The Lucknow Residency was in the spotlight as film historian, documentary filmmaker, and walk curator Eshan Sharma conducted a film walk in the state capital on a chilly Sunday morning.
Eshan Sharma during Shatranj Ke Khiladi walk at Lucknow Residency on Sunday morning (HT Photo)
He guided film and heritage enthusiasts through locations from the perspective of Satyajit Ray’s classic film Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977), which was partly shot in Lucknow and set in the 1856-57 period.
The event was organised as part of a two-day curtain raiser for the upcoming five-day Sanatkada Festival. The festival will be held from January 30 to February 3 on the theme ‘Raabta Lucknow Calcutta Ka’ at Safed Baradari, Kaiserbagh.
“This was Ray’s first and last full-length film that he made in Hindi-Urdu. We discussed the qissey around the film when it was made in the mid-1970s. I enlightened them on how the film’s writers Javed Siddiqui and Shama Zaidi, producer Suresh Jindal, art director Bansi Chandra Gupta, and others came on board, and other anecdotes about the making of the film,” says Sharma.
Eshan hails from Kanpur but has a deep connection with Lucknow, as his mother is from the city.
“The Residency is a very important living example and reminiscence of that era. We went to the banquet hall where we talked about what the British and Nawabs used to eat then, and during the War of Independence (1857), when the Residency was under siege, how they managed their food,” he says.
Sharma adds, “We talked about our Indian freedom fighters, Dr Joseph Fayrer who was the chief surgeon, Brigadier-General Sir Henry M Lawrence whose grave is there, Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram, and so on.”
Besides this, the Indian Bengali drama Jalsaghar and Badshahi Angti – both directed by Satyajit Ray – were screened. A session titled ‘Filmi Parde Par Lucknow Aur Calcutta’ was held, in which Sharma and theatre director-medical professional Dr Rishad Rizvi discussed films like Umrao Jaan (1981), Chaudhvin ka Chand (1960), and Sudhir Mishra’s films that have been shot here.
On the opening day, Muzaffar Ali’s Anjuman (1986), Kankauwwa Wala, Ek Khaas Mulaqaat, and Shyam Benegal’s Susman (1987) were screened.
Organiser Madhavi Kuckreja informed, “This was a preview curtain raiser to our theme Raabta Lucknow Calcutta Ka, which was also shown through the various reels on food, memory, and migration that the theme team created. The major version will be seen during the Sanatkada Lucknow festival. Our team has done deep research in Lucknow and Kolkata.”