“Jubilee” by Vikramaditya Motwane and Soumik Sen brought to the screen a period that was considered the golden era in the history of Hindi cinema. The country has just gotten its independence, but there was still the scar of the partition that people were carrying, having lost everything in the great upheaval. Many who came from what became Pakistan had to end up living in different parts of the country as refugees until they were assimilated as Indian citizens. Many moved to Mumbai in the hope of scoring a job in the film industry. Binod was already a well-established man in the industry, he had a stable job at the Roy Talkies, and he was the best right-hand man the studio head honcho could have asked for. Srikant Roy was the head of Roy Talkies, and his search for a leading man had just come to an end, and he was all set to launch this man as Madan Kumar. Srikant had shortlisted Jamshed Khan as the lead he was looking for, and he could not wait for the country to get to know the man he had chosen to be the star of his film.
But behind the scenes, there was another story brewing. Srikant was made aware of the fact that his wife, the superstar actress Sumitra Kumari is having an affair with Jamshed Khan, Srikant’s Madan Kumar. Srikant asks Binod to do the dirty work for him and head to Lucknow to bring the lovebirds back to Mumbai. On reaching Lucknow, Binod used his brains to make sure Sumitra and Jamshed’s plan didn’t work. Sumitra had planned to elope to Karachi with Jamshed, who wanted to give up the Hindi cinema dream run before it could begin. To make sure the couple doesn’t take an untoward step, Binod distracts Jamshed. Not before Jamshed realizes that Binod is an employee of Roy Studios. In the scuffle that follows, their car meets with an accident, and Jamshed is conscious but gravely injured. In an effort to save himself, Binod runs away, and he ends up witnessing Jamshed being killed by the rioters who had wreaked havoc all around the city with the announcement of the partition. Binod did what anyone would have done in his place: he ran away from the oncoming bloodthirsty mob.
Getting rid of the man for his boss’s benefit, Binod was the most loyal servant of all the people Srikant knew. And he ends up serving him the right kind of solution. Something even Srikant would not have been able to come up with. Srikant was the boss who would only give orders to get to a solution; the work to be done to get to the solution had to be done by his employees. Binod is the kind of man he needed—someone who would seem to remain loyal till the end of his life. Srikant trusted Binod to carry out all his dirty jobs, and Binod would do it without a blink of an eye.
With Jamshed out of the picture, Binod not revealing what happened to that man, and Sumitra back alone in the city, Binod uses the power he has in him to convince his boss to make him Madan Kumar. Convinced by his impromptu enactment of a scene, Srikant is thoroughly convinced that Binod will be the nextMadan Kumar in the wake of Jamshed’s disappearance and the partition and that Binod is the chosen one for Srikant Roy. Srikant is now the man who knows how to choose the right man for the job, and he can see in Binod what he did not see in Jamshed. The hunger to perform and become the best at his job. Though Srikant is unaware of what transpired in Lucknow, the incident and the vision of it keep coming back to Binod, who is now Madan Kumar. As Madan Kumar’s work as an actor with Roy Talkies begins, success follows him, but slowly and steadily, guilt creeps up on him like a snake and becomes his worst enemy. There are times that Madan Kumar thinks like Binod Das and wonders if he could have done things differently. If only he had saved Jamshed, this guilt wouldn’t rise like bile in his mouth, but with Jamshed gone, he is now the superstar that everyone looks up to. This constant conflict becomes the bane of his existence, so much so that he must end up letting his wife know about the incident as well.
The confession to his wife did little to help him, and Binod/Madan ended up spiraling slowly, which started affecting his daily work routine. A vacation with his family did not help get rid of the guilt that was eating him up. Madan offers to develop a story based on his guilt but presented in a different story and format. He hopes to get rid of the visions and nightmares if he makes a film that would justify his guilt. The film also comes as no help because for Binod/Madan to get rid of the guilt, he will have to face the fact that he might be responsible for rendering Jamshed unconscious, which led to the mob surrounding and killing him. Madan was indeed as guilty of the crime as were the rioters. There is no getting away from the fact that Binod/Madan was a participant in the killing of Jamshed, even though not directly. This is guilt, and unless he deals with it in the right way, there is no way Binod or Madan will be able to live peacefully. Even with Sumitra at it to prove him guilty and his boss Srikant having proof of his misdemeanor, Madan does not fall back or get scared, hoping his position is secure enough that there is nothing that could come close to destroying the image he has created of himself.
But everything just falls apart the moment he goes against Srikant and tries to one-up him at the game he’d already mastered – film production. Srikant leaves the world but ends up leaving behind evidence that would implicate Binod for good. Though the evidence was not good enough for Binod to be put behind bars, with the blowing up of the case and him finally coming to terms with the fact that he was responsible for Jamshed’s untimely death, Binod not only leaves his personality behind but also quits being part of the world of cinema. The jealousy and greed for work made him feel like an extremist, but Binod was not ready for the repercussions he would have to face. He was ready to get rid of his competition but not ready to face a healthy rivalry and let Jamshed live and let him decide the life he wanted to lead. Instead of blindly following the orders given by Srikant, he could have acted as per his sensibilities and let fate decide the path for Sumitra and Jamshed. Binod/Madan is responsible for the downfall of his own career. Even with the verdict in his favor, he would probably never face the camera because that would remind him of what he committed, and it would be wrong to bask in someone else’s glory.
