Tins for India

1941

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 site 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 Bimal Roy — one of Indian cinema's greatest directors — Tins for India was made over a decade before the major success of features such as Devdas and Parineeta.