Synopsis
In
a small village in West Bengal, Shambhu, (Balraj Sahni) a
small farmer, owns two acres of land. However, the landlord
in the village plans to sell a large plot to a city contractor
to build a factory and Shambhu's two acres are cutting into
the land. When Shambhu refuses to sell the land, the landlord
threatens to forcibly occupy the land unless Shambhu pays
up an old loan at once. Shambhu manages to get a stay order
for three months and goes to the city to earn the extra money
where he takes to pulling a rickshaw, and his son Kanhaiya
becomes a shoeshine boy. They face many a hardship, and in
desperation, Kanhaiya takes to stealing. Horrified, Shambhu
disowns him. Shambhu's wife (Nirupa Roy) decides to go to
the city in search of her husband and son where she is hit
by a car and badly injured. Shambhu finds her accidentally,
and takes her to a hospital. Kanhaiya, believing it all to
be his fault, tears up the money he had stolen, and is reconciled
to his father. The family return to the village only to find
an ugly factory rearing its head on Shambhu's land...
The film
The
story of the dispossessed peasant and the moneylender/ landlord
had been told many times before but in Do Bigha Zameen,
Bimal Roy
with his innate reserve and good taste chooses a much wider
context in which to place his narrative thus looking at rural
poverty at one end and the brutalizing effects of city life
at the other end. Do Bigha Zameen is a sad and moving
tale which Roy projects with much sympathy, understatement
and simplicity and gives us a film that is very human and
has great emotional depth.
The film is strongly influenced by the
Italian neo-realist Cinema and particularly
evokes De Sica's masterpiece Bicycle
Thief (1949) particularly in the scenes
of the father and son in the city. Like
the neo-realists, the film was shot on a
tight budget, mainly on locations and using
mostly little known actors. Balraj Sahni
plays perhaps his best-known role as the
peasant Shambhu and gives a performance
of a lifetime. His realistic portrayal stands
out all the more particularly when one considers
him in real life being well educated and
westernized. It is said he actually rehearsed
for the role by pushing a rickshaw on the
streets of Calcutta and interacting with
other rickshaw pullers who were convinced
he was one  of
them! Nirupa
Roy and Rattan Kumar as his wife and
son respectively compliment Sahni perfectly.
The film is beautifully photographed by
Kamal Bose and is further enhanced by the
IPTA overtones in Salil Choudhury's music
particularly the full-blooded choral composition
celebrating peasant vitality - Hariyala
Sawan. Choudhury's music called for
cultural internationalism as opposed to
regional fork traditions. Hence his influences
in songs used to come from among others
Mozart, Hanns Eichler and contemporary Latin
American forms.
A
moderate commercial success, the film won Roy much critical
acclaim and awards at the Cannes and Karlovy Vary festivals.
To quote the News Chronicle on August 17, 1956
"Brilliantly directed by Bimal Roy,
beautifully photographed by Kamal Bose,
most touchingly acted by everybody, it is
the saddest, most informative and most memorable
film one has seen this year. No film has
moved so much since Umberto D, whose plea
was chiefly for the neglected old. Two Acres
of Land pleads not only for the neglected
but the exploited of all ages..."
The
film also went on to win Best Film and Best Director awards
at the inaugural Filmfare Awards. But perhaps the biggest
compliment for the film was a comment made by another great
Raj Kapoor.
On seeing Do Bigha Zameen and being much moved by the
film he had exclaimed,
" How I wished I had made this film!"
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