William Gordon, The Rising
It would be appropriate to call the movie as "William Gordon, The Rising" rather than "Mangal Pandey, The Rising" as WG occupied most of the movie and had a better role than MP. This is one movie which left me confused both inside the theatre and outside.
"The Rising" was supposed to be a period movie showing the India of 1850s. But it had women exposing so much that I was left confused as to whether it is a futuristic movie. I don't want to get into the details here owing to maintaining decency in this blog.
I had some basic doubts cropping-up during the movie. Let me give a fact from history and then the doubts.
Fact:
According to history books, the rising was triggered by the induction of a set of new rifles into the British army. These rifles required the soldiers to bite one end of the cartridges, which supposedly used grease made from pigs and cows. MP being a devout Brahmin treated cows as sacred animals and so couldn't take the concept of grease made from them.
Doubts:
a) Did the cartridges really use the grease made from cows? I remember reading in my books that it was a rumour. But the movie shows it to be true.
b) Was MP a drunkard as shown in the movie? He is supposed to be a devout Brahmin (isn't that the reason he refused to obey?), and Brahmins are forbidden from consuming liquor.
c) Did MP have an affaire with a call girl as shown in the movie?
d) Did MP actually bite the cartridge? From what I can remember of my history books in school, he refused to bite. But the movie shows otherwise.
I know that movies mix facts with fiction. I just want to know which parts are facts.
"The Rising" was supposed to be a period movie showing the India of 1850s. But it had women exposing so much that I was left confused as to whether it is a futuristic movie. I don't want to get into the details here owing to maintaining decency in this blog.
I had some basic doubts cropping-up during the movie. Let me give a fact from history and then the doubts.
Fact:
According to history books, the rising was triggered by the induction of a set of new rifles into the British army. These rifles required the soldiers to bite one end of the cartridges, which supposedly used grease made from pigs and cows. MP being a devout Brahmin treated cows as sacred animals and so couldn't take the concept of grease made from them.
Doubts:
a) Did the cartridges really use the grease made from cows? I remember reading in my books that it was a rumour. But the movie shows it to be true.
b) Was MP a drunkard as shown in the movie? He is supposed to be a devout Brahmin (isn't that the reason he refused to obey?), and Brahmins are forbidden from consuming liquor.
c) Did MP have an affaire with a call girl as shown in the movie?
d) Did MP actually bite the cartridge? From what I can remember of my history books in school, he refused to bite. But the movie shows otherwise.
I know that movies mix facts with fiction. I just want to know which parts are facts.
posted by Jammy at 12:17 AM
2 Comments:
Jammy I suppose all your doubts can be brushed aside under the header cinematic licence. ;)
Actually not much is known about Mangal Pandey...he is mostly legend. The only thing known is probably the fact that a sepoy named "Mangal Pandey" killed a couple of his officers protesting against the use of the Enfield cartridges. And the actual Mutiny started a couple of weeks later only at Meerut. Using this data, they have come up with a complete three hour movie. So obviously they needed to use stuff like girls, etc. :P
Howz the movie besides than the historical inaccuracies?
@Vetty
The movie is not worth it. There were only a dozen people in the theatre and most of them were laughing at the proceedings though it was supposed to be a serious movie.
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