Email
Print
ShareBimal Roy's name is spoken of with awe among Hindi cinema buffs. His films, especially Do Bigha Zameen, Devdas and Madhumati are landmarks, each one paving the way for not only more films but whole genres that followed.
Devdas especially remains the benchmark interpretation of the story among its fans who will not even consider mentioning Sanjay Leela Bhansali's pretty confection in the same breath.
Then why has Roy not been studied in the manner that, say Guru Dutt or even Raj Kapoor has been? There are no well-researched volumes on Roy, unless one counts a booklet brought out by the National Film Archives of India. And Roy's daughter keeps his memory alive with an organisation in his name.
This book is her baby in the true sense of the term. She has borne it for years, collecting anecdotes from his compatriots and pursuing others to write their memories as well as analysis of the man and the filmmaker. The man impinges on the director all the time -- Roy, according to those who knew him, was a man of silences and contemplation which is reflected in many of his works.
The book is divided into three parts -- Bengal, Bombay and Beyond Borders -- but they could easily have been partitioned into people who knew him well, people who know of him, and scholars and academics who have studied him. In the first category fall people ranging from Mahasweta Devi to Shashi Kapoor, all of whom knew him in different capacities.
The second group has inter alia Naseeruddin Shah and Shyam Benegal, and the third consists of critics from home and afar.
Naturally, the final result is a mixed bag which one can dip into time and again for enjoyment and analysis, but one which does not give us a composite picture of what the Roy oeuvre amounts to. A career which had a film on village politics, unfulfilled love, reincarnation, the caste system et al requires a book that puts it all in perspective and helps us understand the artist behind the works.
Yet, there are sufficient vignettes in the mix. Mahasweta Devi's brief piece and Nabendu Ghosh's longer one offer an intimate look at the man, Naseeruddin Shah looks at the actors in his films, suggesting that Dilip Kumar's tragic persona was shaped by Roy's films, and Gulzar's anecdotal memories are charming and evocative.
But it is Shyam Benegal's piece that provides a 360 degree look at the man and his movies, dealing with the criticisms that Roy's films have attracted for many years. Benegal's essay has to be read for what is in it and what is implied. He is ready to acknowledge that many critics and filmmakers thought him to be "compromised"; certainly Ritwik Ghatak, who wrote Madhumati (and later was critical of his own story) was among the sharper critics.
Regrettably, despite the academics in full flow in part three of the book, they all have skirted around a frank discussion of some of Roy's films, from the melodrama of Sujata and Bandini to the bucolic nostalgia of Do Beegha Zameen, none of which takes away from the strengths of these movies. The book, therefore, must be taken as a welcome commemoration of Roy and his life, but a complete examination of his works is still waiting to be done.
