Bhattacharya and ‘Kabuliwaala’ (1961) directed by Hemen Gupta who was unemployed at that time. ‘Benazir’ (1964) and ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ (1968) were directed by S Khalil and Debu Sen respectively due to Bimal Roy’s illness.
Those who had worked closely with Bimal Roy had said that he was a man of few words. It was very difficult to initiate a conversation with him. Dilip Kumar had said in an interview that he found the most peaceful atmosphere among the studios when he worked with Bimal Roy because no one was allowed to talk loudly. Nabendu Ghosh, his screen-play and dialogue writer, has said that Bimal Roy spoke little but smoked cigarettes a lot. Probably, his cigarette smoking may have resulted in lung cancer at a later stage which took his life on January 8, 1966.
At the time of his death, Bimal Roy had started work on ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ (1968) and ‘Sahaara’. While the first film was completed by one of his assistants, Debu Sen and got released in 1968, ‘Sahaara’ which was based on Bengali novel ‘Chaitali’ by Ashapoorna Devi got sheleved. In fact, Bimal Roy had done some shooting of the film with Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore when he got ill on the set after which he never recovered. When Dharmendra became a top star from early 1970s, he convinced Bimal Roy’s wife, Manobina Roy to revive the film for which he arranged the finances and pursuaded Saira Bano to act in the film. Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed the film under its new title ‘Chaitali’ (1975).
One of Bimal Roy’s dream project which was very close to his heart was a bilingual film ‘Amrit Kumbh Ki Khoj Mein’ (Hindi and Bangla). He had started the work as early as 1960 when he had shot about one hour of footage of Ardha Kumbha Mela held at Allahabad in 1960. Gulzar was entrusted with writing the script for the film. It was his intention to complete the shooting of the film during the next Poorna Kumbh Mela. During the last stages of Bimal Roy’s illness when he was bed-ridden, Gulzar used to visit him every day and read out what he had written for the script of his favorite film. With the death of Bimal Roy, the film remained a dream. However, scenes shot for the film were converted into a 12 minutes of documentary film ‘Images of Kumbh Mela (1960) by his son, Joy Bimal Roy.
On the occasion of Bimal Roy’s 111th birth anniversary, I have selected a song, ‘main na boloon na boloon na boloongi’ from ‘Maa’ (1952), his first film in Mumbai as a director. The song is sung by Geeta Dutt which is picturised on Shyama. The song is written by Bharat Vyas which is set to music by S K Pal.
With this song, all the songs of ‘Maa’ (1952) have been covered in the Blog.
Acknowledgements: In writing this article, I have been greatly benefitted by the following sources:
1. ‘Bimal Roy – The Man Who Spoke in Picture’ (2009), a book containing a collection of articles, edited by Rinki Roy Bhattacharya, the daughter of Bimal Roy.
2. ‘The Cinema of Bimal Roy – An ‘Outsider’ Within’ (2017) by Shoma A, Chatterji. (Book).
3. ‘Ravi Paar Aur Anya Kahaaniyaan’ (1999) by Gulzar – Chapter on ‘Bimal da’.
4. Remembering Bimal Roy (2007) – A documentary film by Joy Bimal Roy.
Editor’s note: This song is the 5000th song from the decade of 1950s(1951 to 1960) to appear in the blog.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Main na boloon na boloon na boloongi (Maa)(1952) Singer-Geeta Dutt, Bharat Bhushan, Lyrics-Bharat Vyas, MD-S K Pal
Lyrics
main na boloongi
o main na boloon na boloon na boloongi
aaj mere chhote se dil mein
chhupa hai kya raaz main na kholoongi
aaj main na boloon na boloongi aaj
kya raaz hai
hai to bataao
saawan ki ithlaate baadal se poochh lo ji
baadal se poochh lo
kajraare nainon ke kaajal se poochh lo ji
kaajal se poochh lo
bhole baalam
mohe laage sharam
haaye laage sharam
bhole baalam
mohe laage sharam
haaye laage sharam
ye bharam apne man ka na kholoongi
aaj main na boloongi
aaj main na boloon na boloongi aaj
main na boloongi
ho main na boloon na boloon na boloongi
aaj mere chhote se dil mein
chhupa hai kya raaz main na kholoongi
aaj main na boloon na boloongi aaj
achcha
hum bhi nahin sunte
o o o o o
suna maine jo
wo kaise sunaaun
wo baaten tumhe main kaise bataaun
kaho ji kaise bataaun
kuchh khud samjho
kuchh khud samjho
kuchh meri palkan se samajh lo ji
palkan se samajh lo
kuchh dil mein chhupi dil ki dhadkan se samajh lo ji
dhadkan se samajh lo
bhole baalam mohe laage sharam
haaye laage sharam
bhole baalam mohe laage sharam
haaye laage sharam
ye bharam apne man ka na kholoongi
aaj main na boloongi
aaj main na boloon na boloongi aaj
