“Give me blood and I will give you freedom!” — A prolific leader, who tried to rid India of British rule with the help of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan during World War II, Subhas Chandra Bose was born in Cuttack to advocate Janakinath Bose on January 23, 1897. First given the honorific title Netaji in early 1942 by Indian soldiers of Indische Legion and by the German and Indian officials in the Special Bureay of India in Berlin, Netaji is known both for his radical thoughts and differences with Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress high command and for his daring escape in 1940 after he was placed under house arrest by the British.
The man, who revamped the Indian National Army (INA) was however, defeated by the British Indian Army in late 1944 and early 1945 and the INA was driven down the Malay Peninsula, surrendering with the recapture of Singapore. Unfortunately, he died from third degree burns received when his plane crashed in Taiwan.
However, despite his death there were people, who did not believe that the freedom fighter had passed away and claimed he would return, of which the legend of Gumnami Baba received much publicity. The man, who coined slogans like ‘Dilli Chalo’, ‘Jai Hind’ and ‘Ittegad, Etemad, Qurbani’, the life, adventures, death and mysteries of Bose have provided excellent fodder for cinematic representations.
On the freedom fighter’s death anniversary, here’s looking at a few cinematic representations of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s life:
Subhas Chandra (1966)
Directed by Piyush Bose, the film is a coming-of-age story of the freedom fighter. The film Subhas Chandra stars Amar Dutta, Samar Chatterjee, Ashish Ghosh among others. Bose is played by the actor Ashish Ghose and shows his journey from being a young boy to a firebrand leader.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2004)
The biographical war film by Shyam Benegal features an ensemble cast of Sachin Khedekar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapur, Arif Zakaria, and Divya Dutta. The film depicts the life of the Indian independence leader and the events that led to the formation of Azad Hind Fauj.
Gumnaami (2019)
Directed by Srijit Mukherjee and starring actor Prosenjit Chatterjee in the role of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the film deals with Netaji’s death mystery, based on the Mukherjee Commission Hearings. Prosenjit also played the role of the infamous Gumnaami Baba.
Bose: Dead/Alive (2017)
Starring actor Rajkummar Rao as Subhas Chandra Bose, the web series by ALTBalaji, the series starts from the point of the Taiwan plane crash, following which Bose is presumed dead. However, the series sees the family receiving a telegram from Gandhi that they are not to carry on with the last rites and the mystery begins.
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