Bandie


Bandie is a 1978 Indian bilingual swashbuckler film simultaneously shot in Bengali and Hindi languages, co-written and directed by Alo Sircar. Produced by F. C. Mehra under the banner of Eagle Films, the film stars Uttam Kumar in dual roles, alongside an ensemble cast of Utpal Dutt, Amjad Khan, Sulakshana Pandit, Amrish Puri, Bindu, Iftekhar, Madan Puri and Prema Narayan, with Helen and Padma Khanna in special appearances.
The film is partially adapted from Anthony Hope's 1894 novel The Prisoner of Zenda, and had some plot similarities with the 1961 Bengali film Jhinder Bondi, also starring Kumar. The film marks the second collaboration between Sircar and Kumar after Chhoti Si Mulaqat, and the Bengali debuts of Khan, Puri and Bindu. The screenplays of the two versions were written by Sircar, Ashok Ghoshal and Jayanendra Jain. Dialogues were written by Salil Sen and Ghoshal for the Bengali version and Kamleshwar for the Hindi version. Music of the film was composed by Shyamal Mitra, with lyrics penned by Gauriprasanna Mazumder and Salil Chowdhury for the Bengali version and Indeevar for the Hindi version. Pradeep Pai handled its cinematography, while Pran Mehra edited the film.
Bandie theatrically released with its Hindi version on 10 March 1978, while with its Bengali version on 14 April 1978, coinciding with Pohela Boishakh. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its cast performances, songs, action sequences and technical aspects, but criticism for the film's plot and screenplay. It ran for over 35 weeks in West Bengal and became hit at the box office, but bombed in Hindi. The film emerged as the List of [Indian Bengali films of 1978|third highest grossing Bengali film of 1978]. Bandie was remade into Telugu as Kaksha in 1980.

Plot

Maharaj Brajvan lives a wealthy lifestyle in Bharatpur, along with his wife, Badi Rani, but have been unable to conceive for Bharatpur, and have no choice but to leave its reigns with Brajvan's widowed cousin, Vikram, and his son, Kanchan. When Vikram finds out that Badi Rani is pregnant, he plots to first sully her character by having her abducted, then shunned by Brajvan, and then decides to have her killed. But her killer has a change of heart and lets her live. She gives birth to a son, names him Bhola, and starts living a simple lifestyle in a Mandir with the help of its Poujari. Years later Vikram finds out she is alive and kills her, as well the Pujari and the Pujari's son. Bhola witnesses this, manages to escape, starts to live with a poor widow, grows up uneducated, and makes a living through crime. After a heist at Ramdas' residence, he goes on the run from the Police and ends up near Bharatpur where he is forcibly taken in by Senapati Raghuvir Singh and asked to pose as his look-alike Yuvraj Uday Singh, who is a womanizer and alcoholic, has been missing for several days, and to prevent Kanchan being crowned the Maharaj. Bhola agrees to this charade, meets Uday's future fiancée, Rajkumari Radha of Rampur, as well as her ravishing assistant, Krishna, rescues her and both fall in love much to the chagrin of Kanchan who wants to wed Radha. Little does Bhola know that it is Kanchan who has lured Uday, by first getting him seduced by Vimla, and is now holding him prisoner in a dungeon, has plans to kill him on his birthday, and then expose Bhola as a fraud and eventually have him killed too.

Cast

Special appearances

Songs and score of the film are composed by Shyamal Mitra. Gauriprasanna Mazumder and Salil Chowdhury penned the Bengali lyrics, while Indeevar penned the Hindi lyrics.

Bengali

Hindi