Bees Saal Baad

The movie is a murder mystery Starring Biswajit and Wahida Rahman with Sajjan, Asit Sen, Manmohan Krishna and Madan Puri playing supportive roles. This movie will always be remembered for it's melodious voice of Great Hemant Kumar. Movie is nice and gripping although looses it's plot in showing love story of the lead stars. Acting by then newcomer Biswajit is great. Waheeda Rehman tries to act innocent which sometimes irritates. Support staff specially Sajjan is very good. Music and songs are all time hits. Overall a nice movie

Vijay returns to his hometown only to be warned to stay away due to a vengeful spirit responsible for killing his ancestors. But Vijay decides to investigate the matter and hires a private detective.

An adaptation of Conon Doyle's Hounds of the Baskerville, Bees Saal baad takes elements from the novel, for one there's no Sherlock Holmes ( that's if you think Jasoos gopichand is an expert detective). Secondly, the focus is on the grandson who inherited a mansion from his grandfather-a scoundrel who raped a village belle - and is hearing the ghost of the village belle, and is romancing another village belle played by Waheeda Rahman. There are classic songs, and light moments in between the atmospheric and eerie parts. It's a well-executed, captiving film with the kind of moodiness that would make Val Lewton proud.

It might be an old black & white film, but modern filmmakers could never make something like this, and would probably put a whole load of gore to compensate a lack of story-telling finesse.

The main character of the film Biswajeet got the role by chance.This role was supposed to perform by the top Bengali film actor Uttam Kumar,who was the closest friend of the producer Hemanta ,but romantic hero Uttam did not like the character as anti hero and demanded to change the script but Hemanta did not listen to him and recruited another aspiring Bengali actor (who was introduced by Uttam Kumar.....what an irony) Biswajeet...and rest is history,the film was considered as Super Hit.

Bees Saal Baad (1962) : Brief Review -

Takes the soul from Doyle's legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles to build a whole new body of its own. 60 saal baad, still the best in the business. The first ever film in Basil Rathbone's iconic series, "Sherlock Holmes," was based on Arthur Doyle's material, and then Hemant Kumar took the soul of it and made a fresh body of his own in Bengali cinema in the 1950s. Biren Nag remade it and gave it perfect commercial packaging to serve audiences with one of the most popular horror mysteries of all time. I saw this film back in college almost a decade ago; I wasn't aware of old Hollywood movies then. Now, when I rewatched it and realised how much of its content was borrowed, I decided to review it again. Firstly, the title-Bees Saal Baad. Such an apt title to set the mood for a horror movie, and so relatable to the content. Kumar arrived in Chandanghat after 20 years, hence "Bees Saal Baad." The doctor thrills you with an amazing dialogue in the beginning: "Chandaghat ne koi bimari se nahin marta. Maar Diya jata hai." So fukking haunting! Then we have "Kahin Deep Jale," which can be called the greatest horror song of all time, with the only other competitor to argue being "Gumnaam hai Koi." Truly iconic. Hemant Kumar gave another iconic song, but this time a romantic number: "Bekarar Karke Hume." Every character is under suspicion for being the murderer, and the kind of getups they have actually make them look like killers. That frame when we see the House aide for the first time-that zoom-in and horrifying background score. A perfect horror setup. Additionally, Kahin Deeo Jale takes place in a farm at night, with a girl singing and her ghungroo making that sound. The crippled man, the doctor, the naukar, the haveli, the backdoor, the quagmire root, and every single thing in the art of design is highly useful and tactically powerful. When will we get to see something like this again? It's been 60 years already.

RATING - 7.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

Very atmospheric horror thriller! A man movies into the ancestral mansion where his father and grandfather had been murdered years earlier. Soon he hers the cries of a ghost woman who seems intent on his death!

Bees Saal Baad is very reminiscent of Universal's 1930s horror film or perhaps Val Lewton's moody horrors of the 1940s. Filmed in black and white the whole film has an effectively eerie quality.

Biswajeet and Waheeda Rehman work very well together and the songs are all 1st rate!

Highly recommended!