Released in: 1957
Cast: V. Shantaram, Sandhya
Director: V. Shantaram
Music: Vasant Desai
Lyrics: Bharat Vyas
Like the prolific filmmaker’s other human drama ‘Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani’ made 15 years earlier with Shantaram and his real-life wife Jayshree in the lead, ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ is the quasi-biographicalstory of a jailor (Shantaram) and his efforts to humanize six criminals. As was his wont, Shantaram shot this rugged masculine homage to humanism in the outdoors, thereby moving away from the studiomade dramas that are still the norm in mainstream Hindi cinema. The locales add considerably to the authentic mood of moral rehabilitation.
The actors, especially Sandhya (the director’s second wife) who is the only female presence in the plot (besides one of the prisoner’s old blind mother who makes a fleeting appearence) are stylized and parabolic.
Playing a toy seller who saunters into the jailor’s rehabilation plans, Sandhya’s wild gesticulations in the fun-song ‘chuk dhum chuk dhum’ are a jolting homage to the style of acting in Marathi theatre. The famous director stepping into the hero’s grab is far more restrained in expressing the anguish of an idealist.