He was a Bengali Hindu monk and represented India on a universal platform to reinstate Hinduism as a major world religion in the late 19th century. Swami Vivekananda is more than a youth icon today.
A key figure in upholding interfaith awareness and reintroducing the rich Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga in the West, Swamiji has been reckoned as a potent force in contributing to the notion of nationalism and patriotic sentiments in colonial India.
To mark his 150th birth anniversary come January 2013, a bilingual biopic on Swamiji’s life and teachings has been shot for a nation-wide release. Titled The Light, the film is made by Tricolour Productions featuring an ensemble cast of talented actors.
Producer Jagadish Misra humbly stated that he had nurtured an urge to reel a film on Vivekananda’s life for almost 50 long years. “It so happened that back in the year 1963 when the entire world was celebrating Swamiji’s birth centenary, then I along with my classmates as students of Kalna Raj School went to his ancestral home at Deretona village, situated in the Burdwan district of West Bengal. Though the local neighbours suggested that Swamiji had never paid a visit to this place in his lifetime, yet I was extremely elated to attend the centenary celebrations over there. We remember painting a large life-size cut-out of Swamiji on the occasion. Since I was already glued to the medium of movies from an early age, so I just wondered why not make a film on Swamiji someday. That very dream coming to fruition after five decades certainly gives me an exhilarating feeling at this point of time,” fondly recollected Misra who was then in his tender teens.
Canned in both Bengali and Hindi versions, the film is slated for a release on January 11 next year. The Hindi edition will nationally hit the marquee in February, followed with an English version to be released for the international audience.
Talented stage actor Deep Bhattacharya plays the lead protagonist in the movie. Feeling fortunate to bag the title role and that too portraying Swamiji on the celluloid, a nervous Deep knew he had to fill in much bigger shoes. “Well it is a dream debut no doubt but at the same time, I was entrusted with a huge responsibility of doing justice to the part that I was supposed to play. So an onus obviously laid upon my shoulders to add credence to the kirdaar,” rattled off the young actor. Adding further, the Naihati boy elaborated his views: “To me, Swami Vivekananda is an idol, a true motivator to inspire the youth of our nation. For this particular film, I’ve tried to stick to the script primarily but having said that, I’ve also read many of this spiritual guru’sbooks beforehand which helped me get to outline his basic character-sketch.”