Bees Saal Baad (Twenty Years Later) is a 1962 Indian Hindi-language psychological thriller the black-and-white film. It was directed by Biren Nag and produced by Hemant Kumar, who also composed the music and sang some of the songs.  

The film is a loose adaptation of the Bengali hit thriller Jighansa  (1951), which was based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles as well as loosely based on Hemendra Kumar Roy’s novel Nishithini Bivishika.

After a lusty Thakur rapes a young girl, she kills herself. Thereafter, the Thakur is killed by what the local people call the girl’s vengeful spirit. Then the Thakur’s son is also killed in a similar way. Thereafter the brother of the Thakur is also killed. The grandson of the Thakur, Kumar Vijay Singh (Biswajit) returns from abroad to claim his legacy at Chandangarh. He is welcomed at the deserted station by Dr. Panday (Madan Puri) who wears strange shoes. Both of them are unaware that a scary, one-eyed sinister man is watching them. Dr. Panday warns Vijay Singh to stay far away from the marshes, regarded as ‘unlucky’ since his ancestors were killed there. The London-returned Vijay, dressed in a long overcoat and a hat, doesn’t believe in such things but is determined to find out the identity of the killer who according to the villagers was a vengeful ghoul. He intends to find out who or what is behind the killings, and hires a private detective, Gopichand Jasoos (Asit Sen). Kumar meets with Radha (Waheeda Rehman), the daughter of the local doctor, Ramlal Vaid (Manmohan Krishan), and both eventually fall in love. Then a man is found dead wearing the clothes of Kumar Vijay, and Kumar Vijay must now decide to stay away from his new residence, or continue to live there, and fear for his life everyday until death.

The direction from Nag is very good because he allows the facial expressions to be seen to a strong effect throughout, while also keeping a mixed atmosphere and a mixed tone happening as well and the script is written to a decent standard by Dhruva Chatterjee as he makes the movie good to follow.

The camera, editing and sound stand out best in terms of the technical aspects, because the camera makes very good use of the locations and also captures the tense and dramatic moments well, which get the edge-of-the-seat status; the film is edited to a terrific effect; the sound is excellent.

It is a very good suspence murder mystery combined with nice bakground music. The song music compose and beautiful soul touching acting by all cast is excellent in this black & white film. Waheeda Rehman’s performance as Radha was impressive, with her eyes conveying her innocent, pleasant nature. She looks dam gorgeous in the movie. Bees Saal Baad introduced Biswajit Chatterjee, already a popular actor in Calcutta, to Bombay cinema. The impact of Biswajit as Thakur Kumar Vijay Singh in Bees Saal Baad that he was lionized as a suspense film hero in Calcutta. His trademark overcoats and boots, with an errant curly lock of hair on his forehead became a fad of sorts. The suspense is also unpredictable

Bees Saal Baad also became popular because of its music composed by Hemant Kumar. The most popular song of Bees Saal Baad – Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil was a thematic motif which was heard four times over, with the last one consisting of just four lines sung by the composer himself. At other points, it is heard in the voice of Lata Mangeshkar, who effectively conveyed the anguish of a wronged woman. Lata Mangeshkar’s voice was powerfully effective as the alienated wail of a woman wronged and unable to leave the moor. Interestingly, the three antaras of the song have separate themes. The antaras “Mera Geet Mere Dil Ki Pukaar Hai” and “Na Main Sapna Hoon Na Koi Raaz Hoon” are interpreted as a plaint to a beloved, while the last one “Dushman Hai Hazaron Yahan Jaan Ke” cautions the beloved that there is a threat to his life in the marshes. The other songs, Beqaraar Karke Hamein, Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke and Zara Nazron Se Kehdo Ji all went on to become chartbusters on the Binaca Geetmala and are hummed to this day and age.

Bees Saal Baad won the Filmfare Award for Shakeel Badayuni for the Best Lyricist for Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil, Lata Mangeshkar for the Best Playback Singer again for Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil, Keshav Nanda for best Editing and S. Y. Pathak for the Best Sound Design. It was also nominated for Best Film, Best Director (Biren Nag) and Best Music Director (Hemant Kumar).

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.