Do Bigha Zamin: What a film!!

A masterpiece on all accounts, characterization, cinematography, music, direction, and story, the film is a very simple story told simply by Bimal Roy. That I think is the quality that has made the movie timeless. Even after 60 years of independence, one can see that we have many ‘Shambhu Mahtos’ trying to eke out a living to save their lands.
The story is set in Eastern India, just after independence, when Zamindari was fast losing its hold and the Indian Government was apparently trying to implement land reforms. One such landlord based in Bihar, decides to sell his land for the building of a factory. But the hitch is that Shambhu’s 2 acres of land falls in between the vast tract of land owned by the landlord. Now, either Shambhu repays the loans, rents etc. he owes to the zamindar, or he is evicted from his land. Shambhu’s famous dialogue here really touches the very heart of the problem of agriculture in India,

“Zameen chale jaane par hi tau kisaan ka satyanaash ho jata hai”

Now, starts the main plot of the story, the struggle undertaken by Shambhu and his family to earn enough to repay the loan and keep the ‘Do Bigha Zamin’. Shambhu migrates to Kolkata to try and make some quick money. The movie is very meticulously made, and we see how he, a village simpleton is robbed of his belongings and finally ends up taking up the job of a rickshaw puller. Sahni has played the role to perfection; he apparently spent a lot of time with the rickshaw pullers to get a feel of the role. There are some unforgettable scenes in the film that can really hit the viewer hard about how little things matter. The scene where Shambhu says that he will not buy special shoes to protect his feet in the blistering summer heat because they cost Rs 2 and he wants to save is one such incident. Shambhu states this ‘matter of fact’ without too much of sentimentality or pathos being reflected and that makes the scene all the more moving. The classic one is where the camera simultaneously shows Shambhu pulling his cart and trying to outdo a horse pulling a ‘tanga’…you see him running and the horse running parallel and how his face registers suppressed excitement every time the passenger on his hand pulled auto offers more to pay, ’3 Rupaiya, 4 Rupaiya…and so on…till the cart comes apart because of the pressure.The comparison of the condition of the human being treated like an animal is ironical.

The movie’s climax is also very well shown, what one can call a straightforward ending without too much of build up or melodrama. As I said before, Roy is telling a story as it is, and that is his distinctive style. Shambhu and his family return to their village after their struggle in the city only to see that the mill is being built and they have lost their land as they could not repay the loan. The sorrow is mirrored on their faces, and they gradually the camera moves away and just shows them leaving the place.

The film also has what we call comic relief in the form of the young Jagdeep, the boot polisher friend of Kanhaya, Shambhu’s son. He is the typical vagabond with a kind heart who has learnt the ways of the city and tries to teach Kanhaiya the same.
The most amazing feature about the film is the hard reality it has managed to portray so well. There is a scene where we see how the rich discuss rural electrification, getting more jobs, and the typical big promises that are made even today but seldom fulfilled.

I would not call films like ‘Murder’ or any skin flicks as ‘bold cinema’, but real boldness would be when a director makes a film on suicides by farmers in Vidarbha, Maharashtra this year due to crop failure, or the condition of farmers in the absence of a good monsoon in the arid states of India.

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