바카라No, you cannot do it. How can you? You have no backers.바카라 But Bani Singh was not deterred by these voices. Her close relatives found it incredible that Bani had embarked on an ambitious project to document a slice of hockey history nearly lost to the ages. But Bani was smitten by the idea of capturing on film the story of her father Grahnandan Singh, who was in the team that won the first Olympic hockey gold for independent India in 1948. And, as poetic justice would have it, India had defeated England in the finals in London.
Bani바카라s documentary project, five years in the making, is now in danger of being derailed. The furniture designer turned film-maker finds herself drawn up against an unexpected wall바카라for the archival footage of the 1948 final she is being asked to cough up 9000 pounds per minute by the London-based Olympic Television Archive Bureau (OTAB). In all, the film바카라s requirement of footage will cost the film-maker at least Rs 30 lakh.
A frustrated Bani is trying to convince OTAB and other archival sources like British Pathe of her limited resources as well as her passion for a story that has, besides hockey, the poignancy of Partition, the break-up of the Lahore-based United Punjab team and the arduous journey her father undertook to India as refugee before wresting a place in the hockey team. In its intersections between sports and socio-politics, this is mined from a seam of historical gold.
Grahnandan Singh taking a shot in London, 1948
Ironically, a celluloid version of the 1948 game, titled Gold, has been made starring Akshay Kumar. 바카라Here I am trying to document the real story of the game through the recollections of my father, who was in the 1948 team. And along comes a fictionalised version. Unbelievable,바카라 says Bani.
About the steep price of archival footage, Bani says, 바카라How can someone like me, who started making the film on my own resources with some backing from my brother, hope to make such huge payments?바카라
바카라I tried explaining to the Olympics bureau that I am just an individual without sponsors, with the sole agenda of telling a story of that particular game since it has so much to do with Partition, the golden era of Asian hockey and colonial history,바카라 says Bani. But little has come of it.
The Olympics body in charge of archives has a multi-tiered price structure. For unrestricted exhibition, it charges 9000 pounds per minute of footage and 4000 pounds if it바카라s to be screened only in film festivals. The licence is valid only for five years, after which it needs to be renewed by making a fresh payment.
Bani with Grahnandan Singh
OTAB vice-president (rights and sales) James Dobbs says that 바카라as a gesture of goodwill바카라 they might reduce the price by 500 pounds for Bani.
The marginal reduction hardly provides succour to Bani. 바카라The archival cost, in addition to production costs, come close to Rs 50 lakh, and I have no way of raising it,바카라 she says. Unless the OTAB waives the entire charge for the footage or a generous sponsor steps in, the documentary may never get made.
Grahnandan, or Nandy, as his friends call him, was India바카라s forward in that line-up. 바카라I grew up hearing various tales of hockey from my father. In 2009, he suffered a paralytic stroke and as he struggled to recover, I could see the fighter in him and understood how he had overcome all odds as a refugee to get into the Indian team,바카라 she says.
For someone who had no previous experience in film-making, Bani바카라s foray into making the documentary was courageous, even foolhardy. 바카라I would approach people with my proposal. Either they would look askance since I had no previous experience or they would be dismissive. Who will see it? Nobody is interested in such films,바카라 she says, recalling the pessimism thrown at her.
That was when Bani, who lived in Bangalore, decided to go it alone, with some help from brother Mano Singh. The very ill, paralysed Grahnandan lived in Delhi and whenever it was her turn to take care of him, Bani prodded him with questions. Depending on his frail, nodding assent (or dissent), she weaved together the story. As Nandy improved, he learnt to write afresh, managing to write down a few memories. 바카라It was a slow, arduous process and over several months I managed to get the story from him. He would direct me to his team members, who then would supplement the story, filling in important details,바카라 she says.
Akshay Kumar stars in the movie Gold
In the process, Bani managed to get on camera legendary players like Balbir Singh and Keshav Datt to speak of their glorious careers, making it a fascinating slice of history. Nandy, Keshav, Balbir and others were from Lahore and part of the undivided Punjab team. Those were the days when India ruled world hockey. Through the reminiscences of these stalwarts, Bani pieced together what it meant to be a hockey player in their time. 바카라Each player had a special quality; none was able to match the agility and technique of the undivided Indian team.바카라
Everything fell apart during the trauma of Partition. Bani바카라s father barely survived the violence and managed to flee to Delhi. 바카라Rioters killed an individual in front of my father, who was next in line. When they realised they had murdered an Anglo-Indian, and so fearing the wrath of the British, they dispersed. That is how my father was saved,바카라 she says.
Nandy and his fleeing teammates managed to reach various Indian cities as refugees. Despite the enormous odds presented by torn and bloody lives, they got together and made it back into the Indian hockey team. Bani바카라s film has all the details, straight from the horse바카라s mouth.
Not only that, Bani even managed to make a trip to Lahore and returned with even more emotional tales of camaraderie that existed among former players, despite the madness of 1946-47, and the continuing tensions between the two partitioned offspring바카라India and Pakistan.
Quite naturally, the film strays into Partition history, nuggets of information that throw light on the collective trauma and the tragic strangulation of Asian hockey by the game바카라s global managers, who changed the rules for it to suit fast-paced European hockey.
Given the obstacles lined up against her, no one knows when Bani바카라s documentary would see the light of day. Instead of the raw emotions바카라and the jagged backcloth here바카라that propel players towards achievements, will India have to stay content with another fictionalised, unsatisfactorily executed Bollywood period drama? Considering the sheer wealth in Bani바카라s narrative, the least she deserves is a penalty shot, if not a goal on a platter.
By K.S. Dakshina Murthy in Bangalore
(The writer is an independent journalist)
