Information About

Shatranj Ke Khiladi




The film is set in 1856 and shows the life and customs of 19th Century India at the eve of the Indian Rebellion Of 1857 , and importantly the politics of colonial expansion by the British East India Company and the deluded divisions of Indian monarchs.


CAST



STORY


The film shows in parallel the helpless, historical drama of the Indian kingdom Awadh (whose capital is Lucknow ) and its Muslim king Nawab Wajid Ali Shah , who is captured by the British alonside the story of two chess-obsessed noblemen. Nawab, artist and poet, no longer in command, could do nothing but cry in poetic fashion, because the British had already signed with him a treaty of protection. Parallel to this drama is the personal (and sometimes humorous) tale of two rich noblemen of this kingdom, inseperable friends, who became passionately obsessed with the game of '' Chaturanga '' or Chess , neglecting their wives.
The role of Captain Weston, so British in his ways, but in love with Urdu Poetry , is also worth noting.

In the last scene, after which Mir shoots at Mirza and complains out loud "I won't have a partner to play chess with", Mirza responds to him "but you have one in front of you!" (thus making him understand that he forgives him) and he finally concludes that "after nightfall, we will go back home. We both need darkness to hide our faces."


PARALLELS

Similarities can be found between this movie and:
  • The comedies of Molière , especially those about an obsessed character

  • Shakespeare : like in Shakespeare the work has many levels, and concentrates on the individual dramas in the middle of historical dramas.

  • The saying of Jean Giraudoux in Electre about the passion that most hinders happiness: perseverence - "a happy family, that is a local defeat. Happy times, that is a general capitulaton" This is the bitter lesson of the film: to come to terms with defeat, any wisdom can be individual or collective, at least one's fate.

  • EXTERNAL LINKS


  • [http://www.satyajitray.org/films/shatran.htm Shatranj Ke Khiladi (SatyajitRay.org)]