ANGRY

The movie streaming on the big screen was SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.

Kishanlal’s 70th birthday coincided on the week of the movies release.

As part of the birthday celebration his grandson Rohan had booked 5 tickets for the 6 pm show for the family.

On the screen a tense Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) sat opposite a ridiculing and challenging Prem Kumar (Anil Kapoor)

He was asked the fourth question —

The song "Darshan Do Ghanshyam" was written by which famous Indian poet.

Directed by an English gentleman Mr Boyle, the movie had already created a buzz in the Indian press during its shooting and production stages.

Amalgamation of various ‘Desi’ elements had gone into the making of the Hollywood movie and this had created the pre release excitement.

The highlight of the buzz was that Indian actors Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Saurabh Shukla, Freida Pinto among others were starring with music composed by maestro A R Rehman.

He had shot sequences in Dharavi Mumbai which was the worlds biggest slum and other Indian locales.

Danny Boyle had also adapted the movie screenplay from an Indian authors novel ‘Q and A’ and everyone was eager to see how it would be interpreted on the silver screen.

Three years earlier a diplomat Vikas Swarup had written and published ‘Q & A’ his first novel.

His inspiration to write this story was by what he learnt in tabloids about Mumbai’s ‘The hole in the wall’ experiments where the local slum kids, who were considered the underdogs, used the internet kiosks, web, computers and mobile devices to wade through intricacies of life.

Swarup’s other inspiration for the book story lines were of incidents that were unfolding in the television studio and law courts more than 7600 km away.

London — United Kingdom in 2001 had been the base of a major scandal in the television entertainment quiz show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ hosted by Chris Tarrant.

A British Army Major was exposed and convicted of winning the £1 million jackpot by fraud.

He was denied the winnings of the top prize as it was suspected that he had cheated.

After his playing over two days, answering all the questions with the right answers and winning the million pounds, they put a hold on his winning.

On further investigation it was found that coughs were used by his wife who was in the audience and another close friend a lecturer who was present as a waiting contestant, to prompt him to the right answers.

On closer review a connection was established between the Major's answers and well timed coughs coming from both of his accomplices.

Swarup used this unfolding as a base of his story line.

To quote Vikas Swarup: “If a British army major can be accused of cheating, then an ignorant tiffin boy from the world's biggest slum can definitely be accused of cheating.”

Loosely adapting the ‘Q and A’ story line In his movie, Boyle used an Indian version of The quiz programme which featured Jamal as a contestant on the hot seat.

Jamal is able to answer every question correctly.

He is arrested by the police as he is accused of cheating.

In the midst of his bloody beating by police constable Srinivas (Saurabh Shukla) to prise out the mystery, the police inspector’s (Irfan Khan) question "What the hell can a slumdog possibly know?" gets this retort —

"The answers," Jamal mutters, splattering blood from his mouth, "I knew the answers."

Jamal justifies the reasoning behind knowing each answer as he recounts his life story in flashback to the police, and incidents for each question which educated him in some way and taught him the answers.

Till now he had convincing and justified scenarios for the knowledge of answers of the first three questions.

They all formed part of his life experiences.

He was asked the fourth question —

The song "Darshan Do Ghanshyam" was written by which famous Indian poet.

Sitting comfortably in the plush dress circle seats of the cinema hall, enjoying the special day out with his family Kishanlal’s ear’s pricked up at this question.

Before Anil Kapoor could say and outlay the four options to Jamal on the screen Kishanlal already knew the answer to this question and he went into his personal life’s flashback.

The year was 1957 !!

Kishanlal was a pampered teenager in Lucknow.

His father Hazarimal was a rich Zamindar.

Being the only child he lived a life of luxury.

Behaving in a very arrogant manner even at this age he was fettered with all the known vices.

He smoked, drank, visited the kothas and gambled.

Watching celluloid in Hazratganj cinema halls Mayfair, Capitol and Leela was also his big time pass.

He was turning out like his Zamindar father.

‘Chip of the old (spoilt) block’

This year some great Hindi movies had been released.

It was the year of hits like Mother India, Naya Daur, Pyaasa, Nau Do Gyarah, Do Aankeh Barah Haath and others.

It was also the year of the devotional movie Narsi Bhagat.

The movie starred Shahu Modhak, Radha Krishnan, Pratima Devi, Nirupama Roy and Lalita Pawar.

The family purohit had convinced his mum to go and watch this devotional movie and she had somehow convinced her unwilling son to accompany her.

His father and Purohit had also joined them at the cinema hall in Hazratganj.

He dozed in spells throughout the screening as this genre was not his cup of tea.

However between his naps he fleetingly remembered a song in the movie, the lyrics of which were

‘’Darshan do ghanshyam naath

Mori ankhiyan pyaasi re"

In the Tonga, on the way back home from the cinema, as his parents were having a discussion and reviewing the movie with Purohit ji he remained inattentive.

His father was enjoying swigs of expensive ‘English Daru’ from his pewter, stainless steel & leather crafted personalised hip flask.

He remembered the part where his mum mentioned that she had heard that a Bollywood lyricist Gopal Singh Nepali who was also a poet of Hindi literature had written the lyrics for the song Darshan Do Ghanshyam in the movie.

Purohitji agreed to it but added that it was based on the poem traditional and originally written by the 15th century poet Narsinh Mehta, on whose life the film was based on.

Fuelled by alcohol his Dad argued that it was by Surdas.

Purohitji who was learned and knowledgable refuted and stuck to his argument that Narsinh Mehta was from 15th century but Surdas was from 16th century.

The poem originated before Surdas.

Also a lot of people mistakenly associated these lyrics where the poet is asking for a ‘appearance by God as his eyes are thirsty for his sight’ to poet Surdas as he was blind.

Poet Gopal Singh Nepali was responsible for the latest and popular rendition.

As the horse drawn journey bundled over the uneven roads towards their haweli the wagon shook due to the quality of the roads.

At the same time the arguments in the lantern lit Tonga also got overheated.

Zamindar Hazarimal was getting ANGRY.

HE WAS VERY VERY ANGRY !!

He could not take this counter argument.

Hot headed that he was, inebriated, and with his blood boiling he drew out his precious stone studded pistol and shot Purohit several times at close range.

It was a fatal shot.

Kishanlal watched agape as amid the loud bangs and sparks of the revolver one of the bullets ricocheted off the metallic carriage framework of the Tonga and hit his mother on the forehead.

Her head jerked backwards with the velocity of the lead which had cracked her skull.

She was killed instantly lying limp in a pool of blood.

Vented Anger had erupted and resulted in murder.

Two Murders !!

The startled horses reared and neighed loud and wildly.

The Tonga driver, Zamindar Hazarimal and Kishanlal were all screaming and shouting hysterically.

It was a gory dramatic scene of tragedy and panic.

The police arrived at the scene and Zamidar Hazarinal was arrested on the eye witness statements of the Tonga driver.

The gun and shells were recovered for evidence.

Kishanlal was dumbfounded and in shock.

He had importantly lost his mother.

This had started to sink in.

Using all the wealth and powers that he had Zamindar Hazarimal tried twisting the system during the trials.

He was spared the noose but was sentenced to life imprisonment.

During jail visits they never spoke about the arguments that caused this tragedy.

The chasm between Kishanlal and his father had widened.

Within a few months in jail his father’s health (deprived of his wealth and lavish lifestyle) deteriorated and he was soon at his death bed.

In the dead of the night Kishanlal was called for.

Before he breathed his last he confessed to his son that Purohit was right about the song lyricist and it was his hot headed stubborn and angry behaviour that led to the tragic loss of two lives.

He had lost his wife whom he loved.

Purohit ji had also unnecessarily been killed

He asked for forgiveness.

After the tragedy Kishanlal had turned over a new leaf and soon after his fathers death he sold all that he owned in Lucknow and moved to Bombay starting afresh as a businessman.

Educating himself with a graduation degree and acquiring a decent knowledge of English he progressed in life.

India was progressing and Bombay was establishing itself as a commercial city.

He was acquiring wealth.

However guilt that he could not save lives on that fatal day he lost his mother could never be erased.

That was a baggage he would always carry.

Over the years atoning for this he became a philanthropist.

On his 70th birthday sitting in the air conditioned cinema hall in Mumbai with his wife, daughter, son in law and grandson Rohan he had got drawn back, in a flash five decades back, to the scene in the Tonga in Lucknow.

Sound Mixed by Resul Pookutty the question booming in the theatre’s Dolby Digital audio system was —

The song "Darshan Do Ghanshyam" was written by which famous Indian poet.

In a flash Kishanlal knew — The answer had to be Poet Gopal Singh Nepali (or Poet Narsinh Mehta)

Imagine his shock when Gopal Singh Nepali (or Narsinh Mehta) did not feature in the options.

The options given by Prem Kumar to Jamal were —

A) Mirabai

B)Kabeer

C) Surdas

D) Tulsidas

On cue in the background the crescendo music played as on the silver screen Jamal after going through his own flashback (with his deliberately blinded childhood friend) answers —

C) Surdas

Anil Kapoor (as Prem Kumar) declared it the right answer and went on to the fifth question.

Kishanlal could not believe his eyes and ears.

It cannot be Surdas !!!

He had learnt this truth the hard way.

Kishanlal was Angry.

Mr Danny Boyle and his Hollywood / Bollywood Team had not done some fact checking and had let this fatal mistake slip.

On the screen as the movie progressed the ‘chai Wala’ Jamal advanced unerringly to the brink of winning its highest prize.

Going through his other flashbacks he managed to answer all remaining questions and become a ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, rescuing his lady love Latika and going through the grind of the nail biting climax.

The credits rolled with hundreds of choreographed dancers along with Jamal and Latika rocking to the thumping music of A R Rehman’s ‘Jai Ho’ in a railway station.

Kishanlal though Angry did not protest over the wrong answer SURDAS being portrayed as lyricist of ‘Darshan Do Ghanshyam’ in Slumdog Millionaire.

As the patrons thronged out of the cinema hall after the movie a well dressed suited booted elderly gentleman trudging along with them was seen and heard singing loudly.

‘’Darshan do ghanshyam naath

Mori ankhiyan pyaasi re"

Unknown to the crowd he was managing his anger.

He had learnt to control his anger by SINGING.

Unlike his father he did not want blood on his hands over SURDAS.

After the movie’s release a few people highlighted the Surdas discrepancy but their voice got lost in the enormity of the movies acclaim and success.

Slumdog Millionnaire got nominated for Ten Academy Awards in 2009 and went on to win Eight.

The movie scenes including the quiz questions involving SURDAS stayed as it had been shot.

It stayed as a MOVIE GOOF.