''Do Aankhen Barah Haath'' () is a 1957 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by V. Shantaram, who also starred. It is considered to be one of the classics of Hindi cinema and is based on

humanistic psychology Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force" ...

. It won a Silver Bear at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival and a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are awards presented for excellence in both international film and television. It is an annual award ceremony held since 1944 to honor artists and professionals and their work. The ceremony is normally held every Janua ...

in the ''Samuel Goldwyn International Film Award for best film produced outside of the United States'' category. The film is also remembered for the song "Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum", sung by

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar (; born Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential singers of the Indian subcontinent. He ...

and written by Bharat Vyas. The inspiration for this movie was a real experiment conducted by

Maurice Frydman Maurice Frydman (''Maurycy Frydman'' or ''Maurycy Frydman-Mor'' in Polish), aka ''Swami Bharatananda'' (20 October 1901 in Warsaw, Russian Empire – 9 March 1976 in Bombay, India), was an engineer and humanitarian who spent the later part of hi ...

, who refused to have his name credited at the end of the film. He went so far as to tell the movie maker, V Shantaram, that he would sue him in court if his name were to appear anywhere in the credits. This incident is related in an interview of David Godman, who talks about Maurice Frydman's extraordinary life and connection to India. The film was inspired by the story of an "

open prison An open prison or open jail is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employmen ...

" experiment:

Swatantrapur Swatantrapur is a free custodian colony built in 1939 by Raja Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi "Bala Sahib" of Aundh State, Aundh princely state. It is located in between Atpadi lake and Bhingewadi, in Atpadi Taluka, Atpadi taluka of Sangl ...

in the princely state of Aundh near Satara. Now, Swatantrapur is part of Atpadi tehsil in

Sangli Sangli (ISO 15919, ISO: ''Sāṁgalī''; ) is a metropolitan town and the headquarters of Sangli District in Maharashtra, in south-western India. It has earned the nickname "Turmeric City of India" for being the hub of the Asia's largest produ ...

district of Maharashtra. It was recounted by screenwriter G. D. Madgulkar to V. Shantaram. In 2005, ''Indiatimes Movies'' ranked the movie amongst the ''Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films''. During filming, V. Shantaram fought with a bull and injured an eye, but his eyesight survived. The film was later remade in 1975 as the

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

film '' Pallandu Vazhga'', in 1976 as the

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of ...

film '' Maa Daivam'', and in 2023 as the

Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

film '' Jailer''. The core plot line is thematically similar to the 1952 movie '' My Six Convicts''.

Plot

The film portrays a young jail warden Adinath, who rehabilitates six dangerous prisoners released on

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

to persons of virtue. He takes these notorious, often surly murderers and makes them work hard with him on a dilapidated country farm, rehabilitating them through hard work and kind guidance as they eventually produce a great harvest. The film ends with the death of the warden at the hands of the oxes of a corrupt enemy who wants no competition in the profitable market he controls. The film takes the viewers through several scenes that set a strong moral lesson that through hard work, dedication and concentration a person can accomplish anything. It also explains that if people focus their energy on a worthy cause, success is guaranteed. In the final scene, all six thieves became hardworking persons and decided to live at that hut where they learn all things because they think the two eyes of Adinath are observing them whether they are doing good things or bad and they raise their hands to salute the positive energy of Adinath and film ends with the song sung by Champa and one of the favourite songs of Adinath, "Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum".

Promotion

Noted painter G. Kamble was hired by Shantaram to paint the movie posters. Kamble produced a 350-ft banner at Bombay's Opera House in 1957.

Cast

* V. Shantaram as Adinath * Sandhya as Champa * Baburao Pendharkar as Superintendent * Ulhas as Shanker Passi * B. M. Vyas as Jalia Nai

Soundtrack

Awards

References

External links

* {{V. Shantaram 1957 films 1950s Hindi-language films 1950s Indian films Indian epic films Indian prison films Films directed by V. Shantaram Best Feature Film National Film Award winners Films scored by Vasant Desai Hindi films remade in other languages Indian drama films 1957 drama films Golden Globe Award winners Best Hindi Feature Film National Film Award winners Indian black-and-white films