April 24th, 2010

Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957)

Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957)

Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957)

Cast: V Shantaram, Sandhya

Director: V Shantaram

Music: Vasant Desai

Lyrics: Bharat Vyas

Capsule Review: Like the prolific filmmaker’s other humane drama Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani made 15 years earlier with Shantaram and his real-life wife Jayshree in the lead, Do Aankhen … is the quasi-biographical story of a jailor (Shantaram) and his efforts to humanize six criminals. As was his font, Shantaram shot this rugged masculine homage to humanism in the outdoors, thereby moving away from the studio- made dramas that are still the norm in mainstream Hindi cinema. The locales add considerably to the authentic mood of moral rehabilitation. The actors, especially Sandhya (the director’s second wife) who is the only female presence in the plot (besides one of the prisoner’s old blind mother who makes a fleeting appearance) are stylized and parabolic. Playing a toy seller who saunters into the jailor’s rehabilitation plans, Sandhya’s wild gesticulations in the fun-song Chuk dhum chuk dhum are a jolting homage to the style of acting in Marathi theatre. The famous director stepping into the hero’s garb is far more restrained in expressing the anguish of an idealist.

Drama