'Hope pupils see Sannyasi Deshonayak, take up research work on Netaji'
KOLKATA: 'Sannyasi Deshonayak', a feature film directed by Amlan Kushum Ghosh on the mystery surrounding Netaji's death after the Taihoku plane crash, is set to have a pan-India release on October 28.
The film features Victor Banerjee as Netaji; Locket Chatterjee as Leela Roy, one of the close confidants of Subhas Chandra Bose, and Saswata Chatterjee as Mehar Ali, another close associate of Netaji.
The film will release in Bengali, Hindi and Awadi languages with English subtitles. The other actors include Somen Mondol, Shaon Dey, Kiran Arya and Ruma Bhadra. Narendra Panjwani, Uday Vir Singh and Ankur Roy have also played key roles.
The music has been composed by Debojyoti Mishra. Arghya Kamal Mitra has edited the film. Anup Kumar Mukhopadhyay, known as the sound man of Indian cinema, has given the sound effects in the movie. The film was shot at multiple locations, including Leh–Ladakh, Neemsar, Ayodhya, Basti, Faizabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and the Sunderbans and Kolkata.
Noted singer Rezwana Choudhury Bannya has sung a Rabindrasangeet. Singers like Raghab Chatterjee, Iman Chakraborty and Piu Mukherjee have also lent their voices in the film. Ghosh had started making the film in 2016. "The rejection of the Justice Manoj Mukherjee Commission report on Netaji's disappearance in 2005 leads us to the crux of the story," he added. Earlier, a group of students from a film institute took up the issue and decided to make a documentary film on it as an assignment. However, after facing opposition and even life threats from people, including their peers, they discontinued their project.
Ghosh said the Mukherjee Commission report stated that Netaji did not die in the alleged air crash on August 18, 1945. He made a detailed documentary titled 'Black Box of History'.
He said the belongings left behind by the monk of Ayodhya—Faizabad is a telltale evidence that he could hardly be anyone apart from Netaji.
It was Leela Roy, who met the monk in Ayodhya, and was convinced that he was none other than Netaji as she got answers to many questions, which were very personal. "There were others who had met the person and I had interviewed them. I have been working on the project for the past two decades," Ghosh said and hoped that the students will watch the movie and some of them will take up research on the subject, which has been very carefully shielded by various agencies so far.
