RBSI - Shatranj ke khiladi ("The Chess Players") is a Hindi short-story written by Munshi Premchand. Premchand's Urdu version is titled Shatranj ki bazi. In 1977, Satyajit Ray made a film with the same name

Posted on: 16 February 2011

Satyajit Ray's - Shatranj Ke Khilari - Part 1

Shatranj ke khiladi ("The Chess Players") is a Hindi short-story written by Munshi Premchand. Premchand's Urdu version is titled Shatranj ki bazi.

In 1977, Satyajit Ray made a film with the same name, based on this story.
Movie : Shatranj Ke Khilari Director : Satyajit Ray

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Shatranj ke khiladi ("The Chess Players") is a Hindi short-story written by Munshi Premchand. Premchand's Urdu version is titled Shatranj ki bazi. The story depicts decadent royalty of Central North India. It is set around the life of the last independently ruling Nawab ruler Wajid Ali Shah and concludes with the British annexation of the Nawab's kingdom of Awadh in 1856. The two main characters are the aristocrats Mirza Sajjad Ali and Mir Raushan Ali who are deeply immersed into playing chess. Their desire for the game destroys the competency of the characters, and makes them irresponsible in their duties towards their families and society. They derive immense pleasure in developing chess strategies and ignore the real life invasion by the British. Their city Lucknow falls to British attackers as they are busy playing a game of chess. In 1977, Satyajit Ray made a film with the same name, based on this story. - Wiki

Great movie, but also very depressing. Only Satyajit Ray could make such a movie.

Honestly today i was thinking,at d same period when there was Industrial Revolution in UK.. These nawab were busy in CHESS&MUJRA...

Munshi Premchand was an amazing author and very underrated.

I will look for a dvd for a full experience. Part two above has an extended scene showing the highly entertaining conversation between Sir Outram and his officer (played by Tom Alter). Tom Alter, is still active in the theater in Mumbai, but looks far older than his actual age.

More or less to a large extent this was a reality of the erstwhile elites in the society. I came to know about a story from North Bihar of the period - last decade of 19th century. George Grierson was the sub-divisional magistrate in Madhubani. He travelled a lot. One day while going somewhere, he passed through a village and saw two gentlemen playing chess, he saw the same persons playing chess in evening while returning. So he got them arrested and asked them how do you manage your household if you keep playing chess the whole day? Where and how do you earn? You must be thieves. But he was surprised to know they were zamindars (Small landlords). Grierson commented, "How could this society develop with such parasites?

Sushil, all road movies can approach PWD in W Bengal for funding. Both leftists and rightists (sorry, I forgot to mention the centrists) can be accommodated there as all travel on a road but stick to different lanes. I wonder where did our people pick up the habit of lane cutting!

This was doubtlessly a brilliant effort in Urdu medium and also his solitary foray outside of Bengali by the maestro.The characters of Mir Roshan Ali and Mirza Sajjad Ali played eloquently by Sanjeev Kumar and Saeed Jaafrey, the utter frustration in the character of the begum played by Shabana Azmi , Amzad Khan as Nawab Wajid Ali Shah are indelible in my memory. It was a beautiful satire on the decadence of nawabi Lucknow of that period. The pathos is touching.It also attempts to display the grandeur , grace and charm of the court of Awadh ,arguably the most refined culture ever evolved in the Indian sub-continent. The tehzeeb , unique jewellry, and cuisine of Lucknow are still alive and kicking amongst us all in north India in some measure or the other.The peculiar style of Sarpech (Aigrette) as developed by the royal jewellers of Lucknow became hugely popular among India's erstwhile royalty and nobility and so it continues to be to this day.(The Mughals and later the British crown frowned upon wearing of crowns and tiaras by India's royalty as that signified sovereignty) The modern garden palaces of almost all of India's erstwhile royalty constructed in the late nineteenth century ,taking cue from Lucknow's Qaiser bagh had Bagh (garden) appended to their names.Garden as a symbol of paradise is an utterly Muslim concept.The dream of paradise as a beautiful garden is only natural for a religion that blossomed in the harsh deserts of Arabia. While this brilliant Ganga-Jamni azmat was extinguished abruptly by the 'John company' the legacy of Awadh is imposssible to exterminate and lives on amongst us.

One of good hindi movies and with a beautiful commentary in background by Amitabh Bachan

Outram was played by Richard Attenborough. A friend noted that the detail in Shatranj-ke-Khiladi is outstanding and typical of Ray. Outram has a Scottish accent. The costumes, right down to the last military decoration are authentic. The film is one of my all time favorites. When it was released, I was particularly stunned at the casting of Gabbar Singh as the effeminate Wajid Ali Shah. But boy, how Amjad pulled that off!

At Tejkar >> How could this society develop with such parasites I could not, but the biggest parasites were the British, by whose command and force most of the smaller parasites worked. Typical English hypocrisy of that period.

You have a point there Satyakam...the feudal system existed all over the world...including Great Britain !