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Shyam Benegal's controversial
biopic "Bose-The Forgotten Hero" releases worldwide
on May 13. As legal wrangles on Netaji Subhas Bose's screen
marriage draw the attention, for the viewers the film would
be an extraordinary trans-border odyssey of the greatest national
hero since January, 1941 after he escaped from house arrest
in Kolkata. Benegal's over three-hour-long film does capture
the episode of his famous escape but not in meticulous details.
Sujoy Dhar remembers talking for hours with late Sisir Bose,
Netaji's nephew, who recounted the chilling escape story of
driving Bose out of Kolkata on a wintry night for an unknown
destination of a man and his country
17 January, 1941. 1-30 AM: A loud clearing of the
throat was heard from the top floor of a house on Elgin Road
in Calcutta. It was a signal that stirred three anxiously
waiting men into action. Like apparitions, they tiptoed down
the rear staircase of the house, to a waiting car, a rare
German-model Wanderer.
The people of Calcutta were in deep slumber that wintry night,
but the moon was staring bright on the city. The men were
cautious to see that there were no shadows on the walls. One
of the three was a distinguished-looking Pathan, in his closed-collar
brown long-coat, broad pyjamas and black fez cap. The one
carrying a hold-all opened the rear door for the Pathan, after
putting the baggage by the driver's seat. Then he walked quickly
to open the front gate of the house. The Pathan took his seat
but held the door without closing it, so that anybody awake
might not hear two doors closing instead of one. The third
person now took the driver's seat and slammed the door, the
sound of which only roused a pack of crows from their sleep.
When the front gate was opened, he started the car and drove
out, making a lot of noise and whizzing past the unsuspecting
CID men, comfortably settled under blankets on a makeshift
wooden bed, at the strategic junction of Elgin Road and Woodburn
Road. They slept, as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose left Calcutta
forever, for an uncertain future and an unknown political
destiny .
Benegal's film starts with Netaji's escape but for obvious
reasons leaves out the planning that precedes the escape.
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But lets move back a month or so, to a day in early December,
1940: Mian Akbar Shah was sitting at his home in Badrashi
village, in the Nowshera district of the then North West Frontier
Province, when peon brought him a telegram that read: "REACH
CALCUTTA-BOSE". The 42-year-old handsome Pathan, then
a leader of Netaji's Forward Bloc in the North West Frontier
Province, took the earliest Frontier Mail, a night train from
Peshawar. He reached Calcutta after three days and put up
in a hotel on Mirzapur Street. The next morning he went to
see Netaji at his Elgin Road residence where he was convalescing
after his release from the Presidency Jail on 5th December
that year. A hunger strike he had started in the jail forced
his release. Two court cases were pending against Bose, and
he was sure the British would not let him out before the War
was over. Hence, he resorted to hunger-strike. Akbar Shah
found his leader lying on the bed - weak and bearded.
Mian listened attentively as Netaji said, "Now I intend
to go abroad, through the tribal territories of Kabul. So
I need your help. You have the experience."
"Yes. It is not a difficult task. But you have to travel
up to Peshawar by train, and through the tribal border in
disguise," Shah replied.
Bose continued, "Mohammed Sharif, a member of the All
India Forward Bloc Working Committee, is helping me. On his
advice, I have stopped shaving and have grown a beard. I have
a black sherwani, and am learning from Sharif whatever else
is necessary for the disguise." Shah told Netaji to assume
the name "Ziauddin', and dress like a Muslim.
"It is time to rise and do something for the freedom
of our motherland. The war is on, and I think I must get out
of India and personally approach the leaders of countries
which are enemies of British imperialism, including those
of the Soviet government", Bose stated.
The two then discussed the plan threadbare. Shah was introduced
to Sisir Bose, Netaji's nephew. Shah and Sisir later went
out to shop for the necessary items of disguise from Wachel
Molla's, the famous Mohammedan departmental store on Dharamtala
Street.
Before leaving Calcutta, Shah spent some more time with Netaji,
instructing him about his behaviour while passing through
the tribal areas, and told him to let the beard grow freely.
The language barrier, Shah said, could be solved by covering
Bose's mouth and ears with a turban and passing him off as
deaf and dumb.
The Boses of Kolkata had two houses. Netaji was staying at
the Elgin Road house, while the one at Woodburn Park belonged
to his elder brother, Sarat Bose.
Sisir Bose (played by Bengali actor Jishu Sengupta in the
film), son of brother and freedom fighter Sarat Bose, got
a summon from Netaji during the week following Netaji's release.
It was about 57 years ago, but Dr Sisir Bose during this
interview in January 1998, can still vividly recall the day
which was to change his life so drastically. Reminisced Dr
Bose: "My uncle called me and asked, 'Can you do a job
for me?' I answered with an ambiguous nod. 'How well can you
drive?' he enquired. I replied, 'Tolerably well on the whole.'
He continued, 'Have you ever done long distance driving?'
I said 'no'. 'Look here, you'll have to reach me by car, one
night, quite far, say Burdwan or some such place. But nobody
must know.'"
Netaji slowy unraveled his mission. Dr Bose, a person not
given to excitement outwardly, walked back to his Woodburn
Park home, dazed with subdued excitement. His uncle had, in
fact, told him to come back with a plan the following day.
The secret confabulation began, and the two sat together on
the bed and talked like equals. "What struck me most
was that uncle was prepared to accept proposals from me ,"
Dr Bose recalled.
Initially, Netaji wanted his nephew to execute the whole thing
without telling his parents, to which Dr Bose had agreed uncomfortably.
The escape plan first went thus: Netaji would openly announce
that he was retiring for convalescence to Sarat's garden house
at Rishra, and from there Sisir would drive him secretly to
Burdwan or Asansol. But this plan was cancelled. So was another
plot to depart from Woodburn Park. The ground for the cancellations
was the same-such moves would unnecessarily alert the police.
Finally, they decided that the escape had to take place from
the Elgin Road house itself. Netaji's niece, Ila (played by
Divya Dutt in the film), became a collaborator along with
Sisir.
Relations, visitors, servants, the plainclothes policemen
around the house, and even the Alsatian of one of Netaji's
brothers, were closely watched. The run-up to the escape had
its share of comic elements too. Recalled Dr Bose, "An
unemployed but over-inquisitive relative of ours grew suspicious
and started asking questions. So Netaji gave him a letter
of introduction to some high-up person in the Tata's at Jamshedpur,
along with a lecture on the shame of being in a continued
state of unemployment, provided him with the requisite money
and told him not to return to Calcutta till he was assured
of a job. The gentleman predictably returned to Calcutta after
Netaji had escaped, and of course without a job."
On 25the December, 1940, Sisir gave his first endurance test,
driving at a stretch to Burdwan in the morning and then returning
to Calcutta to report to his uncle on the degree of fatigue
he felt. He was also assigned to get Netaji's visiting cards
printed in the name of Mohd Ziauddin, an insurance company
travelling inspector.
Meanwhile, Sisir made a reconnaissance sortie to Bararee,
near Dhanbad, where his elder brother was working, in a coalfield.
Ostensibly, Sisir was to bring back his mother from there
to Calcutta. The details of the plan had been worked out by
then. Netaji declared he was going into seclusion for a few
days, when he would not see or talk to anyone. Food, strictly
vegetarian, would be passed to him across a screen, to be
put up in his room. Sarat Bose and his wife were also taken
into confidence, and Dwijendranath, son of Sisir's eldest
uncle, was to carry on the drama after escape. The Alsatian
of Netaji's doctor brother could have posed problems, if left
free in the night. So, when it luckily attacked a visitor
one night, the collaborators got enough reason to convince
the dog's master to keep it chained at night.
The D-Day arrived and night approached. But two cousins in
that large joint family chose to hang around. Dwijen had to
lead them upstairs and confine them to bed somehow. He later
signalled Netaji, Sisir and Aurobindo, another cousin involved
in the plan and entrusted with the job of opening the gate,
when the road was clear of CID men.
"We drove out and took a detour deliberately. Moreover,
in order to get to the G T Road crossing, we avoided the more
convenient Willingdon Bridge at Dakhineshwar, taking the Howrah
Bridge instead, because there was a toll system on the former.
We heaved a sigh of relief only when we reached French post
Chandernagore unscathed, without any encounter with the French
police. At one point, while passing through Durgapur, then
a forested area infamous for its dacoits, we had a near collision
with a pack of buffaloes. Fortunately, the brakes worked and
we were saved", narrated Dr Bose, going down the memory
lane.
On reaching his brother's house at Bararee, another round
of acting followed. The next day, Sisir, his brother and his
wife, drove Netaji to Gomoh, from where he was to catch the
Delhi-Kalka Mail. "The train was scheduled hours after
midnight. We watched him mount the over-bridge and disappear
into the darkness. The rumbling of the approaching mail was
audible. Eventually we heard the train steam off and then
we saw a garland of lights moving away and away …",
writes Dr Bose in his account of The Great Escape.
For a whole week, the drama was carried on, till it became
public in a pre-meditated manner. Rumours abounded. Even the
AIR, in a bulletin, announced that Netaji was arrested near
Dhanbad. This was, however, contradicted later by the Associated
Press of India.
According to an article by Mian Akbar Shah, titled "Netaji's
Escape - An Untold Chapter", Subhas Bose reached Peshawar
Cantonment station on 19 January in the same disguise. He
was received there by Akbar himself, and Mohammed Shah and
Bhagat Ram, also members of the Forward Bloc. Netaji was first
taken to a good Muslim hotel, recommended by their tongawallah,
but was later shifted to the house of Abad Khan, a trusted
friend of Shah's. From Khan's house, Netaji left in the company
of Bhagat Ram, Mohammed Shah and a guide, on 26 January, to
find his way to Europe through the tribal territory.
In April 1941, all the upcountry collaborators of Netaji
were arrested under the Defence of India Rules and put in
jail for several years. In Peshawar, Netaji was helped by
these men immensely, and made to look like a perfect tribesman.
According to Dr Bose, for two years, the British administration
had no clear idea about the episode in Calcutta. The Central
Intelligence even took the Bengal CID to task, and replaced
them by the Punjab CID, to deal with what they called the
Bose File. The Bengal CID's credibility had nose-dived. According
to Dr Bose, though some British diehards, till today, try
to project that Netaji could escape because the Bengal CID's
surveillance on him had laxed, and that he was a free man
when he escaped, the fact remains that there was never a moment
when the vigil was relaxed on Netaji. The British had agents
inside the Bose house, and even used some of his relations
for information.
"The truth is there were at least 12 agents watching
him constantly and reporting to the Special Branch on his
every activity- from what he ate to who visited him, when.
But nobody could dream that Subhas Bose would escape. After
all, his plan was to catch the opponent unaware", remembered
Dr Bose.
Dr Sisir Bose was finally arrested in October 1944, and sent
to the notorious Lahore Fort before his release in September
1945.
Netaji had, in fact, maintained his contact with Calcutta
after his escape, and sent messages to his brother, Sarat
Bose, through the Japanese consulate. But his meticulous escape
plan and its execution became the greatest adventure in the
Indian freedom movement, and perhaps the most serious bungle
of the British Intelligence in India.
Dr Sisir Bose, husband of former Trinamool Congress MP Krishna
Bose, died in 2002.
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