Man Who Spoke in Pictures: Bimal Roy

by Rinki Bhattacharya

This book is not just a eulogy to Bimal Roy, the great director, but also an insight into Roy, the man, the director and his art.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

Reviews

[Diptakirti Chaudhuri]

A sprawling collection of articles written about the master director by his family, friends, colleagues (Tapan Sinha, Ritwik Ghatak), actors (Balraj Sahni, Nutan), film critics (Khalid Mohamed, Chidananda Dasgupta) and admirers (Amit Chaudhuri).
The topics cover a wide swathe from music in his films (by Prasoon Joshi and Shantanu Moitra), the acting (by Naseeruddin Shah), the directorial nuances (by Shyam Benegal) to the challenges of filming Saratchandra (by Bimal Roy himself).

A great primer for understanding one of Hindi cinema's greatest filmmakers.

[Jawahar Surti]

"There is very little information available on my father, Bimal Roy. It is as if all details about his childhood and youth are written in invisible ink. And those who could enlighten us on the early chapters of his life have long ceased to be. Writing an elaborate biography, therefore, is not possible."
Rinki Bhatatcharya

What a treat to read about Bimal Roy! As his daughter pointed out, very scant information is available of his early days. What we have here is the memories collected and the icing on the cake is the chapters by some greats like Ritwik Ghatak, Nabendu Ghosh, Asit Baran, Tapan Sinha, Bimal Roy himself, Nayantara Sahgal, Shyam Benegal, Prasoon Joshi, Shantanu Moitra, Nutan, Gulzar... and some more... Each has added some facet or the other of Bimalda... Some chapters are gems imparting an understanding of film appreciation, the cinematography, costumes, music, characters, lighting..... and I could go on... It definitely gave me a new perspective to revisit some of his films with the knowledge acquired.... The flow is fluid...

Thoroughly enjoyed this book...

[Sunayana]

I really enjoyed reading this book as it is very informative and very interesting. It's a must read for all Indian film buffs. But for those who are young it may be difficult to understand if you haven't seen his films. It may be useful to watch the old films on Youtube.
The variety of people who have written their essays on Bimal Roy is what makes the book rich in anecdotes and stories. There are details which are very important for the lay reader who is not familiar with the world of commercial Hindi cinema. The kind of film that were made by Bimal Roy is so far removed form the crass commercial films of the 1990s that he stands out as a giant.
I would recommend it to everyone.