It’s funny how the mind forms associations that go like a grasshopper from one link to another. Sometimes my choice of which movie to watch is decided by a song that I heard earlier in the day, at other times it can be a snippet of conversation or even a book.
Of late, I’ve been reading a couple of books set during the British Raj. So today i burrowed into my collection of DVDs and pulled out ‘Shatranj ke Khilari’ which is set in the year 1856, just before the revolt of 1857.
Based on a short story by Munshi Premchand and directed by the master himself- Satyajit Ray, the film can need no better credentials. Each and every aspect of the story and setting is beautifully detailed. One can only marvel at the enormous amount of research that must have gone into getting the costumes, the homes and the language of that period just right.
From the opening scene, the viewers knows that they are in safe hands as they are taken slowly but surely through that time in history when the kingdom of Avadh was annexed by the British and its ruler – Nawab Wajid Ali Shah forced to abdicate the throne. The scheming machinations of Lord Dalhousie and General Outram run parallel to the lives of two nawabs, Mirza Sajid Ali (Sanjeev Kumar) and Mir Roshan Ali (Saeed Jaffrey). These two wealthy men live a life of idle comfort, the only action in their lives being numerous games of chess that they play endlessly, day after day. Mirza Sajid Ali’s wife is neglected and resentful of his passion for the game, whereas Mir Roshan Ali’s Begum is happy to spend her time with her handsome young nephew. All of them are so caught up in their lives that they are oblivious to the political turmoil taking place around them.
The story is smoothly narrated by Amitabh Bachchan, whose tone carries just the right inflection of sarcasm when he talks about Lord Dalhousie annexing various kingdoms and gulping them down as though they were so many cherries. Avadh is the final cherry on Lord Dalhousie’s plate.
Then there’s Richard Attenborough in the role of the smug and superior General Outram, whose task it is to get the Nawab to sign a new treaty in which he agrees to abdicate his kingdom. The British had their nerve, to enter the territories, annex them on flimsy pretexts with the sole motive of filling the coffers of the treasury back home and then also sit in judgement over the ‘natives’ their rulers and their habits. I must say Tom Alter as Outram’s aide-de-camp was remarkable in the command he had over Urdu and how effortlessly he switched between it and English. The film uses three languages effectively, Urdu for the noblemen of Lucknow, English for the Brits and the Awadhi dialect for the locals.
Another impressive performance is that of Amjad Khan as the artistic, poetry loving but ineffective ruler Wajid Ali Shah. What a transformation from his best known role of Gabbar Singh. It’s amusing that in this film Gabbar and Thakur never come face to face! The scene where Amjad Khan as the nawab takes off his ‘taj’ and hands it over to General Outram, is full of pathos, there is hardly any dialogue, the eyes say it all.
There are also two extremely funny scenes- one where the two shatranj-crazy nawabs are desperately looking for a set of chess pieces as the ones they play with have disappeared. They arrive at the home of an acquaintance, whom they know owns a set. The acquaintance is on his deathbed but the two only have longing glances for the chess set in his room.
The other scene is when Mirza Roshan Ali walks unexpectedly into the bedroom of his Begum and finds her lover trying to hide under the bed. The story that they both cook up to explain his presence is so plausible that the Roshan Ali believes it unquestioningly and even assures the culprit that he is safe in the house.
My one regret is that I couldn’t watch this film on a big screen. I’m sure it is a better and much more accurate reflection of that time than the huge, lavishly mounted so-called historical films of today.
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