Etched in history

Manpriya Singh

When director Rajendra Gupta Sanjay had to teach the mannerisms of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to his lead actor,

Linesh Fanse, all he had for reference were a few original photographs and his speeches. “The grasp on Urdu language was another difficulty, but given my hold in the language I taught him Urdu for a month-and-a-half,” he shares, just days before the release of the biopic on the freedom fighter and the revolutionary— Who Jo Tha Ek Massiah Maulana Azad.

Back in time

Also starring Sirali Gupta and Marmic Gupta in the lead roles, the film is all set to hit the screens on January 18. A biopic that he feels is much-deserved and much-delayed. “We know about all the other famous historical personalities in India and on the contrary we don’t know much about Maulana Azad.” The facts like he was all for Hindu-Muslim unity even more than India’s freedom. “Always interested in literature, at the age of 12 he brought out a handwritten magazine named Narang-e-Alam, which was highly appreciated by litterateurs.”

He adds, “Later, as a journalist he brought out two magazines, Al-Hilal and Al Balah, which soon became so popular that the British Government, out of fear, closed both the publications and kept him under house arrest in Ranchi.”

Not that the two hours and two minute long film only talks about his political journey. “It talks about his childhood, right from his birth till his death. His mother being from Mecca, he was born in Mecca and raised in Kolkata.”

From the scratch

To get his background, research and the script in place, it took as many as four years. To get the film a pan-India release of 100 screens, it was a question of connecting with like-minded people who believed in the project. “In the digital age, the distribution scenario is completely different. We also did our research and only approached such people who had backed similar projects before, be it finance or distribution.”

As for casting, he didn’t want to take any known faces, who come with their own image, and take away from the personality we do not much know about—Maulana Azad.

Coming up is another film on patriotism, but right now he doesn’t want to make too much noise about it, lest he becomes a victim of the idea-bereft, plagiarism-driven industry. Till then.

manpriya@tribunemail.com