Bimal Roy | |
|---|---|
 Roy on a 2007 stamp | |
| Born | (1909-07-12)12 July 1909 |
| Died | 7 January 1966(1966-01-07) (aged 56) Bombay, Maharashtra, India |
| Occupations | Producer and director |
| Notable work |
|
| Spouse | Manobina Roy |
| Children | 4, includingRinki Bhattacharya, Joy Bimal Roy |
| Awards | |
Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 7 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such asDo Bigha Zamin,Parineeta,Biraj Bahu,Devdas,Madhumati,Sujata,Parakh andBandini, making him an important director ofHindi cinema. Inspired byItalian neo-realistic cinema, he madeDo Bigha Zamin after watchingVittorio De Sica'sBicycle Thieves (1948).[1] His work is particularly known for hismise en scène which he employed to portrayrealism.[1] He won a number of awards throughout his career, including elevenFilmfare Awards, twoNational Film Awards, and the International Prize of theCannes Film Festival.Madhumati won 9Filmfare Awards in 1958, a record held for 37 years.[2][citation needed]
Bimal Roy was born on 12 July 1909, to aBengaliBaidya family in Suapur,Dhaka, which was then part of theEastern Bengal and Assam province ofBritish India and is now part ofBangladesh.[3] He produced many movies inBengali andHindi. He married Manobina Roy in 1936.
Bimal Roy moved toCalcutta and entered the field of cinema as a camera assistant withNew Theatres Pvt. Ltd. During this time, he assisted directorP.C. Barua as Publicity Photographer, on the hit 1935 filmDevdas, starringK.L. Saigal. In the 1940s and 1950s Roy was part of the parallel cinema movement in post-war India. He collaborated onAnjangarh (1948), one of the last major films of the New Theatres, however, the Kolkata-based film industry was now on the decline, thus Roy shifted his base to Bombay (now Mumbai), along with his team in 1950, which includedHrishikesh Mukherjee (editor),Nabendu Ghosh (screenwriter),Asit Sen (assistant director),Kamal Bose (cinematographer) and later,Salil Chaudhury (music director), and by 1952 he had restarted the second phase of his career withMaa (1952), forBombay Talkies.[4] He was famous for his romantic-realist melodramas that took on important social issues while still being entertaining. He was a filmmaker of great and in-depth understanding of human strengths and weaknesses. In 1959, he was a member of the jury at the1st Moscow International Film Festival.[5]
He died of cancer on 7 January 1966 at the age of 56. He was survived by four children: daughters Rinki Bhattacharya, Yashodhara Roy and Aparajita Sinha, and his only son, Joy Roy. His eldest daughter,Rinki Bhattacharya, married the directorBasu Bhattacharya against the wishes of both their families. The marriage collapsed within a few years, but resulted in the birth of a son, the actor and screenplay writerAditya Bhattacharya. Rinki Bhattacharya now heads the Bimal Roy Memorial Committee.[6] and his great-granddaughter Drisha Acharya married Karan Deol
Bimal Roy has received several awards.
Won International Prize:[12]
Nominated forGrand Prize of the Festival:
Nominated forPalme d'Or:
Bimal Roy usually alternated between music directorsSalil Chowdhury andS.D. Burman. His films featured beautiful and memorable songs, rendered by all the top playback singers of the day. Some of the notable songs from Roy's films include:
Bimal Roy's influence was far-reaching, both inIndian cinema andworld cinema. In Indian cinema, his influence extended to both mainstream commercialHindi cinema and the emergingParallel Cinema. His filmDo Bigha Zamin (1953) was the first film to successfully straddle art and commercial cinema. It was a commercial and critical success, winning the International Prize at the1954 Cannes Film Festival. As a result, the film's success paved the way for theIndian New Wave.[13][14][15]
In commercial cinema, the most influential film he directed was perhaps[according to whom?]Madhumati (1958), his first and only collaboration withRitwik Ghatak (who wrote the screenplay), and one of the earliest films to deal withreincarnation. It is believed[by whom?] to have been the source of inspiration for many later works dealing with the theme of reincarnation in Indian cinema,Indian television, and perhaps world cinema. It may have been the source of inspiration for the American filmThe Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) and the Hindi filmKarz (1980), both of which dealt with reincarnation and have been influential in their respective cultures.[16]Karz in particular was remade several times: as theKannada filmYuga Purusha (1989), theTamil filmEnakkul Oruvan (1984), and more recently theBollywood filmKarzzzz (2008).Karz may have also inspired the American filmChances Are (1989).[16] The most recent film to be directly inspired byMadhumati is the hit Bollywood filmOm Shanti Om (2007), which led to Roy's daughterRinki Bhattacharya accusing the film of plagiarism and threatening legal action against its producers.
Bimal Roy discovered and gave a break to many children, such asAsha Parekh, Sona Mastan Mirza,Baby Farida, & Baby Sonu (Bablani), who would later become quite famous.[17]
Bimal Roy's films continue to be screened at major national and international film festivals in India, Europe and North America. His films are being restored and digitised by theNational Film Archive of India (NFAI) at Pune. In July 2014,Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai hosted an exhibition;Bimal Roy: Life & Times, organised in collaboration with his children. The exhibits included screening of the films;Madhumati,Sujata andBandini, besides film posters, costumes and memorabilia, including an Arriflex camera used to shootDevdas andSujata.[6]
TheBimal Roy Memorial Trophy has been awarded every year since 1997, by the Bimal Roy Memorial & Film Society to honor both experienced artists and other contributors from the Indian film industry as well as new and upcoming outstanding young filmmakers.
A postage stamp, bearing his face, was released byIndia Post to honour him on 8 January 2007.
| Director | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Producer | Notes |
| 1943 | Bengal Famine | English | |
| 1944 | Udayer Pathey | Bengali Director, Writer and cinematographer | |
| 1945 | Hamrahi | New Theatres | Writer and cinematographer |
| 1948 | Anjangarh | ||
| 1949 | Mantramugdhu | ||
| 1950 | Pehla Aadmi | ||
| 1952 | Maa | ||
| 1953 | Parineeta | Ashok Kumar | Filmfare Award for Best Director |
| 1953 | Do Bigha Zamin | Bimal Roy | Filmfare Award for Best FilmFilmfare Award for Best Director. The story was written by Salil Chaudhury. |
| 1954 | Biraj Bahu | Hiten Choudhury | Filmfare Award for Best Director |
| 1954 | Naukari | Bimal Roy Productions | |
| 1954 | Baap Beti | ||
| 1955 | Devdas | Self | |
| 1958 | Madhumati | Bimal Roy Productions | Highest-grossing film of 1958. It garnered 9Filmfare Awards, a record held for 37 years. Its story was written by Rwitwick Ghatak |
| 1958 | Yahudi | Savak B. Vacha | |
| 1959 | Sujata | Bimal Roy | Filmfare Award for Best Director |
| 1960 | Parakh | Self | |
| 1960 | Nader Nimai | Bengali | |
| 1961 | Immortal Stupa | ||
| 1962 | Prem Patra | Self | |
| 1963 | Bandini | Bimal Roy | It won sixFilmfare Awards includingFilmfare Award for Best Film andFilmfare Award for Best Director |
| 1964 | Life and Message of Swami Vivekananda | English onSwami Vivekananda | |
| Documentary | |||
| 1941 | Tins for India | ||
| Producer | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Director | Notes |
| 1955 | Amanat | Aravind Sen | |
| 1956 | Parivar | Asit Sen | |
| 1957 | Apradhi Kaun | ||
| 1960 | Usne Kaha Tha | Moni Bhattacharjee | |
| 1961 | Kabuliwala | Hemen Gupta | |
| 1961 | Benazir | S. Khalil | |
| 1967 | Gautama the Buddha | Rajbans Khanna | Films Division of India |
| Editor | |||
| 1949 | Mahal | Kamal Amrohi | |
| 1960 | Kalpana | R.K. Rakhan | |
| 1951 | Deedar | Nitin Bose | |
| 1962 | Umeed | ||
| 1963 | Nartaki | ||
| 1963 | Meri Surat Teri Ankhen | R.K. Rakhan | |
| Cinematographer | |||
| 1934 | Chandidas | Nitin Bose | Assistant Cinematographer |
| 1934 | Daku Mansoor | ||
| 1935 | Devdas | Pramathesh Barua | |
| 1936 | Grihadah | ||
| 1936 | Maya | ||
| 1937 | Mukti | ||
| 1938 | Abhagin | Prafulla Roy | |
| 1939 | Bardidi | Amar Mullick | |
| 1940 | Abhinetri | ||
| 1940 | Meenakshi | Modhu Bose | |
