Bandini

BANDINI (1963) (IMPRISONED)
Producer: Bimal Roy
Director: Bimal Roy
Starring: Nutan, Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra and Raja Paranjpe
Music: S.D. Burman
Lyrics: Gulzar, Shailendra
Approximate Running Time: 145 mins.

Bandini is the story of Kalyani, a beautiful young woman born to a good family that ends up in prison for murder. She intrigues many in the prison, as this woman accused of the most heinous crime frequently sacrifices herself to help an old woman ailing with TB or to help others with their work. The handsome and gentle prison doctor is among those whose attention she traps; eventually he seeks to marry her but she refuses him, not wanting to taint his good name with her past.
In a flashback, the audience learns that Kalyani was once engaged to another man Bikash Ghosh (Ashok Kumar) whom she truly loved. He says he must leave her for a while, pledging to return, but he never does, bringing shame to Kalyani and her father. Kalyani leaves her home, hoping to relieve her father of this shame and ends up working as a servant in a hospital. Little does she know she is serving the cruel and impetuous new wife of the man she was supposed to marry. Learning this and the news of her father’s death almost simultaneously, Kalyani finds herself doing the unthinkable.
Much like Pyaasa, Bandini is a poetic love-triangle tale with no clear villain other than a misguided society. The beautiful song sequences focus on the longing for freedom within the prison, and comparisons with Radha and Krishna (performed by Lata Mangeshkar). There is a thirst for freedom, just as the thirst in Pyaasa. The title, translated as “Imprisoned,” extends not only to the women in the prison, but to societal imprisonment by judgment and lack of respect, and more broadly, India’s desire for freedom from British rule. I don’t mean to ruin the ending, but after all, it is the man who sacrifices himself for his country above all that ends up winning. -Denisse Dubrovsky