‘Gumnami’ dishonours Netaji, says Forward Bloc and calls for its boycott

Srijit Mukherji.

Gumnami , a new film on Subhas Chandra Bose by director Srijit Mukherji that had generated debate even before its release, continues to be at the centre of controversy after the film opened on October 2. The All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), the party founded by Bose, has appealed to the people to boycott the film as it “dishonours Netaji”.

The AIFB described the film as a “distortion of history with mala fide intentions”. The party stated in a press release that it “told by the director that the film is based on the Justice [Manoj] Mukherjee Commission’s hearing. But after seeing the film, we came to the conclusion that it is not based on the hearing of the commission but based on the story and testimony given by Anuj Dhar before the commission.”

The fact that the new film on Bose was titled “Gumnami”, after Gumnami Baba , the reclusive ascetic who died in Faizabad in 1985, caused a furore among members of Bose’s family and in certain academic circles. The theory has been in circulation for a while that Bose had not died in a plane crash on August 18, 1948, in Taihoku, and had actually spent his final years in Uttar Pradesh as Gumnami Baba.

Many of Bose’s family members denounced the film before its release and alleged that it was based on the book Conundrum by Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose, who had tried to establish that Netaji and Gumanami Baba were one and the same. Srijit Mukherji strenuously denied the allegation. While admitting that Conumdrum was among the books that he had read while researching for the film, he insisted his film is based on the Mukherjee Commission report.

After the film’s release, however, the AIFB claimed that “enough attempts have been made by the director and writer of the film to establish Gumnami Baba of Faizabad as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which the Mukherjee Commission summarily rejected due to lack of clinching evidence”.

While the Mukherjee Commission had ruled out that Bose died in a plane crash in 1948, it stated in its report that “...there are formidable facts and circumstances on record, which stand in the way of this commission in arriving at a conclusive finding that Bhagwanji/Gumnami Baba was none other than Netaji.” The report, which was submitted in 2005, was rejected by the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.