Immerse in the works of Bimal da

To pay homage to the late filmmaker Bimal Roy, a retrospective in the city will offer a screening of some of his best works, which have permanently been canonised in the glorious history of Indian Cinema.

On the occasion of his 50th death anniversary, his daughter, Rinku Bhattacharya initiated the first of its kind Bimal Roy film festival. “Though we have had Bimal Roy retrospectives in Calcutta and elsewhere in Maharashtra and Kerela, this the first time we are screening his films in Mumbai,” she says. Rinku who has written extensively about her father and his work, feels that though he is a revered figure in Indian Cinema, not many writers have written about his work. “The songs are always being played on the radio, there is enough nostalgia around him, but when it comes to writing books on him and his work, I don’t find many who are doing so,” she laments.

It is a well-established fact that Roy had been instrumental in tapping the creative geniuses of his time. Great filmmakers and writers such as Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Nabendu Ghosh, Salil Chowdhury, Basu Bhattacharya and Debu Sen had learnt the craft from Roy. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anupama was dedicated to Bimal Roy as it was released just after his death. One of his biggest commercial hits Madhumati was once-in-a-lifetime coming together of many legends: Ritwick Ghatak as the writer, Hrishikesh Mukhejee as editor, Salil Chowdhury as composer and Dilip Kumar as actor.

Roy’s work had also played an instrumental role in ushering the Parallel Movement in Indian cinema. “According to me the path breaking film that he created was Do Bigha Zamin. It was among the first films that broke away from the conventional Hindi films. And it was made in 1953,” says Shyam Benegal. “He was among the few people who started his career as a cameraman, therefore his understanding of lighting and lenses, manner of shooting sequences, creation of scenes, made him not just a director but also a technician — a true professional of the cinema in that sense. And of course if you look into his body of work, you will find they have a great deal of literary merit,” says Benegal adding that it is what set Roy apart from most of the mainstream Hindi filmmakers of his time.

“He was my guru, not only for cinema but also in life,” says 91-year-old Debu Sen, who had worked with Bimal Roy for several years. “I remember once we were shooting the terrace scene in Madhumati, when the rain machine broke down. We tried to hire another one, but all were booked. So we called up a mechanic to fix it. Bimal da asked us to go for a lunch break but he stayed with the mechanic, fixing the machine. After we came back to the set, we saw him still at the machine, with Vyjayanthimala sitting quietly in a corner. Eventually the machine got fixed by 8 pm, and we worked till 6 am. He would never take more than five to 6 shots in a day, but that day we had taken about 10 shots, I remember.”