Bimal Roy was one of the most acclaimed Indian film directors of all time. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films like Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini, making him an important director of Hindi cinema. His work is particularly known for his mise en scène, which he employed to portray realism.
Background
Bimal Roy, the Silent Master, was born into an old landholding family in former East Bengal, (Bangladesh). After his father's death, Roy was thrown out of the Zamindari by the estate manager. Young, penniless, he moved to Calcutta with his widowed mother and infant brothers.As he struggled for work, Promothesh Barua engaged Roy as a publicity photographer. Soon, Roy was engaged as an assistant cameraman to Nitin Bose at Calcutta's reputed New Theatres Studios. His fine sense of lighting and composition won him accolades from every quarter. New Theatres classics like 'Mukti' and 'Devdas' bear his distinguished mark.
Education
He received a good education at the University of Dhaka, where he and his friends filled with the ideas of the struggle for independence. The Art of the screen is the perfect youth propaganda tool of their democratic aspirations.
Career
He entered the field of cinema as a camera assistant with New Theatres Pvt. Ltd. During this time, he assisted director P.C. Barua on the hit 1935 movie Devdas, starring K. L. Saigal and Mukti (1937). His first film as Director was Udayer Pathey (1944) in Bengali, which was remade as Humrahi (1945) in Hindi. The film was a big critical success.
Bimalda migrated to Bombay after the collapse of New Theatres. His first film there was Maa (1952) for Bombay Talkies. He then made Parineeta (1953) based on a Sarath Chandra story before forming his own production unit and making his blockbuster film, Do Bigha Zameen (1953). It was projected with sympathy and simplicity. The film followed the travails of a poor farmer who migrates to the city and works as a rickshaw puller to make ends meet and earn money to get his land back from the moneylender. The film faced a moderate commercial success and a huge critical success and won him awards at Cannes and at the Karlovy Vary Film Festivals.
Bimalda adapted another Sarath Chandra story Biraj Bahu (1954) before Devdas (1955). Devdas in spite of having its moments however was not too successful commercially and so Bimalda turned to two films - Madhumati (1958), a reincarnation drama and Yahudi (1958). Both the films were smash hits and it’s music is extremely poular even today. The former, written by Ritwik Ghatak was brilliantly photographed with much of it outdoors unlike most Ghost stories. Salil Choudhury came up with perhaps his best ever musical score and the sweet melody Aaja re Pardesi was considered by Lata Mangeshkar among her ten best songs ever. Bimal Roy's two films with Nutan, Sujata (1959), dealing with caste prejudice while Bandini(1963) is considered to be by many his finest work. The film conveys the story of a woman prisoner charged with murder. In between he did two films Parakh (1960) and Prem Patra (1962) both starring Sadhana. Parakh looks at how greed and money affect the behavior of people. Parakh went on to win for Bimal Roy yet another award making it a hat-trick following Madhumati and Sujata the previous two years. Bimalda's last production before he died was Benazir (1964) directed by S. Khalil.