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Watched the film Gumnami yesterday!
All I could think of since then is the agony of a person, who left everything for the sake of a notion of a nation – INDIA. And Indians left him and his idea to rot in unknown.
A man, born in an upper middle-class / wealthy established Bengali Family, got the best of the education, went to England, obtained the 4th Rank in the ICS Examination and then let it go, joined the freedom struggle of India under the mentorship of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, was the strongest leader with greatest fan following in the history of India (may be even more than Gandhi), worked in Congress for about 20 years and became the Congress President twice (second time by winning election against the tyranny of Gandhi’s Sweet-coated autocratic rule over the Congress & Pro-British sentiments and activities, then resigned due to the non-cooperation of the hypocrite colleagues & Gandhi, formed “The Forward Block”, put to House Arrest, Fled the House Arrest, went to Peshawar and then Kabul as Md. Ziauddin, then went to Berlin via Italy as Orlando Mazzotta, Met & Convinced Hitler to support India’s Independence, raised the Azad Hind Fauj by convincing the British Indian PoW, took a submarine ride through Atlantic Ocean, Arabina Sea, Indian Ocean, Met the Japanese King, took charge of INA from Rash Behari Bose, built a 80 thousand strong army, moved towards India and did not let a single Japanese soldier set foot on Indian Soil (as he wanted the Indian Freedom at the cost of Indian Blood only), won Imphal, then went to fight for Kohima, almost won it but had to retreat.
Then the Japanese surrendered. In the same month, HE VANISHED with a Plane Crash – A plane, that is now well proved that it never took off. It is now well proved that there has been no single record of any Plane Crash in that region for the entire 1945. And especially when the INA plane was all ready & standing, he suddenly went into a Japanese Bomber with 10 powerful & senior Jap Army personnel. And supposedly all dead of burning but none cremated anywhere nearby except for one in the name of Ichiro Okura (A Japanese Soldier who died of Cardiac Arrest).
And the story stops there. No one knows anything for sure after that. One team “Mission Netaji” worked day-in-day-out to find out everything they could and put it up to the last commission “Mukherjee Commission” but the final report was dismissed by the then government on the same day it was staged in the Parliament, which means they never read it – no one did. It means they were not ready to change the narrative for some reason.
And finally, after about 15 years of that report, came this film – GUMNAMI.
Its not just about Subhash Chandra Bose – The Legend / The God of Indian Freedom Struggle. It is about us. The Indians, whose freedom he fought for. It is about us, what have we done to Netaji. What have we done to his sacrifice – his own people, his family, his fellow comrades?
So far Indian History has been written in the politically motivated contexts – showcasing & glorifying the Mughals, British and those who help to somehow subdue the Nationalistic Pride. Because if Indian Nationalism awakens of a billion people, a lot will be questioned, and a lot of wealth restructuring might be required and a lot many powerful people may be charged with loot & tyranny and may go to prison.
So, this mystery perhaps has to continue. And that makes this film all the more relevant. The film starts with the so-called standard story of what happened with Subhash Chandra Bose. And then it tries to question the narrative with so many gaps – exactly 19, as mentioned in the film. Finally, it tries to fill the gap with certain “Theory” associated with Circumstantial Evidence and the findings of Mukherjee Commission & that of Mission Netaji.
What can be called as the greatest Political Mystery of the twentieth century is what happened to the most intelligent and difficult revolutionary of all times, the world has ever witnessed. And if anyone is either excited to learn that political mystery or has a sense of gratitude towards the man who actually gave him/her Freedom, then this movie is a must. It is also to be noted that a lot of books, films, serial have been made on Netaji. But they all were trying to tell the story of Netaji. This film is not trying to tell Netaji’s story. For a change, this film is telling the story of how India treated Netaji.
The standard narrative is he died in the plane crash. We all read that in our textbooks. But then starts the next two narratives – he was in Russia where he was imprisoned and eventually, he died there due to torture or assassinated. Or he was in Russia and there he was treated well; he was working closely with Stalin and after that he eventually set for India and turned a monk. He might have gone to Tibet and then entered India through Nepal / China but in any case, reached India and died as Gumnami Baba.
As a Netaji Bhakt (Not to be matched with the other concept of “BHAKT”, trending in Social Media these days), it is important for us Free Indians (The political future generation of Subhash Chandra Bose’s nationalistic family) to know which of the above narrative is correct. And we have to depend on the Government for that. We expect that we are delivered the truth and nothing but the truth.
So, as a proud Indian, if you have not watched the movie so far, go and watch it. And then raise the question so that the Government today, who has already recognized INA & Netaji as the first Prime Minister of India, should also give him the due credits of Indian Independence by correcting the Narrative. But first must decide which is the correct narrative, with logic, evidence and respect.
I would like to let all our readers understand one thing very clearly. I am not writing this article as a review and no one is paying us or guiding us for this. I am writing this as a responsibility and as a question to my Government, to my Leadership at the Centre as I believe that if this government does not do anything, then the next 50 governments would probably do nothing about it and then it will be a mythology too far away from human relevance.
