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brings out his old debts, which by some
fudging by the accountant, have bloated
from Rs 65 to Rs 235, which he is unable
to repay. He loses the case in court and
is ordered to settle the loan within three
months, or forfeit the land.
For want of a better option, Shambu leaves
his pregnant wife Parvati (Nirupa Roy) and
elderly father (Nana Palshikar) in the village
and goes to Calcutta (now Kolkata) to earn
some money. His son Kanhaiya (Rattan An empathetic performance by Balraj Sahni (left)
Kumar) sneaks into the train to be with his gave the film its power
father. believing that his sin was the cause of his
In the city, they are just another set of mother’s suffering.
clueless, unwelcome strangers and lose even When the three return to the village, the
their few belongings to a thief. After much land has been auctioned and they are faced
difficulty, they find a room in a slum, and with a gate barring them; Shambhu is unable
with the support of an old rickshaw puller to even pick up a handful of soil from his lost
(Nazir Hussain), Shambhu starts towing land. The film ends with them walking away
a rickshaw too, and Kanhaiya works as a dejectedly, their future bleak.
shoeshine boy, with some help from Lalu Even though Bimal Roy piles on every
Ustad (a very young Jagdeep). misfortune onto the Mahato family, the
The task of saving money seems plight of the rural poor could not have been
impossible—Shambhu works relentlessly, portrayed with more sensitivity by the
but it is never enough. Then, in the film’s director and screenplay writer, Hrishikesh
most heart-rending scene, a man drives Mukherjee. Kamal Bose shot it brilliantly
Shambhu to run faster to catch up with his on actual locations. It was Balraj Sahni’s
teasing girlfriend, and the rickshaw meets empathetic performance that gave Do Bigha
with an accident. Zamin such power—he actually pulled
In desperation, Kanhaiya joins a rickshaws on the streets on Kolkata to
pickpocket, but even in the state of such understand the physical rigour the character
extreme poverty, Shambhu cannot tolerate had to undego, and must have starved to that
his son turning into a thief and gives him a that gaunt appearance.
thrashing. The film won awards in India and abroad,
In the village, Parvati works on a and is considered a masterpiece, getting the
construction site, and is in dire straits. She acclaim it deserved.
gets worried about her husband and son, The real tragedy is that so many years
and goes to the city to look for them. In after the film was made, the condition of the
trying to escape a man trying to molest her, country’s poor is not much better. They still
she is hit by a car. fall into insurmountable debt traps, farmers
The money that Shambhu had saved up is commit suicide, young men and some
spent on Parvati’s treatment, and a contrite women migrate to the cities, where they are
Kanhaiya tears up the money he has stolen, swallowed up by a different kind of apathy.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #11 | MAY 2020 47
