Rinki Roy Bhattacharya: Of behind the scenes and behind closed doors...

Tribune News Service

Neha Saini

Amritsar, February 23

Bimal Roy, the doyen of Indian cinema, in the 50s not just touched upon, but laid bare social issues such as exploitation of the poor, farmer suicides, untouchability, women oppression and more, with his masterpieces.

Be it Do Beegha Zameen or Sujata, the theme that Roy’s trademark cinema introduced in Indian cinema remain relevant despite changed millennium and generation.

Throwing more light on her father’s brand of cinema and her own progression from being a legend’s daughter to finding her ground as an author and filmmaker, Rinki Roy Bhattacharya was in conversation with Prof Gurpratap Khairah at a special session on ‘Cinema: Feminism and Freedom’.

The event was held at GNDU in collaboration with Majha House. Calling her father’s works as classics, Rinki said though now the audience was shrinking for that kind of cinema, nevertheless, his body of work remains known for their socialist themes and visual aesthetics.

“A lot of early works of my father reflected upon personal experiences, his own observations. His films were realistic yet progressive. He was a perfectionist and a lavish filmmaker. He used to shoot only four of five scenes a day. But later, when his production company had to be salvaged, he chose to make a super formula film like Madhumati with 11 songs and it was a goldmine for his company,” she shared. Madhumati remains one of the most commercially-successful films by Bimal Roy, starring Dilip Kumar and Roy’s favourite actor of the time — Vijayanti Mala. She said it remains popular even today as many contemporary films have derived inspiration from Madhumati including Om Shanti Om that marked Deepika Padukone’s debut in Bollywood.

Considered a master of cinema, Bimal Roy’s acclaimed works like Bandhini, Devdas, Sujata, Parineeta remain some of the finest examples of brilliant filmmaking. Rinki also discussed works of her husband and another noted filmmaker of Indian cinema — Basu Bhattacharya.

“His work was quite different from my father’s as Basu’s films were very much his own. He did not belong to the new wave of cinema and the only jhalak that we see in one his films that reminds of Bimal Roy is probably the subtle romance shown in Raj Kapoor-Waheeda Rehman classic ‘Teesri Kasam’,” she said.

She also shared anecdotes from Basu Bhattacharya’s films. “In Avishkar, Sharmila Tagore wore my sarees and the film was shot in our home. In ‘Teesri Kasam’, Basu did not want Raj Kapoor as he did not want any other star for his film than his cameraman.”

As for her own body of work, Rinki is an acclaimed filmmaker herself, having made documentary ‘Chaar Divari’ that deals with issue of domestic violence. She has written several books in the subject, including ‘Behind Closed Doors- Domestic Violence in India’ and also runs an NGO for victims of domestic violence abuse. A cathartic experience for herself, as she was herself a victim of domestic abuse, Rinki has been deeply involved in women’s movement and feels that women empowerment and domestic violence cannot run parallel in our society.

“The very reason for violence against women is that when they are empowered, they become a threat to patriarchy that has been ruling our society since ages. It’s a game of control and power. The only way to deal with domestic violence is to acknowledge it and walk out. Although once you take the step, the actual battle begins for most women as they have to fight social stereotypes,” she said. She also called recent attempts in Hindi films to highlight the issue of domestic violence ‘courageous’.

“I think more films need to be made on resolving the issue,” she said.

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