Remembering Bimal Roy: Celebrating his 115th Birth Anniversary

As such, Bimal Roy's name does not need any recognition. Do Bigha Zameen, Sujata, Bandini, Madhumati, etc. are those films of the '50s and 60's that have gained fame not only in the country but across the world! He was the only filmmaker to do a double hat-trick of awards.

As such, Bimal Roy's name does not need any recognition. Do Bigha Zameen, Sujata, Bandini, Madhumati, etc. are those films of the 50's and 60's that have gained fame not only in the country but across the world? Bimal Roy who was then better known by the industry as Bimal Da; He was the first assistant director of Devdas in 1935. Although Bimal Roy belonged to a Zamindar family, his heart was set on theater and cinema. During that time he used to work in the famous New Theaters of Calcutta and there he learned the nuances of filmmaking.

Bimal Roy: From Bengali Cinema to Bombay Talkies

Then after independence, it became difficult to run new theaters, and gradually Bengal cinema started shifting to Bombay. Meanwhile, in 1950, Bimal Roy also shifted to Bombay with his team. In his team was the then famous musician Salil Chowdhary who also used to write in Bengali. Hrishikesh Mukherjee used to be his editor, Nabendu Ghosh was his screenwriter and Asit Sen was his assistant. When this team reached Bombay with the entire Lav Lashkar, it came to know that the cinema here is very different from the Bengali cinema. But Bimal da was Bimal da. He started working in the famous Bombay Talkies of the Bombay film industry and while there started giving Bengali touches to his films. He first made the film Maa but he had no plan regarding this film. Bombay Talkies persistently called Bimal Da and made this film with his favorite cast 'Bharat Bhushan and Leela Chitnis' and his favorite music composer 'SK Paul'. The story of the film was written by Nobendu Ghosh but the film was somewhere inspired by the Hollywood film Over the Hills. After this film, Bimal Da opened his own production house and from here the foundation of the first Indian film to win awards from all over the world was laid.

Do Bigha Zameen, released in 1953, and was based on the Bengali novel by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy were the main characters in this film. This film was based on the tyranny of landlords, whereas let me remind you that Bimal da himself had been a landlord at one time. Bimal Da not only got the first Filmfare Award for this film but the film was asked globally and the film was also awarded at the Cannes Film Festival (France). There is also a very strange story about the making of this film. The plot of this film (Rickshawala) came in the mind of Salil Chowdhary and he reached Bimal da with it. Bimal da at that time, in the year 1952, He had come out after watching the Italian film Bicycle Thieves in the first International Film Festival in Mumbai and had decided that he too had to make a film on such a real location. When he heard this story from Salil Chowdhary, he put a condition that Salil, if you will also give the music of the film, then I am going to make this film.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee was there to edit the story of the film, but there was a lot of confusion at the time of casting. Initially, preparations were made to make a film with Paidi Jairaj, Trilok Kapoor and Nazir Hussain, but when Bimal Roy saw Balraj Sahni acting in 'Humlog', he was left watching. He finalized Balraj Sahni for his 'Shambhu' but the rest of the crew got very angry due to this. Salil Chowdhary himself believed that Balraj Sahni, a man of Punjabi personality, generally played the role of rich aristocrats. Where will he fit into the character of a poor farmer? But Balraj Sahni was also no less dedicated actor. He actually pulled a rickshaw through the streets of Calcutta! At that time, there was no pedal rickshaw like today. Back then, one had to run while pulling the rickshaw by hand. During that time, he was surprised to know that in the story in which they are working, many rickshaw pullers are actually facing trouble. While working on this film, Nirupa Roy said that this is the first film in which there is a crying scene. I didn't need glycerin while shooting.

While directing this film, Bimal da also directed Parineeta. Parineeta was simply based on the story of the great writer Sharatchand. This film also earned a name and money. This film was also released only after Do Bigha Zameen in 1953 but it was nominated for Filmfare next and it was the second film in a row for which Bimal da got a Filmfare Award. This film was produced by Ashok Kumar and Ashok Kumar's chemistry with Meena Kumari was very much liked in the film. Then just after this, in the production of Hiten Chowdhary, a film was made on another Bengali novel Biraj Bahu by Sharat Chandra with the same name and Bimal da won the Filmfare Award for this too. That is, India's first 3 Filmfare Awards were won by Bimal Da for three consecutive years. Now once again in the year 1955, he made Devdas with Dilip Kumar on another novel Devdas of Sharatchandra and this film became a bumper hit. Although he did not get Filmfare for this Found, there was no shortage in name-fame money. After this, taking a gap of 3 years, made another classic film Madhumati, This film earned four crores at that time when many filmmakers did not know how many crores of rupees were there. This story written by Ritwik Ghatak was the first story based on reincarnation in India. Only after this, the Reincarnation of Peter Proud was made in Hollywood in 1978 inspired by Madhumati. The film received 9 Filmfare Awards including Best Director. This means this was Bimal da's fourth Filmfare Award. The pair of Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala was also considered as a strong pair from this film. The song "Ghadi Ghadi Mera Dil Dhadke" from this film became a chartbuster song. Wherein "Dil tadap-tadap ke keh raha hai aa bhi ja" is heard a lot to date in Mukesh's voice. You can estimate the earnings of this film in such a way that after the death of Bimal Da, his family lived in luxury only because of the earnings of this film.

After this Bimal Da made Sujata with Sunil Dutt and Nutan. This film was also based on a Bengali short story by Subodh Ghosh. Bimal da was again awarded the Best Direct Filmfare Award for the fifth time for this film. After this, Bimal da made the first and last light-hearted satirical film of his life 'Parakh'. It featured Sadhna and Motilal in lead roles. The film was a satire on democracy. For this film, he received the Filmfare Award for the sixth time and in terms of earning, this film also won the flag. For some time Bimal da turned back to Bengali films and made Nader Nimai. Then in 1962, he made Prem Patra in which Shashi Kapoor and Sadhna were selected for the lead roles. This film was also inspired by a Bengali film. This film could not run at the box office.

But at the same time, Bimal was working on Da Bandini, which was based on Charu Chakraborty's novel Tamsi. For this film, he had given a chance to new artist Dharmendra and Ashok Kumar was in the lead role with Nutan. Once again the magic of Bimal da's direction was spoken by the whole of India and this film took 6 Filmfare Awards. It was from here that Dharmendra also emerged as a star, while the foundation of great lyricist, writer, and filmmaker Gulzar was also laid with the song 'Mora Gora Ang Leile' from this film.

Not only Gulzar, Bimal da handed over more than one talent to the film industry like Asha Parekh, Baby Farida, Nazir Hussain, Nabendu Ghosh, Hrishikesh Mukherjee etc. You will be surprised to know that Bimal Da is the filmmaker with the most number of Best Direct Filmfare Awards (seven) to date and the ones after him, Yash Chopra and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, are limited to four awards each. Bimal Da, who made a total of 14 films in his career of 15 years, has received the Filmfare Award as many times as he was nominated. This is also a record that no one has been able to break to date and there is no hope that it will be able to break it in the future. Such a wonderful director and such an amazing talent seeker Bimal da passed away at the age of 56 only due to cancer. While leaving, he went with his assistant 'Gulzar' while preparing for a film. Gulzar knew that this film would not be completed. Bimal da also knew that he would not be able to complete the film. But his passion for two things, one cigarette and the other film, remained with him till his last breath and while cigarettes became the cause of his death, his films immortalized him for today, our generation, and a hundred generations after us. Gone…

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