DRC Cinemas has been my only film destination in city ever since it opened its door in the year 2011. Two reasons: Owners are friendly, one phone call seats are reserved (!) and during the interval DRC’s famous stomach-filling samosa and hot coffee arrive at my seat as by magic. And, one more decisive reason is I am briefed when a good movie is screened.

That’s how I went to see the Hindi film ‘Chhaava’ (Lion Cub in Marathi) a few days back. However, there was also a special compelling reason for me to see the film, samosa or no samosa. That was the book ‘Sword of Shivaji’ I wrote in 2021 to pass time during the dark, dim, desperate days of the COVID-19 pandemic. I studied a couple of books on Shivaji, the Maratha warrior, King and Emperor and wrote a compendium of a book on Shivaji, from his grandfather’s time to the time of his death and a little thereafter, running to 95 pages both in English  and Kannada.

The film, however, was not about Shivaji Maharaj but about his eldest son Sambhaji played by Vicky Kaushal. I wish Ranveer Singh had played that pivotal role in the film. Let it be. Rashmika Mandanna seemed to fit her brief role well as a Marathi queen.

There was much blood and gore in the first part that it made me somnolence. However, after the interval, a samosa and hot coffee, I was wide awake and remained riveted to the silver screen turned into a bloody screen. I have read and written about Chhaava, Sambhaji and how he was tortured by Aurangzeb. He was so cruel he  personally supervises and, in the film inflicts the wound and kills. Well, if Aurangzeb could ill-treat his own father Shah Jahan, would he spare his enemy. I had read that Sambhaji was betrayed to Aurangzeb by a member of a particular community (one history book names it) trusted by Sambhaji.

What took me by surprise was the reel Aurangzeb, as if reborn to play the role, on the screen. I have tried to describe Aurangzeb’s personality and mannerisms in his court in Agra where Shivaji and his son, protagonist of the film Sambhaji, were arrested. It was not acting a part by actor Akshaye Khanna, it was living the role. Yes, there had to be heavy prosthetic work, specially on his nose as was done to Kangana Ranaut in the film ‘Emergency’. What a sterling performance Akshaye Khanna has delivered! It was too real for me to believe. It was like a character played by the actor after a ‘parakaya pravesha,’ we have heard about Adi Shankaracharya in another context and time.

It was a complex role and so difficult to deliver. But Akshaye Khanna’s was a performance par excellence sans a single flaw. For me it was as though the real Aurangzeb had come down to earth, from wherever he was, to play the reel-life role! I wanted to see him again and again on the screen for the sheer brilliance of his acting. Only Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan could have played the role to match Akshaye Khanna. Kudos to him and here is my Mughal Salam to Akshaye Khanna.

Be that as it may, my book covers Sambhaji Maharaj since the time he accompanied his father Shivaji to Agra to negotiate with Aurangzeb along with Ram Singh, the son of the Mughal Governor of Dakhan, Raja Jai Singh. Imprisonment of father and son in the Palace named Jaipur House, their escape etc., too are in my book. However, the film focusses more on Sambhaji’s military confrontation with Aurangzeb, his capture, torture and death. Till the end of his life, he remained a Hindu, obdurately refusing to convert to Islam even after putting him through the painful, humiliating gauntlet parade and severing of his tongue…

Sitting in the darkness of the cosy theatre, illumined by the reflected light from the screen, I remembered the words of Raja Jai Singh, Aurangzeb’s Dakhan Governor, who was blamed for Shivaji’s escape from Agra Jail and in danger of his life: “There is no medicine against fate.” Indeed, there was no medicine against fate for Sambhaji just as it was for his father Shivaji and later to his step son Rajaram who succeeded Sambhaji — yes, thereafter it was Peshwas, who built the Maratha Empire upon the foundation laid by Shivaji and his son Sambhaji

According historians, I have alluded to this in my book, Sambhaji was more into selfish indulgence and was unstable. His character was scandalous so much so Shivaji imprisoned him. He was so vain he took to dressing like Mughal courtiers and behaved like one.

However, he was a changed person after he ascended the throne on July 20, 1680, four months after Shivaji’s death because of Palace intrigue to make his step son Rajaram  the Emperor.

About the torture I wrote in my book:

“Sambhaji was physically beaten up, whipped or pierced in the presence of Aurangzeb’s army. Tattered and bleeding, he was brought before the emperor Aurangzeb who asked him to embrace Islam. Sambhaji refused and was made to run the gauntlet of the imperial army even as soldiers whipped and pierced him. It is said that his tongue was torn out and was asked the same question, ‘Will you embrace Islam?’ Sambhaji asked for a writing material and wrote, ‘not even if the Emperor bribed me with his daughter.’ Immediately he was put to death.”

“History is more or less bunk,” Henry Ford said in jest. May be, but history is a repository of valuable survival lessons for the present and the succeeding generations to live unitedly and defeat the enemy.

Jai Bhavani

Note: Those interested in buying the book Sword of Shivaji may contact T.S. Gopinath on Mob: 98452-96447 [e-mail: voice@starofmysore.com]

e-mail: voice@starofmysore.com