Madhumati

On a stormy night two men take shelter in a derelict mansion out in the country. One of them realises he has been in this house before, in another life. In the story he tells, his name is Anand and he is a painter. Anand had fallen in love with a young woman named Madhumati, from a local community. The account moves between the present and the earlier life, each explaining the other. The film uses reincarnation not as a matter for argument about belief but as the carrier of the story. The mansion, the storm and the dark corridors build a gothic air. The songs hold a place of their own in the account. Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala appear in Bimal Roy’s hundred and seventy one minute Indian film, completed in 1958.