The return of Bose

Shyam Benegal's magnum opus on Netaji aims to resurrect his role in India's freedom struggle

Shyam Benegal

As a little boy of 10, Shyam Benegal was fascinated with the stories that his uncle Ramesh Benegal told him and his cousins about his life as a Tokyo cadet.

The Tokyo cadets were a group of 35 teenagers sent by Subhas Chandra Bose to Japan to be trained as airforce pilots. In addition to an army "" the Indian National Army (INA) "" Bose also wanted to build an Indian National Airforce.

"We could almost visualise everything that my uncle told us about his travels and experiences "" the Death Railway, ships being torpedoed by the US army, the pilots being rescued from the shark-infested South China Sea, the bombed sites of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The tales were full of adventure, and a whole period came to life," says the 69-year-old Benegal whose Bose: The Forgotten Hero is all set to release next month.

Bose and his revolutionary ideas were not too well known outside of Bengal, even during his own lifetime. His contribution to the freedom struggle is barely acknowledged in history books and, today, he has been almost forgotten.

For Bengal, however, he has been the most important political leader in the first half of the twentieth century. And being an assertive political leader with a patriotic fervour no less than that of his contempraries, and his thrilling escapades, make Bose a wonderful subject for a film.

"He was a colourful personality and did a lot of things associated with heroes in adventure stories, apart from being a leader of extraordinary calibre," says Benegal.

Just about 10 years ago, the veteran director had made The Making of the Mahatma, a film on "probably India's greatest political leader", based on Gandhiji's life in South Africa. Bose did not have Gandhi's charisma, and he may not have been able to garner the support of the masses the way Gandhi did. But the two leaders, Benegal says, were very similar in that they both wanted a free and comprehensive India.

Where the two differed completely was in their strategies on how to wrest independence from the British. While Gandhi believed in complete non-violence at all times, Bose was a votary of non-violence in some situations. But at the start of World War II, he felt that British power was at its most vulnerable and that it was time to use violence.

Bose's rationale for war was simple. He realised that the British were able to rule over India only because of its army of 80,000 soldiers, many of whom were Indians.

He knew that if he created an army of even 50,000 Indian soldiers to fight the British, the Indians in the British army would be reluctant to fight Indians who were fighting for their freedom. So he set about the task of building an army, asking the Japanese and Germans for assistance.

If Bose's requesting Hitler to help him is disquieting, Benegal feels that one needs to view it in the context of the times. At the time, very little was known to the rest of the world about what was actually happening in Germany. In fact, the perception among most of the British was that Hitler had done a lot for the development of Germany.

In any event, Bose left Germany after his one and only meeting with Hitler, when he realised that he was not going to get any assistance.

After leaving Germany in early 1943, in a German U-boat, Bose finally reached Burma (now Myanmar) in 1943 as head of the INA, which consisted of ex-POWs in Malaysia, and volunteers from the Indian settlers in Malaysia and Burma.

The INA, together with Japanese forces, advanced into India through Manipur and Assam and did succeed in planting the tricolour on Indian soil for the first time. The allied forces sent in a huge contingent to push back the INA and the Japanese. The INA was ultimately defeated while retreating, mostly due to hunger and disease.

Once the Japanese surrendered, Bose knew that post-war, there would be a bi-polar world: America vs Russia. Along with his ADC, he flew out of Saigon "" and into the twilight zone of the mystery of his disappearance/death.

When the rest of the country heard the news about the INA's bravery and exploits (during the war there was a complete blackout), the response was incredible. Says Benegal, "The British were quite shaken, and though not enough studies have been done on the the impact of the INA on the withdrawal of the British from India, my own feeling is that its exit from India was brought forward because of the INA."

Benegal recalls a moving incident that took place while he was shooting in Myanmar "" in Mandalay and Yangon. Members of the INA, now in their eighties and nineties, actually came to the location dressed in their INA uniforms and carrying their identity cards.

Some of them even had their INA passbooks, used for the entries of their monthly salaries. "These people were in the INA almost 60 years ago, and some of them were very old. It was really very touching to see them," says Benegal.

Bose's contribution to the Indian freedom struggle is still a subject of interest in many parts of the world. Austrian scholar Anton Pelinka has written a book on Bose which he presented to Benegal in Vienna. German scholar Jan Kuhlman has just released a new book, Bose in Germany, and met with Benegal in Berlin.

Bose married Emilie, a German, who used to work with him when he was in exile in Europe, and who became his personal secretary. They had a daughter, Anita, who is a professor of economics there. But while these facts are known, his mysterious disappearance is still the subject of controversy.

The Justice Mukherjee Commission, set up to enquire into Netaji's disappearance, is due to submit its report next month. As for the film, Benegal says he is celebrating Netaji's life and is not concerned about how he died.

CELLULOID HERO

Made on a budget of Rs 22 crore and produced by Sahara One, Bose: The Forgotten Hero is undoubtedly Benegal's magnum opus "" a three-and-a-half-hour film shot in locations across Uzbekistan, Germany, Burma and India.

Though Kabul was important to the story, it was not possible to shoot in Afghanistan, and so the rugged terrain of Uzbekistan served as the backdrop for Bose's escape to Russia through Afghanistan.

"It was interesting to work with so many different cultures and ethnic groups and shoot in places like Ladakh," says Benegal. "I didn't realise that there were so many people across the world who were so interested in Bose."

The film has been two years in the making, mainly because post-production took a long time since special effects were used to generate visuals of wartime aircraft.

Apart from Sachin Khedekar who plays Bose and is working with Benegal for the first time, most of the other members of the cast, such as Rajit Kapoor (who played Gandhi in The Making of the Mahatma) are old timers.

Shama Zaidi has worked on the script research, screenplay and dialogue with Atul Tiwari.

The music, composed by A R Rahman, has an excellent background score, the INA song "Kadam kadam badhayeja", and the Bengali lullaby "Ghoom parani mashi pashi" used by Benegal to depict a relationship between a mother and a son.