Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey
Encyclopedia
Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is a Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 period piece
Period piece
-Setting:In the performing arts, a period piece is a work set in a particular era. This informal term covers all countries, all periods and all genres...

 film directed by Ashutosh Gowariker
Ashutosh Gowariker
Ashutosh Gowariker is an Indian film director, actor, writer and producer. He is known for directing the films Lagaan , Swades , Jodhaa Akbar , What's Your Raashee and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey...

, starring Abhishek Bachchan
Abhishek Bachchan
Abhishek Bachchan is an Indian actor and producer. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan and is married to actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai....

 and Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...

 in the lead roles. It is based on the book Do And Die by Manini Chatterjee, based on the Chittagong Uprising
Chittagong armoury raid
The Chittagong armoury raid was an attempt on April 18, 1930 to raid the armoury of police and auxiliary forces from the Chittagong armoury in Bengal province of British India, by armed revolutionaries led by Surya Sen....

 of 1930. The film has been shot mostly in Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...

 along with portions in Mumbai. The first promo of the film was unveiled on 12 October 2010, on the film's official Facebook page.
The film was released on December 3, 2010.

Plot

Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is about a teacher Surjya Sen
Surya Sen
Surya Sen was a prominent Bengali freedom fighter, an Indian independence activist and the chief architect of anti-British freedom movement in Chittagong, Bengal...

 a.k.a Masterda (Abhishek Bachchan
Abhishek Bachchan
Abhishek Bachchan is an Indian actor and producer. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan and is married to actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai....

), who is a well-known revolutionary leader of the Indian Republican Army Chittagong, who had an instinctual flair for Swaraj and Independence. The film opens up with 16 teenagers playing football in an open field, when the army convoy steps up and orders them to evacuate the field for setting up a base there. When the children oppose their unauthorized evacuation, the soldiers threaten them and then leave, grinning and planning to meet Masterda Surjya Sen.

Surjya Sen is a teacher who teaches in village school and is an activist for Indian freedom and has links with many other famous revolutionaries who adore him as their leader. The revolutionaries were Ganesh Ghosh
Ganesh Ghosh
Ganesh Ghosh was a Bengali Indian independence activist, revolutionary and politician.-Biography:Ganesh Ghosh hailed from Chittagong, now in Bangladesh. In 1922, he took admission in the Bengal Technical Institute in Calcutta. Later, he became a member of the Chittagong Jugantar party...

, Lokenath Bal
Lokenath Bal
Lokenath Bal was an Indian independence activist and a member of the armed resistance movement led by Surya Sen, which carried out the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930. Later, he joined the Indian National Congress...

, Ambika Chakraborty, Nirmal Sen and Ananta Singh
Ananta Singh
Ananta Lal Singh was an Indian independence movement activist, who participated in the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930. Later, he founded a far-left radical communist group, the Revolutionary Communist Council of India....

. Nirmal Sen (Sikander Kher) after being released from jail meets Masterda and asks him for next action. Masterda assures him of next action soon and Nirmal goes on to meet Pritilata Waddedar
Pritilata Waddedar
Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali anti-British revolutionary from what is now Bangladesh, who became a martyr for the liberation of her motherland....

 (Vishakha Singh
Vishakha singh
Vishakha Singh is an Indian film actress and model. She appeared in South Indian language films, before starring in noted Bollywood projects, the most prominently being Ashutosh Gowariker's 2010 period piece Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika...

), when she expresses her eagerness to join the Indian Republican Army along with her friend Kalpana Datta
Kalpana Datta
Kalpana Datta was an Indian independence movement activist and a member of the armed resistance movement led by Surya Sen, which carried out the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930...

 (Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...

). Together they meet Masterda who asks them to prove their skills by assigning them the task of collecting information about the Cantonment. Dressed as sweeping girls they both draw successful sketches of the Cantonment.

Meanwhile, those teenagers express their will to join Surjya Sen to drive the British out of the country. Surjya Sen enlists them and trains them in martial arts, shooting and bomb-making. Masterda devises the plan to rock the British Empire by planning a raid on police lines Armoury, Cantonment, Telegraph office and Railway lines. Apart from Surjya Sen, the group included Ganesh Ghosh, Lokenath Baul, Nirmal Sen, Ambika Chakraborty, Naresh Roy, Sasanka Datta, Ardhendu Dastidar, Harigopal Baul, Tarakeswar Dastidar, Ananta Singh, Jiban Ghoshal, Anand Gupta, Pritilata Waddedar, Kalpana Datta and the group of teenagers. The plan was put into action at 10 o'clock on April 18, 1930. As per plan, the armory of the police was captured by a group of revolutionaries led by Ganesh Ghosh and another group of ten, led by Lokenath Baul took over the Auxiliary Force armory. Unfortunately the guns were found but bullets were not there. So they had to burn the arms there only. The revolutionaries also succeeded in dislocating telephone and telegraph communications and disrupting the movement of the trains. After the successful raids, all the revolutionary groups gathered outside the police armory where Surjya Sen took a military salute, hoisted the National Flag and proclaimed a Provisional Revolutionary Government. The revolutionaries left Chittagong town before dawn and marched towards the Chittagong hill ranges, looking for a safe place, but the police by then with the support of British Army had them surrounded, but the British Army's first wave had been demolished by Masterda's Teenagers ,this enraged the British and they bought machine guns and fired casualties in Masterda's side. Harigopal Baul (Tegra) was first to be shot dead along with twelve others and the group had to flee leaving Ambika Chakraborty wounded, the Britishers found the dead bodies and burnt them with Petroleum.

Meanwhile, Masterda had split the group into four and asked them to separate. While living with her sister in Patiya village the police under Major Cameron surrounded Masterda and tried to capture him but he was shot dead by Nirmal sen. While Nirmal got wounded, he asked Masterda to get out of there and henceforth sacrificing his own life fighting. Later eight young rebels led by Pritilata Waddedar attacked the European Club. After killing the officials the rebels fled and Pritilata committed suicide by swallowing Cyanide. Masterda escaped and retired to another house with Pritilata and other young rebels. Meanwhile the Police SP of Chittagong and other parts press hard crackdown on escaping rebel members and search for Masterda like anything. While, Masterda escaped, other members got arrested or killed in encounters with police while some members shot themselves like heroes to evade brutal torture by police. After few months, Haripada a young rebel decides to take revenge as he assassinates the SP who had an upper hand while suppressing the rebels, during an army football match. Finally, one night Masterda was encircled and was captured by police troopers he was trialled before the court and was sentenced to death by hanging, Surjya Sen happily accepts the verdict. Before the death sentence, Surjya Sen was brutally tortured by British executioners who break all his teeth, limbs and joints with hammer. He was dragged to the rope unconscious and was hanged, thus ending the glorious life of a revolutionary who became one of the living legends, who laid their lives fighting for India's independence.

Cast

  • Abhishek Bachchan
    Abhishek Bachchan
    Abhishek Bachchan is an Indian actor and producer. He is the son of Indian actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan and is married to actress and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai....

     as Surjya Sen/Surjyoda/Masterda
  • Deepika Padukone
    Deepika Padukone
    Deepika Padukone is an Indian actress and a former model. She appears mostly in Hindi as well as Tamil and Kannada language films. Born to Badminton player Prakash Padukone, she chose to become an actress and not pursue a career in sports.Padukone made her acting debut in the 2006 Kannada film...

     as Kalpana Datta
    Kalpana Datta
    Kalpana Datta was an Indian independence movement activist and a member of the armed resistance movement led by Surya Sen, which carried out the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930...

  • Vishakha Singh
    Vishakha singh
    Vishakha Singh is an Indian film actress and model. She appeared in South Indian language films, before starring in noted Bollywood projects, the most prominently being Ashutosh Gowariker's 2010 period piece Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, alongside Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika...

     as Pritilata Waddedar
    Pritilata Waddedar
    Pritilata Waddedar was a Bengali anti-British revolutionary from what is now Bangladesh, who became a martyr for the liberation of her motherland....

  • Sikander Kher as Nirmal Sen
  • Mahinder Singh as Ananta Singh
    Ananta Singh
    Ananta Lal Singh was an Indian independence movement activist, who participated in the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930. Later, he founded a far-left radical communist group, the Revolutionary Communist Council of India....

  • Shreyas Pandit as Ambika Chakraborty
  • Samrat Mukherjee as Ganesh Ghosh
    Ganesh Ghosh
    Ganesh Ghosh was a Bengali Indian independence activist, revolutionary and politician.-Biography:Ganesh Ghosh hailed from Chittagong, now in Bangladesh. In 1922, he took admission in the Bengal Technical Institute in Calcutta. Later, he became a member of the Chittagong Jugantar party...

  • Feroz Wahid Khan as Loknath Bal
    Lokenath Bal
    Lokenath Bal was an Indian independence activist and a member of the armed resistance movement led by Surya Sen, which carried out the Chittagong armoury raid in 1930. Later, he joined the Indian National Congress...

  • Monty Munford
    Monty Munford
    Monty Munford is an English-born tech journalist, author, and part-time film actor residing in India until September 2010 when he returned to the UK.- Business :...

     as Major J.R. Johnson
  • Amin Gazi
  • Ram Sethi
    Ram Sethi
    Ram Sethi is an Indian actor.-Biography:Sethi entered the Indian film industry in 1969, and started off his career as an assistant to Ravi Tandon . After doing some free-lance work, he joined Prakash Mehra, and was employed as his right-hand man for over 20 years...

     as Rehman Chacha

Critical response

The film opened to generally positive reviews. Critics reactions to the film have been mostly generous, although several said it was much too long.

Filmfare
Filmfare
Filmfare is an English-language tabloid-sized magazine about Indian cinema. Published by The Times Group, India's largest media services conglomerate, in Mumbai , it highlights the doings of the Bollywood film scene...

 gave the movie a three star rating stating Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is a bumpy ride as far as the narrative goes. It jolts and jumps and sometimes doesn’t move at all. But that’s all in the first half, which just seems longer than it is. There is some amazing art direction in the film not to mention the costumes; Gowariker shows his forte yet again in making a picture perfect period film. This is his thing. He does it well. Movies like KHJJS reiterate our faith that there are still filmmakers out there who will not compromise on their vision and conviction. Trade fads be damned. And as long as there are stories like this waiting to be told, we hope people like Ashutosh Gowariker will tell them.

The Times of India, which gave a three and half rating, mentioned that the film unfolds like a relentless thriller with loads of action involving the band of revolutionaries as they go about their bloody business. Yet no one hollers the national anthem at youor grows hysterical with patriotic pulp. Instead, the director gently salutes the spirit of nationalism in a seminal scene where the bunch of teenage revolutionaries discover the hypnotic allure of a hymn like `vande mataram' while resting under the shade of the trees in their village.. Nikhat Kazmi (Times of India) felt that the filmmaker was able to "combine high-octane drama with a high degree of restraint". She writes, "The film unfolds like a relentless thriller with loads of action involving the band of revolutionaries as they go about their bloody business."

NDTV
NDTV
NDTV is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded in 1988. It was founded by Prannoy Roy, an eminent journalist and current chairman and director of NDTV Group. NDTV currently has more than 1,000 employees producing news from over twenty locations in India...

 gave 2.5 out of 5 rating and noted, Ashutosh Gowariker
Ashutosh Gowariker
Ashutosh Gowariker is an Indian film director, actor, writer and producer. He is known for directing the films Lagaan , Swades , Jodhaa Akbar , What's Your Raashee and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey...

 is Bollywood’s most earnest historian and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is a noble attempt at restoring glory to long-forgotten heroes.
Critic Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama
Bollywood Hungama
Bollywood Hungama is a leading Bollywood entertainment website, owned by hungama.com....

 rated four out of five who opined recreating the bygone era is indeed demanding, laborious and strenuous. It's a challenge to present the era convincingly. Besides extensive detailing to lend authenticity, the director carries the responsibility of making the characters come alive to the present-day generation. Gowariker has successfully done that in the past and does it successfully yet again in Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey. The expectations from Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey are minimal, but you can't overlook the fact that it's a genuinely honest effort that needs to be encouraged and appreciated.

Sify
Sify
Sify Technologies Limited is an Internet service provider established in 1998, based in Chennai, India.-Company profile:...

 movies, which also gave a two and a half rating, said that would be a film one would wholeheartedly and unabashedly recommend.

Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand
Rajeev Masand is an Indian film critic and entertainment reporter for CNN-IBN. Masand started his career as an entertainment correspondent at the young age of 16...

 of CNN IBN
CNN IBN
Cable News Network-Indian Broadcasting Network is an English-language Indian television news channel. The network is a partnership between Global Broadcast News and Turner International in India . Rajdeep Sardesai is the Editor-in-Chief of the network...

 gave it a two star rating explaining It’s a noble effort that gives you a glimpse of forgotten history.

Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

 trashed that the Gowariker’s biggest strength is that he chooses a story worth telling. For that reason alone, and to get a glimpse into a much-ignored part of our history, this film is worth a watch.

In the newspaper Daily News and Analysis, Aniruddha Guha says that it is the story of the film that made it watchable. “The strong points of the film are the novel storyline – that of kids fighting for independence – and the performances of most actors, especially the children. Also, Gowariker manages to recreate the era well (with art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai), and draws you in the plot slowly and steadily,” wrote Mr. Guha.

MovieTalkies rated 4.5 out of 5 and noted "Gowariker this time manages to keep a running subtext that underlines the drama with a national emotional resonance right till the heart-wrenching denouement that will bring a lump to the throat of even the most hardened hearts, while the story actually unfolds as a thriller with the planning and execution of five attacks on the British in a single night and its aftermath, a first for Indian cinema. At a time when our cinema needs true calibre to distinguish itself as an art form rather than a medium of lowest common denominator entertainment, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey stands as a lighthouse, shining high".

Soundtrack

The film's songs and film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...

 were composed by Sohail Sen
Sohail Sen
Sohail Sen is an Indian film composer, musician and singer who works in Bollywood. He debuted as a film composer with the Hindi film Sirf , which went majorlyunnoticed...

, who had worked on Ashutosh's previous film What's Your Raashee?
What's Your Raashee?
What's Your Raashee? is a Hindi film directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar. The movie is based on the Doordarshan TV serial Mr...

. The lyrics are penned by Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar is a poet, lyricist and scriptwriter from India. Some of his most successful work was done in the late 1970s and 1980s with Salim Khan as half of the script-writing duo credited as Salim-Javed...

. The music was launched on 27 October 2010. The complete track listing of the soundtrack was also released on the same day of the music launch, on the film’s official Facebook page. The official soundtrack consists of twelve tracks; including five songs and seven background score cues, some of which have been arranged and programmed by Simaab Sen. The title track has been sung by the pupils from Suresh Wadkar
Suresh Wadkar
Suresh Ishwar Wadkar is an Indian playback singer. He performs in both Hindi and Marathi films.He has sung songs in some Bhojpuri films and in Konkani.- Early life :...

's music academy. Malayalam playback singer Ranjini Jose made her Bollywood debut through the song "Naiyn Tere".

Awards and nominations

2011 Zee Cine Awards
Zee Cine Awards
The Zee Cine Awards or "ZCA" for short is an awards ceremony for the Hindi film industry. It was first held in 1998 in Mumbai. Since then, it has gained substantial popularity as a notable awards ceremony to the Indian population as well as to the viewers of Zee Network.In 2004, the ZCA went...



Nominated
  • Best Story
    Zee Cine Award for Best Story
    The Zee Cine Award Best Story is a technical award.The winners are listed below:-...

    - Ashutosh Gowariker
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