‘22 June 1897’ – Celebrating 25 Years!
The true story of the first martyrs of India’s Freedom Struggle
To celebrate the 25th year of this landmark film, Rudraa Home Video is proud to announce the release of this film in its ‘Modern Classic’ series on the 22nd June 2005! The film will be released on VCDs with English subtitles and each original VCD.
A historic film and winner of two National and two State awards, 22nd June 1897 has an illustrious crew behind its making. With dialogues by Vijay Tendulkar and screenplay co-written by Shankar Nag, the film was the directorial debut of the husband-wife duo of Nachiket and Jayoo Patwardhan.
The film was shot entirely on location in Pune, Wai and Mumbai and is a brilliant reconstruction of the events of the time. The film has been hailed for its convincing portrayal of the period and characters, making the film a true ‘Modern Classic’.
On the 22nd of June in 1897, British officer Walter R. was assassinated on the Ganeshkhind road, Poona, on his way back from a Government house party celebrating the Coronation anniversary of Queen Victoria. The film is based on the events leading up to, and the consequences of, this murder.
Walter R. of the ICS was appointed to take charge of the Plague control measures and had successfully contained the epidemic; but his methods of evacuating the people, of fumigating their dwellings and burning the contaminated articles evoked tremendous hatred amongst certain sections of the society.
Damodar and Balkrishna Chapekar were the two elder sons of a Brahmin preacher-singer and had formed a club of idealistic youths who indulged in fanatical acts of terrorism in the name of religion and nationalism. Their youthful energies and their romantic idealism was further inspired by Tilak’s militant views and resulted in an intense hatred for the British rule, their religion and their language. The excesses of the plague administration and the untimely death of a close friend drove Damodar into a conspiracy leading to the night of the 22nd of June. The murderers escaped without a trace. Inspector Brewin of the CID, with the help of the Dravid brothers, traced Damodar and was able to extract a complete confession of the crime. When the Sessions court passed a death sentence, Tilak assisted Damodar in an appeal claiming innocence but the verdict was confirmed by the High Court and Damodar was executed.
Balkrishna Chapekar was subsequently arrested in Hyderabad but he too claimed to be innocent. Finally, Inspector Brewin persuaded Vasudev Chapekar (the youngest brother) to testify against Balkrishna but in an outburst of violence there occurred two more murders, two attempted murders and finally the trials and executions of all the three assassins – Balkrishna, Vasudev and (his friend) Ranade.
The Chapekar brothers and Ranade created one of the most eventful periods in the history of Poona city and their executions enthused the spirit of freedom into a whole generation of Indians who considered these four to be the first martyrs of the nations freedom struggle.
All characters and events are real and based on available historical material. The film was shot entirely on locations in Poona, Wai and Bombay in March and April 1979.
“…a remarkably successful first film; the period and characters convincingly portrayed. Historical films exploit one of cinema’s greatest assets, the ability to create a convincing illusion of reality. It is possible to give an audience the sense that they have seen something of their past. 22nd June 1897 is in that sense an honest attempt at liberating history from the printed page and restoring a sense of the actual human experience.”
Sacha Braddel, Financial Express
First Screening: Bangalore Filmotsav, January 1980
First Public Release: Prabhat Theatre, Poona, March 1980
Winner of Two National Awards: March 1980
Silver Lotus: Best Feature Film on National Integration
“a brilliantly analytical reconstruction… combining an eye for color, locale, customs and lifelike characters, for powerfully communicating the patriotic fervor… for using silence in the film as significantly as the few spoken words.”
Silver Lotus: Best Art Direction (Jayoo)
“for combining well chosen locations and orchestrated use of muted colors and an eye for period detail, for giving the film a totally integrated visual style and proving that, with the increasing flexibility of the film medium, art direction has become more than mere set-building.”
Winner of Two Maharashtra State Awards: March 1980
Best Film of the Year : Dadasaheb Phalke award
Best Director of the Year: Nachiket and Jayoo
Festival Participation:
Calcutta ’80: Regional Film Festival, April 1980
Trivandrum, Kerala: Regional Film Festival, October 1980
International Film Festivals at:
La Rochelle, France, June 1980
Montreal, Canada, August 1980
Mannheim, West Germany, October 1980