In Memory Of A Master

For a nation that is so doped on cinema as we are, we live too much in the present; often forgetting the glory of our past. A week long celebration held in Hyderabad to mark the centenary year of Bimal Roy, one of the finest filmmakers India has ever had, did a precious lot in reminding the city of this movie master.

Organised by the Bimal Roy Centenary Committee in collaboration with Moving Images, Hyderabad, from January 26 to February 1, the event presented an interesting concoction of slices from Bimal Roy’s work and life. It began with the screening of a short film Bimal Roy doesn’t live here anymore and unveiling of Reflections – on cities and spaces, an exhibition of rare architectural photographs shot by Bimalda, at Kalakriti Art Gallery. “The photographs were shot during my father's extensive travels where he captured structures, people and nature,” says Aparajita Roy Sinha, his daughter and convenor-founding member of Moving Images.

World of Bimal Roy, another exhibition of rare photographs from his life, some of them captured by his wife Manobina Roy, was on display on the first floor of Prasad’s Imax from January 27 to 31. The photographs were shipped from Kolkata exclusively for this event.

That music was part of Bimalda’s cinematic narrative as much as the story, is something that his admirers would vouch for. The innovations he tried to bring on screen while picturising some of the best melodies that S D Burman or Salil Chowdhury have composed were pathbreaking (remember the first ever telephonic love song of India ‘Jalte hain jiskeliye’ from Sujata?). So it was only befitting that the centenary committee honoured veteran singer Manna Dey and actor Jagdeep at a glitzy ceremony at The Marriott on January 28, which the city’s cream de la cream attended. The ‘90 years young’ singer also gave a live performance along with Geeta Varma which left listeners awestruck.

Bimal Roy Retrospective, a film festival that featured nine masterpieces of the director, was of course the highlight of the celebrations. Do Bikha Zameen, Bandini, Sujata, Devdas, Parineeta, Madhumati, Parakh, Yahudi and Udayer Pathey (Bengali, Bimalda’s first film) were screened at Prasad’s Imax and Cinemax from January 29 to 31. Remembering Bimal Roy, a documentary directed by his son Joy Roy was also screened as part of the festival. It gave a fantastic peek into the life of a man who, according to Manobina Roy, believed only in one ‘ism’ – humanism! “It was a spiritual journey for me to find a link to my father whom I hardly knew. While filming it, I discovered how much people loved and respected him,” says Joy Roy.

The first few shows of the festival had half filled audis. However, the houseful shows towards the end made it clear that Hyderabadis gave a lot of mouth publicity to the event. At the screening of the closing film Sujata, Bimal Roy’s daughter and documentary film maker Rinki Roy Bhattacharya commented to a gargantuan crowd, some even seated on the floor, that such a response was unimaginable in Mumbai where there were too many distractions.

The week long cinematic extravaganza ended on a sober note with a one day symposium on ‘Outsiders, Migrants and the Indian Middle Class in Bimal Roy’s films’ held at University of Hyderabad. Jahnu Barua, the national award winning Assamese filmmaker, Suresh Chabbria, the renowned film historian from FTII, Pune, and Maithili Rao, the noted film critic, were the speakers at the symposium organised in collaboration with the UGC SAP on Visual Culture by Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication.