Bimal Roy

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A wretched childhood It’s believed hardship makes a man strong. This proved right in the case of Bimal Roy because despite being born into a rich landlord family his family was mercilessly thrown out from Zamindari by a corrupt estate manager soon after his death’s demise. Young Bimal had a huge responsibility of feeding his infant brothers. Hence at a very young age, he began working as a publicity photographer for the famous actor and film-maker P.C. Barua to make a living.

It was love at first sight When Bimal Roy was just a cinematographer working with legendary filmmakers like Nitin Bose and P.C. Barua at Calcutta’s New Theatres he happened to meet a beautiful yet intelligent girl Manobina Sen. In the early 30s Bimal Roy was shooting at the scenic Mukteshwar near Nainital when he saw the charming Manobina Sen, who had come there for her college vacation in Nainital. It was love at first sight! Roy could not control his emotions and immediately proposed to her. However, Manobina's father was a bit resistant as he felt his daughter was too young for marriage. But as he knew Bimal Roy to be a gentleman hence he gave in. Bimal Roy married Manobina in 1939 in a typical and orthodox Bengali marriage ceremony. Bimal Roy was 28 while Manobina was 17. The couple had a successful married life and had four children.

Film Legend Nitin Bose recognizes Bimal Roy’s genius Stimulated by Roy’s eye-catching photo shots and his brilliant creative intellect; film legend Nitin Bose employed young Roy as his assistant cameraman at Calcutta’s reputed New Theatres Studios. Thus began Roy’s learning experience under Nitin Bose, who polished the raw artistic pangs of the upcoming mastermind. Bimal Roy displays his creative brilliance Bimal Roy was a child prodigy and blessed with imaginative competency. Hence he soon began displaying his creative skills by utilizing inventive lighting and composition as a cameraman. He soon won rave applause for his brilliance in New Theatres’ classic films like Devdas (1935) and Mukti (1937) both made in Bengali and Hindi. Bimal Roy makes his debut film with scraped reels Bimal Roy’s debut film Udayer Pathey (1944) in Bengal speaks volumes about Roy’s capability as a filmmaker because he made his first fledge film using leftover reels that were thrown into scrapes. In an interview Joy Roy, Bimal Roy’s son informed, “When Papa (Bimal Roy) requested B. N. Sircar (owner of New Theatres) that he aspires to direct a film, Sircar told him he does not have budget for small films but still if desires to make a film that he can use the scarped reels.” “Papa agreed. From that scrape reels, papa made Udayer Pathe which became such a success that many of B.N. Sircar’s big-budget films could not achieve the kind of business that Udayer Pathe did at the box office,” Joy said. With Udayer Pathe, Bimal Roy introduced neo-realistic cinema which was based on the hard realities of life and unfolded the trauma and tribulation of the common man. As a result, the common man seated in the auditorium identified with the protagonist and applauded the film. With Do Bigha Zamin Bimal Roy took Indian cinema to international heights Bimal Roy has been a great admirer of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and happened to watch his internationally acclaimed film Rashomon at Mumbai’s Eros cinema. After watching the cinema, Roy was overwhelmed by the marvellous editing and its incredible direction. He became restless and kept wondering how he could make such a kind of film. While still pondering, Roy discussed the idea with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, his permanent editor. Mukherjee assured he had the skills while music composer Salil Choudhury came forward with a hard-hitting script based on a farmer’s woes and how he is compelled to part away with his land due to the tyranny of the Zamindaar. Inspired by his team Bimal Roy ventured into film production and made his debut film Do Bigha Zamin, under the banner of Bimal Roy Production in 1952. The movie was a slow start at the box office due to no star valve but soon film critic’s rave reviews and brilliant music by Salil Choudhury made the film a hit. The movie became the first film to win the International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In addition, it won the National Award - All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film. The film also became the 1st film to win both the Best Film and Best Director award at the Filmfare Awards function in 1954. Bimal Roy’s double hat-trick at Filmfare award Bimal Roy continued his rendezvous with Filmfare awards frequently and has the rare honour of winning a combined 11 Filmfare awards as Best Director and Producer. After Do Bigha Zamin (1953) he repeated the feat the very next year by fetching Best Director for Parineeta (1954) and the next year he won it for Biraj Bahu (1955). After a hat trick, Bimal Da replicated the amazing accomplishment of winning a hat trick yet again with Madhumati (1958); Sujata (1959) and Parakh (1960). It may stun readers that in 1960 Bimal Roy toppled the great filmmaker K Asif who was also in the race for Best Director in Mughul-E-Azam !!! Bimal Roy’s hat-trick with Dilip Kumar After having assisted as cameraman to legendary filmmaker P.C. Barua while making K.L. Saigal’s Devdas, Bimal Roy was anxious to infuse his brilliance into translating Sharat Chandra Chatterjee's classic novel Devdas on celluloid. His first difficulty was choosing an actor who could stand up to the standard that K.L. Saigal had achieved in the original. His dilemma was cut-down when he met Dilip Kumar and as the two worked their relationship blossomed into a fixation. So much so that Bimal Roy hit another hat-trick with Dilip Kumar as he did three films in a row with him Devdas (1955 ), Madhumati (1958), Yahudi (1958)