Do Bigha Zameen
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Do Bigha Zameen is a classic Hindi movie, directed by Bengali film directorBimal Roy the movie has a heavy socialist theme as did most movies of that time. Do Bigha Zameen won the first ever Filmfare award. The movie got a special mention at the Cannes Film Festival. The story revolves around a farmer Shambhu (Balraj Sahni), who has been hit badly by a famine in Bengal. The real reason of his sorrow is that the Zamindar (land owner) wants to acquire his land on the pretext that Shambhu had taken some loan from him. Shambhu has to pay back and hence he moves to the city to look for some other source of earning.
The movie highlightes the condition of poor farmers in pre-independence (and early post independence) India. The society was agrarian and the farmers were poor mainly because of the fact that they have very small land holdings and they were uneducated. The farmers were gullible while the land owner, money lender, and the Brahmins were guile. A lot of people moved to the cities either in the anticipation of turning there fortunes or because they could not survive the atrocities of power holders. The movie has a theme that can be found in works of notable Indian authors of the era like Munshi Premchand or Sarat Chandra Chaterjee.
The most memorable scene from the movie is when Shambhu pushes himself to his limits pulling a hand pulled rikshaw. The rider on the rikshaw offers Shambhu more money to pull faster because he is chasing (probably) his girlfriend in another rikshaw. Shambhu can not resist the temptation, he keeps smiling in anticipation of getting more money. While his sutomre from the rich class which is not worried the least about the lower class' plight. The rikshaw loses a wheel and Shambhu is injured.
In all these hardships Shambhu does not lose his righteousness which is the moral of the movie. Shambhu's son steals money to help his father only to be reproached by his father. Shambhu's morality is the only thing that remains his own till the end.
The movie is notable for Balraj Sahni's performance. Like other movies by Bimalda, art and commercial form of cinema are merged to produce a movie that is still looked upon as a benchmark.
Finally the name of the movie means Two Bigha of Land. Bigha is a unit of measuring land. Bigha varies from state to state. In Bengal where the movie is based 3 Bigha is one acre (4,000 m²). So Shambhu owns only (3,000 m²).