Yahudi

Set in the Roman era at the time of Jewish persecution in Rome, Bimal Roy's Yahudi (meaning Jewish) is a well written and original love story. The film tells the story of Hannah, a young Jewish woman, and Marcus, a Roman prince. Hannah's real name is actually Lydia, and she is the daughter of cruel Roman emperor Brutus. As a child Lydia was kidnapped by Emanuelle, the faithful servant of a jeweler named Ezra, after the latter's little son was sentenced to death by Brutus post an insignificant incident. When the little girl is brought to Ezra, he pities the little girl and refuses to take revenge by killing her. Instead, he decides to make her take his dead son's place and bring her up as his own daughter. That's how her name is changed to Hannah. Soon a young and beautiful Hannah falls for a Roman prince named Marcus, who is to marry princess Octavia, Brutus's niece. Marcus falls for her too, and in order to spend time with her pretends to be a Jewish. Their relationship comes to an end when Hannah finds out he is not Jewish. The following sequences are of the film's most intense and unpredictable.

Bimal Roy, one of the finest filmmakers to have ever worked in the Indian film industry, directs Yahudi with great precision. He captures the atmosphere of those times and his portrayal of both the Jewish people and the Roman empire is well done. The costumes, the sets are great, and the music is very good and melodious. Yahudi is a love story more than anything else; the dialogues are very poetic and the songs are very romantic. Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari star as Marcus and Hannah and both do a very good job. Kumar is once again restrained and effective, while Kumari looks impossibly beautiful in this one, and she was always the perfect choice for dramatic features of this sort. Sohrab Modi is excellent as Ezra, and Nigar Sultana is wonderful as the arrogant Octavia. Yahudi is not among the very best films of Bimal Roy, but it is still enjoyable and memorable. What I particularly liked about the film is its ending, which is not sugarcoated as many other endings. It was heartwarming and the very final dialogues were outstanding. Yahudi is a lesser known Bimal Roy picture which is definitely worth watching.

I've seen plenty of films depicting the Roman era which include Hebrew characters, but this is the first Indian production, and directed by one of my favorite directors, Bimal Roy, who has never disappointed me. This film has the usual elements I prize in his films: beautifully composed images and wonderful music that isn't too Westernized. It doesn't look like it had an extravagant budget, but neither does it look cheap; the sets and costumes, while different that what I'm used to seeing in a sword & sandal movie (particularly the costumes), are perfectly adequate. Some of the wigs and beards look kind of fake, though. Other than dance sequences and the occasional comic relief (the latter not much in evidence here), Roy's films don't strike me as relying on flashy acting, and here (as in his 1955 version of Devdas), Dilip Kumar's somewhat restrained affect could pass for subtlety. I guess the acting style is more naturalistic. Dilip's wig, though seems unnatural, kind of shiny or metallic looking. Perhaps the intention was to suggest bronze or lighter colored hair. The only plot point that seemed really questionable was the late reveal of Meena Kumari's character's parentage -- I think the character would have been old enough to know where she came from.

When a piece of brick fell on the roman militia I thought we are going to see something like Benhur. Though Benhur and Yahudi were made around the same time and the two movies told stories of the battle between the Jews and the Romans, Yahudi presented a great love story about a Jewish girl( Meena Kumari) and a roman prince( Dilip Kumar ) When we see such a movie we see horses, swords, soldiers, slaves, spears and poor people being dragged on the streets but Yahudi - what a story is this film about. It is one of the best love stories that I have seen in Indian films. Director Bimal Roy - creator of Parineeta, Devdas, Bandini and Madhumati gave us another gem of a film that showed his mastery of film making. Both Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari played there roles excellent specially Meena Kumari was just wonderful in the role Hannah ( Lydia ) and in the first scene it reminded me of Madhubala playing the role of Anarkali where prince Salim was also played by Dilip Kumar. Though we don,t expect Yahudi to be a very lavish film with all the expensive sets but the producers and director maintained a very well balanced visuals to illustrate the story of its period. The music was very good and the duet dance of Helen and Cuckoo was very well presented. I saw this movie in 2011 after almost fifty two years but I enjoyed every minute of it. I give it a eight out of ten.

It is a very interesting film and all the actors have acted very well. The Costumes are very good and it looks as if we have gone into that period. Sohrab Modi's dialog's are very effective and his voice is very good. Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari makes a very romantic pair. The Music by Shanker Jaikishen is very melodious. The locations are very nice. The dances are well done. The romantic scenes between Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari are very well executed. The direction of Bimal Roy is very good. I have seen this film about 5 times earlier and yesterday I watched it again after a gap of 2 years and still did not get bored. The present day directors should learn from these type of films.

Excellent movie....first Indian period movie that I have seen that depicts a foreign country's history, and that to so well!