BIMAL ROY (12th July 1909 - 7th Jan 1966)Bimal Roy was born the seventh child of a landowning , affluent family from Suapur, a suburb of Dacca , then East Bengal.He completed his education at the Jagannath College in Dacca and joined as an assistant to the famous Cinematographer Nitin Bose. He soon became a famous Cinematographer and started to work in films like P.C.Barua's Mukti. Here he honed his craft and also became sensitised to the many socio-economic issues facing the People. He joined the IPTA ( Indian People's Theatre Association ) and made the path breaking film "Udayar Pathey".This film was against exploitation and served to inspire several young bengali film makers like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen.
Migrating to Bombay in 1950 he went on to make some of his classics like "Do Bigha Zameen", Bandini, Parineeta, Madhumati ,Sujatha and his classical version of Devdas. His films were artistically beautiful, sensitive and socially relevant as they captured the essence of human existence with all its melodrama, romance and pathos for all his films were firmly rooted in reality. His message though subtle often left a deep impact on the viewer. Especially those Musically inclined. Bimal roy mostly used Salil Choudhry or S.D.Burman and some of the classic songs as seen in his films are......
"Jalthey Hain Jiske Liye" from Sujatha (1959),music by S.D.Burman.
"Suhana Safar Aur Yeh Mausam Haseen" ,"Aaja Re Pardesi" ,"Ghadi Ghadi Mora Dil Dhadake" from Madhumathi (1958), music by Salil Chowdhury,
"O Sajana Barkha Bahaar" from Parakh (1960), music by Salil Chowdhury,
"O Jaanewale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Aana" from Bandhini (1963), music by S.D. Burman,
"O Sajana Barkha Bahaar" from Parakh (1960), music by Salil Chowdhury,
"O Jaanewale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Aana" from Bandhini (1963), music by S.D. Burman,
He was awarded the Filmfare award seven times as best director and Four times for best Picture, He also won the National Award for Do Bigha Zameen in 1953. He won the International Prize at Cannes for the same film , which was also nominated for the Grand Prize.This film was the first to pave the way for a parallel , new wave cinema to hit the country.
If some of these songs are familiar , now you know whom to thank......
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3 comments:
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Any reference to Bimal da's genius is incomplete without mentioning the song, "Mitawaa, laagi re" from Devdas (1955.)
A film director is the boss. He takes all the bouquets as well as the brickbats from the audience. In this case, it is he who conceived the combination of a dhoti clad Devdas (Dilip) sitting on the village ghat, a gun in his lap, singing a thumri in Talat's ethereal voice, without any percussion; only a sarangi & a sitar played against a backdrop of haunting chords on the Hammond organ.
There will never be a Bimal Roy again, nor indeed, an SD.
I challenge any true music lover to listen to this song without getting goose pimples!
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