Art & Entertainment

Bandini (Hindi)

The title suggests the prisoner-like existence of Indian women, whether in jail or outside.

Advertisement
Bandini (Hindi)
info_icon
  • Director: Bimal Roy
  • Year: 1963
  • Cast: Ashok Kumar, Nutan, Dharmendra

If earth tones could be thought of in terms of sound instead of colour, S.D. Burman’s deep burnt-ochre sweeping across the landscape in rippling easterly waves every time the fugitive rebel (Ashok Kumar) surfaces, all mystique...the hissing, popping sparks of a welding gun building up tension prior to a virtuous murder...the booming voice of the night guard at a prison, “Sab theek hai”, which sounds ever more dire as the film grows...these define the universe of Bimal Roy’s last directorial venture. A heroine-centric storyline was in itself a novelty for its times. Mercifully so. It lured Nutan (married by then) out of ret­irement. We get one of the best cinema events in return: a controlled, subtle approach to a range of emotions. Fresh and nubile, pining, defiant, angry, coldly res­igned, suddenly hopeful, quiescent. The title suggests the prisoner-like existence of Indian women, whether in jail or outside. The woman’s choice in the end...it’s worth a few contemporary debates. There’s a very young, dew-fresh Dharmendra on show, as a bhadralok doctor. Kamal Bose’s camera, the way black-and-white (and many shades of real grey) capture the stillness in the narrative, the slow working of the human spirit, accommodates even rawness in gracious tones.

Advertisement
Tags
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement
    Advertisement