by GARGA CHATTERJEE
August is the month of state-funded high patriotism in the subcontinent. In my childhood, “patriotic” films would be shown on the state television channel. This “patriotic” genre has continued and still produces many films. Recently, Bedobroto Pain has made a film on the valiant rebellion in Chittagong that was led in 1930 by ‘Masterda’ Shurjo Sen. The film is simply called ‘Chittagong’. A few years ago, there was another film on the same topic called ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey’. The language in both films is Hindustani, excepting the utterances of some Firangi characters. And this set me thinking, even though August is not be the best month to think about such things…
Chittagong now falls under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Bangladesh and before that was under the jurisdiction of the government of pre-71 Pakistan. The Indian Union has never had jurisdiction over an inch of the soil on which large parts of the 1930 story is set. But, for a certain kind of audience that Bollywood caters to, this location and its people can be mangled partially to make it palatable and understandable to a Hindustani audience. The audience can also conceive, with some stretch of its imagination, of some place called ‘Chittagong’ where people speak Hindustani as they fight the British. Of course, Shurjo Sen and his compatriots largely spoke Bengali and Chittagonian, but that is immaterial. What is important is that Shurjo Sen and Chittagong can now be packaged, with some cinematographic flourishes, for a Hindustani audience.
The Friday Times for more