The enduring horror in Biren Naug’s Bees Saal Baad (1962)

A dilapidated haveli (mansion), the sound of a woman’s anklets carried by the wind, an unearthly shriek in the wilderness, tall, rustling grass in the dead of night, and a ghostly hand coming on to the screen — it reads like a list of tropes associated with Hindi horror films, taken to another level and crystallized by the Ramsay Brothers with their movies in the 1970s and 1980s. But the film predominantly responsible for these elements in the Indian horror genre was Biren Naug’s directorial debut, Bees Saal Baad (1962).

Naug had previously worked as art director on the films Pyaasa (1957), Kala Pani (1958), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962). Starring Biswajit (making his debut in Hindi cinema), Waheeda Rehman, Madan Puri and Asit Sen, the horror thriller was produced by singer-composer Hemant Kumar, who was also the film's music director.

The opening sequence has all the tropes mentioned above and sets the tone for the film with elements of mystery and horror. Adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, Bees Saal Baad is the story of Thakur Kumar Vijay Singh (Biswajit) and a supposed curse on his family, which he delves into.

Kumar has returned from London to his ancestral mansion in Chandangarh, where his uncle has become the latest victim in a series of unexplained deaths that also claimed his grandfather and father. He is warned about the curse, told about the spirit that haunts the mansion, and asked to stay clear of the marshes where his ancestors were murdered. However, the young man is determined to find out the identity of the killer.

Several dodgy characters hang about Kumar. There is Dr Pandey (Madan Puri), who wears fancy shoes and stands to inherit the property in the event of Kumar's death; the servant of the mansion Lakshman, who behaves suspiciously and is generally an odd character; a fake cripple who reminds Kumar of the curse upon his head thanks to his ancestors and whose side-kick is a man with a fake eye-patch. All of them raise Kumar’s suspicion as he tries to locate the killer.

In this, he is aided by the blundering detective Gopichand (Asit Sen) who wishes to claim the prize money for finding the killer. In the largely taut, intriguing narrative, the detective provides some comic relief.

Kumar meets Radha (Waheeda Rehman), who lives with her uncle (Manmohan Krishna), and the two of them hit it off, eventually falling in love. Radha’s innocence shines through amongst the mostly rapacious villagers who talk of revenge and killing, and the romance between the two is a foil to the incidents of rape heinously committed by Kumar’s late grandfather.

Kamal Amrohi’s classic horror film Mahal (1949), starring Ashok Kumar and Madhubala, had been the most influential for succeeding films in the genre and made way for the gothic in Hindi cinema. The spirit-woman in search of her lover became a central trope and several elements from Mahal went on to become quintessential elements in horror films, but perhaps the most enduring was the haunting melody sung by the spirit. Bees Saal Baad built upon these elements and accentuated them to create an effective, gripping thriller.

There is a general sense of eeriness that pervades the film, much of which comes from the physical locations and the sound effects. The sound of crying is particularly disconcerting and is used to maximum effect. The pastoral landscape is a beautiful one, pulsating with life during the day and becoming forbidding at night. The fabulous camerawork that includes top shots lending perspective, and the play of light and shadow, all add to creating the atmosphere of horror, keeping us riveted. Aside from the creepy mansion with its secret doorways, the swamp of reeds where the murders take place is foregrounded as a deathly trap. The abandoned cave populated by snakes is another such location, which, after a while, seems to be treated rather strangely like a thoroughfare by the locals!

The song ‘Aayega Aanewala’ from Mahal is mirrored in ‘Kahin Deep Jale Kahin Dil’ in Bees Saal Baad, both sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Aside from this, the romantic melodies ‘Zara Nazaron Se Keh Do Ji’ and ‘Bekarar Karke Humein’ are an excellent reprieve, going on to become evergreen classics. In fact, lyricist Shakeel Badayuni completed his hat-trick of Filmfare awards with this film, having previously won for Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) and Gharana (1961).

As the dapper Westernised man, Biswajit is effective but Waheeda Rehman truly lights up the screen, lending innocent charm and authenticity to her role. The success of the super-hit film led director Naug to make another horror thriller with the same lead pair, Kohraa (1964), an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca.

Even 60 years after its release, Bees Saal Baad remains an enduring, gripping film, a feat that precious few horror films have been able to pull off since.