''Jhinder Bondi'' () is a 1961 Indian

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

-language

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

action-adventure film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as ...

co-written and directed by

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

. Produced by Bholanath Roy under his banner B. N. Productions, the film was based on

Saradindu Bandyopadhyay Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (30 March 1899 – 22 September 1970) was an Indian Bengali-language writer. He was actively involved with Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. The creator of the Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi, Sharadindu compos ...

's novel of the same name, which itself was adapted from the 1894 novel ''

The Prisoner of Zenda ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' is an 1894 adventure novel by Anthony Hope, in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in o ...

'' by

Anthony Hope Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins (9 February 1863 – 8 July 1933), better known as Anthony Hope, was a British novelist and playwright. He was a prolific writer, especially of adventure novels but he is remembered predominantly for only two books: ''T ...

. It stars

Uttam Kumar Uttam Kumar (born Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay; 3 September 1926 – 24 July 1980), widely known as Mahanayak (), was an Indian film actor, producer, director, screenwriter, composer, and playback singer who predominantly worked in Bengali cinema ...

in a triple roles, alongside an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

Soumitra Chatterjee Soumitra Chatterjee (also spelt as Chattopadhyay; ; 19 January 193515 November 2020) was an Indian film actor, play-director, playwright, writer, thespian and poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the histor ...

Arundhati Devi Arundhati Devi (; also known as Arundhati Mukherjee or Mukhopadhyay) (1924 – 1990) was an Indian actress, director, writer and singer who is predominantly known for her work in Bengali cinema. Arundhati Devi was a student of Visva-Bharati Un ...

Tarun Kumar Tarun Kumar (born 8 January 1983) is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema, with appearances in a few Tamil and Malayalam films. Tarun began his career as a child actor and received the National Film Award for Bes ...

, Dilip Roy, Radhamohan Bhattacharya and

Sandhya Roy Sandhya Roy is an Indian actress and politician. One of the most successful actresses of Bengali cinema, she reigned as a leading actress for approximately 30 years. She has received numerous awards including four BFJA Awards and a Filmfare A ...

in lead roles. The film plots an ordinary

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

living person named 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 latters appeared together. It was predominantly shot in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

, with portions shot in

and

Jodhpur Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...

. Sinha himself wrote the screenplay and Pijush Basu wrote its dialogues. Music of the film is composed by

Ali Akbar Khan Ali Akbar Khan (14 April 192218 June 2009) was an Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod. Trained as a classical musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin 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 A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, book ...

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 (

and

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 ...

) film '' Bandie'' starring Uttam Kumar himself.

Plot

A person comes to meet Gauri Shankar Roy, who lives in

. He introduces himself as a 'fauji Sardar' (Chief of the Armed Forces) of Jhind, a small kingdom in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

. He says that the to-be King of Jhind, Shankar Singh, was found missing from the kingdom right before his coronation; this is a conspiracy by his brother Udit Singh, who wants the kingdom for himself. Earlier, too, there were two occasions when a coronation was arranged, but on both occasions, the King was found missing. Udit is a cruel man, unfit to be a good king. Shankar Singh has his vices too, but is a kind-hearted person who would care for his citizens and is thus worthy to be king. Now, coincidentally, Gauri looks exactly like Shankar Singh. This being the last hope, the fauji Sardar requests him to pretend to be the King for the coronation until the real King can be found. Gauri agrees. The two set off for Jhind. Things aren't easy at the Palace in Jhind. Despite the great luxury of a kingly life, Gauri is constantly threatened by Udit and his friend, the dashingly handsome but evil Mayurvahan. The coronation however takes place successfully; moreover, the pretend King becomes engaged to Rani Kasturi Bai on the occasion. Despite the situation becoming more and more tense, with the life of the King at stake, a romance blooms between Kasturi Bai and Gauri. A secret agent reveals that the real King is hidden in a fortress owned by Udit, who will murder him as soon as he gets rid of Gauri. The fauji Sardar then reveals to Gauri in secret that Gauri deserves the throne as much as Shankar or Udit because they were all the sons of the then-

Dewan ''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the el ...

of Jhind, Kali Shankar Roy. The then-king being issueless, adopted Shankar and Udit as sons. After a secret entry to the fortress where the King is being held prisoner, Gauri fights a battle with Mayurvahan, finally killing him as well as surprising and killing Udit. As he approaches his look-alike Shankar Singh, he has a momentary desire to kill the King and gain the kingdom for himself, he being as deserving by blood as Shankar Singh; but his humanity wins over and he approaches the King respectfully, addressing him as "Your Highness". He then bids a last goodbye to Kasturi Bai and mounts a horse to head back to Kolkata.

Cast

Soundtrack

Production

The film is based on the novel of

Saradindu Bandopadhyay Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (30 March 1899 – 22 September 1970) was an Indian Bengali-language writer. He was actively involved with Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood. The creator of the Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi, Sharadindu comp ...

of a same name which he itself rewrite of famous English novel Prisoner of Jenda. For the first time two legendary actor of Bengali cinema Uttam and Soumitra worked together. This is the second work with

for both the actors. The film shooting held in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

and also shoot in

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

and

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

. Uttam Kumar played duel role for the second time in his career after Tasher Ghar in 1957. Before starting work on the film, director Tapan Sinha told Uttam to learn ride a horse. Then Uttam used to get up at five in the morning and learning the ride his horse in the field. Seeing him during the shooting, Tapan Sinha felt that this hero is not Uttamkumar, he look like a horse-rider. Also need to learn

swordplay Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to an ...

for the film. Utram also agreed to that. Tapan Sinha then brought in a foreigner called

Massey Taylor Massey may refer to: Places Canada * Massey, Ontario * Massey Island, Nunavut New Zealand * Massey, New Zealand, an Auckland suburb United States * Massey, Alabama * Massey, Iowa * Massey, Maryland People * Massey (surname) Educati ...

who is an Olympic champion. Uttam copied Massey's movements exactly the director even Massey himself was shocked on Uttam's talent, skill and dedication.

Reception

The film regarded as one of the greatest Bengali film ever made. Uttam Kumar played one of the most popular duel role and gave one of the finest performance in his career. But in a 2013 review in the ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' wrote "Here Soumitra was the antagonist and to some extent overshadowed protagonist Uttam Kumar. After ‘Jhinder Bondi’, many even fell in love with an antagonist Mayurbahon more than the protagonist Shankar Singh." The film became superhit at the box office.

References

External links

*
Jhinder Bondi - Movie Profile (Seventymm)
{{Tapan Sinha 1961 films 1960s Indian films 1960s Bengali-language films 1960s action adventure films 1960s historical adventure films 1961 action films 1961 drama films Bengali-language Indian films Bengali-language action adventure films Bengali-language historical action films Films directed by Tapan Sinha Films based on works by Anthony Hope Films based on works by Saradindu Bandopadhyay Films based on Indian novels Films based on The Prisoner of Zenda Indian black-and-white films Indian historical drama films Indian action films Indian swashbuckler films Indian action adventure films Indian historical adventure films Indian historical action films Films about twins Films about twin brothers Films set in Kolkata Films shot in Kolkata Films about lookalikes Films set in Madhya Pradesh Films shot in Madhya Pradesh Films about kings Films about royalty