Introduction

Dacoity is a term used for ‘banditry’ in the Indian subcontinent.

Brief History

The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindustani word daaku, ‘dacoit’ /dəˈkɔɪt/ is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning, it appears in the Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases (1903).

Banditry is criminal activity involving robbery by groups of armed bandits.

The East India Company established the Thuggee and Dacoity Department in 1830, and the Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts, 1836–1848 were enacted in British India under East India Company rule.

Areas with ravines or forests, such as Chambal and Chilapata Forests, were once known for dacoits.

Dacoit in Films

As the dacoits flourished through the 1940’s-1970’s, they were the subject of various Hindi films made during this era, leading to the emergence of the dacoit film genre in Bollywood.

The genre began with Mehboob Khan’s Aurat (1940), which he remade as Mother India (1957). Mother India received an Academy Award nomination, and defined the dacoit film genre, along with Dilip Kumar’s Gunga Jumna (1961). Other popular films in this genre included Raj Kapoor’s Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1961) and Moni Bhattacharjee’s Mujhe Jeene Do (1963).[14]

Pakistani actor Akmal Khan had two dacoit films, Malangi (1965) and Imam Din Gohavia (1967). Other films in this genre included Khote Sikkay (1973), Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971), and Kuchhe Dhaage (1973) both by Raj Khosla.

The most famous dacoit film is Sholay (1975), written by Salim-Javed, and starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, and Amjad Khan as the dacoit character Gabbar Singh. It was a masala film that combined the dacoit film conventions of Mother India and Gunga Jumna with that of Spaghetti Westerns, spawning the ‘Dacoit Western’ genre, also known as the “Curry Western” genre. The film also borrowed elements from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Sholay became a classic in the genre, and its success led to a surge of films in this genre, including Ganga Ki Saugandh (1978), once again starring Amitabh Bachchan and Amjad Khan.

An internationally acclaimed example of the genre is Bandit Queen (1994).

The Tamil movie starring Karthi, Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2017) deals elaborately with bandits. The film reveals the real dacoity incidents which held in Tamil Nadu between 1995 and 2005. Director Vinoth did a two-year research about bandits to develop the script.

A related genre of crime films are Mumbai underworld films.