‘The Rising’: Tale of Indian mutiny of 1857 28th Dec 2004
22.00 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh
Set against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Ketan Mehta’s film The Rising tells the tale of a heroic sepoy who spearheaded the movement that later grew into the struggle for Indian freedom.
The protagonist of the film is sepoy Mangal Pandey (Aamir) who becomes a close friend to a British commanding officer William Gordon (Toby Stephens) after saving his life in a fierce battle in the Afghan wars of the mid 19th century.
Differences arise between Mangal Pandey and Gordon when the controversial new gun cartridges are introduced in the infantry of which Mangal is a part. The new cartridges require soldiers to bite through their greased casing, made of animal fat. And the Indian soldiers in the infantry refuse to use them.
Gordon assures Pandey that the cartridges have no animal fat, but the truth turns out to be the opposite. Thereafter, Mangal Pandey leads a mutiny against the British, setting off a wave for India’s freedom from its imperialist rulers.
Director Ketan Mehta says that ‘The Rising’ is his first movie in the trilogy that will focus around the rise of great Indian freedom struggle in the mid 19th century. After ‘The Rising’ Mehta will be making a film on Jhansi ki Rani and Bahadur Shah Zafar.
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‘The Rising’: Tale of Indian mutiny of 1857
