Ashutosh Gowariker loves challenging movie-making. After making epics like Lagaan [ Images ], Swades [ Images ] and Jodhaa Akbar [ Images ], he switched to frothy romantic comedy with his forthcoming What's Your Raashee.
He has now switched right back to serious cinema. The director plans a film on the Chittagong Uprising of the early 1930s, starring Abhishek Bachchan [ Images ].
Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is based on newspaper editor Manini Chatterjee's book, Do and Die: The Chittagong Uprising: 1930-34 (Penguin).
The book, published in December 1999, highlights the heroism of Indians who spearheaded the Chittagong armoury raid. It won the Bengali literary award, the Rabindra Puroskar, in 2000.
In a telephone conversation with rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra from her office in New Delhi [ Images ], Chatterjee tells us what we can expect from Gowariker's film:
About the Chittagong Uprising
"Many would not know that the Chittagong Uprising had a direct link with the non-violent freedom movement led by Mahatma Gandhi [ Images ]. All six leaders of the raid -- Surjya Sen, Nirmal Chandra Sen, Lokenath Bal, Ambika Chakrabarti, Ananta Singh and Ganesh Ghosh -- took part in the Gandhi-led Civil Disobedience movement of 1919."
"Thoroughly disgruntled by Gandhiji's decision to call off the movement in 1922 in the wake of the Chauri Chaura incident, these leaders, in their individual capacity as members of the district Congress committee and other mass fronts of the Congress, planned and trained for the armed attack on the Chittagong armoury, police headquarters and European club on April 18, 1930."
"The architects of the rebellion hoped it would yield them a sufficiently large quantity of arms and ammunition and that it would pave the way for a general uprising. The master planners also formed an 'army' comprising teenage recruits who were given rigorous training to take on their enemies -- the British
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment