Advantage Outsiders
With the balance tilted against it, the Taliban regime will soon find itself vanquished.

Lull Before The Storm
Amid calls for a quick and decisive end to the conflict, Afghanistan has been abuzz with talk of an imminent Northern Alliance ground war against the Taliban.

History's Pointers
The Soviet Union's 10 years campaign in Afghanistan — a conflict that led to a humiliating withdrawal and, some say, its eventual breakup
— can be a learning experience for
the US.

CINEMA: MARTYR BIOPICS

Riding on the success of period films like Lagaan and Gadar, three filmmakers are making films on the revolutionary hanged by the British 75 years ago

By Sandeep Unnithan

For decades he was the romantic young face of the Indian freedom movement in blurry history textbook pictures. Or the revolutionary in the 1960s Manoj Kumar classic Shaheed cranked out by Doordarshan with unfailing regularity in mid-August. Now, get set to watch him on the big screen-again. And again. And again.

Bhagat Singh, who was inspired by the Ghadar revolutionary movement against the British in Punjab in the early 20th century, gave the freedom movement the war cry of "Inquilab Zindabad (long live the revolution)" and was hanged for sedition by the British at age 23, is now the subject of three big budget Bollywood biopics. Three actors are preparing to don his trademark turban and pencil moustache and say his lines in the films set to start shooting later this year: Bobby Deol in 23-3-1931-The Martyr (the date of his execution, now known as Martyr's Day) Ajay Devgan in The Legend of Bhagat Singh and Manoj Kumar's son Vishal Goswami in Bhagat Singh-The Shaheed.

The Legend of Bhagat Singh
PRODUCER: Rajkumar Santoshi (left) LEAD STAR: Ajay Devgan (above left) DIRECTOR: Rajkumar Santoshi BUDGET: Rs 20 crore
23-3-1931-The Martyr
PRODUCER: Sunny Deol (right) LEAD STAR: Bobby Deol (above right) DIRECTOR: Guddu Dhanoa BUDGET: Rs 10 crore
Bhagat Singh-the Shaheed
PRODUCER: Kewal Kashyap (left) LEAD STAR: Vishal Goswami (above middle) DIRECTOR: Kewal Kashyap BUDGET: Rs 8 crore

Bhagat Singh's brief life had all the drama for a Braveheart-like potboiler. Born into a family of freedom fighters, he was part of a small band of young revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad which took a path different from Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent one for seven years. The assassination of Saunders, the police officer responsible for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, and the throwing of a bomb in the Assembly building are two of Bhagat Singh's well-known heroics. Arrested by the police, he did not attempt to escape, convinced that his martyrdom would give a fresh momentum to the freedom struggle. These are the highlights of the three films and the makers promise to deliver a factual, if dramatised, version of his story. They claim wholesome research as the backbone of their scripts: if Manoj Kumar has based his on interaction with Bhagat Singh's family, producer-director Rajkumar Santoshi spent almost two years in archives to gather material.

While period films have never been the norm in an industry that lays its bets on action films or romances, industry-watchers are astounded by three period pieces about the same character going on the floors at nearly the same time. In Bollywood lingo, it's taking hatke (something different) to suicidal levels.

If Sunny Deol had his way, there would have been just one Bhagat Singh film-made by Santoshi and starring the junior Deol. But Santoshi couldn't see Bobby in the part and they parted ways. Sunny then wanted Dharmendra to request Manoj Kumar, who has scripted his son's film, to drop it. Dharmendra hasn't made that call, but Manoj Kumar, who once played the revolutionary, is firm on launching Vishal as the new Bhagat.

The three previous films on Bhagat Singh were made over a decade from the 1950s to the 1960s with actors like Prem Adeeb, Shammi Kapoor and Manoj Kumar. Bigwigs like Ramanand Sagar and B.R. Chopra also planned films on the martyr but never got down to making one.

So, do three Bhagat Singhs mean a patriotic resurgence? Not really. More like a shift in trend-two of the biggest hits this year, Gadar and Lagaan, are patriotism-laced period pieces. Analysts, with a gleeful relish of the pun, are calling it "the new Gadar movement". As Sunny admitted recently, a film on Bhagat Singh was always his dream, but wasn't viable until Gadar, which grossed over Rs 65 crore, making it the second-biggest Hindi film of all time.

Santoshi, who had announced The Legend of Bhagat Singh two years ago, says this is exactly what he was trying to avoid. "I would hate to see Bhagat Singh being made into a commercial proposition. I intend my film to pay a small tribute to this great patriot."

Of course, casting can be a huge headache while crafting a film that isn't aiming to be arty but tackles an offbeat subject. Bhagat Singh died at 23-an age when most wannabe stars in Bollywood are complete novices. Sunny, according to Santoshi, was tailor-made for the role, about "10 or 12 years ago". Santoshi has played safe by roping in the 30-something Devgan to play the lead role in The Legend... In fact, none of the prospective Bhagats look much like the lanky freedom fighter, though the once-chubby debutant Goswami shed 6 kg in a month for the role. The huge canvas of the films calls for a mammoth Gandhi-like starcast. Santoshi's team scanned hundreds of pictures of theatre artistes from across northern India for any resemblance to the original characters. Amrish Puri has been approached by two of the filmmakers to play Bhagat Singh's oppressive jailer, a role his elder brother Madan Puri had played in Shaheed.

The cast is just one of the many dilemmas. Recreating India's landscape in the early 20th century calls for big money. Santoshi's film, with its crowd sequences, including the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, will be shot almost entirely on location in Punjab. Gandhi veteran Bhanu Athaiya's costumes for the cast of hundreds and the sets by Nitin Desai could take the film's cost to Rs 20 crore. Sunny, however, will save time and money by turning his 300-acre farm in Khandala into a gigantic set where art director Nitish Roy will erect sets of a jail and a village.

But the cash spent could well go up in smoke-no one quite knows what to expect at the box office. Trade analyst Komal Nahata says, "The first release will have the edge, the second and third film makers shouldn't even attempt it." But they are and no one wants to finish second. That explains the breakneck pre-production. Director Guddu Dhanoa hopes to wrap up shooting for the Deol film in a record three months for an April release. Santoshi will have his film ready around the same time. Producer-director Kewal Kashyap, who produced the original Shaheed, starts shooting for his remake starring Goswami, in November. Smaller players have sensibly backed out. Iqbal Singh Dhillon, fresh from the success of his Shaheed Udham Singh, had recorded two songs for a Bhagat Singh film, Shaheed-E-Azam, in Pakistan but has shelved it.

The competition for box-office bonanza apart, there's a near unanimity among the filmmakers that the radically atheist Bhagat Singh was a hero who hasn't quite been given his due.

But there's a subtle undertext to the Bhagat Singh story. It has more to do with the perceived lack of idols in the country than plain box office success. "Bhagat Singh was a real hero, born in a time of hope. Look around you today and what do you see? Scams, scandals and a leadership vacuum," says Manoj Kumar.

The industry hopes at least one of these films will be next year's Gadar.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Mumbai Restaurant:
India Jones

Mumbai Puppetry Festival: Toccata

Bangalore Restaurant: Chung Wah

Kolkata Exhibition : Life Is Beautiful