Sourav Roy Directors are usually reluctant to translate history on celluloid. They are instead inclined to offer new interpretations of history, shed light on little-known facts about their subjects, and even raise questions that were missed. On the contrary, the title of Shyam Benegal's film- Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose – The Forgotten Hero- itself tells a story! Nobody remembers what he did, except to say that he was a great big hero. Few people remember that he challenged Gandhi, or that he was married.The film's narrative is brilliantly broken into three parts. These are headed under Itmad, Ittefaq and Qurbani after the motto of the Indian National Army. The film brilliantly captures the vast canvas of its history, geography and political ambiance just before India's independence from British rule. The film is the product of painstaking historical, documentary and other research that spanned 18 months. The research team explored all available material, interviewed the people alive such as Netaji's Japanese interpreter, then in his late eighties.The film comepletely lacks loud and bombastic rhetoric, a common feature of most nationalist and biographical films made on national heroes. Its central focus is on the man behind the hero, the human being behind the mask of the national leader, a true lover of his country dedicated to get it liberated from foreign rule. The film is characterised as much by the patriotism and hero-worship that brought young men in hundreds to join their hero, as by its documentation of history. It is the film of a journey- ideological, political, historical and personal that uncovers almost by incidence than by connivance of history, a beautiful fictionalized documentation of one of the greatest national heroes Indian has ever produced.

Praneet Kakani To start off with I am the most ardent supporter of subhash chandra bose. I feel that if he had not died he would have definitely been the first prime minister off India. This movie is no way even close to what Subhash ever was. He was the only person to beat Gandhi in an election!! He had a blazing fire within him and this sense of desire to lead the Indians to Independence that just can not be matched by any other Indian. The Subhash in this movie is always nicely smiling and has no charisma off his own, well we don't expect it to match SCB's actual charisma, but the whole calm appeal shown is exactly opposite to what Subhash actually was. Plus there is no detail shown of Subhash's intelligence, which is in abundance, like 4th in ICS, his diplomatic and persuasive abilities to get the Bose-Tojo pact. He was the ideal person to be but after seeing this movie you will wonder where this lump of a figure would ever do anything, yes that is how he is portrayed in the movie. The special effects are the worst ever seen in Indian or any other movie. The only reason I am giving the score 5 is because it does contain historical facts. It is the only movie to ever cover the great hero, which is a real pity for Indian cinema. If you want to watch the movie. Watch it for the facts, not for what Subhash actually was.

varuna12 So on 16 September 2008, I finally got to watch this film on Zee Cinema in UK. I had been dying to watch this film for some time now! I love biographical films like Sardar, Legend of Bhagat Singh, Gandhi, JFK and other films like. The reason being that these are the types of films that are made only after a ton of research has been done.But Bose, I did not enjoy! Why? Because of its cheap production values and crappy acting. Sachin started off brilliantly, portraying Bose wonderfully but then everything started looking cheap and executed in a hurry.This film should have been an epic but it lacked everything that would have brought closer to being an epic! Cinematography at times was just simple, boring and unattractive. The wide angle lens were used very badly.Dialogues were just plain stupid at times.Sound Mixing was stupid at moments.The way INA was portrayed very badly.The army movements were stupid! I really wish that they had used some real Military Advisers. The drunk solider scene was just pointless! The 600 South Indian soldiers' scene was pointless!!! The actor was portraying as Hitler was very inappropriate! The scene in Kabul where Sufi Saint and his followers were singing was totally pointless and dragged for too long, unnecessarily! Those two cops outside Bose's house were stupid characters and had no value! The Austrian secretary character was pretty much useless and acted very badly! She was trying to act in a Bollywood-ish manner which did not suit her at all! The special effects/computer effects were horrendous! They were blowing spitfires off with hand grenades! You can damage a spitfire but you can not destroy a plane with grenade like that! The explosion animation/effect that was used to blow up the planes at night was used again and again, and even in daytime when they were blowing up the tanks when INA is attacking India.The train shot in the beginning of the film were shot very badly and without any invention and creativity! Two times, same shots were used twice in the film! The infrastructure that was shown around in the film, definitely didn't look like it was from 1930s 1940s.The cheating shots such as, when Bose were attending the INA parade in Singapore or Japan, didn't look like either of those countries. They were clearly shot in India.When INA is finally marching towards India,they are attacked by British planes. This as done with computer graphics but the planes were so obviously just black blobs flying! They didn't even bother to fix it so that the tree that were between the planes and road were between the planes and road. To put it short, computer effects sucks big time! They would probably look OK in a Pakistani film! lol! Overall this film was just 2, 2 out of 25!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUBBISH!!! RUBBISH!!! RUBBISH!!!!

Vagabonding83 Bose, a movie, an understatement that lingers starkly loud in the memory space. The brilliance of Benegal matches with the effortless éclat of some of the best names in the Indian movie industry to create this classic of sorts. Looking back at the attempts of Indian directors at recreating the lives and contributions of the few men that remain unforgotten in the Indian freedom struggle, this depiction of one of the most influential yet neglected heroes of those times, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, stands apart for its simplicity and eye for detail and proximity with historical facts. A few movies that I can think of in this league would be The Legend of Bhagat Singh by Santoshi, Sardar by Ketan Mehta(a master piece, which I don't know why everyone seems to have forgotten), and of course Gandhi. Looking back, also at all these works makes me feel all these have been the best efforts of the respective directors. So is Bose Benegal's best work? Well I would agree that it is his most elaborate, ambitious work till date, and I am least interested in comparing his other works, because all his movies are so original and distinct in their genres, like Zubeidaa, Sooraj Ka Saatva Ghoda or may be Sardari Begum, for that matter. Bose works, and works magically, at various conscious and sub-conscious levels. It is a decent and honest attempt at depicting a forgotten phase in Indian history without even the slightest pinch of controversy or contempt, amidst the mist of Quit India and Gandhi, a phase no less substantial. It invokes a respect for the great work and ideals the man stood for, and still continues to inspire many generations alive and those yet to come. Another feat of the movie is the slick narrative and editing that holds the entire length of the movie with effortless flow. Khedekar is highly impressive, with his distinctive style of natural acting without any pretense or desperate attempts at imitating Netaji. But at the same time, he succeeds at the same with a surprising sensibility and spontaneity. A special mention for the mellifluous score by Rahman, which magnifies the grandeur and gives an identity to the plot. Take a bow, Benegal, Rahman and Khedekar! This one's for every Indian at heart!