Tehelka.com
Subhas Bose’s biographer says that Bengal’s ignorance about his life and death shows how far it has truly degenerated
MANY YEARS ago, just as Richard Attenborough was making his film, Gandhi, Satyajit Ray spoke at the National Film Theatre at London’s South Bank. He was asked whether he had ever considered making a film about Gandhi. He neatly ducked the question: the impression created was that he did not want to handle such an explosive subject. It has always intrigued me that India’s greatest film director did not want to make a film about India’s greatest son. It suggested that Indian filmmakers, however eminent, felt such subjects were far too controversial to tackle.
This is where Shyam Benegal breaks new ground and deserves to be congratulated by becoming the first Indian film director to have the courage to make a film about a major Indian political figure. Whatever else Benegal’s Bose film achieves, it has made India’s mainstream cinema part of a world culture where it is not forbidden to show political life on the big screen and Indians, like the rest of the world, can deal with their history through film. Read More…
