Bees Sal Baad: A suspense Thriller Film One Can revisit to watch.
The night passes slowly. There is no electricity in the Haveli. Servant of Haveli is lighting the Chandeliers with the hanging Kandeel. Thakur Kumar Vijay Singh hears the sound of a woman sobbing from inside the Haveli. He tried to find her but could not get her. There is again a female voice that is singing the song and through the song she is warning Kumar that no person has ever escaped and suddenly an uncanny sound of anklets echoing in grasslands. This song is able to generate tension in the screen play and amplified the suspense in the film which has been beautifully choreographed with great light work and shadow play. This song is Kahin Deep Jale, Kahin Dil, Zara Dekh Le Aaker Parwane means lights\lamps are burning somewhere, as somewhere heart, oh lover, just come and see. This song was from the film Bees Saal Baad, a suspense thriller made in 1962. This film was an adaptation of two novels one is from English Novel The Hound of Baskervilles written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and another from Bengali Novel Nishithini Bivishika written by Hemendra Kumar Roy. It was a super hit film of 1962.
From Yogesh Gogwekar
The film starts with a man who has revolver standing in grassland and looking for something. He entered in grassland carefully. Suddenly, long-nailed had come out behind the trees and killed the man. After this, Thakur Kumar Vijay Singh arrives at railway station Chandangarh to take the charge of his ancestral property. He met Dr. Pandey who is local physician. Dr. Pandey informs Kumar that his ancestral property has been cursed from his grandfather days and his grandfather; father and uncle have been killed or murdered whenever they came to take charge of their property. Now, it is his turn because property would be under his control. After reaching Haveli, Kumar gets introduced to the servant of Haveli named as Lakshman who looks half-insane and speaks with depressing words. He tells Kumar the reason behind the curse. Twenty years back, Kumar’s grandfather raped a local girl who eventually committed the suicide. Now, vengeful spirit of this girl is seeking revenge from his family. This spirit will also kill Kumar. Kumar never believes in such story. He wanted to know the exact reason for the killing. Therefore, he hires a private detective but he turns out to be an idiot. On the first night, Kumar hears the singing voice of female but could not find her identity.
Meanwhile, Kumar meets Radha, a carefree girl, who is niece of a local Doctor Ramlal and both eventually fall in love. But her uncle never liked Kumar and asked Radha not to meet Kumar. The singing voice continues on the next day and Kumar finds that there is a source light on the terrace. Then, one night, the dead body of a man who was wearing the suit of Kumar. After the inquiry, Kumar came to know that his suit was stolen by his servant Lakshman and given to the same to his sister’s husband and he was always showing him light every day from the terrace. Since a person wearing the suit of Kumar, spirit killed him by thinking the person was nothing but Kumar. Now, Kumar decided to find out the exact reasons behind such killings.
Ramlal always forbids his niece Radha to meet Kumar. Radha stays with Ramlal and shares a very affectionate relationship with him. She takes care of him and also scolds him affectionately for not taking care of himself. After seeing Radha in a very sad mood, he tells Radha to call Kumar near the swamp where he can speak about her. Kumar goes there and the spirit tries to kill him but Kumar escapes. During this process Radha came to know that there is no spirit of the girl but her own uncle Ramlal is the killer. He did this because his daughter had been raped and killed by Thakur before twenty years. Therefore, he killed Thakur and his sons and also wanted to kill Kumar. At last, Ramlal was asked to surrender and Kumar and Radha met each other and there was a happy end.
Bees Sal Baad established a class of horror film in Bollywood. Earlier, it was tried by Kamal Amrohi in Mahal but it was more of a mild thriller. This film was directed by Biren Naug who had experimented with the neglected genre in this film. It was his debut film as a director. Prior to this film, he was working as an art director with Guru Dutt for C I D, Pyasa and Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam. This film was produced by Hemant Kumar who had also composed the music for this film. The cinematography requires special attention because this film established the underlying sense of terror. A great Job of Druva Chatterjee by writing screenplay in such a way which keeps the surprise element going till climax. Keshav Nanda for sharp editing and S Y Pathak for spine-chilling sound to create scary situations won the Filmfare awards for this film. Music of Hemant Kumar has created a great impact on film. The Song Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil, a haunting and poignant song, has played a milestone role in this film and Lata Mangeshkar for singing this song and Shakeel Badayuni for writing this song received Filmfare award. Songs like Beqarar Karate humein Yun Na Jaiye, Zara Nazarose Kehdo Ji and Sapane Suhane Ladakpan Ke were cheerful songs and shows effortless charm of Hemant Kumar as a music composer.
My favourite actress, Waheeda Rehman has played a charismatic role in this film. With her beauty, she has presented innocent flirtations with Biswajeet who made his debut in this film. This was his big Hindi film and he worked very efficiently and fit the part of London returned man. He took the great pain to overcome his Bengali accent at the time of delivering the dialogue in Hindi. He did romance in the film with Waheeda Rehman with his looks and smile without touching her.
For me Bees Sal Baad is the murder mystery rather than horror film. One can revisit and watch again even after knowing the suspense. Recently, I got an opportunity to watch this film on a TV channel. Bees Sal Baad remains all the time benchmark in the thriller genre in Indian Cinema.
Mumbai
30/08/2020
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