The Rising

The Rising

One of Bollywood 's most awaited films, Mangal Pandey - The Rising starring Aamir Khan, has opened in cinemas worldwide. Actor and producer Khan's film is set against the backdrop of the Indian mutiny of 1857, with British actor Toby Stephens in a key role. Costing about $10m, it is shot in both Hindi and English, and aimed at the international box office.

The Rising is based on an 1857 uprising by Indian soldiers. Hindu and Muslim soldiers revolted against the British East India Company, over fears that gun cartridges were greased with animal fat forbidden by their religions. This is the first major film dealing with the mutiny - though the subject was reflected in the 1935 US feature Clive of India, on the life of Robert Clive, the 18th century British soldier and politician. In India the mutiny is often described as the first war of independence.

The Rising is the first Aamir Khan release in four years, of which he spent two years working on this period epic. The film has been scripted by writer Farrukh Dhondy, a former commissioning editor at Channel 4, and set to music by top Indian composer AR Rahman. With eight song and dance numbers The Rising is just under 150 minutes long - not very long by Bollywood standards where over three- hour-long song and dance extravaganzas are routine.

The film was shot on sets in the western Indian city of Bombay and a tiny Tajikistan village near the Afghanistan border where the final scenes were completed. Khan, sporting a handlebar moustache and long hair, plays Mangal Pandey who, according to Indian popular history and legend, triggered the first Indian rebellion against the British. The British ruled India for 200 years until the country's independence in 1947. The film's publicity describes The Rising as "an epic tale of friendship, betrayal, love and sacrifice set against the backdrop of what the British called the sepoy mutiny but which for Indians was the First War of Independence". Mangal Pandey was eventually executed for his role in the uprising.

However, a leading Indian historian has expressed reservations about Mangal Pandey's role in the rebellion. "Even 148 years after the event and after a considerable amount of research on the subject, we have little or no precise knowledge about Mangal Pandey," says Rudrangshu Mukherjee. "There is no record about where he came from. Who were his parents? Was he married? When was he recruited and by whom? "Answers to all these questions are unknown and speculative." UK historian Saul David said scenes showing British East India Company rulers massacring civilians to make way for opium production and flouting a slavery ban were "nonsense".

The film's makers have defended it against criticism. Director Ketan Mehta said the film took two years to complete because a "lot of research went into the production". Aamir Khan calls it a realistic film, which brings to alive a true story -- a combination of recorded facts, folklore and the writer's imagination.

Shooting began in Bombay in November 2003 when the Prince of Wales, visiting India at that time, snapped the clapperboard on the sets. Conservatives in the UK also queried the government-backed UK Film Council's decision to invest £150,000 in the film. The UK Film Council said it supported projects on the basis of "quality, not politics". [Source: BBC]