Do Aankhen Barah Haath

Movie: Do Aankhen Barah Haath
Genre: Musical , Drama
Language: Hindi
Director: V Shantaram
Starring: V.Shantaram, Sandhya

I would not term the movie as a cult classic but Do Aankhen Barah Haath is a great movie. Directed by legendary director V. Shantaram who has given bollywood some of the great movies like Navrang, Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani , Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje and many more. He was awarded the Indian film industry's highest award, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, in 1985 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1992.

Adinath ( V Shantaraam himself) undertakes an experiment of rehabilitating six most dangerous criminals from his jail where he is a jailor. He takes them to a barren area and their task is to make the land productive again. Idea is that ploughing will give them a feeling of ownership, sense of community and pride which will help them overcome their criminal nature. Movie is an old version of Munna Bhai MBBS in its core sense i.e forgive others, dont raise your temper, be calm and patient, others will realize their mistake soon. Champa ( Shataraam's 3rd wife) also plays a beautiful role in the movie.


Champa emerges like a mirage in a desert , playing on a ektara , balancing a big basket having dolls and stuffed toys, on her head. Tied to her foot is a wheeled toy drum which gives music to her song and at times get stuck in between rocks and dry grass. Most of the times she maintains a demeanor which warns other to think twice before approaching her for any other purpose other then buying toys.


All the 6 prisoners do awesome acting, humor is used to carry forward the movie and its not mainly through dialogues but through acting and behavior. Seriousness of the prisoners some times depics innocense, many a times they are like kids of the Adinath behaving in the way a kid behaves in front of his father.

Music

ए मालिक तेरे बन्दे हम
एसे हो हमारे करम नेकी पर चले ,
और बड़ी से टले ,
तांकी हसते हुए निकले दम
ए मालिक तेरे बन्दे हम

We have recited this beautiful song endless times as prayer in our schools. This was sung by nightingale of India Lata Mangeshkar in the movie Do Aankhen Barah Haath

Movie ends melodramatically and one is unable to digest. But positives far outweigh the negatives in this movie.



Watch it for:

• V Shantaram
• Good Standard of Acting of all the characters
• To see how Gandhian philosophy was used in bollywood in 1950's
• Songs sung by Lata Ji and Manna Dey
• To see how prisoners were reformed.
• Witty and Playful approach to visuals in film credit sequences