A path-breaking documentary

Immortal Martyr Jatin Das is a commendable and pioneering effort by Satarupa Sanyal. This partly- fictionalised documentary traces the birth,growth,education and evolution of Jatin Das who died at the tender age of 25 in Lahore Jail. On August 9,1925,a group of 10 revolutionaries robbed the railway treasury from a train in Kakori in Uttar Pradesh. Jatin was among the revolutionaries arrested and was sent to Midnapore Jail from where he was later transferred to Mymensingh jail where,along with Pannalal Mukherjee,he went on a hunger strike for 20 days to protest the ill-treatment and torture of political prisoners. They were then transferred to the notorious Mianwali Jail in West Pakistan as punishment for the fast they undertook in Mymensingh.

After being released in October 28,he was re-arrested following the bomb blast in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 8,1929 after Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutta were caught red-handed and placed in Lahore Jail. In their demand to gain status as political prisoners,Jatin Das and 10 other revolutionaries joined the fast initiated by Singh and Dutta. But even when others called off the fast on September 2,Das stuck on till reduced to a skeleton and died of starvation 63 days later,on September 13,2009,on the lap of his younger brother Kiron at the tender age of 25.

Technical Expertise

After having made several feature films,with her debut Anu,bagging the National Award some years ago,filmmaker Satarupa Sanyal has made a pathbreaking documentary on a martyr whose contribution to the struggle for freedom remains unheard of and unsung. It is intercut with archival stills from his childhood,his home and his parents,in monochrome,with fictionalised accounts of how he got involved in the freedom struggle slowly but surely. These shots are dotted with references to how his pockets would always be full of sweets and peanuts,and how he would always be munching something or other,underscoring the dramatic irony of his undertaking a fast unto death that remains a world record. The newspaper clippings,archival shots of interviews of other freedom fighters,his brother Kiron,dramatised versions of his involvement with Bhagat Singh,the Kakori bomb blast followed by the Assembly bomb blast and lastly,the death of Jatin Das on the floor of Lahore Jail,expressing his wish for his body to be taken to Kolkata for cremation,are well-used.

The 35-minute running time exposes an era of history no one should ever forget. Talukdar’s cinematography and Mukherjee’s editing has embellished the archival and aesthetic value of the film.
Verdict
Four stars– one for the painstaking research,one for the tight script,one for direction and one for cinematography.