Do Beegha Zameen:Textualizing Subalterns in Post-Independence Indian Cinema

Indian cinema is the cultural capital of the country. It has evolved from various stages since independence and has a wider reception than other artistic exercises in India like literature. The present paper studies the important landmark in the Indian cinematic tradition adopting the neo-realism of the Italian cinema characterizing rebellion of the subalterns, which in this case, is by the migrant labourers studied as inland diaspora in the film Do Beegha Zameen directed by Bimal Roy, the architect of modern Indian cinema. The dialectics of subalterns is probed within the framework of the diaspora in general with its attendant features like longings, nostalgia and spiritual angst. Shambhu, the protagonist in the movie, sets out to get his land released from local landlord landing in Calcutta as a migrant labourer. The travails of Shambhu and his son along with host of such subalterns and marginalized subjectivities critiques the implications of such an existence. Along with this, the paper also encapsulates and comments upon the ability of the cinema to render the human experiences in a unique way through its technocratic quotient and imagistic jugglery which enthralls the audience like literature. The critical commentary is literary in the paper since a close nexus between the two can't be negated.