An Indian Revolutionary Gains Favor Posthumously

Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1948, remains a revered figure, the saintly "father of the nation" whose portrait hangs in classrooms and government offices. Generations have grown up on hagiographic portrayals such as Richard Attenborough's "Gandhi," the 1982 epic starring Ben Kingsley in the title role.

But in recent years Indians have embraced a more muscular sort of nationalist hero. In 2002, audiences flocked to see "The Legend of Bhagat Singh," a historical drama about an Indian revolutionary who was hanged by the British in 1931 at age 24 after detonating a bomb in the British-controlled national assembly.

Judging by appearances, Bose was a somewhat less swashbuckling figure. Plump and bespectacled, he was conversant in the works of Wordsworth and Hegel, spent several years at Cambridge and breezed through the entrance exam to the prestigious, British-run Indian Civil Service. But the fires of nationalism burned fiercely in Bose, who rejected a cushy government post in favor of joining the pro-independence Indian National Congress.

He was a frequent guest in British jails and eventually broke bitterly with Gandhi over the Mahatma's embrace of nonviolence. "Bose wrote that 'Gandhi wants to change human beings, and all I want to do is free India,' " recalled Benegal.

His movie picks up with Bose's daring escape from British India soon after the outbreak of World War II, when Bose makes his way to Kabul disguised as a mute Pashtun tribesman. He travels on to Berlin, where he lays the groundwork for an Indian national army composed of prisoners of war and deserters from the British Indian army.

Before he went underground, Bose wrote admiringly of some aspects of European fascism, for which he has been criticized by leftist historians and communists in India. But he also made clear his distaste for Adolf Hitler's theories of racial superiority.

With minimal support from the Japanese, Bose's army was never more than an irritant on the battlefield. In the aftermath of the Japanese surrender, Bose flew to Taiwan, where he was reported to have died in a plane crash on Aug. 18,1945.

But Bose's efforts were not in vain. As word of his army's exploits spread in postwar India, he and his followers became enormously popular. An attempt by the British to prosecute Bose's officers as traitors sparked nationwide protests and, by most accounts, hastened the British departure from India.

In Calcutta, Bose's memory lives on at the spacious three-story home where he began his political career. Now a museum, the house draws a steady stream of visitors, who gaze through a glass partition at his study, which is much as he left it in January 1941. Parked outside is the German-made Wanderer sedan in which he made his famous escape.

Although some Bose admirers have taken issue with aspects of Benegal's film, most people here seem grateful that their hometown hero is finally getting the recognition they say he deserves.

"These children, they're so much into other things," said Pachiasia, the Montessori teacher, who brought her teenage daughter to see the film. "They should have that patriotic feeling."