Indian cinema’s evergreen classic ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ is ready to win hearts on the world stage again. The 1953 classic, produced by the iconic director Bimal Roy, has been laboriously restored in 4K and will open this year in the prestige-laden Classics section of the Venice Film Festival.
For the cinema lovers, this is not only the celebration of a film but also of the history and art of Indian storytelling.
The restoration has been spearheaded by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, a director at the Film Heritage Foundation, who refers to the project as nothing but an epic monumental undertaking.
Talking about the significance of the film, Dungarpur states, “Bimal Roy directed ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ two years prior to Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’. Ray himself used to say that Roy swept away cobwebs of old traditions. He introduced realism and subtlety that were well suited to cinema.”
Even after seventy years, the film has lost none of its potency. Dungarpur notes that the issues of the narrative, poverty, displacement, migrant laborers, and the gap between village and city, continue to remain pressing and relevant.
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“The profound humanism and empathy that Roy managed to convey in the film continues to resonate with people today,” he further adds.
Getting a 1950s film restored is never a cake walk. And, this was no exception either. The original negatives that existed in the National Film Archive of India were incomplete and seriously battered.
The crew had to contact the British Film Institute, where they found a 35mm dupe negative dated 1954-55. That was a copy, although old, that was intact and was used as the starting point for the restoration.
Sound restoration proved to be even tougher. Huge chunks of the film’s audio were missing or filled with interference. Specialists spent years laboriously fixing the soundtrack to make it possible for contemporary viewers to watch the film and still preserve its original appeal.
The project, undertaken in partnership with Criterion Collection and Janus Films, lasted for three years.
At its core, the film is about Shambhu, a poor peasant, acted by Balraj Sahni. He tries to protect his little plot of land from developers and moneylenders. He has by his side his wife, acted by Nirupa Roy, who is the epitome of strength and sacrifice.
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The film was inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s poem ‘Dui Bigha Jomi’ and Salil Chowdhury’s short story ‘Rickshawalla’.
Roy took heavy inspiration from Italian neorealism, particularly from Vittorio De Sica’s ‘Bicycle Thieves’. This is evident in the stark, straightforward, yet poignant storytelling of ‘Do Bigha Zamin’. The film was among the first to break away from glamour and melodrama in India. It opted to tell a story about everyday people and their tribulations.
It has also subsequently come to be regarded as a milestone in Indian parallel cinema. The movement promoted realism and social themes. They served to lead the way towards what eventually came to be recognized as the Indian New Wave of the 1950s and onwards.
When ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ premiered, it received international recognition, such as the International Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1954. Seventy years later, it is back to Venice.