Jhinder Bandi (1961)

Original title

ঝিন্দের বন্দী

Directed by

Tapan Sinha

Genre

historical film

Country

India

Runtime

1h 43m

Rated

U

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 4 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An ordinary man from Kolkata is hired to impersonate a prince who looks exactly like him. He must take the prince's place during a coronation while the real prince is held captive.

adventuroussuspensefuldramaticfast-pacedromanticheroicepiclighthearted

What happens

Jhinder Bondi (Bengali pronunciation: [dʒʱindeɾ bondi] transl. Prisoner of Jhind) is a 1961 Indian Bengali-language epic period action-adventure film co-written and directed by Tapan Sinha. Produced by Bholanath Roy under his banner B. N. Productions, the film was based on Saradindu Bandyopadhyay's novel of the same name, which itself was adapted from the 1894 novel The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope. It stars Uttam Kumar in triple roles, alongside an ensemble cast of Soumitra Chatterjee, Arundhati Devi, Tarun Kumar, Dilip Roy, Radhamohan Bhattacharya and Sandhya Roy in lead roles. The film plots an ordinary Kolkata resident Gauri Shankar, who is hired to replace his look-alike Shankar Singh, the prince and would-be king of Jhind state as he is abducted on the eve of his coronation ceremony. The film marks Sinha's second collaboration with both Kumar and Chatterjee and was the first film where the latter two appeared together. It was predominantly shot in Bhopal, with portions shot in Kolkata and Jodhpur. Sinha himself wrote the screenplay and Pijush Basu wrote its dialogues. Music of the film is composed by Ali Akbar Khan, with lyrics penned by Pandit Bhushan and Deep Narayan Mithuria. Cinematography of the film was handled by Bimal Mukherjee, while Subodh Roy edited the film. Jhinder Bondi theatrically released on 9 June 1961 to positive reviews from critics and audience alike with specific appraisals of its cast performances, cinematography, direction, script, action sequences, and musical score. Running for over 57 weeks, it emerged as the second highest grossing Bengali films of 1961. Jhinder Bondi acquired cult status in Bengali cinema, and became a turning point for Chatterjee in terms of both his acting career, because of his performance as the antagonist in the film. The plot of Jhinder Bondi was adapted in the 1978 bilingual (Bengali and Hindi) film Bandie starring Uttam Kumar himself. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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