Shatranj ke khilari (The chess players)

A colorful period drama about colonialism and indigenous culture, the film is set in 1856 at the court of Wajid Ali Shah in Lucknow, the capital of Oudh featuring two parallel narratives. The first, based on Premchand’s short story, shows the interminable games of the ancient Indian chess played by two hookah-smoking landlords Mir Roshan Ali and Mirza Sajjad Ali who are ignorant

of their wives as well as of a different kind of chess played by the British. The other dramatizes the conflict between Wajid Ali Shah and General James Outram who represents Lord Dalhousie’s treacherously implemented annexation policies. Wajid Ali is shown as a politically weak and effete figure who prefers arts to the matters of state or politics. 

Responding to the criticism of being ambivalent and taking no clear side, Ray said, “The condemnation is there, ultimately... I was portraying two negative forces, feudalism and colonialism... I wanted to make this condemnation interesting by bringing in certain plus points of both sides...” On finishing the film open-ended, he said, “These are the same heroes who, living, never shed a tear over the tragic fall of their sovereign; they are now happily dead, defending the honour of their chess vizier. The idea of two friends killing each other was abandoned because I felt it might be taken to symbolise the end of decadence.”

The Telegraph of India

PRODUCTION: Suresh Jindal – DEVKI CHITRA
134 Sundar Nagar
110003 – New Delhi, India
Tel. +91 9810181082
jindalgee@gmail.com

RESTORATION CURATED BY: Ravinder Bhakar – NFDC - NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVE OF INDIA
NFDC - National Film Archive Of India, Law College Road
411004 – Pune, India
Tel. +91 8860402528
nfaifilmlibrary@gmail.com

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH: Suresh Jindal – DEVKI CHITRA
134 Sundar Nagar
110003 – New Delhi, India
Tel. +91 9810181082
jindalgee@gmail.com

LABORATORY: GEMINI LAB CHENNAI

WORLD SALES: Vinod Karani – SHEMAROO
400006 – Mumbai, India
vinod@shemaroo.com