This was one of the movies screed for us in Film Institute , Pune (FTII), where I was there for abt a week for interview purpose. I came to know that Mr. Ray was not really happy with the way movie was executed. May be he has got some extreme artistic eyes, but I ve got normal, and I didn’t found any problem going ga ga over the movie....
The story is about two friends Mirza (Sanjeev Kumar) and Mir (Saeed Jaffery), both are ‘nawabi;’ in character, have lot of acquired ‘pushtaeni’ wealth, and nothing to do but to play chess. They have no time to think about their wives, no time to think about their country, which is soon to be handed to British Empire, even no time to waste in demise ceremony of their known circle …
Not that they don’t have brains, so when Mir’s Wife, frustrated by her negligence, steals the ‘moharas’ , to prevent them from playing chess, they find a replacement of ‘haathi’ in tamatar’, ‘ghora’ in ‘aalu’ and so on … Not to be disturbed by the circumstances whatsoever, all they need is a serene environment, a drink or two with ‘kabaab’ and the ‘bazzi’ going on …..
Parallel goes the historical drama of the Indian kingdom Awadh (whose capital is Lucknow) and its Muslim king Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (Amjad Khan), who is captured by the British. Nawab, too artist and poetic by nature, is a vey nice human being , but an impractical man , as far as running admistration is concerd. So when someone is presenting his petition in front of king for his kind consideration, he’s ‘mashgool’ in his own fantasy land making a ‘thumari’…
This movie has been inspired by Premchand’s short story with the same name. Ray saab has changed the ending of the movie. In premchand’s story, both friends kill each other, but Mr. ray has kept both of them alive, n enjoying chess as ever.
There has been a lot of debate among the ‘budhee jeevi’ (intellectual) circle about this change, cause what premchand was trying to say in his story was that, the two man were not cowards, its just that a continuous ‘nawabi’ lifestyle, that has made them so much at ease with themselves that, they forgot their ‘Kshtriya karma’ or the warrior’s spirit. Premchand believed that foreign power was able to conquer India because this ‘nawabipana’ was so globally visible the lifestyles of Indians at that time that they become lazy and careless, so much so, that Brithishrs didn’t have any problem in taking the control of the country.
In the movie too, fearing blood shedding of his people in a hopelessly unequal battle, the king opts to hand over the kingdom to the British with out a fight, singing to himself a ‘Thumari’ that he has composed -
’Jab Chorh Chale Lucknow Nagree,
Kaho Haal Aadam par kya Gujari...’
(Roughly translated : As we leave our beloved city of Lucknow, see what we have to go through...).
But I personally liked the way Mr. Ray has shaped the movie. Being an avid chess player myself, I can easily identify with the lifestyles of mir and mirza. I know, when u r playing chess, u don give a damn to what’s happing around, u can sit in an ‘akhanda aasana’ for hours, forget about food, even try to prevent ‘biological emergency calls’ to the extreme mark, until the bloody ‘baazi’ is over.
Very well written, equally masterfully directed, there is no much scope for error in this film - be it the superb performance by cast, acute art direction, firm crispy editing, wonderful cinematic picturisation or effective background narration (voiceover) and sound. No single scene(s) can summarize this masterpiece. The movie is so gripping, that I recommend all u ppl to watch the full movie – its only movie (apart from ‘sadgati’, another premchand’s story based film) which Mr. Ray have made in Hindi.
Summary : Shatranj ke Khilari.
Year 1977
Producer Devki Chitra Productions (Suresh Jindal)
Screenplay Satyajit Ray
Based on The short story Shatranj Ke Khilari by Premchand
Dialogue Satyajit Ray, Shama Zaidi, Javed Siddiqi
Photography Soumendu Roy
Editor Dulal Dutta
Art Director Bansi Chandragupta & Ashoke Bose (Assistant)
Costumes Shama Zaidi
Music Satyajit Ray
Sound Narinder Singh, Samir Majumdar
Choreography Birju Maharaj
Animation Ram Mohan
Length 113 min.
Print Color
Cast:
Mirza Sajjad Ali Sanjeev Kumar
Mir Roshan Ali Saeed Jaffrey
Wajid Ali Shah Amjad Khan
General Outtram Richard Attenborough
Captain Weston Tom Alter
Khurshid, Mirza’s wife Shabana Azmi
Ali Naqi Khan Victor Bannerjee
Nafeesa Farida Jalal
Aulea Begum, queen mother Veena
Munshi Nandlal David Abraham
Aquil Farooq Saikh
Hiria Leela Mishra
Dr. Joseph Fayrer Barry John
Kalloo Samarth Narain
Imtaiz Hussain Budho Advani
Bookie Kamu Mukherjee