Synopsis
Kalyani (Nutan), an inmate of a women's
ward of a prison in pre-independent India,
appears determined to serve out her full
term, resisting the kind overtures of the
prison doctor, Deven (Dharmendra), who wishes
to marry her, fearing her past will catch
up with
her. Her past is told in flashback. In Bengal
in the 1930s, the daughter of the postmaster
(Raja Paranjpe) of the village, she had
become involved with the anarchist Bikash
Ghosh (Ashok Kumar). Bikash and Kalyani
become close to one another and fall in
love and in a difficult situation she is
passed off as Bikash's wife in order to
save his life. Bikash proposes to her and
her father agrees to the marriage. Bikash
leaves the village promising to come back.
He never does and Kalyani learns he has
married someone else. The family becomes
the butt of ridicule in the village causing
Kalyani to leave the village to avoid her
father's dishonour. She starts working in
a hospital taking care of a particular shrewish
and obnoxious woman patient. Her father
comes to the city in search of her but is
killed in an accident. The same day she
discovers the woman she is taking care of
is Bikash's wife. Believing the woman to
be the cause of all her troubles, Kalyani
poisons her. Deven is still willing to marry
her and after reading her story, his mother
too accepts her. As she leaves for Deven's
house where happiness awaits her, she runs
into Bikash again. He is now terminally
ill. She learns the real circumstances of
Bikash's unhappy marriage, done for the
freedom cause, and decides to go with him.
The film
Bandini
is arguably Bimal Roy's
greatest and most complete film, Do Bigha
Zameen nothwithstanding. The story is based on a book
by Jarasandha, a former jail superintendent who wrote fictional
versions of his experiences (Louha-Kapat (1953), Tamasha
(1958), Nyaydanda (1961)). Set at a time when women
had no choices, the film's protagonist Kalyani had the courage
to not only make choices in her life but choices which at
times might appear to be even wrong ones as she gives up everything
for love.
 What is exteremly interesting
in the film, which suggests a straight link
between terrorism and patricide, is the
form used by Bimalda. The story, told in
flashback from the woman's point of view,
is unraveled in a manner such that by and
large she is always there or from where
she can overhear the goings on rather than
the general practice of opening up the story
to a neutral point of view and then relating
the whole story. Thus the viewer gets to
understand Kalyani and her actions much
more clearly and are tied up to her character
right from the beginning, thereby respecting
her for her actions. Interestingly when
Bikash tells Kalyani his story, Bimalda
uses the flashback within flashback device
in the film, surely one of the earliest
use of such a technique in Indian Cinema.
The title, Bandini, is explained
in the climax of the film in the song Mere
Saajan Hai Us Paar - Main Bandini
Hoon Piya ki, Main Sangini Hoon Saajan ki...The
character of Kalyani gets lifted from that
of a woman who is a prisoner of destiny
to one who defines her own freedom. It may
be another form of servitude but it is one
of her own making, not something imposed
on her.
While
the events of the story are highly melodramatic, Bimalda takes
great care to handle them with sensitivity, simplicity and
subtlety. He beautifully uses imagery and sound to convey
the various moods of the female prisoner, Kalyani. As she
is seated in the corner of her grey, grim cell facing the
prison's high wall, she can hear the hoofs of the horse pulling
the carriage taking away Deven, or that masterful scene in
which Kalyani murders Bikash's wife with the hammering of
a welder in the background thus heightening the drama! Every
frame is so well thought out and full of rich subtext. Kalyani
and Deven are constantly shown together in their early meetings
without any sort of barrier between them but when Deven decides
to propose to her, the scene is delicately handled with the
door between them as Kalyani refuses his proposal without
seeing him, the door symbolic of the barrier Kalyani sees
in their future life together due to her past. After that
the two of them are always framed with a barrier between them
for e.g. he is outside the room and she seen through the barred
window of the room and vice versa i.e. her inside the room
and Deven seen outside through the window finally culminating
in the masterly scene mentioned above as Kalyani 'hears' his
departure from the other side of the wall. Splendid use is
made of the prison guard as he announces 'Sab Theek Hai (Everything
is fine)' at times when nothing is actually going well. The
first time he does so, a freedom fighter is caught and brought
to the jail. The second time Deven goes out of Kalyani's life
and the third time the freedom fighter is hung, all fine examples
of making an ironic counterpoint in the film.
If
one person is the life and soul of Bandini, it is Nutan.
Bandini sees her give an
extra-ordinary performance - certainly one of the greatest
by an actress in Indian Cinema ranking right there with Nargis in
Mother India (1957)
and Meena Kumari
in Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam
(1962). Totally devoid of highly charged emotion and theatrics,
Nutan appears as a quiet woman with her passions raging from
within her and plays her role with great delicacy and dignity.
One just has to see the entire gamut of emotions fleeting
across her face in the film's key sequence as she murders
her lover's wife. It is a masterful performance by an artiste
supreme at the peak of her histrionic powers. Ironically Nutan
had in fact almost given up films after marriage and the birth
of her son Mohnish. But Bimalda insisted she take on the film.
Nutan responded to the role of a lifetime and how! The success
of the film saw her resume her career as an actress as she
went from strength to strength right through the 1960s and
1970s with strong performances in films like Milan (1967),
Saraswatichandra (1968), Saudagar (1973), Sajan
Bina Suhagan (1978), Kasturi (1978) and Main
Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978) before being saddled with
mundane mother roles in the 1980s.
Nutan is strongly supported by Ashok Kumar,
whose flawles performance matches Nutan
scene for scene and Dharmendra,
just beginning to make an impact in the
film industry. Incidentally Bimal Roy and
Ashok Kumar worked together after a period
of 10 years following Parineeta (1953).
Parineeta, produced by Ashok Kumar,
was shot at the same time as Bimalda's own
home production, Do Bhiga Zameen
and Ashok Kumar felt that Bimalda gave priority
to Do Bhiga Zameen at the expense
of Parineeta. Famed Marathi Director
Raja Paranjpe ably plays the role of Kalyani's
father.
Bandini is brilliantly photographed
by Kamal Bose with its rich tonal quality
and evocative framing. The film also sees
the debut of Gulzar as
a lyricist with Mora Gora Ang Laile,
perhaps one of the most romantic songs in
Indian Cinema as it expresses the heroine's
first flush of love. The other songs, written
by Shailendra, further add to the poetic
quality of the film be it the haunting O
Jaanewale Ho Sake to Laut ke Aanaa,
or the soulful Ab ke Baras conveying
Kalyani's solitude in prison at one level
and the lament of the female prisoner singing
it with no hopes of release at another.
The music by S.D.
Burman represents perhaps some of the
finest work he has done in his entire career.
Mora Gora Ang Laile, Ab ke Baras
and O Jaanewaale always feature in
the best ever songs of Lata Mangeshkar,
Asha Bhosle
and Mukesh respectively.
Talking of Mukesh, Burmanda hardly ever
used him as a singer but as and when he
did the result was sheer magic - Chalri
Sajni from Bombay ka Babu (1960)
being a case in point. When Mukesh recorded
this masterpiece for Burmanda he hadn't
sung for him for 11 years following Shabnam
(1949)! Burmanda himself is in fine
form as he renders the climactic song Mere
Sajan Hai Us Paar with Nutan beautifully
expressing Kalyani's dilemma of having to
choose between security and love. The song
picturizations by Bimalda help enrich the
film even further.
Sadly
Bandini was the last film of Bimal Roy as a director
though he did complete another film under Bimal Roy Productions,
albeit as a producer - Benazir (1964). |
