Bandini

Love puts the heart into a lifelong captivity, and sometimes, one must suffer a great deal in love's imprisonment. 'Bandini' is the story of such a captive woman, who fell in love and suffered tremendously, spending nearly a decade in prison.

Kalyani (Nutan) is the daughter of the village postmaster, a simple, sweet-natured girl, whose life is limited to the household. But there is something special about her which strikes you from the very beginning, something that sets her apart from the rest. She is someone who doesn't believe that a woman's role is confined to the household. There seems in her a latent desire to be something more.

When she comes across the revolutionary Bikas (Ashok Kumar) for the first time, while others are afraid of him, she is fascinated. You can see her eyes shine to see someone out of the ordinary. And when she is asked to deliver a message to him, she doesn't shy away from the task but finds out a way to do so.

Bikas takes a liking for her and begins visiting her house on the pretext of chatting with her father. In a scene, Kalyani asks Bikas if he thinks women can be equal to men. Bikas' response is interesting. He narrates the story of how the wife of a certain powerful man helps revolutionaries from the confines of her home. So perhaps women need not look for such equality in terms of doing exactly what men are doing. They can do a lot while fulfilling their roles within the household.

This is a very interesting point of view, which is worth thinking over. What is Bimal Roy trying to say about women here? I think that he is trying to suggest a sort of middle path. He lived in a time when he couldn't perhaps imagine the kind of gender equality that we desire today, where there are no demarcated roles for men and women at all. He must have felt that the home does need a woman's attention primarily. But at the same time, he did not consider women as incapable of anything more. So he suggests a middle path.

He must have also felt that why should women want to be like men or do what men do? Is that really equality? Women are women and men are men and the two must carve their own niche. That would be equality in a greater sense. While I agree with such an idea to some extent, I feel it ignores the fact that certain rights have been completely denied to women and the fight for women's equality is also about claiming those rights.

So, I find Roy's view on women's equality not bad but not entirely good also. After all, the women in his films always fall on the feet of their husbands, as per the Brahmin dharma. Perhaps he did not support this tradition and showed it as a mirror to society. But to believe that gender equality is possible even when women are bowing down to men would be simply delusional.

But Kalyani is perhaps satisfied with Bikas' views. She is captivated by his charm and begins to love him dearly.

When she is found asleep with Bikas in her home, Bikas immediately proposes marriage. But he clarifies that it's not to save Kalyani from shame but because he really does love her. However, he is moved to another village and Kalyani and her father are left to face the unsparing society. They have to bear shame on a daily basis.

After a few months, Kalyani comes to know that Bikas was released and has married someone else. She is devastated. Her father also feels completely frustrated now. Kalyani decides to leave the village to save her father from further shame. As she is walking away from the village, we see in her face nothing but hopelessness. Suddenly, she realises that she has nowhere to go. Where could she go? Nutan's eyes express the state of Kalyani's heart perfectly.

She eventually finds a job in a city hospital, where she must clean and wash and tend to patients all day long. But she is relieved to at least have a place to live. However, this is not the end of her suffering but only the beginning. She is put in charge of a hysteria patient who treats her like an animal. She tries her best to gain her trust but fails. 

And then, her world falls apart completely on one fateful day. Her father dies in an accident while coming to meet her. She is stunned with grief. As she is grappling with her loss, she is cruelly mistreated by the hysteria patient. And then, she is shocked to see that the patient's husband is none other than Bikas.

She walks up to her room stunned. Something in her has broken and the cacophony is unbearable. And then, when that patient calls her to bring tea, Kalyani poisons her to death.

The doctors consider it a suicide but Bikas considers it murder. He is unaware of Kalyani being his wife's attendant. Kalyani is called for questioning and Bikas, on seeing her, takes back his theory and calls it suicide. But Kalyani cannot take it anymore. She does not want to see Bikas pretend to be a good man, the pretense is unbearable for her. She cries out loud in grievous acceptance of her crime.

Later on, when Bikas tries to meet Kalyani in prison, she refuses. She feels ashamed of what she had done. She believes that her offense was greater than his offense. Perhaps that's how the mind of a truly good person works.

Towards the end of her prison time, she gains the liking of a young prison doctor (Dharmendra). He is a kind-hearted young man who does not see her as a criminal. She is truly moved by his kindness, and after her term is over, she accepts to be with him.

But as she waits for her train, she once again comes across Bikas, who is now seriously ill. When she learns about his story, that he wasn't at fault, she is finally able to forgive him. But she is now faced with a choice, perhaps the toughest choice of her life. Whom should she choose? The man because of whom she lost everything or the man who was willing to lose everything for her?

Perhaps her heart already knows what she wants. The song expresses it beautifully:

"O re majhi.....
Mere saajan hain us paar
Main man maar, hu is paar
Abki baar le chal paar
Le chal paar.....

Mai bandini piya ki, chir sangini hu saajan ki..."

Her heart always was Bikas' and now she had good reason to forgive him. So she runs to be with him, leaving all prospects of a new life behind. Perhaps, her freedom from suffering lies in remaining a captive to her lover.

Kalyani's choice is perhaps irrational and may even seem self-destructive, but it feels right. If she had not chosen Bikas at this point, she would have always regretted it. This was her only chance and she grabbed it. Long live Kalyani!