Psst - This section will contain some inside trivia about the film.
Quotes - Good one liners from the movie.
Oops - Goofs From the movie.
Director - Ved Rahi
Screenplay - Ved Rahi
Superb epic like saga of India’s most lesser known firebrand revoultionary , Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Begins with his foprming of his group ’’Abhinav Bharat’’., his going to England to study law under his mentor and later his disciple, Pandit Shyamji. He idolises revoultionaries like Micheal Collins (Ireland) and Gianluca Mazzini (Italy). He soon joins other similar thought youth and finds the Free India Society. Very Soon he is arrested and sent back to India for writing Anti-British Books and publishing them. He tries but is insuccessful in excaping from the ship that is deporting him to India Via Marseillies. He is specially tried without any defence and is sentenced to 50 years of double life sentence , ’’Kala Pani’’, in The Andaman and Nicobar islands. Here he is both mentally and physically tortured by the Jailor (Tom Alter). Very soon he comes to know that his brother is also in the same jail but due to stingant laws he is not allowed to speak or meet him. After 11 years he is deported back to indian mainland and kept in the ratnagiri jail. He is later freed but only under conditions that he neither joins any poiltical party nor move out of ratnagiri. After the bans on him are lifted he still does not join any political party but continues struggle for freedom by influencong youth to join the army and ’’point the guns at the british rather then the germans’’. The most talked about scene is the confrontation scene between Savarkar and Gandhi. Although many pro-gandhi lobbyists may not like this scene, it is very well directed. The other worthwile scene is the scene between savarkar and subhash chandra bose. Movie ends with savarkar waving the indian tri colour and his own flag. Superb outstanding performance by Shailendra Gaur as Vinayak Savarkar. The Movie is not in the sme league as Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar or Gandhi but is definately a superb debut effort by Ved Rahi.
Psst - 1) The Movie took nealy 10 years in the making and was fully funded by donations from the people of India to the Savarkar Darshan Pratishthan (Trust)
2) To prepare for his role, Shailendra Gaur had to read many books on Savrakar and also visit and stay in the cell in anadman and nicobar islands cellular jail where savarkar had spent 11 years of his life, imprisoned.
3) Lokmanya Tilak had got Vinayak Savarkar a recomendation to study in England under Shyam Varma.
4) Unlike Gandhi and Nehru who were given Class A prisoner status, Savarkar was given Class C and was made to drive an oil mill He had to make coir and make ropes out of it with bare hands. Even in prison forcible conversions of poor Hindus to Islam and vice versa were takning place. Savarkar fought for the prison reforms and put a stop to these conversions.
5) .Savarkar’s followers in London also worked with the Gadhar Party in USA asking for American support for Indian independence movement.
6) Savarkar idolised Micheal Collins and Gianluca Mazzini. Both Right Wing revolutionaires.
7) The Director wanted the ending to be extended but had to forcibly give up as there would be a possible ban by pro-gandhi lobbyists. Savarkar was accused but acquitted later. After Gandhi’s assassination, mass arrests of the Hindu Mahasabha workers took place. Savarkar was arrested on the charge of conspiring to the murder on February 4, 1948. He was acquitted on February 10, 1949.
8) It was Svarakar who perusaded Subashchandra Bose to meet Adolf Hitler and try to form an alliance with him.
9) In 1925 Savarkar predicted that the separation of Sindh from Bombay province for pleasing Muslims would be disasterous.
10) On Feb 3. 1966 Savarkar decided to surrender to death and simply stopped taking any food or drink other than water. He had stopped taking any medicine a month before that. After 22 days on barely 5 to 6 teaspoonfuls of water a day, on February 26 1966, Savarkar happily surrendered to Death whom he had challenged since his youth. He was conscious to the last hour and did not suffer any serious complications whatsoever. He was, according to his last wish, electrically cremated as he wanted a clean and efficient after death rites. He was the first well known Indian Freedom Fighter To Be Electricaaly Cremated.
11) In 1960 Savarkar pleaded Indian Government to make atomic bombs.
12) .The book Savarkar worked the longest on is ’Six Gloriuos Epochs of Indian History’- This book has nearly thousand references.
13) Savarkar was the first political prisoner in the history of world the issue of whose arrest was fought out in the International Court at the Hague.
14) Savarkar was the only Hindu leader honored by SGPC (Sikh religious body). Savarkar’s manuscript on Sikh history and it was lost and was never found.
15) Savarkar had predicted The Indo-Pak war and the Indo-China War.
16) A special screening of the film was arranged for the Prime minister (Atal bihari Vajpayee) and teh home minister (Lal Krishna Advani).
17) One day before the release of the movie, there was a procession which began from Savarkar Memorial, Shivaji Park and ended at Plaza Cinema (Dadar) with presenter and music director Sudhir Phadke handing over the film’s prints to the theatre’s owner Vinayak Mayaekar. The Procession was led by Shaikendra Gaur.
18) The Movie was granted entertainment-tax exemption on the first day of release itself.
Quotes
1) ’’Hum gandhiji ke saath nahi, Gandhiji Hamare saath hai.’’ 2) ’’Kya Angrez Sarkar 50 saal tak rahegi?’’
Oops
1) The Ship which Savarkar was deported back to India from England was S.S.Morea. The name shown in the movie something different.