Do Bigha Zamin (1953) (Movies To See Before You Die - Drama)

Indeed, Do Bigha Zameen is indeed a great film..Genuises like Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, V.Shantaram, Ashutosh Gowariker,Raj Kapoor etc all mentioned Do Bigha Zameen as one of the greatest Indian film made ever and listed the film as one of their all time favorite films.

Coming back, Do Bigha Zameen does show influences of Bicycle thieves n other italian neoralist films in its style n structure but its storyline, screenplay n direction shots are completely different from the De Sica classic . In short one can say that while being an original film, the film falls in the italian neorealist genre..But then which film does not fall into a genre...Raj Kapoor\' Awara shows heavy influence of Hollywood Musicals while his other film \'Shree 420\' shows heavy imprint of Chaplin\'s films..Guru Dutt\'s Pyaasa too has its share of influences from the Bengali cinema n literature from the 30\'s n 40\'s. Sholay too falls in the genre of \'Western cowboy\' films...But that does not mar the greatness of any of these films nor does it make them \'inspired\'..The same stands true for Do Bigha Zameen too..

I dont think that Do Bigha Zameen should be called \'inspired\' just bcoz it falls in the neorealist genre...It\'s like saying that all Beatles n Rolling stones rock n roll numbers are \'inspired\' just bcoz they fall in the \'rock n roll\' genre,which by the way was not invented by Beatles or Rolling stones!!

I have read your \'V.Shantaram inspires the West...\' article earlier also. Infact i have commented on that post of yours!! Me just saying that your site would be so much better if the films are split into two categories- 1) which are blatantly copied & 2) which show little or some influence in structure, style, genre or scenes..

I know that Shree 420 lead character resemblance with the The tramp character is talked about but what is not talked about is the use of the \'road\' in both the films and the fact that Shree 420 does show an influence in its style & structure from the 1916 movie \'The Tramp\'.. Of course that does not take away anything from Shree 420. Indeed, to tell one the truth no film is the world is free from references from other films. The only thing that one should keep in mind though is that blatantly copying in toto should not be practised.. To say it in other words, blindly copying the screenplay & direction from one place without credits should not be there... In the end, the vision in total should be the filmaker\'s own, even if the plot or style or some scenes are borrowed coz that\'s wat matter in the end.

Well i don\'t think a film should be called inspired because it falls in a particular genre or borrows its style from another film. If that is the case, then Do ankhen Barah Haath and Shree 420 too should be listed as inspired films as they show resemblances with Seven Samurai and Chaplin\'s 1916 film \'The Tramp\'.
In my opinion, a film should only be called \'inspired\' if its story-line is borrowed, which is not the case with Do Bigha Zameen. The story line of DBZ is completely its own. Now just showing the experience of a father and son in an urbane land does not mean its plot is inspired. It\'s like saying that Majid Majidi\'s Children of heaven is inspired from Ray\'s Pather Panchali as both of them revolve around the lives of a two kids, a boy & his sister in a non-urban place. But we don\'t say so as the story-lines of both the films are different. Same should be the case with Bicycle Thieves & DBZ too.

And by the way, if that is the case that you have to list a film as inspired just bcoz it takes some references from some other source, then why don\'t you list Awara & Waqt (which you label as the originator of lost n found films in bollywood, which is not true at all) as inspired from Kismet (1943), when in reality both Waqt & Awara borrow a lot from Kismet.

P.s: Influence of Devdas on Pyasa is very much evident. A person (dutt) falls in love with a girl (Mala Sinha) but the girl ends up marrying another rich guy. Then a prostitute ( Rehman) enters in the life of the guy and falls in love with him. All three chracters of Dutt, Sinha & W.Rehman are very akin to Devdas, Paro & Chandramukh and so is the plot. The only major difference between Pyaasa and Devdas is the ending, where going against all the norms of the society, the guy chooses the prostitute as his life partner, which is something, that is again borrowed totally from Srikanta novel of Sarat.