Netaji's 'screen-marriage' angers researchers

[Guest guest]

Netaji's 'screen-marriage' angers researchers

 

Indo-Asian News Service

 

Kolkata, May 3, 2005

researchers on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are moving court against

Shyam Benegal's film Bose, The Forgotten Hero for showing the

national hero as a "married" person.

 

The five - who are deponents to the Mukherjee Commission probing the

mystery surrounding Bose's whereabouts after the Taihoku air crash in

1945 - also wrote to Sharmila Tagore, Censor Board of Film

Certification chairperson, and the secretaries of the Union, Home and

Information and Broadcasting Ministries this week.

 

They are opposed to the fact that the film, to be released worldwide

next Friday, shows Netaji - as Bose was fondly called by his

admirers - as married to Austrian woman Emily Shenkel.

 

"We have corroborative proof that Netaji's marriage to Shenkel is a

concocted story," Jayanta Chowdhury, one of the researchers, said.

 

According to him, although Netaji's family members claim he got

married to Shenkel in 1937, his application for a visa to China Nov

23, 1939, mentions his marital status as "single".

 

"Despite our appeals to refrain from controversial issues, Benegal

went ahead with the portion depicting Netaji as a married person. The

film was telecast on German television," he said.

 

Two years ago, the same group - comprising Chowdhury, Rudrajyoti

Bhattacharjee, Madhusudan Pal, Surajit Dasgupta and Nandadulal

Chakraborty - had sent a legal notice to Benegal asking him to

refrain from showing that Netaji died in an air crash.

 

They now threaten to move court if action is not taken on the

romantic scenes showing Bose.

 

"If the romantic scenes showing a married Netaji are not removed

despite our requests to the Censor Board and the ministries, we would

move the Calcutta High Court to stop the film's release," threatened

Bhattacharjee, a lawyer.

 

Added Chowdhury: "Bose's family members are out to prove that Netaji

was married to Shenkel."

 

"Late Sisir Bose (Netaji's nephew) said he married in 1942. In 1994,

the Bose family released 162 love letters of Netaji (written to

Emily). Where did those letters come from after so many years?"

 

"Netaji's 'daughter' Anita criticised the Mukherjee Commission, but

herself did not agree for a DNA test to prove her claim. We don't say

that Netaji was above marriage. But it is also not true that Netaji

could marry at that time," he insisted.

 

The film, made with a budget of Rs 220 million, traces the life of

Bose from 1941 to 1945 and the exploits of the Indian National Army

founded by him in the backdrop of World War II.

 

Producers Sahara One Motion Pictures are planning to organise a mega

premiere in Kolkata's sprawling Eastern Command Ground Thursday to

make an entry into the Guinness Book of World Records on the basis of

audience numbers.

 

Former Trinamool Congress parliamentarian Krishna Bose, wife of Sisir

Bose, complimented the film for having brought out the leader's life

very well.

 

"It is a moving film and it brings out the person that he was. The

representation is dramatic, but authentic," she said.

 

"When Shyam Benegal approached us, we knew the subject was in safe

hands. We had opened our family archive to him for research. I think

the director has done a good job," Krishna Bose noted.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1345947,00110003.htm?

headline=Did~Netaji~Bose~marry~Austrian~woman?