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Do Bigha Zameen

Do Bigha Zamin
Do Bigha Zamin 1953 film poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed by Bimal Roy
Produced by Bimal Roy
Written by Salil Choudhury (story)
Paul Mahendra (dialogue)
Hrishikesh Mukherjee (scenario)
Starring Balraj Sahni
Nirupa Roy
Nazir Hussain
Ratan Kumar
Jagdeep
Murad
Nana Palsikar
Meena Kumari
Music by Salil Choudhury
Cinematography Kamal Bose
Edited by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Distributed by Shemaroo Video Pvt. Ltd.
Release date
1953
Running time
142 min.
Country India
Language Hindi

Do Bigha Zamin (Hindi: दो बीघा ज़मीन) is a 1953 Hindi film, directed by Bengali film director Bimal Roy and starring Balraj Sahni and Nirupa Roy in lead roles. The film is known for its socialist theme, and is an important film in the early parallel cinema of India and is considered a trend setter. A bigha is a measure of land area but is not same as an acre, though translating the title as such serves the purpose.

Inspired by Italian neo-realistic cinema, Bimal Roy made Do Bigha Zameen after watching Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948). Like most of Bimal Roy's movies, art and commercial cinema merge to create a movie that is still viewed as a benchmark. It has paved the way for future cinema makers in the Indian neo-realist movement and the Indian New Wave, which began in the 1950s.

A moderate commercial success, it was awarded the All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film, it became the first film to win the Filmfare Best Movie Award and the first Indian film to win the International Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, after Neecha Nagar (1946), which won the Palme d'Or (Grand Prize). In 2005, Indiatimes Movies ranked the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.

The story revolves around a farmer Shambu Mahato (Balraj Sahni), who lives with his wife Parvati 'Paro' (Nirupa Roy) and son Kanhaiya (Rattan Kumar) in a small village that has been hit badly by a famine. After years of drought, the region finally gets rain, leading the farmers to rejoice. Shambu owns two bighas (two-thirds of an acre of land) of land, which is the only means of livelihood for the whole family. The local zamindar (landlord) Thakur Harnam Singh (Murad) partners with some city business men to construct a mill on his large parcel of land, which in return would profit them and bring prosperity to the village. The only problem is that in the middle of Harnam singh's land lie Shambu's meager two bighas of land.


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