Part of India on Film: 1899 – 1947
This collection of newly digitised films is part of the BFI's contribution to the UKIndia Year of Culture 2017, in partnership with the British Council. View more films on BFI Player http://player.bfi.org.uk/collections/... (UK only)

Unseen for decades, Bimal Roy's documentary finds poetry in the kerosene can.

Ever wondered about the number of uses an empty kerosene tin can be put to? This film tells us that the kerosene tin is as common a sight as a palm tree and a bullock cart in the “real” India, the rural India. The film shows the production of a tin and the different ways in which it is used after it has fulfilled its destiny as a holder of kerosene. Directed and photographed by Indian cinema legend Bimal Roy, Tins for India was made over a decade before the major success of films such as Devdas and Parineeta.

Bimal Roy’s daughter Aparajita Roy Sinha comments:

“The first time I saw Tins for India I was both surprised and intrigued. We did not know of the existence of this film. Although I knew of two other, much better known, documentaries by my father, this one seemed a far cry from his feature films. When I saw it, I liked it very much. The beautifully shot closeups of a man with straining muscles working for a British corporation seemed somehow to bear my father's stamp and presage his humanistic concerns that are evident in his later films. This short film was made early in his career and he died when he was 55 and this fact clearly demonstrates why he became the legend that he did, and why people still consider him a pioneer of Indian cinema.” 


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